The Theory Of Situational Context And Its Application To Reading Comprehension Of Text

Context is a popular research subject in modern linguistics. It is an important factor that affects the choice of language and the semantic comprehension. According to Halliday, context of situation consists of three components. They are Field, Tenor, and Mode. He also points out that language has three metafunctions, which are experiential, interpersonal, and textual. Each of the components of the context may correspond to one of the metafunctions. In addition, since each of the metafuanctions has its own representation in text, Halliday thinks that context of situation may have a certain reflection in text. Judging by these representations in text, people may easily know the context of situation, and in turn, context may have important roles in text comprehension. Based on Halliday's idea on context of situation and systemic functional grammar theory, this thesis analyzes the roles of situational context in text comprehension. They include predictive, inferential, restrictive and interpretive. The application of context to reading teaching may be of great help to the comprehension of text. So, this paper holds that teachers should bear the context of situation in mind when teaching reading, and should try to develop students' sense of context and knowledge of context. By doing this, students' ability of reading comprehension can be improved greatly.