scholarly journals The Effect of Writing Knowledge on EFL Students’ Ability in Composing Argumentative Essays

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 263-287
Author(s):  
Abdu Alkhalek Mohamed Rubiaee ◽  
Saadiyah Darus ◽  
Nadzrah Abu Bakar
Keyword(s):  
Efl Students ◽  
Argumentative Essays ◽  
Writing Knowledge

scholarly journals Discursive Representations of Digital Artifacts in an EFL Classroom: Analysing Discursive Voices of Pre-Service Teachers of English

2021 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Oleksandr Kapranov
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Respective Control ◽  
Respective Control Group ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Argumentative Essays ◽  
Discursive Representations

The present article presents and discusses a study that seeks to analyse discursive representations of digital artifacts in the teaching and learning of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) by pre-service EFL teachers (henceforth – participants). The study involves a corpus of argumentative essays on a range of topics in EFL didactics written by the participants and their respective control group which is comprised of non-teacher EFL students. The analysis of the corpus of essays reveals that whilst there are discursive representations of digital artifacts that are shared between the groups of participants and controls, there appear to be discursive representations of digital artifacts that are group-specific. These findings and their linguo-didactic implications are further described in the article.

scholarly journals The Use of Genre-Based Cycle with L1 Rhetorical Structure in L2 Writing Class: An Exploratory Study

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 518
Author(s):  
Tzu-Shan Chang
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
L2 Writing ◽  
Rhetorical Structure ◽  
Writing Class ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Argumentative Essays ◽  
Writing Competence

<p><em>This paper demonstrates the systemic functional approach (SFL) with the L1 rhetorical structure in a genre-based writing class and then examines the effectiveness of this study’s approach in developing Chinese EFL writers’ competence in writing argumentative essays. This EFL writing course follows the SFL approach, the genre-based cycle of teaching and learning, to provide students with repeated opportunities to practice literacy skills gained in previous cycles until they master different genres. The genre-based cycle formed the writing instruction along with the L1 rhetorical structure as a strategy; Chinese EFL sophomores (n = 44) were instructed in this writing class. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected: </em><em>I</em><em>nterviews and ratings of students’ writing from two raters before and after the instruction. The results presented that most participants had made statistically significant progress in their writing competence, particularly in structuring paper. The incorporation of L1 rhetorical structure into the genre-based cycle offered participants a framework to organize their arguments in L2 writing. When EFL students’ home languages/cultures are treated as the resources within the context of a genre-based cycle, their prior knowledge of L1 rhetorical structure transits to more accurate construction of L2 essays.</em></p>

Discourse Features of Argumentative Essays Written by Chinese EFL Students

2008 ◽  
Vol 156 ◽  
pp. 179-200
Author(s):  
Ruiqin Miao ◽  
Xiuyun Lei
Keyword(s):  
Future Research ◽  
Written Discourse ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Rhetorical Features ◽  
Argumentative Essays ◽  
Textual Organization ◽  
L1 And L2 Writing ◽  
L1 And L2

Studies on both second language discourse in general and Chinese EFL/ESL discourse in particular have reported mixed findings about the relationship between L1 and L2 writing. This study investigates the rhetorical features of argumentative essays written by Chinese college EFL students by analyzing paragraph and overall textual organization and development in 69 sample essays. The results show that the majority of the participants compose in a deductive pattern similar to what is typically employed by native English speaking writers. However, the way in which the Chinese EFL students develop their L2 written discourse lacks effectiveness and adequacy, in terms of the following features: the quality of the topic sentence (of paragraphs) and the introduction paragraph (of essays), the adequacy of supporting details, transitions between sentences and paragraphs, and the effectiveness of the ending (of essays). Furthermore, we explore the factors that may underlie the observed patterns. We conclude the paper by discussing the pedagogical implications of the findings and suggesting directions for future research.

Writing Processes of EFL Students in argumentative Essays

2003 ◽  
Vol 139-140 ◽  
pp. 153-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdessatar Mahfoudhi
Keyword(s):  
Process Analysis ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Global Level ◽  
Writing Processes ◽  
Coding Scheme ◽  
Think Aloud Protocols ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Thesis Statement ◽  
Argumentative Essays

The paper reports on a case study of the writing processes and products of Tunisian EFL university students in an argumentative essay. The data came from (i) audio-taped think-aloud protocols followed by immediate retrospective comments, (ii) experts' comments and grades on the subjects' products, and (iii) a questionnaire administered to the students. Results of the process analysis, using an adapted version of the coding scheme used by A. RAIMES (1985;1987), corroborated by the questionnaire fmdings, showed that students wrote fluently and concerned themselves more with meaning than with granunatical correctness. However, they planned very little, rarely made notes before writing, and rarely rewrote. They faced difficulties especially in fmding the appropriate word and in organizing their ideas. At the local level, products showed inaccurate use of mechanics and granunar. At a more global level, most essays lacked clear thesis statement, substantial support of claims, adequate transitions, and hedged statements. The product problems were partially attributed to little planning, notemaking, and revising. The process strategies were themselves related to writing habits for which the classroom and the exam settings are partly responsible.

