Second Language Writers' Text: Linguistic and Rhetorical Features (ESL and Applied Linguistics Professional Series) (ESL & Applied Linguistics Professional Series)

391 Pages·2002·1.43 MB·English

by  Eli Hinkel

SECOND LANGUAGE
WRITERS’ TEXT
Linguistic and Rhetorical Features
ESL AND APPLIED LINGUISTICS PROFESSIONAL SERIES
Eli Hinkel,Series Editor
Hinkel/Fotos (Eds.)•New Perspectives on Grammar Teaching in Second
Language Classrooms
Hinkel•Second Language Writers’ Text: Linguistic and Rhetorical Features
Birch•English L2 Reading: Getting to the Bottom
SECOND LANGUAGE
WRITERS’ TEXT
Linguistic and
Rhetorical Features
Eli Hinkel
Seattle University
LAWRENCE ERLBAUM ASSOCIATES,PUBLISHERS
2002 Mahwah,New Jersey London
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
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Copyright © 2002 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of the book may be reproduced in
any form, by photostat, microform, retrieval system, or any other
means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers
10 Industrial Avenue
Mahwah, New Jersey 07430
Cover design by Kathryn Houghtaling Lacey.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hinkel, Eli
Second language writer’s text : linguistic and rhetorical features / Eli Hinkel.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8058-3888-0 (cloth : alk. paper)—ISBN 0-8058-4033-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. English language and—Study and teaching—Foreign speakers. 2. English
language—Rhetoric—Study an teaching. 3. Report writing—Study and teaching
(Higher)
4. Second language acquisition. 5. College prose—Evaluation. I. Title.
PE1128.A2.H534 2002
428(cid:2).0071—dc21 2001023175
ISBN 1-4106-0284-2 Master e-book ISBN
Contents
Foreword
Robert B. Kaplan ix
Preface xvii
I Background: Research in Text and Written Discourse 1
1 Writing as Text 3
Theoretical Underpinnings and Research Trends 4
Contrastive Rhetoric 5
Text Linguistics 7
Corpus Analyses 10
Critical Discourse Analysis 13
2 Research in Academic and ESL Written Discourse and Text 15
Features of Student Essay Writing 21
3 Written Discourse and Text in Different Rhetorical Traditions 30
Written Discourse and Text in Non-Anglo-American Rhetoric 31
Learning the Norms of L2 Academic Discourse 41
4 The Goals and Politics of Teaching ESL Writing 45
The Importance of L2 Learners in the Academy 45
English Composition for Native Speakers 46
v
vi CONTENTS
L2 Writing Instruction for Non-Native Speakers 48
Process-Centered Teaching Center Stage 50
Content-Based Instruction for Writing in the Disciplines 50
The Outcomes 51
The Crux of the Issue 53
Curricula in L2 College-Level Writing/Composition Courses 56
5 The Study of Features of Second Language Text:
Essays, the Data, and Methods of Analysis 58
The Present Study 58
First and Second Language Essays and the Data 60
Methods of Data Analysis 64
II Common Linguistic and Rhetorical Features
of Academic ESL Text 73
6 Nouns, Pronouns, and Nominals and Their Functions
and Uses in Text 77
Semantic and Lexical Classes of Nouns 77
Personal Pronouns (and Contractions) 83
Nominals 88
7 TheVerb Phrase and Deverbals and Their Functions
and Uses in Text 96
Tenses 97
Aspects 99
Semantic and Lexical Classes of Verbs 104
Modal Verbs 108
The Passive Voice(+By-Phrase) 111
Be-Copula as the Main Verb 113
Infinitives 114
Participles 116
8 Adjectives and Adverbs and Their Functions and Uses
in Text 118
Adjectives 119
Semantic and Lexical Classes of Adverbs 121
9 Subordinate Clauses and Their Functions and Uses 128
Noun (Nominal) Clauses (Including Prepositions) 130
Adjective Clauses 131
CONTENTS vii
Adverb Clauses 134
Reduced Adverb Clauses 137
10 Text-Rhetorical Features and Their Functions and Uses 141
Coordinating and Logical Conjunctions/Prepositions 142
Exemplification 146
Hedges 148
Rhetorical Questions and Tags 153
Demonstratives 154
Emphatics 156
Presupposition Markers 157
Fixed Strings 158
III The Effect of Prompts on ESL Text 161
11 The First Three Prompts 165
The Parents Prompt 165
The Grades Prompt 175
The Wealth Prompt 182
12 The Second Three Prompts 191
The Manner Prompt 191
The Opinions Prompt 199
The Major Prompt 206
13 The Differences That the Prompts Make 215
Essays of Native Speakers 218
Essays of Chinese Speakers 222
Essays of Japanese Speakers 225
Essays of Korean Speakers 225
Essays of Vietnamese Speakers 230
Essays of Indonesian Speakers 233
Essays of Arabic Speakers 236
IV Conclusion 243
14 Determining Priorities in Teaching and Curriculum 245
Top-Tier Priorities 247
Second-Tier Priorities 250
Third-Tier Priorities 252
viii CONTENTS
15 Epilogue 257
Implications for Teacher Training and the Training of Trainers 258
Learning Advanced Academic Skills 260
Attention, Awareness, and Noticing 261
Implications in the Classroom 263
Appendix A. Rank-Order of Median Frequency Rates of Linguistic Features 267
in NS and NNS Texts
Appendix B. Comparisons of Common Linguistic and Rhetorical Features 269
in Academic Essays Across Prompts By L1 groups
Glossary 341
References 347
Author Index 359
Subject Index 365
Foreword
THE WALL: TEACHING HEURISTICS OF ENGLISH WRITING
AMONG LANGUAGE LEARNERS
Robert B. Kaplan
Emeritus Professor of Applied Linguistics
University of Southern California
Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep;
moral [philosophy], grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.
(Sir Francis Bacon, 1561–1626, Of Studies)
Some fifty years ago, when I was an undergraduate at a small liberal arts col-
lege, I was asked one day by the then Dean of Students whether I would
mind rooming with the institution’s first three foreign students—a Czech, a
Frenchman, and a German. All had the equivalent of high school diploma.
All were worldly and courageous; or they would not have attempted what
has come to be called International Educational Exchange.The reason for the
Dean’s invitation grew from the fact that I was a bit older than most of my
classmates, had traveled a bit, and spoke French and Russian reasonably
well; I was delighted with the opportunity. (There was as yet to be an ESL
course at the institution; indeed, there were few such courses besides the
English Language Institute at the University of Michigan. Of course, I had
no knowledge of the Michigan ELI.) The Dean had specifically charged me
with helping these foreign students learn English, especially with the writ-
ing of academic English, about which my knowledge was comparable to
that of any other undergraduate—my writing was, as my English professor
remarked, very good and very original, but where it was good it was not
original, and where it was original it was not good.
Once ensconced together in our dorm room, our conversations were
astonishingtours de force.The Czech student spoke Russian and German, so
he could translate for the German student; I spoke Russian, so I could con-
verse with the Czech student; and I spoke French, so I could converse with
the French student and could relay information from the French student
ix