Instructional Resources*
*PLEASE NOTE: The resources and examples below are not comprehensive. The tools encompassed within functional grammar are vast, and far beyond the scope of this website. As are the innumerable ways they can be applied to classroom instruction.
Please use the resources below as an introduction to what a functional approach to grammar can look like, how it can add to your classroom instruction, and how it can benefit students in developing language and content simultaneously.
To delve deeper into Functional Grammar and its application to the classroom please see the Suggestions for Further Reading page below.
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Infusing a Grammar Focus into Units of Instruction
Grammar instruction is most beneficial when it is infused within content instruction, situating it within a meaningful context of use.
Here are some general steps for how to situate explicit grammar instruction within a unit. Further below you will find specific examples of how functional grammar can be incorporated into individual lessons.
- Before teaching, examine the unit and choose a grammar focus that will aid students in meeting its content objectives.
- At the beginning of the unit, introduce students to the text, motivate their learning, and introduce the language focus.
- Work with students to analyze the language of the text and use metalanguage to engage in discussion about its form and meaning (below you will find resources for engaging in this work).
- Throughout the rest of the unit, continue focusing students’ attention on the focus grammar.
- As they master the grammar in focus, have students complete an assignment where they must use the focus grammar in a meaningful way
(de Oliveira & Schleppegrell, 2015)
Overview of the Three Metafunctions
Functional Grammar comes out of a linguistic theory of language called Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), which at its core, views language as functional. According to SFL, language resources have evolved to help achieve various functions within particular contexts, and they can be organized into three major categories, or metafunctions:
- The ideational metafunction includes grammatical resources used to express and connect ideas
- The interpersonal metafunction includes grammatical resources used for interacting with others (the listener or reader)
- The textual metafunction includes the grammatical resources needed to create coherent and cohesive texts
Click the links below to take a closer look at each metafunction and find resources to help you incorporate their grammatical systems into your classroom instruction
Instructional Resources for the Ideational Metafunction
Instructional Resources for the Ideational Metafunction
Instructional Resources for the Ideational Metafunction
Ideational Metafunction: Grammatical Resources for Expressing and Connecting Ideas
Overview
Image adapted from A New Grammar Companion for Teachers
The Ideational Metafunction encompasses grammatical resources used for expressing and connecting ideas. Within this metafunction, language choices are informed by the field of the interaction, or the topic/subject area of a text.
Within school, students need to recognize and adopt language patterns appropriate for different content areas. For example, in language arts, narrative texts
often utilize doing, thinking, and saying processes to develop characters, whereas in scientific reports, being processes are more common to develop relationships between things and create explanations.
Explicitly guiding students to notice and use these patterns of language can help them build up their knowledge of how language works, increase their linguistic repertoires for meaning-making, and help them access grade-level content.
Resources
Glossary of Selected Metalinguistic Terms*:
PARTICIPANT: a functional grammar term referring to a noun group. It shows who or what is participating in the process.
PROCESS: a functional grammar term referring to the verb group. It shows what is going on in a sentence.
_____There are four Process types: Doing Processes (e.g. get, make, run), Thinking Processes _____(e.g. know, remember, wonder), Saying Processes (e.g. said, pleaded, explained), and _____Being Processes (e.g. is, are, have, seems)
CIRCUMSTANCE: a functional grammar term referring to the prepositional phrase or adverb group. Circumstances give more detail, answering the questions when, where, why, and how.
(Derewianka, 2011; Humphrey et al., 2012; de Oliveira & Schleppegrell, 2015)
*This is a non-exhaustive list. See Suggestions for Further Reading below for more information.
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Functional metalanguage such as Process, Participant, and Circumstance facilitates looking at meaningful units within a sentence rather than individual words. Identifying meaningful units can help us better recognize how each group of words contributes to the meaning of the text (de Oliveira & Schleppegrell, 2015).
Instructional Example: Analyzing Doing and Saying Processes in a Narrative Text
The following example illustrates how a grammatical pattern within the ideational metafunction can be incorporated into a 3rd grade narrative writing unit in service of both content and language learning goals.
