Linguistic features of opinion essays by chu van an high school gifted students and those by successful IELTS candidates

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN PHI HỔ LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF OPINION ESSAYS BY CHU VAN AN HIGH SCHOOL GIFTED STUDENTS AND THOSE BY SUCCESSFUL IELTS CANDIDATES Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201 Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr NGUYỄN QUANG NGOẠN BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN NGUYỄN PHI HỔ ĐẶC TRƯNG NGÔN NGỮ TRONG CÁC BÀI LUẬN THỂ HIỆN QUAN ĐIỂM CỦA HỌC SINH CHUYÊN ANH TRƯỜNG CHUYÊN CHU VĂN AN SO VỚI BÀI VIẾT CỦA THÍ SINH THI IELTS THÀNH CƠNG Chun ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh Mã số: 8220201 Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr NGUYỄN QUANG NGOẠN i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify my authorship of the master‟s thesis, entitled: “Linguistic features of opinion essays by Chu Van An High School gifted students and those by successful ielts candidates”, submitted for the degree of Master of Arts is the result of my own research and that this thesis has not been submitted for a higher degree at any other institutions To the best of my knowledge, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by other people except where the reference is made in the thesis itself Binh Dinh, 2020 Nguyễn Phi Hổ ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all the people for their support and contributions to the realization of this thesis First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Nguyễn Quang Ngoạn, whose brilliant ideas, unconditional support and encouragement from the very early day to the final steps have enabled me to develop a better understanding of the subject and to embrace the challenges in every step of the thesis I am greatly indebted for his invaluable contributions and substantial feedback Without him, this study would not have been accomplished I am indebted to the lecturers of Quy Nhon University who have wholeheartedly guided me through my MA course I would also like to express my deepest gratitude to the Master‟s Thesis Examiners for their valuable feedback, constructive detailed comments and tremendously helpful suggestions for my thesis I am grateful to the leaders of Chu Van An High School for the Gifted for their support and valuable help they have provided me during the course Finally and most importantly, my heart-felt gratitude goes to my family, for their unconditional love, infinite patience and enormous emotional support and care throughout this process iii ABSTRACT Presenting well on IELTS is an essential requirement for Vietnamese English learners who need to achieve a high band score in order to graduate from famous universities, go abroad for further studying or even get a good job in a particular field In academic IELTS writing the way in which an author engages with and positions him/herself in relation to different voices in the discourse, e.g with the examiners, is an integral part of producing a good essay This study investigates the linguistic features of opinion essays in response to Task of the Academic Writing Module of the International English Language Testing Systems (IELTS), by drawing on the collection of 30 opinion essays by Chu Van An High School gifted students and 30 opinion essays by successful IELTS candidates with an 8-upward band score in various IELTS Websites The data were compared for the frequencies of some linguistic features which had been previously found in significantly different frequencies at Chu Van An High School gifted students and successful IELTS candidates Also in this study, the different types of linguistic features and their interrelations as identified in the data are analyzed, the probabilities of these features being used, the frequencies of their occurrence, their distributions across the essays, and some of their typical realizations The findings show that there is considerable variation in the types of linguistic features employed as well as in their distributions, both across and within different sections of the band- 8IELTS essays and Chu Van An High School gifted students essays iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AWL Academic Word List CALL Computer-Assisted Language Learning ESP English for Specific Purposes IDP International Development Program IELTS The International English Language Testing System IE- CVA IELTS Chu Van An High School Gifted students IE IELTS Candidates IEO IELTS opinion essays GSL General Service List NNSs Non-Native Students SFL Systemic Functional Linguistics SIC Successful IELTS Candidates SLA Second Language Acquisition TOEFL Test of English as a Foreign Language TOEIC Test of English for International Communication VFL Systemic Functional Linguistics v TABLE OF CONTENT STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 RATIONALE 1.2 AIM AND OBJECTIVES 1.2.1 Aim 1.2.2 Objectives 1.3 RESEACH QUESTIONS 1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 1.6 ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS 1.7 DEFINITION OF TERM CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Previous Studies of IELTS 2.2 Opinion Essays 2.3 Academic Style and Academic Words 11 2.3.1 Lexical Features 12 2.3.2 Effective Structures 28 2.3.3 Coherence and Cohesive Devices 29 CHAPTER METHODOLOGY 34 3.1 