A STUDY ON LINGUISTIC FEATURES IN TED TALKS ON EDUCATION FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
QUY NHON UNIVERSITY

NGUYỄN THỊ HOÀNG MY

A STUDY ON LINGUISTIC FEATURES
IN TED TALKS ON EDUCATION FROM THE
PERSPECTIVE OF FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR

Field: English Linguistics
Code: 8220201

Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyễn Thị Thu Hiền


BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN

NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG MY

ĐẶC ĐIỂM NGƠN NGỮ TRONG CÁC BÀI TED TALKS
VỀ GIÁO DỤC THEO QUAN ĐIỂM CỦA NGỮ PHÁP
CHỨC NĂNG

Chuyên ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh
Mã số: 8 22 02 01

Người hướng dẫn: PGS.TS. Nguyễn Thị Thu Hiền


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STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP
I certify that this thesis with the title “A Study on Linguistic Features in
TED Talks on Education from the Perspective of Functional Grammar” is
entirely my own original work. In addition, I emphasize that this thesis has
not been submitted for any purposes in any materials. Any works of other
authors consulted in this thesis are listed in the reference.

Quy Nhon, 2019

NGUYỄN THỊ HOÀNG MY


II

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This master thesis would not have been accomplished in time without
the huge assistance of all individuals around me.
First and foremost, I own thanks to my wonderful supervisor, Assoc.
Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu Hien, who has devoted her time and effort to
guiding and giving invaluable counsel for me in spite of her huge workload.
Without her enthusiasm, encouragement and horizons, I cannot take shape my
master thesis.
Secondly, I am deeply grateful to all lecturers not only from Quy Nhon
University (QNU) but also from other universities for their whole-hearted
contribution to sharpening my academic knowledge during the previous
semesters.
Thirdly, I would like to sincerely thank for the cooperation and support
of the Department of Postgraduate Training and the Department of Foreign
Languages of QNU.

Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my mom who has never
ceased to support, motivate and assist me with tons of work at home so that I
can wholeheartedly concentrate on my thesis. My honest thanks will be sent
to my friends who are willing to stand by me when I need their assistance
during the period of carrying out this thesis.

Quy Nhon, 2019


III

ABSTRACT
In recent decades, functional grammar has never ceased to draw
linguists’ attention. With the same concern, this study is carried out with an
aim to find out the linguistic features of TED Talks on education (TToE) in
the light of Systemic Functional Grammar. In particular, the study deals with
realizing

the

three

metafunctions

including

experiential

meaning,

interpersonal meaning and textual meaning. To conduct this study, the
combination of qualitative and quantitative approach is employed to serve the
process of finding the best results. In addition, twenty TED Talks on
education, each of which lasts less than 15 minutes, are carefully chosen from
the TED website to form the data set. The study denotes amazing results
concerning the three meanings found in TED Talks. In details, as for
experiential meaning, the tendency in the use of relational process and
material process is more favored than other processes by presenters in TToE.
In terms of the interpersonal meaning, declarative clauses presenting Mood
and modal verbs as a type of Modality are utilized with the higher rate than
the others. Regarding textual meaning, unmarked topical themes become the
dominant theme type among the others. Indeed, these results are expected to
significantly contribute to addressing the gap in previous studies related to
functional grammar and becoming a helpful material for teachers and learners
of English who are interested in studying with TED platform.


