Like writing, speaking also has a variety of genres. These genres are related to the purpose of the talk. The purposes or functions of language have been categorised in a variety of ways. Halliday's communication functions are perhaps the best known and certainly amongst the most widely cited.
Halliday's functions of language include:
Generally, in schools the focus is on imparting and seeking factual information particularly for assessment purposes. That is, we have children reporting on a topic in a very formal way and they are assessed on their performance but communication outside the classroom is also important.