English language functions in teaching the basic English course at Thai Nguyen University (TNU) system (LV thạc sĩ)

English language functions in teaching the basic English course at Thai Nguyen University (TNU) system (LV thạc sĩ)English language functions in teaching the basic English course at Thai Nguyen University (TNU) system (LV thạc sĩ)English language functions in teaching the basic English course at Thai Nguyen University (TNU) system (LV thạc sĩ)English language functions in teaching the basic English course at Thai Nguyen University (TNU) system (LV thạc sĩ)English language functions in teaching the basic English course at Thai Nguyen University (TNU) system (LV thạc sĩ)English language functions in teaching the basic English course at Thai Nguyen University (TNU) system (LV thạc sĩ)English language functions in teaching the basic English course at Thai Nguyen University (TNU) system (LV thạc sĩ)English language functions in teaching the basic English course at Thai Nguyen University (TNU) system (LV thạc sĩ)English language functions in teaching the basic English course at Thai Nguyen University (TNU) system (LV thạc sĩ)English language functions in teaching the basic English course at Thai Nguyen University (TNU) system (LV thạc sĩ)English language functions in teaching the basic English course at Thai Nguyen University (TNU) system (LV thạc sĩ)English language functions in teaching the basic English course at Thai Nguyen University (TNU) system (LV thạc sĩ)

ENGLISH LANGUAGE FUNCTIONS IN TEACHING THE

BASIC ENGLISH COURSE AT THAI NGUYEN

UNIVERSITY (TNU) SYSTEM

A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of Graduate School Batangas State University Batangas City, Philippines

In Partial Fulfillment

Of the Requirements for the Degree

Of Doctor of Philosophy Major in English

By:

LUU THI HUONG

June 2015

APPROVAL SHEET

This dissertation entitled “ENGLISH LANGUAGE FUNCTIONS IN

TEACHING THE BASIC ENGLISH COURSE AT THAI NGUYEN

UNIVERSITY (TNU) SYSTEM” prepared and submitted by LUU THI HUONG

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

major in English has been examined and is recommended for Oral

Accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

degree of Doctor of Philosophy major in English

Comprehensive Examination: PASSED

_ MATILDA H DIMAANO, Ph.D

College of Arts and Sciences

ABSTRACT Title : English Language Functions in Teaching the Basic English

Course at Thai Nguyen University (TNU) System

Course : Doctor of Philosophy

The study was conducted in the four (4) Thai Nguyen Universities in Thai Nguyen City and used 40 teachers teaching Basic English course and

300 First Year College students The study tested the following null hypotheses that there is no significant difference on the teacher’s assessment

in the writing and reading performance of students, and that there is no significant difference between the teacher’s assessment and the writing and reading performance of students The study made use of descriptive method of research It utilized the following research instrument: teacher – made – test and survey questionnaire The data gathered were statistically treated with the use of frequency distribution and percentage, weighted mean, standard deviation, independent t-test

Findings of the study revealed that in terms of how Basic English course

in the seven language functions are being carried out in the beginning College English course relative to awareness, all of the seven items obtained an affirmative response, which is 100 percent which means that the teacher respondents are unanimously aware of the seven functions of language For the degree of importance, results revealed that five items got ratings of >3.5 which is verbally equivalent to important which means that the teachers generally perceived the language functions as important to the students and must be considered at the teaching of beginning English course The item with the highest score and deemed to be very important is instrumental function and followed by heuristic language It is the perception of the teacher that these two language functions are the most important ones for the students to

survive their tertiary education

In carrying out the teaching of the functions of language in reading, results showed that five out of the seven activities listed had ratings of >50 percent in the seven language functions which means that the teacher respondents generally agree on the relevance of the five activities in seven functions of language with reading a novel or short story as the activity with highest frequency score of 84.91 percent which means that this activity is the best example of the personal function of language For carrying out the teaching of the functions of language in writing, results showed that two out of the six activities listed had ratings of >50 percent in the seven language functions which means that the teacher respondents only see two of these activities as suitable examples of the seven functions of language with writing

an instruction or procedure as the activity with the highest frequency score of 52.83 percent which means that this activity is the best example of the informative function of language

