THE UNIVERSITY OF DA NANG UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ TRUNG DISCOURSE FEATURES OF IELTS SAMPLE ESSAYS - A FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR PERSPECTIVE Major: ENGLISH LINGUI
Trang 1THE UNIVERSITY OF DA NANG UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES
NGUYỄN THỊ TRUNG
DISCOURSE FEATURES OF IELTS SAMPLE ESSAYS
- A FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR PERSPECTIVE
Major: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS
Trang 2This thesis has been completed at University of Foreign Language Studies
The University of Danang
Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr. Nguyễn Thị Quỳnh Hoa
This thesis is available for the purpose of reference at:
- Library of University of Foreign Language Studies, The University
of Da Nang
- The Information Resources Center, The University of Da Nang
- National Library of Viet Nam
Trang 3CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale
Foreign language competence has been identified as essential for young Vietnamese graduates to be able to work effectively and make
a significant contribution to the international integration of the country Recognising the importance of foreign languages in human resource, the Prime Minister has approved the document ‘The scheme
on foreign language teaching and learning in the national education system in the 2008-2020 period’ (Decision No.1400/QD-TTg dated September 30, 2008) The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has implemented Vietnam’s National Foreign Language
2020 Project (NFL2020) and applied the Prime Minister’s Decision No.2080/QD-TTg dated December 22, 2017 on "Approving amendments and supplements to the scheme of teaching and learning foreign languages in the national education system for the period of 2017-2025"
In tertiary education, graduates majoring in English language are required to achieve a minimum language competence at level C1 according to the Common European Framework for Reference (CEFR), a guideline used to describe achievements of learners of foreign languages, equivalent to an IELTS score of 7.0-7.5
Among the four English language skills assessed by IELTS, Academic Writing, especially Task 2 of the Academic Module, which is given more weight than Task 1, is generally considered one of the most challenging skills for IELTS test-takers since it requires a higher level
of productive language manipulation How to enhance IELTS writing outcomes, therefore, has been a matter of concern for language
Trang 4researchers and educators in different countries where English is taught as a foreign language or second language This thesis is aimed
at identifying the linguistic features of IELTS sample essays, particularly the experiential meaning, interpersonal meaning and textual meaning in the light of functional grammar with a view to enabling test-takers to make good use of the salient linguistic features
in order to formulate good quality IELTS Academic essays in response
to the urgent need for IELTS test-takers in general and English majored students in Vietnam in particular to achieve the language competence required by the MOET
1.2 Aims and Objectives of the Study
1.2.1 Aims
Investigating the linguistic features of IELTS Academic exposition and discussion essays written by successful test-takers on six common topics: education, environment, family, work, social issues, and health
in terms of experiential, interpersonal and textual meanings, and then making a comparison between two groups of data: one with 7-7.5 band scores and the other with a band score of 9 or prepared by examiners
as very good models to identify similarities and differences between two band group essays in relation to the band descriptors, thereby providing non-native writers with a better understanding of the linguistic feature requirements of an IELTS Academic essay, thus making significant methodological and practical contributions in Academic writing success
1.2.2 Objectives
The objectives of the study are to examine and compare the textual meaning of IELTS Academic sample essays with band scores of 7-7.5 and 9.0 from two perspectives, namely thematic structure and
Trang 5cohesion, the interpersonal meaning under the headings of mood and modality, the experiential meaning in terms of transitivity system and the logico-semantic relation in relation to the band descriptors
1.3 Research Questions
The study will address the following research questions: (1) How is the textual meaning realised in IELTS Academic sample essays with band scores of 7-7.5 and 9.0 in relation to the band descriptors? (2) How is the interpersonal meaning realised in IELTS Academic sample essays with band scores of 7-7.5 and 9.0 in relation to the band descriptors? (3) How is the experiential meaning realised in IELTS Academic sample essays with band scores of 7-7.5 and 9.0 in relation
to the band descriptors?
