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- Casal, J. Elliott, et al.
(författare)
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Syntactic complexity and writing quality in assessed first-year L2 writing
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of second language writing. - : Elsevier BV. - 1060-3743 .- 1873-1422. ; 44, s. 51-62
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study explores the relationship between syntactic complexity and writing quality in assessed source-based research papers produced by ESL undergraduate writers in a first-year writing course through a combination of holistic and fine-grained measures of complexity. The analysis is based on a corpus of 280 student papers across three grade tiers: high, mid, and low. A one-way MANOVA was used to explore the statistical significance of differences of five commonly used syntactic complexity measures (assessed using Lu’s Second Language Syntactic Complexity Analyzer, 2010) across these grade tiers. Results reveal little variation in clausal subordination and coordination, but statistically significant lower complex nominal densities, mean length of clauses (phrasal measures), and mean length of T-units (global measure) in low-rated papers. Analysis of complex nominal composition using the Stanford Tregex with differences assessed with a one-way MANOVA shows that the highest densities of complex nominal types are present in high-rated papers, with statistical significance in adjectival pre-, prepositional post-, and participle modification, and the lowest densities in low-rated papers. While clausal complexity did not demonstrate a relationship with assessed quality, both global and phrasal complexity features appear to be important components. We conclude with implications for syntactic complexity research and ESL composition pedagogy.
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| 2. |
- Langum, Virginia, 1981-, et al.
(författare)
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Writing academic english as a doctoral student in Sweden : narrative perspectives
- 2017
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Ingår i: Journal of second language writing. - : Elsevier. - 1060-3743 .- 1873-1422. ; 35, s. 20-25
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The expectation that doctoral students publish during their studies has increased in recent years. The standard of having international academic publications before entering the job market has long been perceived to pose an even greater challenge to doctoral students in non-English speaking countries who are often expected to publish in English, rather than their national language. This deficient perspective has, however, recently been questioned. We undertook a narrative inquiry at a Swedish university in order to better understand the experience, self-perception, and needs of doctoral students writing academic English. From these narratives, two themes relating to the doctoral students' journeys towards academic writing emerged: deficit and commonality. After reviewing the data, we argue that it is important to support doctoral students in their journey into bi-literate academic writers, rather than focus on the notion of the privileged position of the native speaker.
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| 3. |
- Lee, Joseph, et al.
(författare)
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Interactions in L1 and L2 undergraduate student writing: Interactional metadiscourse in successful and less-successful argumentative essays
- 2016
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Ingår i: Journal of second language writing. - : Elsevier BV. - 1060-3743 .- 1873-1422. ; 33, s. 21-34
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study explores interactional metadiscourse in successful and less-successful (i.e., A- vs. B-graded) argumentative essays written by Chinese ESL university students, and how these ESL writers compare with high-rated L1 students. The analysis is based on three corpora of student writing: 25 successful ESL essays, 25 less-successful ESL essays, and 25 successful L1 English papers. Using Hyland’s (2005a) model of interactional metadiscourse, these papers were compared to examine the extent to which successful and less-successful student-produced argumentative essays differ in their employment of stance and engagement resources. Findings of the analysis suggest that successful essays, both L1 and L2, contain significantly greater instances of particularly hedging devices than less-successful essays. For some interpersonal resources, such as boosters and attitude markers, no significant differences were found. The analysis also reveals that, unlike their L1 peers, ESL students were overwhelmingly reluctant to establish an authorial identity in their writing. The paper concludes with a few implications for L2 writing pedagogy.
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| 4. |
- Negretti, Raffaella, 1971, et al.
(författare)
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Scaffolding genre knowledge and metacognition: insights from an L2 doctoral research writing course
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of Second Language Writing. - : Elsevier BV. - 1060-3743. ; 40:June 2018, s. 12-31
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study investigates how genre knowledge and metacognition can be scaffolded in a genre-based course for doctoral students engaged in writing research articles. We argue that current definitions of genre knowledge development encompass the development of metacognition, and thus adopt an inter-disciplinary approach to illustrate how metacognition—specifically metacognitive knowledge—can be scaffolded in the genre classroom. We developed two tasks for this purpose. In the first, students were asked to describe their writing context and genres. For the second task, at the end of the course, students submitted a visual conceptualization of the research genres in their specific scientific community. This visualization was accompanied by an account of students’ observations about genre, and a reflection on how these insights could be applied to their ongoing writing situation. Students were also interviewed two to six months after the course to explore how they reported using genre knowledge in their writing. Results showed that the metacognitive tasks elicited an integrated view of genre and encouraged students’ conceptualization of this knowledge as a tool for writing. In interviews, students reported using facets of genre knowledge metacognitively in their writing, by describing how they engage with reader expectations, conventions, variation, and the possibility of strategic deliberate choices.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Tåqvist, Marie, 1975-
(författare)
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"A wise decision": Pre-modification of discourse-organising nouns in L2 writing
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of second language writing. - : Elsevier. - 1060-3743 .- 1873-1422. ; 41, s. 14-26
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study investigates an aspect of the use of discourse-organising nouns (DONs), that is, abstract nouns such as decision, fact, problem, and thing, in Swedish advanced students’ academic writing in second language (L2) English. Specifically, the study examines the use of pre-modifiers together with DONs in a corpus of L2 student writing, and in what ways the texts produced by the L2 students resemble or differ from those produced by native-speaker students and expert writers in this respect. A number of significant differences across the writer groups were identified, including variety of usage and the expression of attitude and involvement. In short, the L2 students and, to a lesser extent, the L1 students, were found to use fewer types, and different types, in comparison with the experts, and to use them in different ways, resulting in discourse that can be characterised as imprecise and colloquial. The differences were largest between the L2 student writing and the expert writing, though findings suggest that both student groups can usefully be thought of as learner writers in this respect. The findings reported here contribute to a wider understanding of the characteristics of student writing and students’ academic literacy in a second language.
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