In addition, the reading performance of the students in the seven functions of language was all above 50 percent with equivalent ratings of average with the highest percentage of correct items or 65.25 percent in heuristic language followed by informative language and ersonal language

which indicates that the students gave their best performance on this application of heuristic language because among the different functions of language, this is the one that the students would be expected most to develop and apply as they pursued more knowledge in their tertiary education

As regards level of students’ writing performance in the seven functions

of language, results showed that they were all above 50 percent with equivalent ratings of average The highest percentage of correct items is obtained in personal language with a score of 72.35 percent followed by instrumental language and informative language which indicates that the students gave the best performance on the use of personal language or the language of self-expression

In the differences between reading and writing performance of students, results show that the students’ performance in five out of seven functions of language for reading and writing are significantly different as indicated by their p-values of less than 0.05 This indicates that the reading and writing performance of the students for these five functions of language are apart from each other and are not related which means that the language function in the receptive skill of reading is not contiguous with the same language function in the productive skill of writing It was only in two language functions namely:

regulatory and informative where the p-values were greater than 0.05, indicating that the reading and writing performance in these functions are not significantly different and are related to each other

In relation to teachers assessment of the reading and writing performance of students based on the seven functions of language, findings showed that ten out of 14 items obtained an agree score of >50 percent Five

of these items pertain to both reading and writing respectively which means that the teacher respondents consider these items as valid areas for evaluating the students’ performance in the seven functions of language Four items got a disagree score of <50 percent These items pertain to the imaginative language and the heuristic language of both reading and writing The scores obtained on these items were 41.51 percent for reading and 18.87 percent for writing

According to teacher respondents’ perceptions of the frequency of use

by the students, results indicated that all of the items got the ratings of >4.0 where four items with an always rating were in reading and three items were in writing The total rating for both reading and writing were 4.5 with verbal equivalent of always which means that the seven functions of language are extensively employed by the students

As for teacher respondents’ assessments according to their degree of importance, findings showed that all the items had mean scores of >3.8 or equivalent to moderately important where four items with a rating of Very Important belonged to Reading and three items in writing The total ratings for both reading and writing were 4.5 with verbal equivalent of Very Important which means that that all the seven functions of language in both reading and writing are very important competencies that the students must demonstrate and lessons along these lines must be taught to the students

As to comparison of the assessment of teachers and the reading and writing performance of students, results of the study showed that all the reading and writing performance of the students are significantly different from the frequency of use ratings of the teachers which implies that the student’s reading and writing performance is not related to the teacher’s assessment and that the reading and the speaking performance of the students in the seven functions of language are generally independent of the teacher’s assessment

In relation to the output of the study in the form of proposed functional enrichment activities in reading and writing, these are based on the seven functions of language to supplement this particular group of Vietnamese

teachers and students There are also some considerations which are utilized

as bases such as low performance score of the students in the tests based on the seven functions of language; low frequency of use scores based on the teacher respondents’ perception; and meaningful relationship of the performance scores with the teachers’ assessment

The study recommended that the proposed functional enrichment activities be reviewed prior to its utilization; that the students must be given varied language learning activities to enhance reading and writing performance; and a similar study on the functions of language maybe conducted in other provinces in Vietnam

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The researcher wants to express her sincere gratitude and appreciation

to the following persons who contributed much to make this work possible

Dr Dang Kim Vui, President Thai Nguyen University, for giving me the chance to be included in the Ph.D English program in partnership with Batangas State University;

Dr Matilda H Dimaano, Dissertation Adviser, for the wholehearted assistance, and encouragement and for generously sharing her precious time reading and reviewing the manuscript as well as for providing useful materials and references Her expertise in the field of research contributed much in the improvement of this research paper;

The Panel of Examiners Dr Myrna G Sulit, Dr Amada G Banaag, Dr Maria Luisa A Valdez, Dr Felix M Panopio, for their valuable insights and ideas;

Dr Remedios P Magnaye, Recording Secretary, for her dedication and commitment in preparing and encoding the minutes of defense proceedings;

Dr Nguyen The Hung, Director of the International Training Center, Thai Nguyen University, for his encouragement;

The teachers and student respondents of the study, for their active

participation;

