The functional view not only sees language as a linguistic system but also a means for doing things. Most of our day-to-day language use involves functional activities: offering, suggesting, advising, apologizing, etc. Therefore, learners learn a language in order to be able to do things with it. In order to perform functions, learners need to know how to combine the grammatical rules and the vocabulary to express notions that perform the functions. Examples of notions are the concept of present, past & future time, the expressions of certainty and possibility, the roles of agents, instruments within a sentence, and special relationships between people and objects.

The functional or communicative view of language is the view that language is a vehicle for the expression of functional meaning. British linguists developed a system of categories based on the communicative needs of the learner and proposed a syllabus based on communicative functions. The functional view not only sees language as a linguistic system but also a means for doing something.

The semantic and communicative dimensions of language are more emphasized than the grammatical characteristics, although there are also included.

It views that the target of language learning is to learn to express communication functions and categories of meaning. Some of the language learning approaches and methods based on this view of language are: communicative approaches; functional-notional syllabuses; the Nature Approach.