Content Area: Third Grade Writing
Link to Content and Language Standards addressed in this lesson
Learning Objective:
Students will be able to analyze character development in a fiction text by identifying and discussing Doing and Saying Processes such as stroked and chimed in the book Julius Baby of the World.
Prior to the Lesson:
https://kevinhenkes.com/mouse-books/julius-the-baby-of-the-world/
The teacher will have done a text analysis, and identified a grammar focus that would aid students’ understanding of the content. Within the book Julius the Baby of the World by Kevin Henkes, analyzing Doing and Saying Processes within the text can help students understand the development of the main character, Lilly, and how the language form in focus (Doing and Saying Processes) can serve as a tool for developing the characters in their own narrative writing later in the unit.
In lessons prior to the one below, the teacher will have introduced the mentor text and the grammar focus of the unit along with the metalinguistic terms (Doing Processes, Saying Processes, and Participant) that will be used to discuss the language.
During the Lesson:
Using Gradual Release, the teacher and students will identify Doing and Saying Processes in the text and create a table like the one below:
Beginning of the Story: Before Julius was born... | ||
Lilly gave told sang | Lilly’s Parents | Julius |
Middle of the Story: After Julius was born... | ||
Lilly took pinched yelled said* asked shouted had to share was supposed to be tried to frighten learned tried to make simply pretended spent warned* ran away called explained | Lilly’s Parents loved* kissed* admired* stroked* chimed* showered* said* let exclaimed | Julius stayed* blew babbled and gurgled screamed |
End of the story | ||
Lilly said* twitched narrowed stood on end quivered continued picked up kissed admired stroked commanded | Lilly’s Parents planned | Julius |
After deconstructing the text, the class can engage in discussion about the character development in the story using the grammatical metalanguage provided to support the discussion. The teacher can prompt students to notice and talk about how characters are described through what they do and how they speak, and how language is used as a tool to make those descriptions.
Such discussion using functional grammar can also lead to additional content and language learning. For example, they can talk about making inferences using the Processes as clues to show how the character is feeling. Discussion surrounding this grammar pattern can also serve as a valuable tool for exploring new vocabulary while students explore unfamiliar words such as quivered or showered.
*Processes that are used repeatedly in the text are marked.
After the Lesson:
The teacher will continue to draw attention to Doing and Saying Processes as they are encountered throughout the unit. Later in the unit, the teacher will help students incorporate the grammar into their language in a meaningful way by guiding students towards using Doing and Saying Processes as a tool to develop characters in their own narrative writing.
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Connecting form and meaning by identifying meaningful units, such as Processes, and discussing how they are used to create meaning in a text can help students understand how language is used to achieve a purpose and how they can do the same.
Interpersonal Metafunction: Grammatical Resources for Interacting with Others
Overview
The Interpersonal Metafunction encompasses grammatical resources used for interacting with others. Within this metafunction, language choices are informed by the tenor of the interaction. The tenor describes who is taking part in the interaction and what their relationship to each other is.
Within school, students need to understand how to recognize and use language patterns that enable
Image adapted from A New Grammar Companion for Teachers
interaction with others in different contexts. Explicitly guiding students to notice and use these patterns of language can help them build up their knowledge of how language works, increase their linguistic repertoires for meaning-making, and help them access grade-level content.
Language Patterns within the Interpersonal Metafunction include*:
- Language Patterns of Interaction - For example, is someone making a statement, question, command, or offer? Is it direct or indirect? How does the relationship dictate the use of one pattern of interaction over another?
- Example: “Shut the window.” vs. “It’s pretty cold in here.”
- Involvement - How is a sense of solidarity established? How do language choices include or exclude other people? For example, what types of pronouns are used? How are people addressed? How do those language choices reflect the relationship between them?
- Example: “Thank you, Sweetie.” vs. “Thank you, Your Honor.”
- Expressing Attitudes - How are opinions and feelings expressed, and how is their expression influenced by the context?
- Example: “It looked gorgeous.”/“I adore her.”
- Adjusting Strength and Focus - How can language be used to intensify or tone down a message?
- Example: “She was kind of angry.” vs. “She was absolutely furious.”
- Engaging with other Perspectives - How can language be used to make space for other opinions and perspectives? For example, how can modality be used to open up or constrict room for other opinions?