1.4 Scope of the Study
In pursuit of the goal of the study, based on the optimum access to related documentation, the thesis investigates IELTS Academic sample essays taken from the textbooks and relevant IELTS websites with band scores of 7-7.5 and those rated 9 or prepared by examiners
as very good models, focusing on experiential metafunction, interpersonal metafunction and textual metafunction The selected data are divided into two categories: Corpus 1, with a band score of 9 or very good models, as comparable to CEFR Level C2, and Corpus 2, with 7-7.5 band scores, which are equivalent to level C1 on the CEFR The study is also restricted to two types of argumentative essays: exposition and discussion which are viewed as common types found
in the IELTS Academic Module (Coffin, 2004; Nakamura, 2009; Riazi
& Knox, 2013) and within the six most common topics namely education, environment, family, work, health and social issues
Trang 61.5 Significance of the Study
Theoretically, the study confirms that Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), which views language as a resource for making meaning, is an effective tool for analysing and evaluating academic written discourse Pedagogically, the study sheds light on the salient discourse features
of successful IELTS essays in terms of textual meaning, experiential meaning, and interpersonal meaning, in relation to the IELTS assessment criteria, which gives pedagogical implications to the teaching and learning process in improving learners’ academic writing Practically, how to enhance IELTS writing outcomes has been an ongoing question for language researchers and educators in Vietnam, where English is taught as a foreign language The research is in line with the aim of NFL2020 in particular, and of the education reform in Vietnam in general
1.6 Organization of the Thesis
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL
BACKGROUND
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
CHAPTER FOUR: TEXTUAL MEANING IN IELTS ACADEMIC SAMPLE ESSAYS
CHAPTER FIVE: INTERPERSONAL MEANING IN IELTS ACADEMIC SAMPLE ESSAYS
CHAPTER SIX: EXPERENTIAL MEANING IN IELTS ACADEMIC SAMPLE ESSAYS
CHAPTER SEVEN: CONCLUSION
1.7 Terminology
Trang 7CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 Literature Review
2.1.1 Review of Systemic Functional Linguistics
2.1.2 Review of Studies Related to Academic Writing in the light
of Systemic Functional Linguistics
Under the umbrella of academic writing, several studies on the textual meaning, particularly Theme-Rheme employment in Academic Writing have been conducted up to now (Belmonte & McCabe, 2001; Fang, 2015; Jalilifar, 2010; Kang, 2016; Lu, 2013; Nurdianingsih & Purnama, 2017; Witt & Faigley, 1981; Wang, 2007;) In terms of the interpersonal aspect in writing, a significant number of practical studies have been conducted (Hadiani, 2019; Liu, 2013; Xuan & Huang, 2017) With respect to the experiential meaning in writing, there is substantial amount of research investigating transitivity system and logico-semantic system (Alifereti, 2013; Jomaa & Bidin, 2019; Rukmini, 2010; Salsabila, 2016; Srinon & White, 2011)
2.1.3 Review of IELTS Academic Writing Studies
2.2 Theoretical Background
2.2.1 IELTS Writing as Academic Writing
2.2.1.1 Academic Writing
2.2.1.2 The IELTS Test
2.2.1.3 IELTS Writing as Academic Writing
2.2.2 Discourse Analysis through Systemic Functional Linguistics 2.2.3 Context: Culture and Situation
2.2.4 The Three Metafunctions
2.2.4.1 Textual Metafunction
a Thematic Structure
Trang 8Types of Themes: marked and unmarked Theme; simple and multiple
Theme; topical, textual and interpersonal Theme
Thematic progression: linear pattern, constant pattern, derived pattern
b Cohesion: Grammatical cohesion (reference, substitution, ellipsis,
conjunction); Lexical cohesion (repetition, synonymy, super-ordinate,
general words, collocation)
2.2.4.2 Interpersonal Metafunction
a Mood: Mood Choices (declarative, imperative, or interrogative) and the Speech Function (statement, question, command or offer)
b Modality: Modalization and Modulation
Regarding modality analysis, modalization (probability and usuality) and modulation (obligation and inclination) with three values (high, median, low) are analysed In addition, four types of modality orientation: explicit subjective, implicit subjective, explicit objective and implicit objective are realised to determine how the writers show their opinions or attitudes
2.2.5.3 Experiential Metafunction
a The System of Transitivity
Types of process: material process, mental process, relational
process, behavioural process, verbal process, existential process
b Logico-Semantic Relation: Taxis system, Logico-semantic system
2.3 Summary
CHAPTER THREE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research Design
3.2 Research Methods
Trang 9The thesis employs the descriptive and comparative research methods
to conduct an in-depth analysis of three metafunctions employed the sample essays to disclose the prominent features in terms of thematic progression and cohesion; mood and modality; transitivity and logico-semantic relation in the light of Functional Grammar
3.3 Data Collection
3.3.1 Criteria for Collecting Data
