An investigation into the language of appreciation in literature review of theses on language stu

THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES LÊ THỊ HUYỀN KHANH AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE LANGUAGE OF APPRECIATION IN LITERATURE REVIEW OF THESES ON LANGUAGE STUDIES IN ENGLISH MASTER THESIS IN LINGUISTICS AND CULTURAL STUDIES OF FOREIGN COUNTRIES Da Nang, 2020 THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES LÊ THỊ HUYỀN KHANH AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE LANGUAGE OF APPRECIATION IN LITERATURE REVIEW OF THESES ON LANGUAGE STUDIES IN ENGLISH Major: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS Code: 822.02.01 MASTER THESIS IN LINGUISTICS AND CULTURAL STUDIES OF FOREIGN COUNTRIES SUPERVISORS: HỒ SĨ THẮNG KIỆT, Ph.D TRẦN HỮU PHÚC, Assoc Prof Dr Da Nang, 2020 ii ABSTRACT This thesis aims to explore the use of Appreciation through using linguistic expressions to show the writers/ authors’ appreciative viewpoint in Literature review of theses written in English in the light of Appraisal theory The study focuses on Appreciation, one of the three subsystems of Attitude within the Appraisal framework The descriptive quantitative and qualitative study was conducted based on a descriptive framework of functional grammar and appraisal theory The data were extracted from literature review of master theses, written in English, in terms of linguistics and English language on websites 170 English samples showing the authors/ writers’ viewpoint about prior studies such as noun phrases, verb phrases, adjective phrases, clauses and sentences were collected from the literature review of master theses The sampling was done with random manner so that every sample has the equal opportunity to occur in the data The data were chosen, analyzed and classified into two different categories in terms of syntactic and semantic features of Appreciation in the review of literature Syntactically, appreciation was examined in view of clause as message and nominal groups in the light of functional grammar Semantically, appreciation was analyzed in terms of appraisal theory Based on the result of data analysis, some implications and suggestions comprehending and using appreciation in showing writer’s appreciative viewpoint were given to Vietnamese learners of English language and those who are interested in the Appraisal of literature review in theses iii TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i ABSTRACT ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi LIST OF TABLES vii LIST OF FIGURES viii CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 RATIONALE 1.2 AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 1.2.1 Aim 1.2.2 Objectives 1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS .3 1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 1.6 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY .3 CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 PREVIOUS STUDIES .5 2.2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.2.1 Appraisal Theory .7 2.2.2 Appreciation 2.2.2.1 Definition of Appreciation 2.2.2.2 Types of Appreciation .9 2.2.3 An overview of Syntax in Functional Grammar .13 2.2.3.1 Clause as Message 14 2.2.3.2 Nominal group 15 2.3 SUMMARY 16 CHAPTER RESEARCH METHODS 17 iv 3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN .17 3.2 DATA COLLECTION 17 3.2.1 Sampling of the Study .17 3.2.2 Instruments of Data Collection 17 3.2.3 Procedures of Data Collection 18 3.3 DATA ANALYSIS 18 3.4 RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY 18 3.5 SUMMARY 19 CHAPTER FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 20 4.1 SYNTACTIC FEATURES OF LINGUISTIC EXPRESSIONS OF APPRECIATION USED IN LITERATURE REVIEW OF THESES IN VIEW OF FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR 20 4.1.1 Appreciation in Literature reviews of linguistic master theses written in English as Clause as Message 21 4.1.1.1 Appreciation in Simple sentences starting with ‘It’ 21 4.1.1.2 Appreciation in Simple Sentences 24 4.1.1.3 Appreciation in Complex Sentences .26 4.1.1.4 Appreciation in Compound Sentences 29 4.1.1.5 Appreciation in Compound - Complex Sentences 32 4.1.2 Appreciation in Literature reviews of linguistic master theses written in English as Nominal Group 34 4.1.2.1 Appreciation in experiential structure of Nominal Group: Epithet, Thing 34 4.1.2.2 Appreciation in experiential structure of Nominal Group: Deictic, Epithet, Thing 36 4.1.2.3 