ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines one particular view of language learning in the tradition of systemic functional linguistics (SFL). Halliday is widely regarded by many as the founder of the SFL school of linguistic description. Malinowski's views that in society, language performs certain functions in the everyday lives of the people who live within that society. Malinowski's original concept of context of situation was developed and elaborated by J. R. Firth. Firth's linguistic analysis recognizes two general theoretical relations, syntagmatic and paradigmatic. The Malinowskian-Firthian tradition establishes the study of language as social interaction and communication within heterogeneous speech communities. The linguistic tradition as established by Malinowski and Firth and developed by Halliday later became known as British Contextualism and more recently the Hallidayan tradition of Systemic Functional Linguistics or SFL. SFL is centrally concerned with demonstrating the ways in which the organization of language is related to the use of language.
