A CRITICAL REVIEW

INTERPERSONAL METAFUNCTION OF GENDER TALK

IN ELT CLASSROOMS
[Advanced discourse analysis]
Mohammad Qushoy
0201618014
Pascasarjana Universitas Negeri Semarang
This Critical Review consists of:
• Introduction
• Summary of the research article
• The analysis
• Positive points of the Article
• The concerns
• The conclusion
Introduction
The Journal:
Journal of Academic and Applied Studies
Vol. 1 (2) July 2011, pp. 25-32. Available online @
www.academians.org
The Article
Interpersonal Metafunction of Gender Talk in ELT
Classrooms.
The authors
Seyed Mahdi Araghi and Kamal Shayeghi.
Department of ELT and General Linguistics. Ahar branch.
Islamic Azad University. Ahar. Iran. Corresponding Author:
kamalshayegh@yahoo.com
Summary of the Article
Bakcground of the study
 Gender variant has less been concerned in language studies.
 Some of the performed researches are related to language
teaching in bilingual areas.
 The different kinds of clausal structure (declarative, integrative,
imperative, and Exclamative) used by males and females in ELT
classroom are studied on the basis of Hallidayian systemic
Functional grammar from interpersonal metafunction
perspective to show the way which meaning is exchanged
between interlocutors.
 Exchange among students of ELT classes with different genders
in bilingual context of situation causing high level of language
proficiency by reorganizing different types of clausal structures.
 Objectives of the research
The objective of their study was to determine different
clausal structure such as Declaratives, Integratives,
Imperatives, and Exclamatives used by interlocutors with
different gender in bilingual classroom.
 Theoretical Framework
• Halliday’s systemic functional grammar (1985:11) considers text
analysis as discourse one and states that during a conversation,
speaker may give something to addressee or ask something from him.
• Halliday’s two speech acts of giving and demanding, and four
speech functions called offer, demand, information and question.
• Clausal Structures expressed through Declarative, Integrative,
Imperative, and Exclamatives (Halliday, 1985)
• Mood is composed of functional elements of subject and finite in
which subject approves or disapproves argument whereas finite
shows primary tense and aspect. (Halliday,1985)
• Eggins (2004:144) states using language, one of the processes
occurred in conversation is creating communication among people
speaking or may speak in the next turn-taking.
 Previous Research
• Mehrabi (2006) studies the role of gender in interpretation of
silence in discourse. This research shows whether the gender
of conversing people and the gender of the population employed
in the research has any effect on interpretation of silence or not.
• Dasturi and Bastani (2007: 5-30) study the effect of gender
on discourse in two contemporary translations of Quran,
showing the meaning system that the democratic system has
created.
• Allaei et al (2010: 211-228) have studied exchange of
meaning in humanity science textbooks on the base of
Hallidayian systemic functional grammar from the viewpoint of
interpersonal metafunction.
 Research Methodology
They used oral form of teacher-students interaction in the
classroom context as its corpus. The oral conversation
between students and teacher was taken from eight
randomly different classrooms since there were two
populations in the study. Each population consisted of four
classes of male and female students. The recorded and
transcribed conversation in the study resulted to 3288
clauses.
 The research result and discussion
 Mood of most clauses by males and females in
classroom discourse are declarative and dominant Mood
is declarative of third person singular simple present
tense.

 In contrast, the study showed both genders have used

less integrative in their conversation.

 Imperatives were used with low frequency in classroom

discourse and both genders did not used any
exclamatives in their conversation.
 In Declaratives, speakers intend to express information
to the addressee. In fact exchange process of meaning
in this kind of clauses is one-sided and in its least active
form.
 In Integratives, the route of interaction is two-sided and
active. In Integratives, addressee can refer to his mind,
providing an answer to the question or express his
unawareness on it.
 In interaction between teacher and student in this
research, the process of exchange is one-sided in both
genders, in which speakers just provide new information.
 Conclusion of the research
 Reconstructing clausal structures used by different genders in
ELT classrooms may result into students’ high language
proficiency in bilingual context of situation. That is, using
Integratives for declaratives may make interlocutors take part
much more in classroom discourse, causing interpersonal
meaning to transfer more.

 Different number of clause that produced by both genders

related to social status and its effect on speech production in the
context of class. For example, males have higher social and
occupational position, while employed in low ranked position in
the society. Consequently, this ends to unequal speech
production which is overtly observed in the context of class.
The Evaluation
The positive points of the research article
1. The result of the study has achieved the purpose or objective of the study
in which to determine the different clausal structures used by different
genders in bilingual classroom.
2. This is a good article in terms that it can meet all aspect of scientific
journal; started from the abstract to the conclusion. They are presented in
the article yet they are not completely detailed.
3. It clearly states the important of the research and the description of it is
clear, straightforward, and easy to follow.
4. The article presents some previous researches related the topic to support
the reason why they took interpersonal metafunction as their main topic.
Accordingly, this can give appropriate background knowledge to the reader
regarding the topic being investigated. Moreover, it makes a good and
clear communication of the research finding so that it develops reader’s
understanding.
5. The article is original and give an interesting topic.
 The concerns of the article
1. Research method and research question are not clearly stated in the
article. The writers don’t mention the approach they used in the study
and they don’t present how they collect and analyze the data.
2. The writer don’t display how they find the result after they analyze the
data.
3. They don’t explain about the use of tense and pronoun more, since
the results show that third person simple present tense is dominant
structures used in the conversation.
4. Inadequate underpinning theories presented in the article, for
example the writers don’t presented about the function of Mood and
Modality because it is important element in analyzing interpersonal
metafunction.
5. The terms Declarative, Integrative, Imperative, and Exclamative are
also presented inadequately. It should be more detailed explanation.
6. They don’t give explanation about terms interpersonal metafunction
and gender talk itself, and also they don’t mention what kind of
conversation happen in the classrooms.
7. They have met the purpose of their study, but unfortunately, they give
lack evidence in terms of the example or sentences produced by
students to support their argument.
8. Regarding the conclusion, the writers don’t give enough explanations
about the reasons why males produced higher number clauses.
9. It would be better if the writers make every parts of article in
separated and different paragraphs.
10. They should give suggestion and recommendation for the implication
in regards interpersonal metafunction in classroom especially
through conversation.
Interpersonal Metafunction

 Interpersonal metafunction uses language to encode

interaction and to show how defensible or binding we
find our proposition or proposal. (Butt, et al,1995:13)
 Interpersonal Metafunction mainly focuses on the
relation between the role of speakers and the role of
audience, mood and modality (Halliday, 2009).
 In Interpersonal metafunction analysis, sentence is
considered as a piece of interaction between the
speaker and listener. (Halliday&Hasan: 1985).
 Conclusion
 The study from Araghi and Shayeghi in term of interpersonal
metafunction related to variant genders is really interesting topic.
Especially, how they focus on how different genders produce
language in Classroom. In my opinion it should have more careful
and further analysis in what way interpersonal metafunction can
causing high level of proficiency.
 For next researcher, it also necessary to analyze not only between
teacher and students, but also the conversation among students
because it must be different when students talk to teacher and when
they talk to their friends.
 There is a hole created by the writers because they don’t describe
how the gender talk reflects in the article, so they necessarily should
present about this in their article.
 Finally, I agree that the use of varieties of clausal structure will
enhance the conversation in the classroom.
THANK YOU