Appreciation in experiential structure of Nominal Group: Deictic, Epithet, Classifier, and Thing 38 4.1.3 Summary 40 v 4.2 SEMANTIC FEATURES OF LINGUISTIC EXPRESSIONS OF APPRECIATION USED IN LITERATURE REVIEW OF THESES IN VIEW OF APPRAISAL THEORY 41 4.2.1 The reaction meaning of appreciation in Literature reviews of linguistic master theses written in English 41 4.2.1.1 Reaction: Impact 41 4.2.1.2 Reaction: Quality .44 4.2.2 The composition meaning of appreciation in Literature reviews of linguistic master theses written in English 46 4.2.2.1 Composition: Balance 46 4.2.2.2 Composition: Complexity 48 4.2.3 The valuation meaning of appreciation in Literature reviews of linguistic master theses written in English 51 4.3 SUMMARY 53 CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUSION .54 5.1 CONCLUSIONS 54 5.2 IMPLICATIONS 55 5.2.1 To the Learners 55 5.2.2 To the Teachers 56 5.3 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY 56 5.4 SUGGESTION FOR FURTHER RESEARCH 56 REFERENCES 58 APPENDIX 63 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS L1 First Language L2 Second Language SLSAS Second Language Speaking Anxiety Scale EFL English as a Foreign Language FLCAS Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale UWL University Word List AWL Academic Word List IEP Intensive English Program R-I Reaction-Impact R-Q Reaction-Quality C-B Composition-Balance C-C Composition-Complexity vii LIST OF TABLES Number Name of Tables Page Table 2.1 Sub-types of Appreciation (Martin & White, 2005, p.57) 11 Table 2.2 Types of Appreciation (Martin & White, 2005, p.56) 12 Table 2.3 Metafunctions and their reflexes in the grammar (Halliday, 2004,p61) 14 Table 4.1 Examples of Reaction-Impact Value of Appreciation 43 Table 4.2 Examples of Reaction-Quality Value of Appreciation 45 Table 4.3 Examples of Composition-Balance Value of Appreciation 47 Table 4.4 Examples of Composition-Complexity Value of Appreciation 50 Table 4.5 Examples of Valuation Value of Appreciation 52 viii LIST OF FIGURES Number Name of Figures Page Figure 2.1 An overview of appraisal resources (Martin & White, 2005, p.38) Figure 2.2 Types of Appreciation (Martin & White, 2005) 10 Figure 2.3 Structure of the Theme - Rheme (Halliday, 2004, p.66) 15 Figure 2.4 Experiential Structure of Part of a Nominal Group 16 (Halliday, 2004, p.312) Figure 4.1 Appreciation in Simple sentences with ‘It’ 23 Figure 4.2 Appreciation in Simple sentences with ‘It’ 23 Figure 4.3 Appreciation in Simple sentence 24 Figure 4.4 Appreciation in Simple sentence 25 Figure 4.5 Appreciation in Simple sentence 25 Figure 4.6 Appreciation in Simple sentences 25 Figure 4.7 Appreciation in Simple sentences 25 Figure 4.8 Appreciation in Simple sentence 25 Figure 4.9 Appreciation in Complex sentence 27 Figure 4.10 Appreciation in Complex sentence 28 Figure 4.11 Appreciation in Complex sentence 28 Figure 4.12 Appreciation in Complex sentence 28 Figure 4.13 Appreciation in Compound sentence 29 Figure 4.14 Appreciation in Compound sentence 29 Figure 4.15 Appreciation in Compound sentence Error! Bookmark not defined Figure 4.16 Appreciation in Compound sentence 30 Figure 4.17 Appreciation in Compound sentence 30 59 Bauer and Nation (1993) is the best attempt to date to address the variables that exist when trying to group morphologically related words together, at least in English 60 Suffice it to say that linguists agree the modeling such processes is not a simple endeavor (Klepousnoitotou, 2002), and that future vocabulary size tests will need to address this issue in greater depth 61 These multiword items cover a substantial portion of the English language 62 The percentages of coverage of these types of words found by Erman and Warren (2000) make them impossible to ignore as a serious factor in how corpus linguists count, instructors teach, and psychometricians test lexical items 63 It might be well be that there is a critical difference in the way proper nouns are learned 64 If such evidence were found, perhaps it would be better for future vocabulary lists based on word frequency to exclude such words as vocabulary items and instead to include them in grammar materials 65 The research discussed in this section has exposed several important considerations for the construct of word for vocabulary size testing 66 The creation and usage of well-designed corpora is essential for the generation of quality word lists which are used in vocabulary size tests 67 One of the many interesting findings of the