- “You absolutely need to...” vs. “Maybe you could...”
(Derewianka, 2011).
*This is a non-exhaustive list. See Suggestions for Further Reading below for more information.
Resources
Glossary of Selected Metalinguistic Terms*:
Language Patterns of Interaction:
- SPEECH FUNCTIONS: the patterns of linguistic resources used to interact in different ways. The four speech functions that can be chosen from are statements, commands, questions, and offers.
- STATEMENT: The speech function used to give information.
- COMMAND: The speech function used to get something done directly.
- QUESTION: The speech function used to ask for information.
- OFFER: The speech function used to offer to do something.
- DIRECT/INDIRECT: Speech functions, particularly commands, can be either direct and straightforward or indirect, or less straightforward. For example, an indirect command could be interrogative such as, “Could you please open this?” whereas an direct command would be, “Open this.”
Involvement:
- SPEECH ROLE PRONOUNS: first and second person pronouns such as I, we, and you. Metalinguistic discussions of speech role pronouns (or simply pronouns) can focus on how they are being used in a text to distance or involve an audience.
- TERMS OF ADDRESS: Noun groups used to refer to people which include nicknames, titles, or terms of endearment.
Expressing Attitudes:
- AFFECT: a type of attitudinal language that expresses feelings or emotions. These can be verbs (e.g. adore), adjectives (e.g. ecstatic), nouns (e.g. fear) or adverbs (e.g. cheerfully).
- APPRECIATION: a type of attitudinal language that evaluates or expresses an opinion about the qualities of things such as their composition or aesthetic value (e.g. symmetrical), their social value (e.g. worthy), or the reaction they provoke (e.g. disappointing).
- JUDGEMENT: a type of attitudinal language that makes judgements about people and their behavior (e.g. devious; worked tirelessly).
(Derewianka, 2011)
Adjusting Strength and Focus:
- TURN UP: to boost the strength of language. For example an intensifier can be added to a phrase to ‘turn up’ the language (e.g. “I’m tired.” vs. “I’m really tired.”).
- TURN DOWN: to lower the strength of a message (e.g. “I’m tired.” vs. “I’m kind of tired.”).
- (Derewianka, 2011; Moore et al., 2018)
Engaging with Other Perspectives:
- HIGH MODALITY: a degree of modality that implies a high level of certainty (e.g. must, absolutely).
- MEDIUM MODALITY: a degree of modality that implies a medium level of certainty (e.g. should, can, probably).
- LOW MODALITY: a degree of modality that implies a low level of certainty (e.g. could, maybe, possibly).
(Derewianka, 2011).
*This is a non-exhaustive list. See Suggestions for Further Reading below for more information.
Instructional Example: Analyzing the Language of Graduation in Persuasive Texts
The following example illustrates how a grammatical pattern within the Interpersonal Metafunction can be incorporated into a 3rd grade Reading Unit on Persuasive Nonfiction.
Content Area: Third Grade Reading
Link to Content and Language Standards addressed in this lesson
Learning Objective:
Students will be able to discuss how authors use language such as tragically, important, and certainly to persuade their readers using the metalanguage “turn up” and “turn down.”
Prior to the Lesson:
The teacher will have done a text analysis on the persuasive texts within the unit and will have identified a grammar focus that can aid students’ understanding of the content. In the texts “Concerns about Cursive” and “Bring Cursive Back to Schools” (Being a Reader, 2023), graduation is used to intensify the writer’s position. Identifying and discussing words used to intensify (turn up) or soften (turn down) the writer’s position can help students understand how writers use language to persuade their audience. This focus on grammar can help students become more critical readers, and help them adopt similar language for their own purposes.
Prior to the lesson below, the teacher will have introduced both texts and the grammar focus of the unit along with the metalanguage (turn up/turn down) that will be used to discuss the language.
During the Lesson:
Step 1: Using Gradual Release, the teacher and students will identify grading words within excerpts of the text and mark them as shown the examples below. As they find grading words, they can create a word bank to use as a support during independent practice.
Guiding questions the teacher can ask are: What are the words that make the message stronger?/What words turn up the message?