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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale
Language is always a topic of discussion all the time since it plays a role
as a magical tool that connects people together. Of all the trends that study the
nature of language, Systemic Functional Grammar, developed by renowned
linguists such as Halliday (1994), Bloor and Bloor (1995), Morley (2000),
etc., is considered as one of the most important fields. Functional grammar is
“the study of linguistic forms in relation to the meanings that they express.”
compared to semantics which just studies the meaning (Thompson, 1996, p.
29). In addition, functional grammar is likely to deal with both spoken and
written language and concentrates on the functions of language, which is quite

different from traditional grammar that just investigates the rules of correct
usage. There have been numerous studies about discourse analysis from the
perspective of functional grammar conducted by Montes, Barboza, and
Olascoaga (2014), Rong (2017), etc., but most of the data are collected in
written versions, making the oral forms of this aspect rarely investigated.
As Coulthard (1985) states, the serious study of spoken discourse is not
only currently undertaken by linguists but it is also carried out by sociologists,
anthropologists and philosophers. That means spoken discourse is an
interesting aspect concerned by many researchers. TED talks, delivered by
amazingly talented speakers and enthusiastically favoured by millions of
viewers in the world, are one kind of spoken discourse. Due to the great
contribution of TED in human’s knowledge and its great impacts, countless
papers are written about TED. Some tend to focus on the benefits or
applications of TED in teaching and learning English such as Rubenstein
(2012) and Wingrove (2017). Other articles or papers are about the linguistic


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features of TED talks. Carlo (2014), for instance, investigates on the
proximity in online popularization in the case of TED talks. Lopes, Trancoso,
and Abad (2011) do a research on the nativeness classifier for English with the
similar sources. Among diverse researches on linguistics features tested with
TED talks, there seems to be very few materials employing systemic
functional grammar to analyze the linguistic features in TED talks. Being
aware of the current issue, I am so motivated to conduct the thesis: “A Study
on Linguistic Features in TED Talks on Education from the Perspective
of Functional Grammar.”
1.2. Aim and Objectives
1.2.1. Aim of the Study

The main aim of the thesis is to investigate linguistic Experiential,
Interpersonal, and Textual features of educational TED talks from the
perspective of SFG. Findings of the thesis serve to capture an overall picture
of the ways presenters employed linguistic features in their persuasive talks.
In addition, the findings also assist learners of English and those who are keen
on TED talks to have an extra reference for enhancing their English skills by
applying the linguistic features that renowned speakers have used.
1.2.2. Objectives of the Study
To identify and analyze the experiential features utilized in TToE from
the perspective of SFG.
To identify and analyze the interpersonal features employed in TToE
from the perspective of SFG.
To identify and analyze the textual features used in TToE from the
perspective of SFG.


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1.3. Research Questions
These three questions will be resolved when the thesis is accomplished:
1.

How are experiential meanings realized in TToE?

2.

How are interpersonal meanings realized in TToE?

3.

How are textual meanings realized in TToE?

1.4. Scope of the Study
Although I am aware of the different approaches in identifying the
linguistic features of discourse, I limited my study in the perspective of three
metafunctions. Furthermore, only 20 educational TED talks are selected for
the investigation since the thesis cannot be carried out in a large-scale
investigation of all TED talks.
1.5. Significance of the Study
Accomplishing this thesis offers significant benefits not only in theory
but also in practice. Theoretically, it may be a foundation for further
researches related to three metafunctions in the light of SFG. Practically, it
becomes a useful reference for those who have an interest in TED talks and
for learners of English who desire to sharpen their English skills via TED
talks.
1.6. Design of the Study
The study is structured as follows:
Chapter 1, Introduction, introduces the rationale, aims, research
questions, scope, methods and design of the study.
Chapter 2, Literature Review, provides the related theory about the
presentation skills in teaching and learning activities.
Chapter 3, Methodology, focuses on the research methods, the
procedures of the study, the research design, data collection and data analysis.


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Chapter 4, Findings and Discussion, devotes to unveiling the results
from data analysis and discussing the results.
Chapter 5, Conclusion and Implications, embodies the summary of the

content of the investigation and gives the answer for the questions which are
put forward. Also, pedagogical recommendations for learners as well as
suggestions for further research are concretely displayed.


