What I’ve learned about functional grammar

March 6, 2014 by primaryblogger1 Leave a comment

by @LearningSpy
Yesterday I had the good fortune to listen to Professor Mary Schleppegrell from the University of Michigan talk about how functional grammar is having an impact on EFL students in US schools. Ever since reading Lee Donaghy’s evangelistic account of its importance I’ve been batting it around and trying work out what to do with it. But I’m a big fan of traditional grammar teaching and I couldn’t really see the point in teaching pupils another grammar system. How would they actually use it? So beyond getting my head round the principles, I’ve largely ignored it.

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