Examples from Text 1: “Concerns About Cursive” (Being a Reader, 2023)
Examples from Text 2: “Bring Cursive Back to Schools” (Being a Reader, 2023)
NOTE: The examples above use multiple grammatical forms to achieve the purpose of intensifying the language of the text, for example, adverbs (strongly, tragically), adjectives (important, precious), and repetition (more and more). The goal is to recognize the language used to intensify, or ‘turn up’ the author’s
stance.
Step 2: Prepare slips of paper with the same excerpt using both turned up and turned down language similar to the example below. Have students work collaboratively to place the papers on a continuum between turned up and turned down language.
Engage students in a discussion about language choices and what they can communicate to a writer’s audience. Students can discuss where they chose to put each passage on the continuum and why. They can also discuss why the author chose not to turn up the passage more or turn it down less. What are they trying to communicate to their audience with their language choices?
Guiding questions the teacher can ask are: Why do you think the author chose the word _____ instead of ______? What does turning up the language in a persuasive text do?
Step 3: Assess student learning by having students use grading language in their own writing. Have students choose a claim (for example: I think [music/art/math] is an important topic to learn about in school.), and have students use language to turn up or turn down the claim using examples from the texts and the word bank created during Step 1 to help them.
Excerpts:
I think it is a good skill for some kids to learn.
I believe it is a good skill for kids to learn.
I kind of believe it is an important skill for all kids to learn.
I strongly believe it is an important skill for all kids to learn. (Original)
I emphatically believe it is an essential skill for every kid to learn.
After the Lesson:
The teacher will continue to draw attention to examples of turning up and turning down language as they are encountered throughout the unit. Later in the unit, the teacher will help students incorporate the grammar into their language in a meaningful way by guiding students towards using grading language to make their persuasive texts more effective.
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Explicitly discussing language choices and their meanings, such as in the example above, can draw students’ attention to how language can be used as a tool to achieve an author’s purpose. Recognizing the ways in which language is used to interact with an audience can help students become more critical readers and more effective writers and speakers.
Textual Metafunction: Grammatical Resources for Creating Coherent and Cohesive Texts
Overview
The Textual Metafunction encompasses grammatical resources used for creating coherent and cohesive texts. Within this metafunction, language choices are informed by the mode of the interaction, or the “channel of communication” (Humphrey et al., 2012; Derewianka, 2011), whether it be a phone conversation, an academic text, an email, etc.
Image adapted from A New Grammar Companion for Teachers
Grammatical resources within the textual metafunction help create a unified text, tying together ideational and interpersonal meanings into a complete whole (Humphrey et al., 2012). Within school, students need to be able to understand how these grammatical resources function in order to comprehend and produce increasingly complex texts as they progress through years of schooling.
Explicitly guiding students to notice and use these patterns of language can help them build up their knowledge of how language works, increase their linguistic repertoires for meaning-making, and help them access grade-level content.
Resources
Glossary of Selected Metalinguistic Terms:
Organizing the Flow of Information:
- TEXT OPENER: found at the beginning of many texts, the text opener helps the reader predict what the text will be about and how it will unfold.
- PARAGRAPH OPENER: otherwise known as a topic sentence, the paragraph opener announces the main point of the paragraph. It links the paragraph back to the main theme of the text and introduces what the paragraph will be about.
- SENTENCE OPENER: otherwise known as the Theme, the sentence opener is the beginning of the clause. It tells us what topic is being developed and is often followed by new information. The sentence opener helps draw readers’ attention to the development of the topic and helps them follow along.
Cohesion:
- REFERRING WORDS: these are a type of cohesive device that help the reader ‘track’ the meaning in a text. Referring words are words that refer back to something that was mentioned previously in the text. Pronouns are the most common way of referring back to a subject. Referring words also include demonstratives such as this, that, and those, which can refer back to a longer stretch of text.
- TEXT CONNECTIVES: also known by other names such as ‘connectors’ or ‘signal words,’ text connectives link stretches of texts together and give the reader ‘signposts’ that help them follow along. There are many text connectives including those used to clarify (e.g. for example), show cause/result (e.g. therefore), indicate time (e.g. next, finally), sequence ideas (e.g. first of all), add information (e.g. also, in addition), and show condition/concession/contrast (e.g. however, though).