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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter serves to present the theoretical background on which the
study is based. It is designed to give a comprehensive overview of concepts
related to discourse, discourse analysis and systemic functional grammar. In
addition, a presentation on the theory of the three metafunctions including
experiential meaning, interpersonal meaning and textual meaning is provided
as the foundation for the thesis. Also in this chapter, some terms linking with
TED talks, which serve to be the data set for the study, will be discussed.
2.1. Discourse and Discourse Analysis
2.1.1. Discourse
Despite being one of the main concepts in language discussion in general
and in the language functions in particular, the term ‘discourse’ does not share
the same ideas among linguists. There have been a variety of definitions of
Discourse. Discourse is actually a broad term which not only appears in
linguistics but also in sociology, philosophy and other fields and it is the study
of the ways in which language is utilized among people both in written and
spoken texts.
Brown and Yule (1983) consider discourse as “language in use” and
Cook (1989) defines discourse as a stretch of “language perceived to be
meaningful, unified and purposive”. In the same trend, another definition of
discourse is perceived as “a continuous stretch of (especially spoken)
language larger than a sentence, often constituting a coherent unit, such as a
sermon, argument, joke or narrative.” (Crystal 1992: 25, cited in Nunan

(1993)).
Among the variety of concepts of discourse, it is not straightforward to
tell accurately what discourse truly is. In this study, discourse refers to a unit


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that is higher than sentence level, which encompasses the context, cohesion,
coherence and even rhetorical structure. In addition, it is expressed in the
spoken form.
2.1.2. Discourse Analysis
Discourse analysis is related to the study of the relationship between
language and the context in which it is used. It has been enhanced and
developed since 1960s and early 1970s with the works ranging from
linguistics, semiotics, psychology, anthropology and sociology. As Drid
(2010) mentions, discourse analysis deals with two divergent approaches to
language in general and to discourse in particular. They are the formal
approach and the functional approach. Schiffrin (1994) indicates that in the
first approach – formal or structural approach, discourse analysis is
considered as the exploration of language use by emphasizing on pieces larger
than sentences. It is a higher level in the hierarchy including morpheme,
clause and sentence. Discourse analysis is to describe the internal structural
relationship or the formal correctedness within it. The second approach is
functional in perspective. That means it rarely relates to the intra-sentential
relations as much as with language use. Actually, it refers to the analysis of
the language in use.
Discourse analysis provides us with diverse aspects of language in use
including written and spoken data of all kinds from different views of
linguists. As Coulthard (1985) mentions, “the serious study of spoken
discourse is only just beginning and currently much of the work is being

undertaken not by linguists but by sociologists, anthropologists and
philosophers.”


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According to Brown and Yule (1983), “the analysis of discourse is,
necessarily, the analysis of language in use.” or “the discourse analyst is
committed to an investigation of what that language is used for.” or
“Discourse Analysis is the study of language use with the reference to the
social and psychological factors that influence communication”. They
emphasize how human utilize language to communicate, and in particular,
how addressers construct linguistic messages for addresses and how addresses
work on linguistic messages in order to interpret them. Although there are
numerous concepts of discourse analysis, in this study it is considered as
analyzing the usage of language.
2.2. Systemic Functional Grammar
Adopting the huge contribution of Firth in his system-structure theory,
Halliday continued to evolve an accomplished language system called
Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) in the early 1960s.
Since the definition of Functional grammar varies among researchers, it
is vital to clarify what the term is. Functional grammar is defined by Halliday
(1994) as “the conceptual framework on which it is based is a functional one
rather than a formal one.” and it is designed to explain how the language is
utilized. He also states that it is functional in three distinct senses “in its
interpretation (1) of texts, (2) of the system, and (3) of the elements of
linguistic structures.”
Martin, Matthiessen, and Painter (1997) define that “Functional
grammar is a way of looking at grammar in terms of how grammar is used.”.
It is evident that traditional grammar mentions the rules for correcting

grammatical errors, whereas functional grammar offers tools to understand
why the text is the way it is. Defined as Feng (2013), functional grammar,