COBUILD* project was that different forms of a word often behave in different ways, taking their own set of collocates and expressing different shades of meaning (Sinclair, 1991) (COBUILD: Collins Cobuild English Language Dictionary) 68 These six criteria are all important for generating frequency lists for language learners 69 However, for vocabulary size tests, the requirements are slightly different 70 One criticism of the continued usage of the GSL and other lists in contemporary language teaching/testing is that they are based on corpora that are simply too old (Brezina & Gablasova, 2015; Gardner & Davies, 2014) 71 The process for creating the composite word list used for the VLT, PVLT, and CATSS was quite complex 72 Nation (1983; 1990) vaguely describes the process for how the lists were combined to create a single test 73 Some are outdated (as dated as 70 years old) 74 Some are too small (as few as two million tokens) 75 None of them used formal dispersion statistics to generate their respective word lists 76 Davies (2008) goes on to make the very valid point that, indeed, “no spoken corpus (even those created by linguists with tape records in the early 1990s) will be 100% authentic for real conversation – as long as people know that they’re being recorded” because of the observer’s paradox 77 Thus, in terms of being authentic spoken texts, while recorded conversations would probably yield better results, the texts for this corpus are still highly valid and, for the most part, accurately reflect contemporary spoken American English 78 Having both is meaningful because of the fundamental and paradigmatic differences between narrative and expository texts, especially in the type of vocabulary each macro-genre employs (Gardner, 2004; Grabe, 2002) 79 All-in-all, however, COCA is perhaps the most balanced and reliable monitor corpus of any variety of the English language (Davies, 2009; Davies, 2010) 80 Because of research performed by Lyne (1986), Juilland’s D is regarded as one of the most reliable measures of lexical dispersion 81 All-in-all, it is clear that COCA and its word list have several theoretically distinct advantages for usage in vocabulary size tests over corpora and lists used in previous tests 82 In fact, its usage is so widespread that one leading scholar in vocabulary assessment has called it the “nearest thing we have to a standard test in vocabulary” (Meara, 1996, p.38) 83 The article suggests that a larger sample size of words would be more accurate in determining vocabulary size 84 The correlations are mostly moderate or high and are statistically significant 85 Laufer (1999) is the only study that attempts to validate the PVLT 86 Beglar (2010) is the only other to evaluate the VST outside of the original study 87 In this article, Beglar performed a Rasch-based validation of the test, which showed reasonable validation in a number of ways 88 While the test items fit the model fairly well, close observation shows a mixture of items from different word frequency levels across the map 89 All-in-all, this analysis showed the VST to be a valid instrument but with some potential issues that could use further attention 90 As mentioned above, Meara and Jones (1988) validated the original test by showing moderate correlations with a placement test, and other researchers have confirmed the validity of the test by various other means as well 91 Van Zeeland (2013) correlated the EVST with a test of oral vocabulary size as a confirmatory study of Milton and Hopskins (2006) 92 For all of the positive points researchers have written about the EVST, there are some criticisms 93 However, this formula turns out to be overly conservative in the opposite direction (Huibregtse et al, 2002; Mochida and Harrington, 2006) Thesis The Effect of Prompt Accent on Elicited Imitation Assessments in English as a Second Language 94 This was perhaps a reasonable assumption at the time, but the curious results of their study suggest that accent familiarity should be more explicitly examined and measured 95 Despite these two exceptions, however, the overwhelming consensus from the other studies previously noted that, generally speaking, unfamiliar accents impair listening comprehension 96 Clearly defining accent is a difficult task, however, as evidenced by the number of studies that fail to so (e.g Clarke & Garrett, 2004; Gass & Varonis, 1984; Abeywickrama, 2013) 97 A significant correlation between performance on the two tests would suggest