- WORD ASSOCIATIONS: also known as lexical cohesion, word associations are ways that words are tied together to add to the cohesion of a text. Word associations include repetition, or words repeated again and again in a text, and synonyms, or words which have a similar meaning.
(Derewianka, 2011; Humphrey et al., 2012)
*This is a non-exhaustive list. See Suggestions for Further Reading below for more information.
Instructional Example: Analyzing Cohesive Devices in a Nonfiction Text
The following example illustrates how a grammatical pattern within the Textual Metafunction can be incorporated into a 3rd grade Reading Unit on Expository Nonfiction.
Content Area: Third Grade Reading
Link to Content and Language Standards addressed in this lesson
Learning Objective:
Students will be able to summarize a nonfiction excerpt using cohesive devices such as pronouns and word associations.
Prior to the Lesson:
The teacher will have performed a analysis of the text, and will have identified a grammar focus that can aid in students’ comprehension and understanding of the content. In the book Epic Animal Journeys: Epic Migrations by Land by Sonya Newland (2020), cohesive devices including pronouns and word associations are prominent throughout the text, and the understanding of these devices and how they create cohesive ties throughout the text is key to comprehension, and the ultimate content goal of summarizing.
A close examination of cohesive devices can help students with overall comprehension of texts as it will increase their ability to track Participants throughout the passage. This
grammar focus will also improve their writing by drawing their attention to how to create effective cohesive ties as they produce their own texts.
Prior to the lesson below, the teacher will have introduced the text and the grammar focus of the unit along with the metalanguage that will be used to discuss the language. Metalanguage for this unit could include the term reference devices which encompasses both the pronouns
and word associations used to refer to the Participant, pronouns, substitutes, which includes
both the synonyms and shortened versions of the Participant, and Participant.
During the Lesson:
The teacher and students will reread a brief excerpt from the text such as the passage below:
The biggest threat to red crabs is the yellow crazy ant. Red crabs are prey for this invasive species. The ants spray the crabs with a type of acid which blinds them and kills them within a few hours. Yellow crazy ants can also take over the crabs’ burrows. Without their cool, moist homes, the crabs will dry out and die (Newland, 2020, p. 14).
Then, the teacher will guide students towards identifying who or what the passage is about (the Participants). The two main Participants in this passage are the red crabs and the yellow crazy ants. Another Participant in this passage is the crabs’ burrows.
The teacher will first model marking reference devices for one of the Participants and drawing chains of reference as shown here:
Then, the teacher will have students work in small groups to do the same work with a different Participant:
After analyzing the text, the teacher and students can engage in discussion about what language is used to refer to the Participants throughout the passage. They will make a list of all the referring words used for each Participant, and the teacher will draw attention to how sometimes Participants are referred to using pronouns (e.g. red crabs/them), and sometimes they are substituted with a shortened version of the Participant (yellow crazy ants/the ants) or a synonym (yellow crazy ants/this invasive species; the crabs’ burrows/their cool, moist homes).
The class can then discuss the function of reference devices within a text by comparing the original text to one without the use of reference devices:
Guiding questions the teacher can ask are: What do you notice about the two texts? How are they different? Why do you think the author chose to use reference devices instead of repeating the same Participants over and over?
Finally, the teacher can have students put what they have learned into practice by asking them to write a brief summary of the passage in their own words using at least one reference device. Students can use the list of reference devices that was created during the text deconstruction as a support.
The biggest threat to red crabs is the yellow crazy ant. Red crabs are prey for yellow crazy ants. Yellow crazy ants spray red crabs with a type of acid which blinds red crabs and kills red crabs within a few hours. Yellow crazy ants can also take over the red crabs’ burrows. Without the red crabs’ burrows, the red crabs will dry out and the red crabs will die.
After the Lesson:
The teacher will continue to draw attention to examples of the use of reference devices as they are encountered throughout the unit. Later in the unit, the teacher will provide additional opportunities for students to incorporate the grammar into their language in a meaningful way by guiding students towards using reference devices in their own writing.
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Having this functional grammar focus not only increases students’ knowledge about grammar, but it also helps them achieve the content area goal of creating a summary. Utilizing this grammatical resource can help students understand the text more deeply in order to write their summary, and it gives students a tool to produce more effective writing through the intentional use of the grammatical resource.
