Unit 4

               FUNCTIONS

During the study of this unit I concluded that functions refer to the use of language for a specific purpose. It is the reason why we stablish communication among people. Some functions of English language are the following: inviting, apologizing, greeting, agreeing, advising, and clarifying, and so on.  In addition, there are many linguists who stablished language functions in different ways. Michael Halliday (1975) proposed the seven language functions in childhood which are: regulatory, instrumental, personal, interactional, representational, heuristic, imaginative. (Christodoulou, 2009).

When we refer to a function we use language items which are called exponents. These exponents can show different functions it only depends on the context. Furthermore, these are distinguishing in levels of formality. It goes from informal (socially casual) to formal (important situations). The level of formality is chosen according to the situation. 
Functions also refers to appropriacy when we choose the level of formality we are going to use in some situations. For example: it can be appropriate to say: "Good morning dear audience" in a lecture setting. It is unsuitable to say to the same audiece: "Hi, everyone" 

A very good example for making students realize how to use language in different situations is to encourage them to create a conversation which can be formal and informal just changing some items. 

References

Christodoulou, N. (June 09, 2009). Francis Gilbert. Retrieved April 21, 2015, from Francis Gilbert : http://www.francisgilbert.co.uk/2009/06/hallidays-functions-of-language-in-the-child-language-acquisition-debate-by-nick-christodoulou/

Wyban, a. (Dirección). (2014). Functions of Language [Youtube file]. 

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVUSMFggeww