Grammatics for Teaching EFL Writing Skills: A Social Semiotic Systemic Functional Linguistics Approach
(Grammatics for Teaching EFL Writing Skills: A Social Semiotic Systemic Functional Linguistics Approach
)
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Author
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Ghuzayyil Alotaibi
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Type |
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Printing Year |
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2019
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Number |
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2019/1
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Page |
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19-32
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Summary
Keywords
Abstract
Writing is one of the most difficult skills for EFL learners. Students
need to bring their knowledge of grammar and vocabulary to produce a piece of
writing. More importantly, they should also consider meaning and social
context. Recent approaches to teaching EFL writing views it as a process instead
of being a product. Thus, following Halliday's model of functional grammar and
its emphasis on grammatics, educators proposed a method for teaching writing
that emphasizes form, meaning and social function. The purpose of this paper
was to establish the superiority of Halliday's grammar in relation to other
traditional and cognitive models. Additionally, it reviewed relevant literature to
understand how Halliday's framework is operationalised in class. Further, it
aimed at highlighting contributions of previous research and comparing them to
the claims of functional grammar's advocates. Investigated research showed that
adopting grammatics (or genre-specific grammar) is beneficial since it
emphasizes the communicative aspect of language, provides holistic
understanding of writing, encourages teaching grammar explicitly, enhances
critical thinking and addresses students' needs
Keywords
EFL, functional grammar, genre, grammatics, Halliday, writing.