DESCRIBING THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

The language is governed by a number of rules and styles

Whether we're typing or talking, texting or emailing

Currently SMS or text messages are a way of sending short and abbreviated messages

For example: hence thx 4 = thanks for

More formal letters are written out in full

For example: Thank you very much for inviting me

In emails we will often use contracted forms

Ill be at your place at 8

A feature of language functions is that they do not just have one linguistic realisation

For example: Would you like to come to the cinema?

How about you come to the movies?

Do you fancy the cinema?

I was wondering if you'd like to come to the movies tonight

When we attempt to achieve a communicative purpose, we have to choose which of these language forms to use

Six of the variables which govern our choice

Setting

Participants

Gender

Channel

Topic

Tone

Grammar and vocabulary are vital components of language

We need to look at language at the level of text or discourse

Texts that are longer than phrases or sentences

Two components are needed for a statement to be successful

Coherence

Cohesion

Lexical cohesion

Repetition of words and phrases

Grammatical cohesion

Use of pronouns

Order

The study of functions and how they are realised in language, has had a profound effect upon the design of language teaching materials

Making language purpose a major factor in the choice of syllabus items

Teaching techniques

One of the reasons we can communicate successfully is because we have some understanding of genre

A genre is a type of written organisation
and layout

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