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Modality in appraisal in students' essays: A study of the effect of genre-based instruction
Citation
Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, April 2006
Author
Kong, Clara Kah Mun
Abstract
This paper presents results of an analysis of changes in students’ use of linguistic features to express modality in Appraisal after genre-based instruction in expository writing. Appraisal is a system of interpersonal meanings to evaluate, adopt stances, and express attitudes, alongside resources for amplifying and engaging with these meanings (Martin, 2000). Instruction was aimed at raising student awareness of the socio-cultural context of a writing task and explicit teaching of socio-rhetorical thinking processes associated with
expository genres. Pre- and post-instruction essays were analysed using Halliday’s (2004)
functional grammar, drawing on the work in Appraisal by Martin (2000). Comparison of
Appraisal in pre- and post-instruction essays shows positive changes in the latter in number and range of lexico-grammar for expressing modality.
Date Issued
April 2006
Project
CRP 5/04 AC