Colleagues and friends for their encouragement; and

Her parents and sibling for their support and for being her source of inspiration

Luu Thi Huong

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

TITLE PAGE i

APPROVAL SHEET ii

ABSTRACT iii

ACKNOWLEDGMENT x

DEDICATION x ii TABLE OF CONTENTS xiii

LIST OF TABLES xvi

LIST OF FIGURES xvii

CHAPTER I THE PROBLEM Introduction 1

Statement of the Problem 8

Scope, Delimitation and Limitation of the Study 10

Significance of the Study 11

II REVIEW OF LITERATURE Conceptual Literature 13

Research Literature 30

Synthesis 37

Theoretical Framework 40

Conceptual Framework 43

Hypothesis 45

Definition of Terms 45

III RESEARCH METHOD AND PROCEDURE Research Environment 48

Research Design 49

Subjects of the Study 50

Data Gathering Instrument 52

Data Gathering Procedure 55

Statistical Treatment of Data 56

IV PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA 58

V SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION Summary of Findings 101

Conclusions 113

Recommendation 114

BIBLIOGRAPHY 115

APPENDICES……… 120

A Questionnaires 121

B Letters of Request 139

C Documentations 146

D Psychrometric Conversion Table 151

CURRICULUM VITAE ……… 153

LIST OF TABLES Table Title Page

1 Distribution of the Respondents ……… 51

2 Seven Functions of the English Language according

to Teachers’ Awareness 59

3 Seven Functions of the English Language according

To the Degree of Importance 60

4 Levels of Students’ Performance in the Seven Language

Functions According to Frequency 63

5 Levels of Students’ Writing in the Seven Language

Functions According to Frequency 67

6 Levels of Students’ Reading Performance in the

Seven Functions of Language 69

7 Levels of Students’ Writing Performance in the

Seven Functions of Language 71

8 Students’ Language Performance in

Reading and Writing 73 9a Teaching Reading in the Basic English Course Based on the

Seven Functions of Language 75

9b Teaching Writing in the Basic English Course Based on the

Seven Functions of Language 76 10a Students’ Frequency of Use in Reading Based on the Seven

Functions of the English Language 78 10b Students’ Frequency of Use in Writing Based on the Seven

Functions of the English Language 79 11a Degree of Importance in Reading Based on the Seven

Functions of the English Language 80

11b Degree of Importance in Writing Based on the Seven

Functions of the English Language 81

12 Comparison of the Assessment of Teachers and Students’

Performance in Reading and Writing 83

13 Bases in the Design of Functional Activities for Students

and Teachers 85

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Title Page

1 Research Paradigm of the Study ……… 44

Socialist Republic of Vietnam Republic of the Philippines

CHAPTER I THE PROBLEM Introduction

The increasing use of the English language globally has had a large impact on many other languages, leading to language shift and even language death, and to claims of linguistic imperialism English itself has become more open to language shift as multiple regional varieties feed back into the language as a whole English is a global language People hear it on television

by politicians from all over the world and whenever people travel, they see English sign and advertisement A language achieves a genuinely global status when it develops a special role that is recognized in every country

These points add to the complexity of the present day world situation, but they do not alter the fundamental point Because of the three pronged development of first language, second language, and foreign language speakers, it is inevitable that a global language will eventually come to be used

by more people than any other language English has already reached this stage

English is the dominant business language and it has become almost a necessity for people to speak English if they are to enter a global workforce

Research from all over the world shows that cross-border business communication is most often conducted in English Its importance in the global market place therefore cannot be understated, learning English really can change people’s life

During the last decades, the world has witnessed lots of cultural, social, political, economical and technological changes In this new, global world, people have had to meet the needs brought about by these changes in order

to keep up with them One of the most important needs is language learning

By the help of the developments in technology and science, people all over the world have to communicate with people from other countries, which require the learning of different foreign languages The most commonly used language in the world is English In fact English is known as a key to open the door into bustling world of rapid changes and development Everyday an increasing number of people are trying to learn English for different purposes with the hope that they can use it effectively

One of the main goals of language teachers is to provide students with the tools to be effective communicators in teaching the language Often when students are assigned projects and assignments their lack of practical tools to produce the actual language becomes evident In these cases, students

might very well have the necessary resources to accomplish the task, but teachers might need to consider a communicative approach to teaching the language, focusing on the functions of language, to properly equip students to complete assigned tasks