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which is based on systemic linguistics, put emphasis on how spoken and
written language operate in different social situations. In addition, he also
adds: “it is very useful in showing how texts work beyond the level of the
sentence, how different texts are structured, and how language varies to suit
the purpose of the users. It takes on a descriptive approach and focuses on
groups of words that function to make meanings.”
Three metafunctions of language identified by Halliday in SFG are
ideational function, interpersonal function and textual function. Based on
Halliday’s framework, Thompson (1996, p. 28) summarizes informally in
terms of this matter as follows:
• We use language to talk about our experience of the world, including
the worlds in our own minds, to describe events and states and the
entities involved in them.
• We also use language to interact with other people, to establish and
maintain relations with them, to influence their behaviour, to express our
own viewpoint on things in the world, and to elicit or change theirs.

• Finally, in using language, we organize our messages in ways that
indicate how they fit in with the other messages around them and with
the wider context in which we are talking or writing.
Experiential function uses language to talk about the world, interpersonal
function uses language to interact with other people, textual function
organizes language to fit in its context.
2.2.1. Experiential Meaning

Ideational metafunction has two modes, namely the experiential and the
logical. However, the focus of this study is just experiential meaning. As
Martin et al. (1997), the system of Transitivity belongs to the experiential


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metafunction within the clause. The experiential function allows people to
conceptualize the world. According to Halliday (1994, p.36), experiential
meaning in transitivity system described as a resource for “construing a
model of experience” includes three aspects: process, participants in the
process, and circumstances associated with the process. The major one is
process type, consisting of six subtypes. Material, mental and rational process
are three salient ones and the others are behavior, verbal and existential.
2.2.1.1. Material process
Material process can be considered as the process of doing and
happening. It expresses the notion that some entity ‘does’ something and may
be done ‘to’ some other entity (Halliday, 1994, p.103). Process itself
encompasses Actor (the doer of the action), Goal (the one that suffers or
undergoes the process or is affected by the action), Range (a participant
specifying the scope of a happening) and Beneficiary (the one that benefits
from the process).

Besides Actor – initiating the process, Goal – affected by the action,
circumstance also helps to offer some supplementary information for the
process, including place, time, manner, cause, accompaniment, matter and
role.
“Range is the element that specifies the range or the scope of the
process.” (Halliday, 1994, p.134). In a material process, Range either

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expresses the domain over which the process takes place, or expresses the
process itself (either in general or in special terms). The Range may be an
entity which exists independently of the process but which indicates the
domain over which the process takes place.

Beneficiary is defined as “the one to whom or for whom the process is
said to take place.” In material process, the Beneficiary can be Recipient or
Client. The recipient is one that goods are given to; the Client is one that
services are done for. (Halliday, 1994, p.132)
I
Actor

2.2.1.2. Mental process
Language is not only an effective tool to describe the activities in our
daily life but it also serves to express the thinking or the feelings of human
beings. Mental process clauses get involved in the description of inner
experience related to perception, cognition, inclination or liking/disliking
(known as affect) (Butt, Fahey, Feez, Spinks, & Yallop, 2000). Two
participants in Mental process are Senser and Phenomenon. According to
Halliday (1994), the Senser is “the conscious being that is feeling, thinking or
seeing” and the Phenomenon is which is sensed (felt, thought or seen). This
following example will illustrate obviously positions of Senser and
Phenomenon.


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I
Senser

Mental process clauses are realized in some verbs such as know, like,
hate, feel, want, wish, etc. Halliday and Matthiessen (2004) divides verbs
appearing in Mental process into four categories: perceptive (seeing,
perceiving, noticing, hearing, feeling, etc.), cognitive (thinking, believing,
supposing,

