Genre Theory and ESL Teaching: A Systemic Functional Perspective

Abstract

* Contemporary genre theory within the Australian context draws upon systemic functional (SF) linguistic theory, especially as developed by Halliday (1994), Hasan (1996), Martin (1992), and Matthiessen (1995)1 as well as many educational linguists. Language is said to be systemic in that it offers systems of choices in language, each significant for the realisation of meaning. A simple example is the mood system, which comprises the linguistic patterns for forming imperatives and indicative statements, for example (see Figure 1). The available linguistic choices in English mood involve the language user in taking up very different roles and relationships with others and hence in constructing very different meanings. Because the use of language involves drawing upon many systems simultaneously, it is said to be polysystemic. Language is said to be functional because its organisation quite fundamentally reveals the purposes for which any natural language came into being. The functional nature of language is theorised in terms of three metafunctions: the ideational, to do with the experiences represented or constructed within language; the interpersonal, to do with the nature of