Many people believe it’s important to have knowledge on the functions of language for specific purposes Whether they are apologizing, expressing a wish or asking permission, they use language in order to fulfill that purpose

Each purpose can be known as a language function Savignon (1983)

describes a language function as the use to which language is put, the purpose of an utterance rather than the particular grammatical form an utterance takes By using this idea to structure teaching, the instructional focus becomes less about form and more about the meaning of an utterance In this way, students use the language in order to fulfill a specific purpose, therefore making their speech more meaningful

The basic communication goals can be expressed in terms of situations, functions and topics It is up to the teacher to plan the situations within which students will be able to use their language for a purpose in the classroom context By creating a situation the teacher is providing the necessary context students need to use the language for a function

Language functions have two categories: micro functions which refer to the specific individual use and macro functions which serve more overall aims according to Finch (1998) Micro functions consist of seven functions such as physiological function in term of releasing physical and nervous energy, phatic function for sociability, recording function, identifying function, reasoning function, communicating function, and pleasure function Macro functions refer

to the ideational function, interpersonal function, poetic function, and textual function

Language learning as explained by Halliday (1975) is learning how to mean since what a child develops is a meaning potential and children are motivated to develop language because it serves certain purposes or functions for them The identified functions of language include the instrumental, regulatory, interactional, personal, heuristic, imaginative and representational Among these language functions, the physical, emotional, and social needs of

a child are developed by the first four functions as these are where they use language in order to express their needs

These language functions as the child moves into the mother tongue give way to the metafunctions of the language There is an insertion of additional level of content in between the two levels of the simple

protolanguage system in this process Lexicogrammar and semantics are placed instead of the level of content

In relation to Vietnam’s policy on teaching and learning foreign languages, the 12 year project initiated by the Minister of Education and Training of Vietnam (MOET) is called “Reforming and improving the effectiveness of teaching and using English in Vietnam’s National Education System from 2008 to 2020” The goal of the Vietnam government in line with this National Foreign Language 2020 Project (NFL 2020) is for the workforce

to have the capacity to make use of English to improve their global economy

as well as to redevelop the teaching and learning of English in all school levels and training degree It is envisioned that graduates of vocational schools, colleges, and universities in Vietnam can speak the language fluently by the year 2020

In the study of language, it is of significant importance that students develop their language skills These language skills are vital tools for complete communication These are reading, writing, listening and speaking

Writing is one among the basic skills in learning a language It is both social and cognitive process Students viewed writing as a necessity They are aware that this can improve thinking as well Students find writing as most

difficult among the language skills because of its complexity Their writing skill

is one way to know their academic success or performance and it is also a basic requirement to participate in any endeavor in their personal life as well

as in the global economy

The basic level of writing required by colleges or universities for incoming students who want to study is not meet since there are large number

of adolescent graduates from high school who are not equipped with the basic literacy skills needed like lacking the ability to write to meet the growing demands of the college curriculum Students who have poor writing skills are also referred to as low performing writer They are those students whose writing skills do not meet the adequate demands of the class

Writing difficulties like all other learning problems can be frustrating on the part of the students’ education and self -esteem A student who has problem in writing would experience interference in his learning He is unmotivated and lacks enthusiasm to write because of his inadequacy of the skill

Problems that confront teachers regarding students’ problems in writing focus on what students will write and how to motivate them to write about interesting topic If students do not have the proper or right perspective, writing

for them becomes a boring act So that teachers look for a way to combine other skills in teaching for students to have freedom to meaningfully express them

Reading as a language skill helps students expand their knowledge in large messages or paragraphs It is one of the most important skills that a person can acquire It helps the learner to understand the world by enabling them to learn about the past and plan for the future For academic success, reading is important since it is also considered a critical skill In the educational system reading is well integrated that either educational or academic success

is considered synonymous to reading success

Reading is the key that unlocks the door in the world of enjoyment Reading is perhaps the most important language skill to develop in all learners, requiring a multi-faceted process Therefore, reading should become indispensable to learner because if they don’t learn reading especially from the beginning, they would surely find difficulty in learning other skills

