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Stance-development in the expository writing of non-native English speaker students
Citation
Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, April 2006
Author
Chandrasegaran, Antonia
Abstract
This paper presents an analysis of stance-taking and development in the essays of a group of non-native (English) speaker (NNS) students following instruction in stance-taking and stance-maintenance in expository essay writing. Assuming and maintaining a stance or position, definitive discourse acts in the English expository/argumentative essay, may be unfamiliar acts for students whose literacy traditions favour discourse practices different from those expected in the Anglo-American model of the academic essay. Stance development in this paper is evaluated on the basis of stance-enhancing topicality. Lexico-grammatical items are considered stance enhancing if they raise topics and make topic comments that perform some rhetorical function in arguing the writer’s stance. An analysis of post-instruction essays revealed an increase in stance-enhancing topicality and a drop in non-functional topicality. The results suggest that teaching students the thinking
processes underlying the discourse practices of expository writing can effectively
improve their ability to sustain a consistent stance and avoid digression or ‘going out of point’.
Date Issued
April 2006
Project
CRP 5/04 AC