3.3.2 Description of Sampling
3.4 Data Analysis
3.4.1 Clause and Above the Clause
3.4.2 The Coding Scheme
3.5 Analytic Framework
Figure 3.2 Analytic framework
3.6 Reliability and Validity
Trang 10CHAPTER FOUR TEXTUAL MEANING IN IELTS ACADEMIC SAMPLE ESSAYS 4.1 Thematic Structure
4.1.1 Types of Themes
4.1.1.1 Marked and Unmarked Theme
Figure 4.1 Distribution of marked and unmarked Themes
Figure 4.2 Distribution of marked
and unmarked Themes (Corpus 1)
Figure 4.3 Distribution of marked
and unmarked Themes (Corpus 2)
As shown in Figure 4.1, the writers prefer to place Themes in the subject position of the clause in order to make sure that their clauses are grammatically correct However, it is noticeable that marked topical Themes occupy about 20 per cent of the total topical Themes with 810 instances, which is high in comparison with those found by Ebrahimi and Ebrahimi (2012), and Gunawan and Aziza (2017) Particularly, the number of marked Themes employed in the essays scored 9 or prepared by an examiner as good models is higher than that
Marked 810; , 20%
Unmarked ,3,240; 80%
Marked Unmarked
Marked 449,; 21.4%
Unmarked 1,648; 78.6%
Marked Unmarked
Marked 361; 18.5%
Unmarked 1,592;
81.5%
Marked Unmarked
Trang 11employed in 7-7.5 scored essays as illustrated in Figure 4.2 and Figure 4.3 This finding is in line with Witt and Faigley (1981) and Belmonte and McCabe (2001)’s discussions that the more skillful the writers are, the more effectively they develop their Theme-Rheme patterns 4.1.1.2 Topical, Interpersonal and Textual Theme
The results of the descriptive analysis of thematic structure in the total corpus reveal that topical Themes are the most frequently used with 4,050 instances, accounting for 61.5% The second most common type
is textual Themes, which make up 32.1% and interpersonal Themes are the least frequently employed, representing 6.4%
Figure 4.4 Distribution of topical, interpersonal and textual themes
As can be observed in Figure 4.4, a very low frequency of interpersonal Themes is found in the data, which gives the essays an impersonal tone The writers tend to employ few interpersonal Themes in order to give their texts an objective style
Turning to the two separate groups of essays, those with a band score
of 9, or essays of very good models, show a slightly higher percentage use of interpersonal Themes (7.1%) than essays with a band score of 7-7.5 (5.8%) This finding is consistent with Lu’s (2013) study, in which he found that Singaporean students from an English speaking
Trang 12background with a higher level of rhetorical competence use more interpersonal Themes than the other two groups of students from Chinese speaking backgrounds
In contrast, the writers of band 7-7.5 essays have a tendency to use more textual Themes (34.3%) than the other group of writers (29.9%), indicating that the clauses are linked, providing a cohesive tie to the previous clauses in the text
4.1.1.3 Simple and Multiple Theme
Figure 4.5 Distribution of simple and multiple Themes
As can be seen from Figure 4.5, the essay writers favour the multiple Theme selection indicated by 57.7% of the total Themes (more specifically 54.7% for Corpus 1 and 61% for Corpus 2) employed in the essays For example,
(1) ||| Of course, they need to develop || but the need of the hour is the
development of sustainable sources of energy ||| [Corpus 1-No.2.47]
(* bold= topical theme; italic = textual theme, underlined = interpersonal theme)
4.1.2 Thematic Progression
The findings indicate that the constant pattern is the dominant thematic progression strategy in the sample essays with 1,496 instances, making
0 2,000
Trang 13up 38.6%; the linear pattern is the second most common one employed
in the essays with 1,121 cases, equal to 29%, followed by the derived pattern (4.4%) However, it is noticeable that the number of cases of
no thematic progression in Corpus 2 is higher than that in Corpus 1, indicating that thematic progression patterns make a major
contribution to the construal of meaning
4.2 Cohesion
The findings reveal that grammatical ties (4,733 instances) are used slightly more than lexical ones (3,823), and there is a correlation between the number of appropriate grammatical and lexical ties and the proportion of inappropriate ones in the two corpora
4.2.1 Grammatical Ties
With regard to grammatical cohesion, among the four sub-categories
of grammatical ties, reference takes up the largest proportion (51.03%) with 2,415 instances, followed by conjunction (48.63%) with 2,302 instances Ellipsis and substitution account for a relatively small percentage with 0.23% and 0.11% respectively
4.2.1.1 The Use of Reference
In the view of Halliday and Hasan (1976), items that have the property
of reference are personal, demonstrative, or comparative The findings indicate that 1,386 instances of the appropriate use of personal reference and 666 instances of demonstrative reference are found in the IELTS sample essays Use of the comparative reference has the lowest percentage with 318 instances
4.2.1.2 The Use of Substitution
Regarding substitution, only 5 instances of substitution, of which one instance belongs to nominal substitution and four to verbal substitution, are employed in the sample essays