Cebu International EFL Conference

Abstract of Paper

Author

Bonifacio T. Cunanan, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Affiliation: Bulacan State University (BulSU)
City of Malolos,
Bulacan

Title
Item Learning vs. System Learning: Contextualizing the Shift from a Structure-based to a Notional-Functional ESL Syllabus

Abstract

Of the several disciplines, many aspiring language teachers still find linguistics to be one of the most formidable. Such condition is brought about by the dearth of instructional materials and a limited number of well-trained teachers who can handle one of its allied fields, especially Systemic Functional Grammar. If this problem remains unattended, producing ill-equipped language teachers shall most likely become a vicious cycle.

In this context, this paper discusses the inadequacies of the structure-based ESL syllabus, and it pushes for a shift in favor of a functional one in keeping with the recent trends and development in SLA research. Also, this paper stresses the need to supplement the lexical and morpho-syntactic dimensions of teaching English grammar with some of its suprasentential aspects.

To explore the differences between item leaning and system learning, this study analyzes and explains how errors, lapses, and artificially correct lexico-syntactic structures manifest in the utterances and written compositions of tertiary ESL students. These observed difficulties—the verbal structures in particular— appear to be systemic in nature and cannot be fully attributed to poor modeling or interference of the first language.

In applying some semantic and pragmatic principles to help tertiary ESL students understand and solve these neglected and not-so-much charted areas of English syntax, this paper will show how the ideational metafunction works in MAK Halliday’s Functional Grammar.

Bio Data:

Dr. Bonifacio T. Cunanan teaches linguistics, stylistics, language research, and postgraduate courses in the college of education and graduate school in BulSU. In 2002, he used the metafunctions in Halliday's Systemic Functional Grammar in a stylistic analysis of point of view in an Afro-American short story for his dissertation at the Philippine Normal University, where he earned his Ph.D. in linguistics.  His line of research and interest includes stylistics, SLA research, language testing, and forensic linguistics. He has been a thesis examiner in the graduate and undergraduate levels in BulSU since 2000.