structural and rhetorical patterns in generation 1.5 eap student writing
DESCRIPTION
Presentation at Boston TESOL 2010 by Dr. Justin Jernigan, Georgia Gwinnett College, Lawrenceville, GA.TRANSCRIPT
Justin E. Jernigan, PhD
English for Academic Purposes (EAP) Program
Georgia Gwinnett College
2010 TESOL ConferenceBoston
March 25, 2010
Structural and Rhetorical Patterns in Generation 1.5 EAP Student Writing
Setting• Public 4-year college in the southeastern U.S.,
enrollment: 3361 at last report
• Access Mission
• EAP (English for Academic Purposes) Program
• EAP Program student population (current) approximately 55
• Two levels of instruction, Intermediate and Advanced, in three areas: Structure & Composition, Reading, Oral Communication
Generation 1.5• Generally have acquired English by using it in
natural contexts, in much the same way that native
speakers acquire the language (Foin & Lange,
2005).
• Reid (1997) used the term “ear learners”
• Harklau (2003) urged college faculty working with
Gen 1.5ers to:
– (1) be aware of the students’ prior academic experience,
– (2) promote academic literacy,
– (3) help students develop critical literacy, and
– (4) recognize diverse needs.
Generation 1.5 (cont.)
• The “fluency fallacy”
• Miele (2003) discussed the “three-fold”
dilemma facing many Generation 1.5
students in the college writing classroom:– Ever-increasing percentage of students entering
college in this category
– Deficient academic abilities and substandard
performance, particularly in academic writing (also
Harklau, 2003)
– Effects of performance on college-level work and
self-image
Participants
• 45 Advanced EAP students, representing
16 different L1 backgrounds.
• Average age: approx. 19
• Average time in U.S.: approx. 7 years
• 25 females, 20 males
Research Questions
• What structural and rhetorical elements
occur most frequently in the college
academic writing of advanced-level EAP
learners?
• How do the structural and rhetorical
elements in the college academic writing of
advanced-level EAP learners correlate
within essays to reveal rhetorical patterns?
Intermediate Range Questions
• How do the structural and rhetorical elements
and patterns in the college academic writing of
advanced-level EAP learners compare with the
writing of comparable NS college students?
• How do the structural and rhetorical elements
patterns differ based on L1?
• How do the structural and rhetorical patterns
differ based on writers’ academic writing
proficiency (essay scores)?
Procedure• Two essay samples provided by each
participant. Average essay length:
approx. 450-500 words (suggested
length for final drafts, 500-600 words).
• Data to this point collected over 3-1/2
semesters
• 1-1/2 additional semesters of data
collection planned, including collection
of NS writing samples.
Procedure (cont.)
• 45 (of 90) EAP student essays selected
for inclusion in the present discussion
(one essay per participant)
• Essays coded for 11basic
structural/rhetorical elements.
• Coded results subjected to statistical
analysis (n=45)
Structural and Rhetorical Elements
Selected elements:
• Anacoluthon – an interruption in the grammatical
symmetry of a sentence. Ex: It is very important for
people to get a job that they feel comfortable in and
are happy while they work. (L1 Korean, male, 19)
• Anaphoric ambiguity. A situation in which a
pronoun or determiner has a referent that is not
clear. Ex: During this period, we receive visitor from
outside the country. (L1 Igbo, female, 21) .
Structural & Rhetorical Elements
• Asyndeton. The omission of a conjunction where
one is normally expected. Ex: It is a personal,
people-oriented festival when enmities are forgotten,
families and friends meet. (L1 Hindi, female, 25)
• Comma Splice. The joining of two clauses with
only a comma. Ex: [T]he national election should be
an important event for everybody, the participation
of everybody in vote should help the country to not
being ruled by a tyrant.
(L1 Congolese French, male, 22)
Structural & Rhetorical Elements
• Fragment. A phrase or dependent clause that is
presented as if it were a complete sentence.
Ex: Because they still also have their own business to
take care of. (L1 Vietnamese, male, 18)
• Redundancy – The intentional or unintentional
repetition of one or more elements in a sentence, or
the addition of an unnecessary element. Ex: The
important things were how I felt the fist day after going
to an American college, reason why I chose nursing
and the fees of nursing. (L1 Malayalam, female, 21)
Preliminary Findings• High-frequency structural and rhetorical elements include
subordination of clauses, anaphoric ambiguity (both pronominal and anaphoric-definite), passive construction, and tense shift.