scholarly journals A cross-cultural study of the use of metadiscourse markers in argumentative essays by Iranian and Chinese EFL students

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1601540
Author(s):  
Seyyed Abdolmajid Tabatabaee Lotfi ◽  
Seyyed Amir Hossein Sarkeshikian ◽  
Elaheh Saleh ◽  
Alex Wade
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Study ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cross Cultural Study ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Argumentative Essays

Argument structures in Chinese university students’ argumentative writing

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-87
Author(s):  
Xinghua Liu ◽  
Clare Furneaux
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
English As Foreign Language ◽  
English Writing ◽  
Chinese University ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Chinese University Students ◽  
Argumentative Essays ◽  
Linguistic Approach ◽  
Chinese Writing

Situated within a Systemic Functional Linguistics genre paradigm, this study adopted a function-based linguistic approach to examine the argument structures in English writing produced by Chinese university students of English as foreign language (EFL). Their English writing was contrasted with three other sets of argumentative essays in order to explore differences and similarities in the use of argument structures. The four sets of essays were produced by three groups of university students: native English- and Chinese-speaking university students and Chinese university EFL students. Participants’ interviews and questionnaire responses were also collected. The study found that most native English-speaking participants used an analytical arguing strategy, while most Chinese-speaking university participants preferred a hortatory argument structure both in their English and Chinese writing. It was also found that Chinese participants’ English writing was influenced by both English and Chinese.

scholarly journals The Structures and Functions of Lexical Bundles in Argumentative Essays by Chinese EFL Students at the Tertiary Level

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Argumentative Writing ◽  
Lexical Bundles ◽  
Lexical Richness ◽  
Colloquial Language ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Argumentative Essays ◽  
Effective Use ◽  
It Structure

The present study investigated and analysed the structures and functions of 3-word to 6-word lexical bundles of 120 English argumentative writing by Chinese EFL students and employed the framework based on Biber et al.’s structural classification and Hyland’s functional classification of lexical bundles. It was found that there was generally a negative correlation, both structurally and functionally, between the frequency and the length of lexical bundles although there were some fluctuations in certain specific categories. Results indicated that the participants did not have a good command of lexical bundles, affecting the quality of English argumentative writing in various ways. First, the sampled students used limited types of lexical bundles frequently. They generally lacked lexical richness when employing specific lexical bundles to express their opinions and text-oriented lexical bundles to convey transitional signals. Second, they relied heavily on the anticipatory it structure and did not have the consciousness of using hedges and boosters when expressing their attitude. Third, they virtually did not use lexical bundles involving attributive clauses. Fourth, they are inclined to use colloquial language in writing. The paper includes implications for instruction of effective use of lexical bundles in argumentative writing.

scholarly journals The Effect of Using Conjunction as Cohesive Device on the Undergraduates’ Quality of Writing in Argumentative Essays of Jordanian EFL Learners

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rawhi Yousef Salman Al Shamalat ◽  
Che An Binti Abdul Ghani
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
English Language ◽  
Mixed Method Research ◽  
Writing Quality ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Cohesive Devices ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Argumentative Essays ◽  
Mu'tah University

The goal of this research was to investigate the effect of use conjunctions on the overall quality of argumentative writing of Jordanian English as foreign language (EFL) learners. This mixed-method research included sixty (n=60) undergraduate students at the Department. of English Language and Literature at Mu’tah University in Jordan. The participants of the research were selected using purposive sampling method. The data of the research were collected using written essays and interviews. The data was analyzed using SPSS. The data was collected using analytical scale Jacob et al., (1981) to measure the quality of argumentative essays. The result of this research showed that there was a weak negative but irrelevant correlation between writing quality and the frequency of conjunctions as cohesive devices. This correlation indicates that the frequent and general use of devices in the writing of Jordanian students did not contribute to the quality of the writing under any conditions. Also the finding revealed that there is an extremely negative but irrelevant correlation between the use of conjunctions devices by Jordanian EFL students and their writing quality. Therefore, the correlation was negative and insignificant for Jordanian EFL students. More specifically, the result shows that the frequencies of conjunctions were not found as an indicator of good writing quality for Jordanian EFL students. This research is significant for providing a considerable number of pedagogical implications for further research that will offer great contribution to the field of teaching writing in EFL setting in Jordan in particular and English as second language (ESL) context in general. Moreover, the research has shown a better understanding of cohesive devices / conjunctions by Jordanian EFL students at Mu’tah University.

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