considering,

knowing,

understanding,

remembering,

etc.),

desiderative (wanting, wishing, hoping, planning, refusing, etc.) and emotive
(liking, loving, adoring, hating, fearing, enjoying, etc.)
2.2.1.3. Relational process
Relational process clauses “serve to characterize and to identify”
(Halliday, 2004). According to Butt et al. (2000, p. 51), Relational processes
“encode relationships of being and having between two participants”. The
Process is easily realized by the verb “be”. Since there are a number of distinct
ways of being, there are divergent types of relational process in the clause
including intensive, circumstantial and possessive. In addition, each type is
expressed in two modes: attributive and identifying. Regarding the attributive
mode, an Attributive is ascribed to some entity (carrier) whereas in terms of

the identifying mode, one entity (identifier) is used to identify another
(identified). Token and Value are conflated with Identified and Identifier “and
the conflation can go either way” (Halliday, 1994).
The cuckoo
Carrier

King Louis
Identified/Token


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2.2.1.4. Behavioural process
The process showing behaviours related to physiological and
psychological behavior like breathing, dreaming, smiling, coughing, smiling,
laughing, watching, etc. belongs to behavioural process. In this process, there
is just one participant referred as the Behaver.
I
Behaver
(Halliday, 1994, p.129)
2.2.1.5. Verbal process
Verbal processes are considered as the processes of ‘saying’. There are
numerous kinds of this process including asking, commanding, offering,
stating, showing and indicating. In a verbal process, the Beneficiary is the one
who is being addressed. Expressing and indicating are modes of verbal
processes. Sayer (the one who does the verbalization) and Receiver (the one to
whom the verbalization is addressed) are typical participants. Verbiage and
Target are two other participants in this process.
I
Sayer

2.2.1.6. Existential process
Existential processes seem to be similar to Relational processes since
they all mention a Participant involving in a process of being. However, this
process just has one Participant - the Existent. Existential processes express
existing and happening and is frequently realized by the verb “be” or some
verbs like “exist”, “arise”, followed by a nominal group playing a role as
Existent.


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There
(Halliday, 1994, p.131)
2.2.1.7. Circumstances
Besides main participants in a process, circumstances also play a crucial
role in a process. It is evident to see that most circumstances appearing are
prepositional phrases. There are nine types of circumstances listed in the
following table.
Table 2.1. Types of circumstances (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004, p. 291)
No

Type of
circumstance

1

Extent

2

Location

3

Manner

4

Cause

5

Contingency

6

Accompaniment

7
8
9

Role
Matter
Angle

2.2.2. Interpersonal Meaning
As Halliday and Matthiessen (2004) states, interpersonal meaning refers
to “enacting social relationships” (p.36) between speaker and addressee.

Halliday (1994) claims that language is utilized to express the interaction


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among people. It is the activity where there is an exchange of clauses between
the speaker and hearer. Halliday (1994) offers a table to describe four main
speech roles which can be presented in the table 2.2 as follows.
Table 2.2. Primary speech functions (Halliday, 1994, p.69)
Commodity exchange
Role in exchange
(i)
(ii)

giving
demanding

As can be seen from Table 2.2, giving and demanding are two main
activities that four roles focus on. In addition, these roles simultaneously
involve in two general categories of commodity including goods-&-services
and information. When interaction is carried out, four speech roles are
expressed. They are giving goods and services, giving information,
demanding goods and services and demanding information. These functions
are labelled as offer, statement, command and question respectively. Offer can
be realized either by a declarative clause or an interrogative clause.
Statements are frequently expressed by declarative clauses, commands by
imperative clauses and questions by interrogative clauses.
In the role of an exchange and interactive means, an English clause
encompasses two constituents namely the Mood and the Residue (Halliday,
1994). The Mood is divided into two smaller components: the Subject and the

Finite. The Residue is the remainder of the clause and frequently plays a role
as Predicator, Component and Adjunct.
Interpersonal meaning is also represented by another element namely
Modality. In terms of Modality, as Halliday and Matthiessen (2014, p.75),
Modality is “the speaker’s judgment of probabilities, or the obligations


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involved in what he is saying”. In other word, Modality shows intermediate
degrees which fall between the positive and negative poles. Modality assists
the speaker to figure out the region of certainty that lies between “yes” and
“no”. There are two main types of Modality, namely Modalization and
Modulation that are illustrated as in the table as follows:
Table 2.3. System of types of modality (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004, p. 618)
Modalization

Modulation

These four types vary between high, median and low values. Figure 2.1
shows that certainly, probably, possibly belong to probability. Always,
usually, sometimes are included in usuality whereas required, supposed,
allowed belong to obligation and determined, keen, willing are in inclination.