Students do not become good readers due to the following reasons: poor ability or for making insufficient effort, unsuitable course books, which do not encourage them to read and do not raise their interest of reading, wrong attitude of the teachers and students about the subject, inappropriate teaching

methods and classroom techniques

Reading difficulties become most apparent when the reader is unable to grasp the meaning from a text passage Reading may be affected by the difficulties of the text, the vocabulary of the words used in the text, and the reader’s familiarity with the subject matter, among other factors Moreover, reading difficulties have been caused by inadequate instruction, insufficient exposure and practice, deficient word recognition skills, deficient memory capacity and functioning, significant language deficiencies, inadequate comprehension monitoring and self-evaluation, unfamiliarity with text features and task demands, undeveloped attentive strategies and inadequate cognitive development and reading experiences

With this scenario, as an English Language teacher of Thai Nguyen University handling Basic English course, the researcher is interested to look into the writing and reading performance of First Year College students in the seven functions of language and come up with an enrichment activities gearing towards enhancement of writing and reading performance

Statement of the Problem

This study aimed to determine the seven English language functions in reading and writing performance of first year college students taking up Basic

English course at Thai Nguyen University (TNU) System during the Academic Year 2013-2014 with the end view of proposing functional enrichment activities

Specifically, it sought answers to the following questions:

1 How are the seven language functions being carried out in the teaching of beginning College English course in terms of:

performance in reading and writing compare?

7 What functional enrichment activities in the English language may be proposed to improve students’ reading and writing performance?

Scope, Delimitation and Limitation of the Study

This study focused on determining the first year college students’ reading and writing performance in the seven functions of language in the Basic English Course at Thai Nguyen University (TNU) System, Vietnam The study dealt on the student’s writing and reading performance in terms of instrumental, regulatory, interactional, personal, heuristic, imaginative and representational language functions as well as the teachers’ assessments on the said language functions The output of the study was in the form of functional enrichment activities to improve students’ weaknesses on Basic English Course along these language functions

The research environment included the four (4) Thai Nguyen Universities in Thai Nguyen City Respondents of the study comprised of 53 teachers teaching Basic English course and 1,266 First Year College students who were enrolled in the Academic Year 2013-2014 Students who were not enrolled in the Basic English course as well as those in the higher levels were not included in the study Results of the study were limited on the information

gathered from the respondents in the Academic year 2013-2014

Significance of the Study

The study was deemed beneficial to the administrators of Thai Nguyen University, English teachers, First Year students, parents, present researcher

and future researchers

Administrators Results of the study will guide them in the curriculum

development by evaluating the different English proficiency enhancing activities These will also serve as a guide for the realignment of the existing

curriculum of Basic English to meet their institutional goals and objectives

English Teachers Results of this study will make faculty teaching

Basic English aware of the student’s performance in writing and speaking These will provide them insights on what classroom learning activities would

be appropriate to enhance the language proficiency of their students Likewise, the teachers might propose some enrichment activities to improve the

student’s writing and reading performance

First Year Students Findings of this study will make them aware of

their present performance in writing and reading These will give them a challenge to improve their weak points and enhance their over-all performance

in Basic English

Parents Through this study, parents of the first year students will

become aware of the English performance of their children which will make them more supportive and cooperative in school activities specifically on the

improvement of the skills in the Basic English of their children

Present Researcher Results of the study will serve as bases for making more reading and writing enrichment activities

Future Researchers Results of this study will serve as reference for their undertaking

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE

This chapter presents the review of conceptual and research literature which provides the right direction to complete the research study, synthesis, theoretical framework, conceptual framework, hypothesis and definition of terms

Conceptual Literature

The following are the topics discussed under the conceptual literature: teaching the English language to beginners, English language functions, evaluation of reading and writing performance, and English language enrichment activities

Teaching the English Language to Beginners. English as an international language and the most widely used in the world today is used in international meetings and conferences It is also the language used in education Many non-English speakers study the language as learning the language would open doors to many opportunities and success

