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Analyzing discourse competence in argumentative essays
Lien, Yu-Wen
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/125612
Description
- Title
- Analyzing discourse competence in argumentative essays
- Author(s)
- Lien, Yu-Wen
- Issue Date
- 2024-07-16
- Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
- Yan, Xun
- Committee Member(s)
- Tywoniw, Rurik
- Department of Study
- Linguistics
- Discipline
- Teaching of English Sec Lang
- Degree Granting Institution
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Degree Name
- M.A.
- Degree Level
- Thesis
- Keyword(s)
- Discourse competence
- Academic writing
- Second language writing
- Writing assessment
- Abstract
- This study investigates discourse competence in second language (L2) argumentative essays. Discourse competence has long been treated holistically in most rating rubrics in large-scale, high-stakes, writing tests. To investigate the detailed sub-constructs of discourse competence in second language (L2) writings, this study analyzed 120 argumentative essays of different proficiency levels on an English-as-a-second-language (ESL) placement test at a Midwest university in the United States with an adapted fine-grained discourse competence rating scale from Wang and Xie’s study (2022). The study found that among the nine discourse features, F1 Topic/Focus, F4 Body paragraphs, and F6 Theme-rheme development had strong and significant correlations with the EPT placement levels, and the F7 Connective complexity, F8 Connective accuracy, and F9 Complexity of hedges and boosters had very weak and insignificant correlations with the placement levels. The findings of the study presented the nature of discourse competence across proficiency levels and provided practical implications for ESL academic writing curriculum development.
- Graduation Semester
- 2024-08
- Type of Resource
- Thesis
- Handle URL
- https://hdl.handle.net/2142/125612
- Copyright and License Information
- Copyright 2024 Yu-Wen Lien
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Graduate Dissertations and Theses at Illinois PRIMARY
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