August 2016 Vol.4 No.8

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Wayar B

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Original Research Article

Applicability of Functional Theory to Secondary School Debate

Bulus Wayar

Department of English, Gombe State University, Nigeria

E-mail: buluswayar@yahoo.com

Accepted August 09, 2016

Abstract

This paper unveils applicability of functional theory to debates held in a different cultural setting. The material for the paper was derived from Sri Lankan secondary school student debates. It included one hundred and four speeches produced in a competitive setting. The data was taped and transcribed so as to analyze it. One of the major objectives of the paper was to describe the general characteristics of Sri Lankan students’ debates by the means of Functional Theory and to evaluate its applicability in terms of cultural use of language. In this paper, communicative culture was perceived beyond ordinary passing or exchanging of information. Rather, it also encompassed how participants communicated with one another in face - to – face setting bearing in mind genre specifics. Although functional theory has been applied to debates across many nations and its results seemed similar, in this paper, manifestations of communicative genre from the perspective of culture were apparent. Contrary to Benoit’s predictions, defenses constituted most of the turns which was as a result of responses to attacks from other speakers. Although the FT has worked partly with the Sri Lankan secondary school student debates, the prediction did not manifest in relation to Benoit’s claims, because the students debaters used more defenses than attacks, and more acclaims than attacks. The opposite in results could be explained by crucial role culture played in their communicative genre in which direct attacks and praising oneself are both detestable.

Keywords: Acclaims, Attacks, Communication, Culture, Defenses, Genre