scholarly journals Epistemic Modality in the Argumentative Essays of Chinese EFL Learners

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chunyu Hu ◽  
Xuyan Li
Keyword(s):  
Epistemic Modality ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Argumentative Essays

Interactional metadiscourse in young EFL learner writing

2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huaqing Hong ◽  
Feng Cao
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Argumentative Writing ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Argumentative Essays ◽  
Qualitative Analyses

This study investigates how young English as a foreign language (EFL) learners from Chinese, Spanish, and Polish mother tongue backgrounds use interactional metadiscourse in descriptive and argumentative English essays by drawing data from the ICCI corpus. The quantitative and qualitative analyses show that (i) there are significant differences among the three groups of EFL learners in the use of boosters, attitude markers, self-mentions, and engagement markers; and (ii) there are significant differences between the descriptive essays and the argumentative essays in the use of hedges and self-mentions. Discussion of the results is related to intergroup homogeneity and heterogeneity in the use of metadiscourse and the influences of essay types as well as topics/prompts. Pedagogical implications are provided for teaching interactional metadiscursive resources to young EFL learners from different mother tongue backgrounds and in relation to descriptive and argumentative writing.

scholarly journals Exploring syntactic complexity and its relationship with writing quality in EFL argumentative essays

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-81
Author(s):  
Farzaneh Shadloo ◽  
Hesamoddin Shahriari Ahmadi ◽  
Behzad Ghonsooly
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Writing Quality ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Syntactic Features ◽  
Development Scheme ◽  
Language Writing ◽  
Argumentative Essays ◽  
Different Levels

Abstract To predict syntactic complexity in second/foreign language writing, some studies have advocated the use of T-unit and clausal subordination measures while others have argued for the use of phrase-based measures. This study seeks to identify syntactic features that can be regarded as discriminators among different levels of writing quality. For this purpose, a corpus of argumentative essays by EFL learners was compiled and then the essays were rated and placed into three groups of high-rated, mid-rated, and low-rated essays. The corpus was then coded and analysed for both phrasal and clausal features. The phrasal features were manually coded based on the development scheme hypothesized by Biber, Gray and Poonpon (2011) for academic writing, and the clausal features were analysed using the online L2 Syntactic Complexity Analyzer developed by Lu (2010). A separate ANOVA test was used to compare the three groups of essays for each of the phrasal and clausal features. The findings of the current study demonstrated that subordination and dependent clauses were not good indicators of different writing qualities in our corpus. Also, the pattern of noun phrase complexity predicted by Biber et al. (2011) was not observed across argumentative essays from three different levels of writing quality.

scholarly journals Hedges and boosters in medical and engineering research articles: A comparative corpus-based study

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 215-225
Author(s):  
Mehrdad Sepehri ◽  
Mehrnnoosh Hajijalili ◽  
Ehsan Namaziandost
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Epistemic Modality ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Medical Sciences ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
Modal Verbs ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Engineering Research ◽  
Chi Square Test ◽  
The Difference

This study aimed to compare the use of hedges and boosters in medical sciences and engineering research articles. To fulfil this objective, the researcher provided 30 medical and 30 engineering research articles to identify the hedging and boosting devices used in them. The research articles were analysed according to lexical devices classification, focusing on hedges and boosters. The AntConc concordance software was used to identify the instances of hedges and boosters in both disciplines. Frequency, percentage and the Chi-square test were run to analyse the data. The results indicated that the difference between the frequency of hedges and boosters in medical sciences and engineering research articles was significant and meaningful. Moreover, the outcomes indicated that the most frequent hedges were epistemic modality verbs, quantifiers and nouns and the most frequent boosters were nouns, lexical verbs, modal verbs and adjectives. These discoveries of this paper may have some implications for the teaching of academic writing, especially to EFL learners. Keywords: Boosters, engineering research articles, hedges, medical research articles

scholarly journals The Effect of Individualized Technology-Mediated Feedback on EFL Learners’ Argumentative Essays

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatemeh Soltanpour ◽  
Mohammadreza Valizadeh
Keyword(s):  
Corrective Feedback ◽  
Experimental Treatment ◽  
Control Treatment ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Paper Form ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Argumentative Essays

This quantitative quasi-experimental study, which followed a pretest-posttest-delayed posttest design, was aimed at investigating the effect of individualized technology-mediated feedback (henceforth, ITMF) on the overall quality of Iranian EFL learners’ argumentative essays. The effect of ITMF, as the experimental treatment, was compared with the common written corrective feedback (henceforth, CWCF) strategies as the control treatment. 57 learners, studying at general EFL courses at upper-intermediate level, formed the participants. They were assigned to two groups: ITMF and CWCF, which, in this study, is meant as the pen-and-paper form of direct and indirect feedback. Each group received six sessions of treatment. The writing tasks and tests were all of argumentative type. First, whether there was any significant difference between the ITMF and CWCF in the overall quality of the essays was investigated. The ITMF group significantly outperformed the CWCF one. Then, whether the difference between the groups varied over time was explored, and it was revealed that the ITMF was still significantly superior over the CWCF. Next, whether there would be any significant change in the ITMF in the long term was examined, and no change was seen. The study supports the advocates of screencasting feedback, revision and teacher-learner negotiation following the feedback.

scholarly journals Epistemic Modality and Projection in Argumentative Writing: A Corpus-driven Comparison of Chinese English Majors and Native English Speakers

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 412-421
Author(s):  
Demei Yang ◽  
Xiangmin Zeng
Keyword(s):  
English Proficiency ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
Epistemic Modality ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Argumentative Writing ◽  
Undergraduate Level ◽  
Argumentative Text ◽  
English Majors ◽  
Degree Of Certainty ◽  
Argumentative Essays

In academic writings, writers are supposed to properly express the degree of certainty and doubt. Especially in the argumentative text, writers are required to give appropriate arguments and project previous theories or ideas. Epistemic modality and projection are concerned with how writers express their degree of certainty and doubt, which is important for a qualified argumentative text writer. Through comparison of 30 pieces of argumentative essays respectively from Chinese English majors and native English speakers of undergraduate level, this study finds that Chinese English majors rely more on a narrower and imbalanced epistemic devices and projecting verbs in their writings. Therefore, it’s imperative for Chinese English majors to expand their vocabulary and improve their English proficiency.

scholarly journals A Corpus-based Study on the Use of Contractions by EFL Learners in Argumentative Essays

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 56
Author(s):  
M. Pınar Babanoğlu
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Significance ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Journal Articles ◽  
Major Goal ◽  
Essay Writing ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Learner Corpus ◽  
Prose Style ◽  
Argumentative Essays ◽  
English Students

Contraction forms in English are mostly occur in speech and informal writing and they are generally avoided in formal writing types such as academic prose, business reports and journal articles, therefore, most teachers discourage their use in academic essays (Biber, Johansonn, Leech, Conrad and Finegan 1999). Contractions in English have two types; negative contractions (isn’t, haven’t, doesn’t) and verb contractions (I’m, they’ve, that’s). This corpus based study attempts to investigate contraction usage in learner and native English speaker essays. Major goal is to examine whether learners consider essay writing rules in respect of contractions which are accepted inappropriate for academic prose style. Five corpora, three learner and two native English, were utilized in order to analyze verb and not-contraction forms. Frequency calculations of contraction forms in each corpus compared via log-likelihood measurement for statistical significance.  Results revealed that learners use considerably more contraction forms, especially negative ones, than native English students in their argumentative essays.Keywords: English for Academic Purposes, learner corpus, contractions

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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