EFL Learners’ Formulaic Language Use in Writing: an Action Research Account

The present study exemplifies an action research-based approach for addressing the extent to which a process of explicit instruction of formulaic language supports the use of this type of vocabulary in middle school students’ short narrative written texts. The study was conducted at a private school in Chile, as a plan to help learners use different forms of expression in a written format. Data were obtained from a group of 23 Spanish-speaking learners of English before and after the intervention period. The action research methodology was implemented in order to collect and analyse written compositions as well as a survey for evaluating the treatment from the students’ perspective. The observation and reflection process led to positive outcomes in relation to the use of formulaic expressions in writing, and students’ opinion about the process also proved favourable. The pedagogical innovation is reflected upon theoretical and pedagogical perspectives. Implications applicable to teachers working in this and other contexts are also considered.

Minding the gap

This study investigates how different ways of receiving peer written corrective feedback (WCF) affect learners’ opportunities to actively engage in negotiation of form in tandem virtual encounters. Two types of WCF are compared, namely direct WCF plus oral metalinguistic explanation and indirect WCF plus oral prompt. During a telecollaboration programme between Italian students of English and US students of Italian, the participants (n = 16) were given several tasks to complete in dyads, including that of providing feedback on written compositions produced by their partner in the target language. The eight dyads were divided into two groups which received the same instructions for the activities, with the exception of instructions on how to provide WCF to their partner. The data of six dyads – three from each group – were analysed with regard to the quality of language-related episodes. The data analysis showed that indirect WCF plus oral prompt was more effective in leading the NNSs to actively engage with negotiation of form during the discussion phase. This result will be discussed together with other findings which emerged from the analysis, with the aim to provide useful insights on how to promote focus on form when implementing peer-review activities in telecollaboration programmes.

THE ROLE OF GRAMMATICAL COHESION IN THE TEXT QUALITY AMONG JORDANIAN EFL STUDENTS IN EXPOSITORY ESSAYS

The present paper shares interest that many scholars and linguists have highlighted in investigating the relationship between writing quality and grammatical cohesion devices. The aim of this study is to find out the relationship between the use of grammatical cohesive devices on the overall quality of expository essays produced by EFL fourth-year undergraduate students majoring in the English language at the Department of English language and literature Hashemite University in Jordan. It seeks to determine the efficacy of academic writing by Jordanian EFL students. Thirty purposive samples of compositions were collected and analyzed by the researcher to measure the relationship between the score of the writing quality and the grammatical cohesion devices in students' writing based on (1) analytical scale Jacob et al., (1981), and (2) Halliday and Hasan (1976) taxonomy of grammatical cohesion. The results showed that grammatical cohesive devices did not constitute a statistically significant correlation with the score of writing quality. It also revealed that the EFL students' written compositions were not successful due to their incapability to utilize the different forms of grammatical cohesive devices and their lack of knowledge about effectively using these devices in their academic writing.

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF EFL JORDANIAN STUDENTS’ DESCRIPTIVE WRITING AT KARAK UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, JORDAN

The current paper shares interest that many researchers and linguists have highlighted in exploring and investigating lexical cohesion. It, therefore, aims at exploring the effectiveness of the EFL Jordanian students’ descriptive writing. 20 Jordanian university students’ writing compositions were collected and analyzed by the researcher to end of characterizing the effectiveness of their writing based on (1) holistic rating, and (2) Hoey’s (1991, 2005) taxonomy of lexical cohesion. Regarding the analysis of the data, it was found that the average holistic rating was (2.7). Additionally, the analysis showed that simple repetition was overused by the students while the use of complex repetition, simple paraphrasing, and complex paraphrasing was less frequent. Besides that, students tend to neglect to use superordinate, hyponymy, co-reference, substitution, ellipsis, and deixis. The results also showed that the written compositions produced by the EFL students were not effective due to the students’ inability to use the different types of lexical cohesion and to their lack of lexical knowledge.

How Well Can Arab EFL Learners Adequately Use Discourse Markers?