Research Approaches and Research Methods 34 3.2 Data Collection 35 3.3 Data Analysis Procedures 36 vi 3.4 Reliability and Validity 37 CHAPTER FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 38 4.1 Lexical Features of Opinion Essays 38 4.1.1 Lexical Features of Opinion Essays by Successful IELTS Candidates 40 4.1.2 Lexical Features of Opinion Essays by Chu Van An High School Gifted Students 44 4.1.3 Similarities and Differences in Lexical Features by Successful IELTS Candidates and Chu Van An Gifted Students 48 4.2 Effective Structures in Opinion Essays 49 4.2.1 Effective Structures of Opinion Essays by Successful IELTS Candidates 49 4.2.2 Effective Structures of Opinion Essays by Chu Van An High School Gifted Students 52 4.2.3 Similarities and Differences in effective structures of opinion essays by Successful IELTS Candidates and Chu Van An High School Gifted Students 55 4.3 Cohesive Devices in Opinion Essays 57 4.3.1 Cohesive Devices in Opinion Essays by Successful IELTS Candidates 57 4.3.2 Cohesive Devices in Opinion Essays by Chu Van An High School Gifted Students 58 4.3.3 Similarities and Differences in Cohesive Devices in Opinion Essays by Successful IELTS Candidates and Chu Van An High School Gifted Students 60 CHAPTER CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 61 5.1 CONCLUSIONS 61 vii 5.2 PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS 62 5.3 LIMITATIONS 62 5.4 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH 63 REFERENCES 64 APPENDIX viii LIST OF TABLES N0 Name of Tables Page Table 2.1 Parts of speech by Halliday and Hasan (1976) 17 Table 2.2 Classifications of lexical collocations by Hausmann (1989) Table 2.3 Framework for the analysis of structures used in IELTS essays Table 2.4 List of categories of connectives suggested by Halliday and Hasan (1976) 22 28 33 Table 4.1 Types of academic words in opinion essays 39 Table 4.2 Frequency of collocations in opinion essays 39 Table 4.3 Frequency of phrasal verbs in band-8 IELTS opinion essays Table 4.4 Effective structures in successful IELTS candidates‟ essays Table 4.5 Effective structures of Chu Van An High School gifted students 40 49 53 Table 4.6 Similarities and differences of effective structures in written essays by successful IELTS candidates 56 versus Chu Van An gifted students Table 4.7 Frequency of cohesive devices in written essays by successful IELTS candidates Table 4.8 Frequency of cohesive devices in written essays by Chu Van An High School gifted students 57 58 PL-11 likewise, by the same token in the same way, equally Clarification Adversative Causal To clarify or rephrase a preceding item: that is (to say) , in other words I mean , (to) put (it) another way Reservation without invalidating the Concession/ Conflict/Contrast truth of the main clause/ two ideas incompatible or in contrast: But, on the other hand, even so, despite THIS, however, in spite of THIS, still, nevertheless, nonetheless, (even) though, by the way of contrast, on the other hand, yet, though Dismissal all the same, in any case, in either case, whatever happens, either way, whichever happens Replacement (or) at least , instead Cause/Reason because (of the fact that), for, as, owing to, since , due to (the fact that) Result/ Purpose so that, consequently, so, as a consequence, for this reason, thus, therefore, hence, as a result of, because (of THIS), so as to/so that, in order to/that Condition a To introduce the condition: provided that, providing that on the condition that, only if, If, in case b To introduce the consequence: then , if so, otherwise, if not Sequential Chronological and Logical a Numerical: in the (first) place, initially…; secondly …, first …; second … b Beginning: at first, to start with, to begin with, first of all c Continuation: PL-12 previously, next, afterwards, eventually, subsequently, before THIS d Conclusion finally at, last, eventually, last but not least, in the end, lastly, to conclude (with) Resumption to get back to the point, anyway Summation a General: in conclusion, in summary, to sum up, in sum, to summarize b Review of main idea or purpose: as I have said, as was previously stated, as has been mentioned/noted c Combination of effect/result and summary: then, consequently, given these points, thus, hence, therefore d Summary of points: altogether, overall, in all, on the whole, all in all e Condensation: to make a long story short, in short to put it briefly, to be brief, briefly in a word PL-13 APPENDIX B SAMPLE IELTS ESSAYS (TEST2) ANALYSIS Some people believe that a college or a university education should be available to all students Others believe that higher education should be available only to good students To what extent you agree or disagree? Table Lexical Features Topic Academic words Collocations Phrasal Verbs Education 49 37 No one can argue that education is very important for the future of students Attending higher education is a dream almost every student Some people assert that advanced education should be provided only for intellectual students because it is a very high chance that smart students would succeed in their studies However, some argue that all students should be able to study in a university Both views will be discussed carefully On the one hand, it is certainly true that higher education is not very simple for everyone to achieve a degree There are many students who fail in university