that they test the same thing (i.e memory), but this was not found 98 As for the second question, Vinther (2002) provides a thorough overview of the subject and points out that although EI directly measures utterances, those utterances could not be repeated without being understood 99 It is a reasonable conclusion, then, that accent in EI audio prompts may affect EI test results Thesis The Influence of Online English Language Instruction on ESL Learners’ Fluency Development 100 Vai and Sosulski (2011) outline necessary aspects of online course design 101 A clear difference between a traditional classroom and an online classroom is the physical location (Vai & Sosulski, 2011) 102 With technology aiding in the delivery and learning of content, it is not surprising that language programs have also begun utilizing online instruction 103 Empirical research investigating gains made by language learners’ through dedicated online language programs is still limited 104 While there have been many studies investigating oral fluency, a single definition for this term has not been established 105 However, other researchers have argued that looking at longer pauses might be a better measure of silent pauses as some pausing in speech is normal Thesis Comparing the AWL and AVL in Textbooks from an Intensive English Program 106 Gardner (2013) calls vocabulary “the fuel of language”, and this is especially true in academic settings where academic vocabulary is crucial for success 107 Furthermore, academic vocabulary knowledge is a determining factor in the success of students on entrance exam such as the ACT, SAT, GRE and GMAT 108 One of the first extensive lists was the University Word List (UWL) (Xue & Nation, 1984) 109 A key aspect of Coxhead’s corpus is the quantity of words contained in it 110 These data from the case studies demonstrated a significant difference in coverage between the AVL (Academic Vocabulary List) and the AWL (Academic Word List) Thesis Differences in the Motivations of Chinese Learners of English in Different (Foreign or Second Language) Contexts 111 The proposal of Dornyei’s L2 Motivational Self System (2005) was under the combined influence of theoretical advances in the L2 motivation research in the mainstream psychology 112 One key issue with respect to Gardner’s concept of interativeness/integrative motivation stated by Dornyei and Ushioda (2011) was as follows 113 Higgin’s (1998) self-theory provided two key components, the ideal L2 self and the ought-to L2 self, for the reconceptualization of Dornyei’s L2 motivational self-system 114 In the framework of L2 motivational self-system, the ideal L2 self plays an important role as a guidance on language learners’ motivation, which means there should exist an observable gap between their current selfimage and the desired self-image 115 Otherwise, it would be not necessary to put extra effort to reach their desired L2 self 116 Successful previous language learning experience will definitely help language learners generate a positive L2 self-image 117 At that time, the researchers did not know that their study would grow into the largest L2 motivational study ever 118 The findings from Taguchi, Magid and Papi’s (2009) study revealed that L2 motivation is not country-specific 119 You & Dornyei (2016) conducted a large-scale stratified survey about language learning motivation in China 120 It aimed to present a balanced overview of the general level of L2 motivation in China through the lens of the L2 Motivational Self System and to obtain a systematic and comprehensive overview of the motivational characteristics of learning English in China 121 One of the most important findings of this study was the fact that the motivational set-up of the world’s largest L2-learning community (China) turned out to be broadly compatible with results obtained from other countries 122 This finding presented a picture that is significantly different from the widely held belief that Chinese learners are primarily instrumentally motivated Thesis Investigating the effects of Rater’s Second Language Learning Background and Familiarity with Test-Taker’s First Language on Speaking Test Scores 123 Although previous research on the issue of accent familiarity or rater’s L2 learning background as a potential source of bias has been conducted (Carey et el., 2011; Huang, 2013; Winke & Gass, 2013; Winke et al., 2012; Xi & Mollaun, 2009), there is no consensus among the researchers as to how rater familiarity