Figure 2.1. The relation of modality to polarity and mood
(Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004, p.619)


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2.2.3. Textual Meaning
Besides the fact that language is an effective tool to enact interaction of
people, language also assists to relate text to context. Textual meaning is
defined by Halliday (1994, p.36) as an action of “creating relevance to
context”. As a message structure, a clause encompasses a Theme
accompanied by a Rheme. The Theme is the component which serves as “the
point of departure of the message” and the Rheme is “the remainder of the
message” in which the Theme is evolved.
According to Martin et al. (1997), the system of Theme is concerned
with the organization of information within individual clauses and with the
organization of the larger text. The clause can be conceptualized in terms of
all three metafunctions: textual, interpersonal, and experiential. Hence, the
Theme of a clause can have textual, interpersonal and experiential stages.
Topical Theme is defined as “the first element in the clause that
expresses some kind of ‘representational’ meaning” (Martin et al., 1997,
p.24). It can play a role as a participant as in “The house was gloomy and
uninviting”, a circumstance giving information about time, place, manner,
cause, etc. as in “In 1876, Shaw joined his mother and sister in London.” and
a process as in “Says Mr. Smith: ‘It’s too early to draw any conclusions
yet.’”. Topical Theme is divided into two subtypes: marked and unmarked
Topical Theme. If the first topical element of a declarative clause is also the
Subject of the clause, the Theme is ‘unmarked’ one as in:
Peter Piper
Unmarked Theme/Subject
In contrast, if the topical Theme of a declarative clause is not the
Subject, Non-Subject Themes are ‘marked’ Theme as in:


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Someday,
Marked Theme
-------Rheme---------Interpersonal Theme is a part of the Theme which reveals the
interaction between speakers or writers and the hearers or readers. There are
some kinds such as the finite in “Are you coming”, a Wh-element, “How did
school shape up?”, a vocative “Mr. Wolf, Mr.Wolf, may we cross your golden
waters?”, an Adjunct “Perhaps women make better vets.” and the Theme
consists of first and second ‘mental’ clauses which express the speaker’s
opinion or seek the addressee’s: “I don’t suppose you need Old English and
Anglo-Saxon.”
(Martin et al., 1997, p.25)
Textual Theme usually constitutes “the first part of the Theme”, standing
before any Interpersonal Themes. It offers thematic prominence to textual
elements with a linking function such as structural conjunctions in “When you
don’t have enough police, the crime rate gets higher.”, relatives clause in “We
heard Professor Smith’s lecture, which was a great disappointment”,
conjunctives in “Furthermore this alternative would be far too costly.” and
continuatives in “Well there was a little bit of bakelite before the war, wasn’t
there?”
2.3. Previous Studies
There is no room for doubt that countless linguists use Systemic
Functional Grammar to analyze linguistic features of different genres.
In terms of the thesis, To (2015) employs SFG as the main theory and
methodological framework to study the linguistic complexity in English
textbooks utilized in teaching English as a foreign language with special