education and have to resign from advanced levels As this problem, many education organizations are concerned that this advanced education should be available only good students who are qualified because it can preclude lower level students to get in and decrease the possible percentage of failed students On the other hand, there are abundant reasons to support the latter group Firstly, every student should have the fundamental right to study whatever they want The opportunity to get in a university cannot be restricted only for smart students If lower level students meet the requirement that qualify them PL-14 to their advanced education, they will definitely be able to pursue their professions in a higher level Moreover, in university, there are many majors or causes for all students There are not only difficult areas in academic fields, but other general skills or technological majors are also available For example, some students may choose to study art, which is focus on their performances and specific skills Finally, they could become famous artists and be professionals in the line Therefore, higher education should not restrict for only smart students but should offer all necessary skills for different groups of students To sum up with opinion, everyone should have basic right to continue their studies The higher education is very beneficial for students Hopefully, with a variety fields in university, it promotes citizens to achieve a credential degree which also builds the future of nation and boosts national economy The environment problems facing today‟s world are so great that there is little ordinary people can to improve the situation Government and large companies should be responsible for reducing the amount of damage being done to the environment To what extend you agree or disagree? Lexical Features Topic Academic words Collocations Phrasal Verbs Education 60 28 It is serious that our current society is facing the degradation of the environment While I accept that the government and firms should be accountable for decreasing the environmental damage, I believe that individuals should aid to mitigate this issue On the one hand, alleviating environmental problems should be high on PL-15 the agenda of the government and firms Firstly, with a substantial budget, it is possible for the authorities to reconstruct environmental infrastructure being degraded such as public sewer system, which improves the quality of the environment Secondly, increasing the corporate profits, which means that it could have negative impacts on the local environment, so large companies have to come up with specific solutions to avoid this problem For example, in order to decline air pollutant emissions, most of Japanese industrial companies gradually reduce the reliance on fossil fuels by using environmentally-friendly energy sources such as wind or solar energy On the other hand, the process of environmental improvement would not be achievable without the contribution of individuals Local surroundings could be significantly ameliorated if people spend more time cleaning their area For instance, my current neighborhood was cleaner than before, when many environmental volunteer campaigns were conducted Furthermore, even small activities on a daily basis also positively affect the surroundings Air pollution would be reduced if we cycle or give up smoking, or classifying waste could lead the water quality to be better Therefore, protecting the environment is not only the government and company's responsibility but also people's one In conclusion, although I recognize that this imperative issue is mostly the responsibility of the government and companies, I believe that individuals also play an important role in environmental protection The number of overweight children in developed countries is increasing Some people think this is due to problems such as the growing number of fast food outlets Others believe that parents are to blame for not looking after their children's health To what extend you agree or disagree? PL-16 Lexical Features Topic Academic words Collocations Phrasal Verbs Education 88 20 There is plenty of evidence to suggest that children are overweight and the situation is getting worse, according to the medical experts I feel there are a number of reasons for this Some people blame the fact that we are surrounded by shops selling unhealthy, fatty foods such as chips and fried chicken, at low prices This has created a whole generation of adults who have never cooked a meal for themselves If there were fewer of these restaurants, then children would not be tempted to buy take away food There is another argument that blames the parents for allowing their children to become overweight I tend to agree with this view, because good eating habits begin early in life, long before children start to visit fast food outlets If children are given chips, ice creams and chocolate rather than nourishing food, or are always allowed to choose what they eat, they will go for the sweet and salty foods every time, and this will carry on throughout their lives Parents decide what to buy and let their children eat and many parents know and feel that their children are overweight and yet let them eat high calorie contained foods like fast foods If parents try to make their kids understand that those type of fast foods are not good for their health and draw