Functional Grammar

Course description: This course will enable students to understand and evaluate how texts function in particular contexts. The course will help students identify the relationship between grammar and meaning in written and spoken discourse. The theory focuses on the functions of language in representing states and activities, in interaction and in creating discourse. It raises students’ awareness of how language users convey meaning through their choice of words and grammatical structures in specific situations. It includes analyses of authentic texts. Students finishing the course will be able to examine the effectiveness of written and spoken discourse according to their communicative purpose, social functions and placement in the material world.