Systemic Functional Linguistics for a theory-informed language education

This study analyzes three intermediate Brazilian learners’ English texts through a Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) perspective and argues for its use as a productive basis for theory-driven additional language education. Drawing on the ideational, interpersonal, and textual metafunctions as analytical categories, we examine how meaning is construed in students’ texts produced during a final-course assessment in which they reflected on the role of English in their lives, their motivations to learn the language, and their future goals. Ideationally, the texts display experiential engagement, as material, mental, and relational processes construe learners’ inner and outer experiences. Interpersonally, the writings enact distinct stance profiles: categorical declaratives project confidence, modality and interpersonal metaphors negotiate commitment, and modal choices convey affection and uncertainty. Textually, the students organize discourse through thematic continuity and variation, temporal framing, and contrastive relations. Taken together, these patterns highlight that the examined learner writing operates as contextualized semiotic work and demonstrate how the metafunctional framework of SFL can be used to analyze and interpret learners’ meaning-making processes, while also offering insights for more functional and context-sensitive language teaching practices.