with a test-takers’ L1 actually affects scores 124 The results showed that there were no significant effects of accent familiarity or prior teaching experience 125 It is worth mentioning that the first study mentioned above (by Huang in 2013) used untrained raters, whereas the other two involved trained raters: Carey et al (2011) used professional IELTS raters, while the raters in the study by Winke et al (2012) received a standard ETS online training for new raters 126 Evidently, it is unclear as to what circumstances and to what extent rater’s familiarity with test-takers L1/accent affects oral proficiency assessment results 127 Previous studies on the effect of teaching experience on speaking tests’ rating have yielded mixed results 128 Finally there is a body of research which suggests that there is no significant difference in how lenient/severe teachers and non-teachers are (Huang, 2013) 129 Huang’s (2013) research provided valuable insights into how untrained raters (with and without teaching experience and exposure to test takers’ L1) treat Chinese accented speech 130 There were also certain tendencies in regards to how different groups rated Thesis Preparing Non-Native English Speakers for the Mathematical Vocabulary in the GRE and GMAT 131 Bohlke (2013) states that “for a language learner to communicate effectively, it is necessary to have a reasonable command of grammar and vocabulary” (p.123) I believe that this statement is axiomatic 132 Studies on using paper cards versus digital cards have shown different results (Lee, 2013 vs Nakata, 2011) Thesis Taking the “Foreign” Out of the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale 133 Horwitz (2010) provides a nice summation of these studies and their results 134 An early attempt at capturing this data occurred through the use of an anxiety scale created by Horwitz et al (1986) 135 Despite the large gap in time from Young’s 1991 research to that done by Toth (2008), the research shows some similar causes of anxiety are being identified, especially with Toth’s mention of instructional practices 136 These factors appear to be worthy of further research to better understand how the teacher and instructional context may influence anxiety that language learners are experiencing 137 It is apparent from the research that the majority of studies focused on language anxiety have centered on the foreign language context 138 Woodrow (2006) makes an important statement when saying that “[a] distinction is made…between learning English as a foreign language and learning English as a second language 139 Both Woodrow (2006) and Effiong (2016) make it clear with their comments that more research exploring ESL anxiety is needed 140 A difficulty with Woodrow’s study, however, was that it focused on students at only one level of proficiency 141 Another potential difficulty with her study is that she created her own scale 142 However, this was the only study that used the SLSAS and though she says it was validated, her findings cannot yet be generalized to other groups because it appears to have only been used once 143 A final difficulty with Woodrow’s study was that the overwhelming majority of students were from an Asian background (83.2%), therefore the lack of variety in students may indicate that the findings are specific to Asians but not representative of other L1 groups 144 As much of the previous research has dealt with EFL or other similar settings, research into the ESL setting can add valuable insights regarding the usefulness of testing a validated scale such as the FLCAS within an English-speaking environment Thesis Backward Transfer of Apology Strategies from Japanese to English: Do English L1 Speakers Use Japanese-Style Apologies When Speaking English? 145 A widely known paper written by Blum-Kulka and Olshtain (1984) discusses a study they performed with other researchers in examining each language group (discussed below) using a cross-cultural analysis of speech act realization patterns specifically targeting request and apologies Thesis Cultural Differences in Russian and English Magazine Advertising: A Pragmatic Approach 146 While Hardin (2001) condensed Leech’s framework from four components into three, Simpson (2001) took a different approach altogether Thesis Friendship and Language: How Kindergarteners Talk about Making friends in a Two-way Immersion School 147 This is especially true in contexts where one language is clearly the language of power, like English