a restriction on how much their kids are allowed to eat then the problem can be solved partially There is a third factor, however, which contributes to the situation Children these days take very little exercise They not walk to school When they get home, they sit in front of the television or their computers and play video PL-17 games Not only is this an unhealthy pastime, it also gives them time to eat more junk food What they need is to go outside and play active games or sport The two views discussed play an equal role in contributing to the problem, but I think we have to encourage young people to be more active, as well as steering them away from fast food outlets and bad eating habits We need to have a balanced approach Some people think that a person improves their intellectual skills more when doing group activities To what extent you agree? Use specific details and examples to explain your view Lexical Features Topic Academic words Collocations Phrasal Verbs Education 65 28 In recent decades, many researchers have studied the importance of grouplevel cognition Indeed, to my mind, there is now convincing evidence that group activities improve the intelligence of individuals In this essay, I shall examine how research in team-games and study-groups supports this view To begin with, team-games clearly require individuals to perform a diverse range of rapid mental calculations This is because, in a sporting context, players must predict and anticipate possible actions within tight time constraints For example, a recent Cambridge study showed that soccer players can – within the span of seconds – calculate over a dozen different permutations that could result from a single soccer related action Such predictive powers clearly improve players‟ mental abilities and result from activities performed in a group context Secondly, study-groups enable individuals to obtain information that they PL-18 could not acquire in isolation This is because peer feedback allows individuals to refine their understanding of concepts and to also learn new information from other members in the study-group For example, a study by The British Institute for Learning found that, if individuals participated in study-groups, they had a far more objective and sophisticated understanding of a topic than learners who were not part of study-groups Therefore, it is certainly the case that learning in a group improves an individual‟s mental abilities In conclusion, I strongly agree with the notion that group activities improve intellectual abilities In the future, we will certainly see schools take greater measures to ensure that more group-level cognition occurs in the classroom Some people believe that technology has made man more social To what extent you agree or disagree with this opinion? Lexical Features Topic Academic words Collocations Phrasal Verbs Education 98 26 Experts throughout both the developing and developed world have debated whether the advent of sophisticated modern technology such as mobile phones, laptops and iPad have helped to enhance and improve people‟s social lives or whether the opposite has become the case Personally, I strongly advocate the former view This essay will discuss both sides using examples from the UK government and Oxford University to demonstrate points and prove arguments On the one hand there is ample, powerful, almost daily evidence that such technology can be detrimental especially to the younger generation who are PL-19 more easily affected by it‟s addictive nature and which can result in people feeling more isolated from the society The central reason behind this is twofold, firstly, the invention of online social media sites and apps, such as Twitter and Facebook have reduced crucial face-to-face interactions dramatically Through use of these appealing and attractive mediums, people feel in touch and connected yet lack key social skills and the ability to communicate Secondly, dependence on such devices is built up frighteningly easily which may have a damaging effect on mental health and encourage a sedentary lifestyle For example, recent scientific research by the UK government demonstrated that 90% of people in their 30s spend over 20 hours per week on Messenger and similar applications to chat with their friends instead of meeting up and spending quality time together or doing sport As a result, it is conclusively clear that these technology advancements have decreased and diminished our real life interactions On the other hand, although there are significant downsides to technological developments, its‟ multifold advantages cannot be denied This is largely because the popularity of technology such as cellphones allows people to connect freely and easily with no geographical barriers People are able to share any type of news, information, photos and opinions with their loved ones whenever and wherever they want therefore keeping a feeling of proximity and closeness For example, an extensive study by Oxford University illustrated that people who work, or study abroad and use applications like Facetime and WhatsApp to chat with their families, are less likely to experience loneliness and feel out of the loop than those who not Consistent with this line of thinking is that businessmen are also undoubtedly able to benefit from these advances by holding virtual real time meetings using Skype which may increase