Teaching the English language to beginners is not an easy task Numerous problems are encountered from students ranging from mispronunciation of words, wrong spelling, incorrect grammar, and lack of

confidence So, that there are suggestions or tips for teachers on how to teach English to beginners Myers (2014) shared her methodology on teaching English to absolute beginners These include making sentences out of words

on cards and letting students memorize and repeat short dialogues In teaching students, vocabulary should be the focus instead of grammar especially for production It is suggested that walls in the classroom should be covered with useful familiar language Likewise, the teacher must use direct method of teaching using mime, gestures, visual aids and wall charts

Bleyer (2012) on the other hand emphasized that in teaching Basic English to beginners teacher must speak slowly and clearly and makes sure that beginner students understands her lessons Students’ names and nicknames must be remembered by teacher and students as well as the place they live as these will serve as basis to practice Basic English structures Basic things such as sounds of the alphabet, spelling, reading rules and Basic English grammar structures should be the starting point for teaching

In teaching English to beginners, teachers must remember not to overwhelmed students with new materials; show students that lessons can be fun, they can participate in the activities and perform well (busy teacher org/3773–how-to-teach-enlish-to-beginners.html) In designing the curriculum,

teachers must bear in mind the following: for lesson material, it is important to

go slowly in introducing information to students until they are comfortable with what they covered; for teacher talking in the classroom, it should be slowed down as students will never understand if it is done rapidly and for drill exercises teacher must enunciate clearly and talk loudly for the entire class to hear As for practice, teacher must choose practice that are simple, easy to understand and easy to understand and explain Demonstration is the best option as using lots of words may confuse students As they improve more complex activities may be introduced For having fun, students must be given opportunity to learn in a different way through language studies as the goal of every language teacher is to get students communicate with her and others in

a positive creative environment

Andrews (2005) on the other hand provided tips for teaching ESL beginners and pre-literate adults These are making sure personal connection comes first; using interruptions when teaching moments trump whatever lesson planned; feeding students’ stomachs sometimes not just their minds; trying to meet students half way by communicating slowly, clearly and directly; and avoiding books that are too childish

In addition, the following are suggested in teaching English for

beginners: smiling helps as it is something that can be understood on a universal level especially in building rapport with the students and supporting capacity; finding an assistant as it creates a great atmosphere in the class where students help each other in the learning process; making things easier

by using realia such as flash cards and other visuals; knowing of few basic words and phrases in the students’ language; speaking slowly to teachers teaching all the four skills; repeating commands as well as building a strong rapport with students (busy teacher, org/ 4793-top -8- tips –on- teaching- absolute- beginners html)

English Language Functions Language is a system of arbitrary

symbols used by members of a society to communicate with one another as defined by Clifford Praetor, head of the Second Language Teaching Department of the University of California It is a system of rules, unconsciously present in the mind which enables humans to relate sounds and meanings (Delahunty et al, 1994) Language is a means by which sounds and meanings are related There is some sound symbolism in language, that is, there are words whose pronunciation suggests the meaning (Fromkin et al., 1974) If one has the knowledge about language he can form words to phrases and combined them to form sentences This is because knowing a language

means being able to produce new sentences never spoken before and to understand sentences never heard before This ability according to Chomsky (1972) is referred to as the creative aspect of language

Halliday (1975) stated that language is systemic because it is paradigmatically organized which means any piece of language on any scale can be described as the output of a system of choices and that as the child moves into the mother tongue, language functions give way to the generalized meta-functions of language In this process, in between the two levels of the proto language system, an additional content is inserted Instead of one level

of content, there are now two: the lexico-grammar and semantics

Function refers to systemic and non- systemic linguistics There are three particular types of functions in systemic linguistics and these are micro-function which makes use of constituent like subject, actor, or theme; macro-function which deals with the language used in early child-language such as functions of imagination, discovery, interaction and others and meta-function which is the generalized functional principle of linguistic organization Meta-functions comprised of three types namely: the ideational, the interpersonal and the textual

According to Blor et al., (1995) these three functions operate

simultaneously in the expression of meaning In ideational function leaner’s experience is expressed where elements of the external word and that of consciousness are expressed The two sub-functions in the field of parameters of register which are reflected in ideational function are the experiencial and the logical The experiential functions concerns with content

or ideas with the system of transitivity as the outcome The following are the six process types of transitivity systems: material, mental, relational, behavioral, verbal and existential Logical function is concerned with the relationships between ideas