18

reference to the Vietnamese context. Findings of the study reveal that the

language of textbook texts mostly get more complicated at high levels and the
divergences between descriptive statistics of linguistics features used in the
science-related texts and those in the non-science ones were not considerable
in the same book. In the same way, Symons (2015) also takes functional
grammar as a foundation for his study. This case study investigates one
fourth-grade teacher’s enactment of a curriculum designed to assist English
learners’ meaning-making with a functional grammar approach. The results
show that functional grammar analysis offers a metalanguage with which
teachers can facilitate discussions about key ideas that are central to the
meanings in text. Ton (2005) studies the three meanings including
experiential, interpersonal and textual meaning in the travel advertisements
written in English and in Vietnamese. One of her noticeable study results
indicates that giving information about tourist activities, events and
descriptions is the main purpose in travel advertisement.
Regarding books, Schleppegrell (2004) investigates the language of
school in the light of functional grammar. This book gives a specific
description of the grammar and discourse features of the language in school
contexts and focuses on the increasing linguistic demands of the contexts of
advanced literacy. In addition, it simultaneously deals with matters for second
language learners, speakers of nonstandard dialects, and other students who
fail to get access to opportunities for advanced literacy development in
informal contexts outside the school. Furthermore, it also concentrates on
language in teaching all subjects, especially on what is necessary for the
evolvement of critical literacy. With the theory built on sociolinguistic,
applied linguistic, discourse analysis and mainly interpreted from functional
linguistics perspective, the book is useful for teachers, researchers in language


19

development and education and scholars with a general interest in language
issue in education to develop more productive strategies in working with
students and to create new avenues of fruitful collaboration between linguists
and educators. Nguyen (2016) investigates the Theme-Rheme structure in
English and Vietnamese news texts. Texts of the same genre having the same
orientation in the use of language is the result emerging from the study.
Furthermore, some divergences of expression in English and Vietnamese
occur due to the cultural differences.
As for articles, Fincham (2001) presents the use of Systemic Functional
Grammar in a module for undergraduates to analyze media texts, to create
their own texts and to develop an understanding of the linguistic choices they
make. Findings report that choosing and constructing their own texts have
been both beneficial and enjoyable but students have to give fine-tuned
linguistic analysis in the required time. Fearn and Farnan (2007) mention the
role of functional grammar in writing in study. The findings of this research
indicate that there is a positive interaction between grammar instruction and
writing performance if the grammar is functional and utilized for writing
purposes. Feng (2013) indicates some issues including the nature of functional
grammar, some important concepts of functional grammar, the divergence
between traditional grammar and functional grammar. Additionally, the author
also gives some implications for English teaching and learning to assist
teachers to understand about the theory of functional grammar and its positive
role in school contexts. Xu and Zhang (2015) write an article about the crucial
role of functional grammar and illustrate its application to the teaching of
reading among college students. To contribute to enhancing reading skills,
they give some effective techniques for the reading of English learners in the
beginning and advanced proficiency levels.


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Regarding studies relating to TED Talks, there are a great number of
researches conducted with different approaches. By using genre analysis and
Hoey’s framework, Ratanakul (2017) investigates on the move structures
consisting of stages, problem-solution moves and the features of these moves
with the data set of 50 TED Talks. What emerges from the study is that certain
move features are utilized rhetorically in more than on stage, which
contributes to materials design and practice in oral presentation and courses
occurring in class. Chang and Huang (2015) examine the rhetorical structure
in TED Talks to explore the possibility in embedding them into the instruction
of oral presentation in English language classrooms. The highlight features
that are drawn from the study are the identification of seven move types and
the establishment of a genre prototype based on move. In addition, the article
also shows the impact of the form, objectives, and conventions of TED
conferences on the rhetorical structure of the talks. Meanwhile, Uicheng and
Crabtree (2018) carry out a research on the macro discourse markers in TED
Talks. To find out the frequency and distribution of macro discourse markers,
they conduct with six talk genres including technology, entertainment, design,
business, science and global issues and the results present that numerous
markers containing the word ‘idea’ or ‘ideas’ are truly valuable in TED Talks.

In relation to Appraisal framework, Drasovean and Tagg (2015) study
about the evaluative language and its solidarity – building role on TED.com
by using the combination of Appraisal and Systemic Functional Grammar
framework. The study results reveal that online participants use evaluative
language to align with certain ideas and form connections described by
sociability and solidarity.