the chance of closing business PL-20 deals without the need to fly From the arguments and examples given I firmly believe that overall communication and mans‟ sociability has been advanced enormously due to huge the huge technological progress of the past twenty years and despite some potentially serious health implications which governments should not fail to address, it is predicted that its popularity will continue to flourish in the future Lexical Features of Opinion Essays by Chu Van An High School Gifted Students Some people believe that a college or university education should be available to all students Others believe that higher education should be available only to a good students To what extent you agree or disagree with these views? Lexical Features Topic Academic words Collocations Phrasal Verbs Education 60 19 It is currently believed that all pupils should be supplied with equal access to university or college education; however, there is also another viewpoint that only good students are eligible for higher education I partially agree with each of the notions On the one hand, every single youngster should be given a chance to study and train in a university or college, in which they may improve their self-study, independence and avocation as well To enroll in a university means that pupils start a new independent experience within a broad range of academic fields to pursue Meanwhile, pupils are encouraged to participate in sport, fitness activities, and especially outdoor events, which make them more PL-21 open-minded and sociable The total opportunities for higher education also reduce the rate of unemployment and delinquency among juveniles On the other hand, the major issues encountered by universities or colleges with huge number of students are those of facilities and management We can currently witness increasing numbers of students enrolled in universities and colleges, which makes every single student can not be facilitated and managed adequately As a result, pupils can get numerous troubles in their studying and personal lives These challenges not only form a downward pattern in pupils themselves but have a negative impact on the whole education environment In conclusion, all students can enroll in universities and colleges; however, the idea that only good students can have the priority in terms of higher education is also true Lexical Features Topic Academic words Collocations Phrasal Verbs Environment 70 26 Humans have been damaging the environment ever since we realized our powers to harness nature Global warming and air pollution are now frequent headlines on TV and in the newspapers all over the world, which keep reminding us of our obligation to protect the environment However, few actions are actually being taken at the individual level, instead it is only attributed to the authority and big firms‟ responsibility I disagree with this statement because of some following reasons On the one hand, individual awareness of the natural law of cause and effect must be nurtured All levels of education, especially primary and secondary schools, can be a good starting point to develop the realization that whatever PL-22 we to the environment, it will return to ourselves In addition, the mass media are also responsible for rasing the public‟s ecological consciousness Instead of persuading people to buy those new products that only serve to fuel the existing environmental problems, one of their unavoidable obligations is to instill the urgent need of taking care of our natural environment into the psyche of each and every member of planet On the other hand, government plays a key role in sustaining the environment As an authority, government could frame suitably policies that influence positively to people's acts in preserving surroundings They can publish stringent regulations to cut down on the number of litters, or encourage factories changing their location from urban areas to rural zones for alleviating the damaged effects of the polluted air Moreover, the officials can also offer more incentives to people who have been active in cleaning up the neighborhood or severely punish those who have been unfriendly to the environment Given this argument, it is reasonable to conclude that if every person of the society is aware of the relationship between human and the nature and stops their destructive behaviours, the ecological strain on earth can be relieved and the benefits to all nations are enormous Lexical Features Topic Academic words Collocations Phrasal Verbs Health 75 17 It is completely undeniable that many developed countries are suffering from the increased number of obese young people Many people believe that fast food restaurant is the main cause of the overweighting of children, but others think that the reason is due to the improper guidance of parents From my perspective, both of two reasons affects the obesity in children On the one hand, the development of food industry has contributed to the PL-23 diversity and the attraction of fast food The convenient restaurants and processed food are seen everywhere like schools, libraries or places where the density of children are large We can see that the price is not too expensive that‟s why the children, with a moderate amount of money, can buy their favorite foods at anytime they like that‟s why a whole generation of adults who have never cooked a meal