Standards for Each Instructional Example
Ideational Metafunction Instructional Example:
Content Standard (Minnesota Academic Standards):
W.3.6.3.3 Write narratives and other creative texts to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique descriptive details, and clear event sequences
a. Establish a situation and introduce a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally.
b. Use dialogue and descriptions of actions, thoughts, and feelings to develop experiences and events or show the response of characters to situations.
c. Use temporal words and phrases to signal event order.
d. Provide a sense of closure.
Language Standard (WIDA English Langauge Development Standards Framework, 2020 Edition): ELD-LA.2-3.Narrate.Expressive: Construct language arts narratives that develop story with time and event sequences, complication, resolution, or ending through verbs to describe what characters do, think, and feel.
Interpersonal Metafunction Instructional Example:
Content Standard (Minnesota Academic Standards):
3.2.9.9. Compare and contrast the most important points and key details presented in two texts on the same topic.
3.2.6.6. Distinguish their own point of view from that of the author of a text.
Language Standard (WIDA English Langauge Development Standards Framework, 2020 Edition): ELD-SS.2-3.Argue.Expressive: Construct social studies arguments that select relevant information to support claims with evidence from one or more sources through evaluative verbs, adverbs, and adjectives to add author’s perspective.
Textual Metafunction Instructional Example:
Content Standard (Minnesota Academic Standards):
3.1.4.1. Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of both literal and nonliteral language in a text referring explicitly to the texts as the basis for the answers; summarize the text.
Language Standard (WIDA English Language Development Standards Framework, 2020 Edition): ELD-LA 2-3 Inform Expressive: Construct informational texts in language
arts that develop coherence and cohesion throughout text through Pronouns (he, it, they), demonstratives (this, these, that, those), renaming (penguins=flightless birds=they) to reference ideas and entities across text.
Suggestions for Further Reading
The following are resources which you may find useful to expand your knowledge on functional grammar and how it can be applied to the classroom.
de Oliveira, L. C., & Schleppegrell, M. J. (2015). Focus on grammar and meaning. (1st ed.). Oxford University Press, Incorporated.
This book is a great resource for how to embed functional grammar into instruction. It expands on grammar and meaning and draws on classroom-based research to describe how young children and adolescents can learn grammar.
Derewianka, B. (2011). A new grammar companion for teachers (2nd ed.). Primary English Teaching Association Australia.
A New Grammar Companion is a great resource to familiarize teachers with grammatical systems. It utilizes both traditional and functional terminology to help readers better understand grammatical forms and functions.
Humphrey, Droga, L., & Feez, S. (2012). Grammar and meaning (New ed.). Primary English Teacher Association Australia.
Written to align with A New Grammar Companion for Teachers, Grammar and Meaning helps familiarize teachers with the grammatical systems of English and how they can be drawn on to make meaning. It provides various exercises to help readers practice applying their knowledge
to authentic contexts.
References
Being a reader: Unit 6 teacher’s manual grade 3 (2nd ed.). (2023). Center for the Collaborative _______Classroom.
de Oliveira, L. C., & Schleppegrell, M. J. (2015). Focus on grammar and meaning. (1st ed.). Oxford _______University Press, Incorporated.
Derewianka, B. (2011). A new grammar companion for teachers (2nd ed.). Primary English Teaching _______Association Australia.
Henkes, K. (1990). Julius the baby of the world. Mulberry Books.
Humphrey, Droga, L., & Feez, S. (2012). Grammar and meaning (New ed.). Primary English Teacher _______Association Australia.
Moore, J., Schleppegrell, M., & Palincsar, A. S. (2018). Discovering disciplinary linguistic knowledge _______with English learners and their teachers: Applying systemic functional linguistics concepts _______through design‐based research. TESOL Quarterly, 52(4), 1022–1049. https://doi-_______org.ezproxy.hamline.edu/10.1002/tesq.472
Newland, S. (2020). EPIC animal journeys: Epic migrations by land. Crabtree Publishing Company.
WIDA. (2020). WIDA English language development standards framework, 2020 edition: _______Kindergarten–grade 12. Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System.