Language Functions in ESL Classrooms: Basis for the Enhancement of English Conversational Skills of Junior High School Students

Abstract

Communicative competence is one of the primary aims of English language education, and it highlights the proper use of language functions in specific situations. This study aimed to determine the language functions used in ESL classrooms by Junior High School students. The identified underrepresented language functions became the point of departure in designing an enhancement program to improve the conversational English skills of the students. This study used qualitative research design as it employed audio recordings, classroom observations, and field notes as instruments to gather data from the six (6) ESL classrooms. This study used the model of Michael Halliday’s Language Functions as a framework for the conversation analysis of verbatim transcriptions. The study found that the participants mostly used representational, heuristic, personal, and instrumental language functions during their conversational English sessions. However, imaginative, regulatory, and interactional language functions were recognized as underrepresented. A Conversational English Enhancement Program (CEEP) Framework and Modules focused on the identified underrepresented language functions were designed for the language learners. The study's concerns, such as the sparse use of imaginative language function in discussion, ineffective ways of employing regulatory function in communication, and maintaining dialogues, were specifically and contextually targeted by the modules. Thus, students in ESL classrooms should be given avenues to exercise their conversational English skills by giving them exposure to authentic situations where they can maximize language functions appropriately.