for themselves If there were fewer of these restaurants, then children would not be tempted to buy take-away food On the other hand, there is another argument is the lack of knowledge of parents about the importance of proper food and neglecting their children Parents always think that a fat child is a healthy child Hence, they always encourage their children to eat as much as possible Not only that, parents are always busy and full of work, so they not have time to notice as well as prepare a healthy meal for their children Therefore, fast food is the best choice for them, It is so easy to buy a lot of fast food and they can eat everytime where they feel hungry It‟s totally clear that the irresponsibility of parents is damaging the health of their children In short, the rise of the number of overweight children involves in the increase in the number of fast food is not entirely right because these shops are mainly built to serve our needs We must condemn the attitude of parents, they should spend more time to take care of their children, especially a healthy meal Lexical Features Topic Academic words Collocations Phrasal Verbs Technology 50 16 Intellectual skills are considerably essential for our life; hence, finding an effective way to enhance them is necessary There is an opinion that doing group activities can actually improve them From my point of view, I totally agree with this idea for some reasons I will mention below On one hand, doing group activities help our brain more sophiscated and our logical thinking may come out faster since we have to argue and to PL-24 speak out our idea with our “group-mate”; therefore, our critical thinking can be improved a lot Moreover, when there‟s a problem happen, members in a group will express there opinion to solve it together, which may help us learn a lot from others, and also make our brain have a better ability of selecting information Therefore, group activities can help us enhancing our intellectual skills On the other hand, wokring individually can hardly upgrade your skills I‟ve mentioned above because when you are on your own, there will be no one by your side so that you have no chance to improve your critical skills, your mental caculation skills, even your communication skills It will be quite difficult for you if you want to enhance your intellectual skills In conclusion, I strongly agree with the notion that doing group activities can help improving our brain a lot I believe that schools and companies and other working environment should take this as a key to improve the quality of students and workers Lexical Features Topic Social activities Academic words 78 Collocations 25 Phrasal Verbs Technology has become a ubiquitous part of the society and it makes people believe that technology is responsible for making them more sociable I completely disagree with this view because I believe that being social does not mean acquainting / connecting with new people and interacting on digital media; rather it is about maintaining personal interactions with the people around To begin with, technology has enabled most people to live in a virtual world PL-25 where they only interact with virtual friends and followers They not care about the people around them They are in a desperate need to amass more likes and shares on social media Even when attending a family function or a meeting, people are busy browsing their social media accounts and thus they fail to be attentive to the people around them They are so busy showing themselves off in the digital world that they forget about the real people near them The advances in technology have made people show more interest in the online life; however, it made them forget about face to face interaction A recent study has shown that as youngsters spend more time on social media, they have become less sociable in real life The vast majority of them not even know who lives next door but they have virtual friends on all continents It is true that computers and mobile phones connect the universe and help people to find friends across the world On the contrary, technology fails to connect real life persons and as a result there is a decline in human values and interactions Technology makes people fake; it does not show the real trait of a person For example, before the invention of technology, people shared happiness, pain, smiles and they extended their helping hands to the fellow humans Nowadays they are portraying themselves to be socially active just for the sake of digital likes and shares In conclusion, technology fails to make man sociable in the real world Being sociable lies in sharing a physical smile rather than a digital smiley Although technology offers greater connectivity among people worldwide, it is really making people less sociable ... lexical features of opinion essays by Chu Van An High School gifted students and those by successful IELTS candidates - To identify and compare the structural features of opinion essays by Chu Van An. .. An High School gifted students and those by successful IELTS candidates - To identify and compare cohesive features of opinion essays by Chu Van An High School gifted students and those by successful. .. topic: ? ?Linguistic Features of Opinion Essays by Chu Van An High School Gifted Students and Those by Successful IELTS Candidates? ?? to help my students understand how to write opinion essays in