• Expected structural and rhetorical elements that have appeared less frequently than anticipated to this point include reported speech, sentence fragments, and question forms.
• Preliminary identification of patterns:
– Correlation of anacoluthon with ambiguous anaphora
– Correlation of anacoluthon with subordination of clauses
– Correlation of verb tense shift with subordination of clauses
Preliminary Findings (2)
Structural/Rhetorical
Element
Number Sample
Anacoluthon 228 While he is home and waiting for me to get back from school, but sometimes I get the traffic jam (L1 Vietnamese, male, 18)
Anaphoric ambiguity 337 Conclusively, when a person is successful, that means that he or she loves their current job or career (L1 Bosnian, female, 18)
Asyndeton 9 People from different culture, environments can define happiness (L1 Romanian, female, 35)
Preliminary Findings (3)
Structural/Rhetorical
Element
Number Sample
Comma Splice or run-on sentence
116 My mom first makes dough for the pita, it looks kind of like a big round bread. (L1 Bulgarian, male, 18)
Fragment 35 Celebrated on the new moon between Oct 13 and Nov 14 according to the Hindu Calander. (L1 Hindi, female, 25)
Passive construction 220 Make sure to wash the rice with water carefully; if not, people might get poisoned. (L1 Mandarin, male, 18)
Question 4 Can you imagine what the festival is like, and do you want to join them? (L1 Mandarin, male, 19)
Preliminary Findings (4)Structural/Rhetorical
Element
Number Sample
Redundancy 296 When I make spaghetti for my family, they enjoy eating my spaghetti. (L1 Korean, female, 19)
Reported Speech 25 He said that some people used personalbelongings such as books, papers, and so on to strengthen their body territory. (L1 Spanish, female, 18)
Subordination of clause 785 On the other hand, there are three important parts of my life that I want to share (L1 Congolese French, female, 19)
Tense shift 343 My friends and I spend most of our time looking at each other’s dress; we also have new set of friends from different tribes and nationality who came to visit their families in Nigeria. (L1 Igbo, female, 21)
Preliminary Findings (5)
• Structural and Rhetorical Patterns
suggested in the coded data to this point:
Paired sample Correlation Sig.
anacoluthon & anaphora
.668 .049
anacoluthon & subordination
.796 .010
verb tense shift & subordination
.666 .050
Suggested Directions• Coding of remaining EAP student samples
• Continued collection of NS student essays (comparable
population)
• Coding of NS data
• Cross-checking of coding for intra- and inter-rater
reliability
• In-depth comparative analysis of EAP and NS academic
writing (based on coding results)
• Continued identification of correlations among structural
and rhetorical elements – patterns in EAP student writing
Selected References• Burton, G. O. (accessed 2009, 2010). Silva Rhetoricae [web resource]. Brigham
Young University. Last retrieved March 3, 2010 from (rhetoric.byu.edu)
• Foin, A. T., & Lange, E. J. (2005). Error coding effects on revision in Generation 1.5
writing. Proceedings of the CATESOL State Conference, 2005.
• Harklau, L. (2003). Generation 1.5 students and college writing. ERIC Clearinghouse
on Languages and Linguistics. Retrieved July 11, 2007 from www.cal.org/ericcll.
• Nayan, S., & Jusoff, K. (2009). A Study of subject-verb agreement: From novice
writers to expert writers. International Education Studies, 2, 190-194.
• Preiss, J., Gasperin, C., & Briscoe, T. (2004). Can anaphoric definite descriptions be
replaced by pronouns?. In Proceedings of LREC 2004, Lisbon.
• Reid, J. (1997). Which non-native speaker? Differences between international
students and U.S. resident (language minority) students. New Directions for
Teaching and Learning, 70, 17-27
• Rumbaut, R. G., & Ima, K. (1988). The adaptation of Southeast Asian refugee youth:
A comparative study. Final report to the Office of Resettlement. San Diego: San
Diego State University.
THANK YOU !
Questions?Comments?Suggestions?