ABSTRACT
This comprehensive and detailed analysis of second language writers' text identifies explicitly and quantifiably where their text differs from that of native speakers of English. The book is based on the results of a large-scale study of university-level native-speaker and non-native-speaker essays written in response to six prompts. Specifically, the research investigates the frequencies of uses of 68 linguistic (syntactic and lexical) and rhetorical features in essays written by advanced non-native speakers compared with those in the essays of native speakers enrolled in first-year composition courses. The selection of features for inclusion in this analysis is based on their textual functions and meanings, as identified in earlier research on English language grammar and lexis. Such analysis is valuable because it can inform the teaching of grammar and lexis, as well as discourse, and serve as a basis for second language curriculum and course design; and provide valuable insight for second language pedagogical applications of the study's findings.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part |71 pages
Background: Research in Written Text and Discourse
chapter |12 pages
Writing as Text
chapter |15 pages
Research in Academic and ESL Written Discourse and Text
chapter |15 pages
Written Discourse and Text in Different Rhetorical Traditions
chapter |13 pages
The Goals and Politics of Teaching ESL Writing
part |88 pages
Common Linguistic and Rhetorical Features of Academic ESL Text
chapter |19 pages
Nouns, Pronouns, and Nominals and Their Functions and Uses in Text
chapter |22 pages
The Verb Phrase and Deverbals and Their Functions and Uses in Text
chapter |10 pages
Adjectives and Adverbs and Their Functions and Uses in Text
chapter |13 pages
Subordinate Clauses and Their Functions and Uses
chapter |20 pages
Text-Rhetorical Features and Their Functions and Uses
part |81 pages
The Effect of Prompts on ESL Text
chapter |26 pages
The First Three Prompts
chapter |24 pages
The Second Three Prompts
chapter |27 pages
The Differences That the Prompts Make
part |23 pages
Conclusion