is in the United States (Darder, 1991; Potowski, 2004) Thesis ESL Students’ Reading Behaviors on Multiple-choice Items at Differing Proficiency Levels: An Eye-Tracking Study 148 Bottom-up models have also been introduced into the reading literature; perhaps one of the most influential models was presented by Gough (1972) 149 These results may provide evidence to claim that the design of the study was effective (responding after every test item rather waiting until the end of the test) 150 Brunfaut and McCray (2015) reported similar results 151 He (Rayner) presented an exhaustive review of previous studies that have used eye-tracking to investigate various reading tasks (Rayner, 1998) 152 These studies (Harasym, Price, Brant, Violato, & Lordcheider, 1992; Yanagawa & Green, 2008) were similar in that both used the Oxford Bookworms Library Series published by oxford University Press as their reading materials 153 Bax (2013) and Wang et al (2017) provided valuable contributions to the understanding of reading behaviors while taking tests Thesis Second Language Semantic Retrieval in the Bilingual Mind: The Case of Korean-English Expert Bilinguals 154 Many studies have shown L1-to-L2 priming shows greater magnitude than L2-to-L1 priming (Krisner et al, 1984; Schwanenflugel & Rey, 1986; Frenck & Pynte, 1987; Chen & Ng, 1989; Keatly et al, 1994; Altarriba, 1990) 155 It is worth that while English is an alphabetic language, it is the most opaque language among all alphabetic languages because the sound-toletter forms are very irregular in English (Grabe, 2009) 156 Thierry and Wu’s study (2007) and Guo, Misra, Tam, and Kroll’s (2012) EEG study provide key findings about intermediate-level L2 speaker’ L1 reliance in their L2 decoding; both studies will be expounded below 157 Thierry and Wu (2007) suggested that operational bilingual speakers exhibit a significant L1 interference in an EEG task 158 The research design (of Guo et al (2012)) was similar with Thierry and Wu’s study in that researchers recruited Chinese-English bilinguals and Adopted ERP measures Thesis Investigating the Perception of Identity Shift in Trilingual Speakers: A Case Study 159 A great example would be Richard Rodriguez’s autobiography 160 It is an interesting descriptor, but quite appropriate, for chameleons are able to change their color according to their environment 161 That will be an important indicator of how much of their identity is being changed as the participants have immigrated to the U.S., and how much Russian they still use day to day 162 In other studies, there are compelling arguments 163 This approach could have been a little more effective than the previous one mentioned, but instead a new approach was chosen for the current study Thesis Applying the Developmental Path of English Negation to the Automated Scoring of Learner Essays 164 This approach has strong ties to the theory of universal grammar (UG) 165 A final pitfall for studies looking into acquisition orders is the occasional sparse representation of some structures in the data 166 Despite these limitations, the descriptions from these early provided rich insights into the theory of interlanguage 167 This provides a more precise view of the examples deemed acceptable by researchers to fit into this acquisition hierarchy 168 Having these precise definitions also makes comparisons of rank orders between studies more transparent (Dulay et al., 1982) 169 Despite the criticisms, essay length remains an important feature found in most AES systems 170 Features related to detecting faithfulness to the prompt have been experimented with and successfully implemented in AES systems like e-rater (Burstein et al., 2013) This can be costly and cumbersome as the system would need to be retrained on each individual prompt to perform a content vector analysis .. .THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES LÊ THỊ HUYỀN KHANH AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE LANGUAGE OF APPRECIATION IN LITERATURE REVIEW OF THESES ON LANGUAGE STUDIES IN. .. Review From these reasons stated above, I have decided to carry out the study entitled ? ?An Investigation into the Language of Appreciation in Literature Review of Theses on Language Studies in English”... OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 1.2.1 Aim The study aims to examine the language of Appreciation through using linguistic expressions in Literature Review of the English theses in the light of Appraisal theory