Discourse markers are words or phrases used in both speech and writing to signal relationships between discourse segments, including clauses, sentences and even larger portions of texts such as paragraphs. Their proper use in writing effectively contributes to textuality standards, particularly cohesion and coherence. On the other hand, learners’ misuse, underuse or overuse of these markers may negatively impact the quality of the texts that these learners produce. This paper examined the ability of a group of Arab learners of English as a foreign language (ALEFL) from the University of Sharjah to recognize and produce discourse markers in written compositions. Using two elicitation techniques, the researchers collected data for this research from a sample of one hundred Arab learners studying English at the University of Sharjah. A test consisting of four parts was specially designed to evaluate participants’ ability to recognize and produce discourse markers in context. In addition, two hundred compositions written by ALEFL were analyzed to investigate their ability to produce discourse markers. The data analysis revealed that the participants’ ability to recognize and produce discourse markers was relatively low and their ability to recognize the functions of discourse markers in context was below expectations.

The King Follett Sermon

Chapter Four provides a detailed analysis of Joseph Smith's famous funeral sermon, the King Follett discourse. The auditors' notes for this sermon reveal Smith's semi-extemporaneous preaching technique, which combines advanced preparation in the general outline of the sermon with the extemporaneous delivery of words in the moment of performance. The sermon also reveals Smith's familiarity with the common "doctrine and use" sermon pattern, as well as his use of resumptive repetition, concealed heads, and mnemonic cues. Turning to the sermon notes of Baptist preacher Abraham Marshall, the chapter continues with a discussion of mnemonic cues by illustrating the preaching technique of creating condensed, succinct sermon outlines, known as short notes, briefs, or sketches, which preachers extemporaneously amplified into fully developed sermons in the moment of performance. Finally, the chapter explores how Methodist preachers adapted these preaching techniques to structure their written compositions, with an emphasis on spiritual autobiographies. These oral and written techniques provide a historical context for understanding how Joseph Smith applied the same methodology in the construction and oral composition of the Book of Mormon.

Error Analysis in the Written Compositions of EFL Students: A Classroom Study

The aim of the study is to analyse the linguistic errors in the writings of EFL students in a Saudi university. For error analysis, the writing tasks of a group of students were collected and analysed. The results showed that the frequently committed errors were at the sentential level as well as the word level. The most frequent errors were the errors of spellings and the least were the errors of demonstratives. The marked errors were categorised as errors of omission, addition, misinformation and misordering. Further analysis of the collected data indicated interlingual interference, intralingual interference, inadequate practice in English writing and carelessness of students as the major sources of the errors. Hence, the study has pedagogical implications as it will help teachers to device appropriate measures for improving the students’ writing proficiency.

An Investigation of Writing Errors Made by Saudi English-Major Students

The present study aims to explore writing errors made by Saudi foreign language learners of English. The study seeks to address the following questions: a) to what extent do Saudi English-major students face difficulties in English writing; and b) what types of errors do Saudi English-major students make in their writing. Addressing these will facilitate an examination of the role of the first language and the difficult nature of writing in English. Twenty-four male English-major students attending a Saudi university participated in the study (aged 19–22 years). The participants wrote 48 compositions over a two-week period, from which the data for this study were collected. These written compositions were analysed manually by the researcher. The findings of the study reveal that: a) the targeted participants had difficulty in writing accurately in English, given the high rate of errors they made; and b) capitalisation, spelling and use of articles were the top three types of errors accounting for around 50 per cent of overall errors. The writing difficulties that students face require Saudi universities to revise their writing courses materials and teaching approaches.

An Analysis of Junior High School Students’ Skill in Creating Written Compositions: A Research Report

This article is a report based on a qualitative study on the skills needed for junior high school students to produce written compositions in the context of creating a short message. This kind of research has been made necessary by the implementation of an obligatory exam for junior high school graduates, including a writing part in which there are some requirements to be met in order to obtain a positive grade. Although the recent educational reforms mean that junior high schools will no longer exist, this research is useful in the diagnosis of the writing skills of Polish teenagers that will be going into high school. The results have shown that the students had no major problems with such requirements as text organization, punctuation rules and with keeping to the word limit for a given written composition. On the other hand, however, the students showed the need for improvement in formal aspects of the written English language such as grammar, vocabulary accuracy and spelling and transition signals. Additionally, the meeting of requirements mentioning and developing three elements should be practiced more. For the purpose of the study, an analysis sheet has been implemented but no hypotheses have been put forth. The research group included 33 written compositions.