Functions are expressions of feeling and attitude that do not typically correspond to grammatical categories Wilkins (1976) pointed out that these categories could provide a clear rationale, from the standpoint of learner requirements, for selecting the language to which the learner will be exposed and which the learner will be supposed to acquire Functions of language promotes the constructive interaction between linguistics and such neighboring disciplines as sociology, cultural studies, psychology, ethnology, communication studies, translation theory and educational linguistics (Mackenzie, 2008)

According to Halliday (1978) the seven functions of language is referred

to as the functional view of language where the interest lies on what the language can do, or in what the speaker, child or adult can do with it These language functions are instrumental, regulatory, interactional, personal, imaginative, heuristic, and presentational The nature of language and its internal organization and modeling in terms of uses that it has evolved to serve

is explained by these seven functions This functional account of language used support the communicative language teaching linguistic theory

The language used by children to satisfy needs and desires, and to make requests, or the language used by older children to persuade is referred

to as instrumental function of language which is transmitted when the buying and ordering situations is dramatized by students and is being captured through letters of order and invitation of students

Furthermore, Christodoulou (2009) stated that instrumental function of language is language used to fulfill a need on the part of the speaker which is directly concerned with obtaining food, drink and comfort Instrumental function

of language can also be understood by using language to get things Concerning regulatory function of language, it is used to control the behavior of others to do what one wants such as instructing and demonstrating and when writing list of directions or memos and classroom rules

Interactional language function on the other hand is used to establish and define social relationship Mohr et al., (2007) explained that interactional language is the language used to build and maintain relationship It can be compared to transactional language, which normally carries a message and is the language used to get things done Learners in a multi-lingual group chatting together before a class begins are using interactional language Teachers can present elements of interactional language, and raise learners’ awareness of interaction language by exposure to video and authentic conversation Learner can learn to use paralinguistic features such as gesture, eye contact, and body language, and linguistic features used to maintain an interactional conversation including functions such as expressing interest and asking for clarification

The language used to express feelings, opinions, and individuality is covered in personal language Sharing personal background and in talking about one’s stance on an issue are some areas where this language is manifested and this can best reflected in the students’ autobiographical essay Creating a world of one’s own, and expressing fantasy through drama, poetry and stories are avenues where imaginative language can be used

The ability to use and appreciate language as a creative medium is

reflected in imaginative language It is based on a model where an environment is created to a child through sounds, stories, make-believe, a poetry and creative writing The rubric of this language function allows learner

to play with the target language the use of puns, rhyme, alliteration, and other poetic and literary devices Creating and considering possibilities are the principal purpose of imaginative function

Use of language in exploring the environment, in investigating and acquiring knowledge as well as understanding are the functions of heuristic language This language of inquiry is utilized in History questions In transmitting this certain language function effectively the letters of invitation and order are written Using the language to learn and discover is the heuristic function of language Learners using heuristic language learn through question and answer and by exploring the environment

Moreover, the uses of language to communicate information, to report facts, synthesize material, and inferences and conclusions are the informational functions of language The students can convey the informative language through giving of information on current events, general information, and scientific data This describes the sharing of information to enhance knowledge Thompson (1994) stated that various kinds of information

sharing, whether about one's personal feelings, or about something observed

in the real world may be combined for second language learner Thus, the informational function, which includes both ideas and feelings, is one of exchanging knowledge

Learning the language is both a social and cultural phenomenon Becoming literate is a language function as it is a tool for literacy and represents thinking

Evaluation of Reading and Writing Performance One that requires

students to demonstrate that they have mastered specific skills and competencies by performing or producing something is termed as performance assessment or evaluation (https://www./learner.org./workshops/social studies/ pdf/session7/7 Performance Assessment.pdf) It calls for the assessments of the following: designing and carrying out experiments; writing essays which requires rethinking of students, to integrate, or to apply information; working with other students to accomplish tasks; demonstrating proficiency in using a piece of equipment or a technique building models; developing, interpreting, and using maps; making collections; writing papers, critiques poems or short stories; giving speeches; playing musical instruments; participating in oral examinations, developing portfolios, and developing athletic skill or routine