Developing a corpus-based teaching framework of argumentative essays for pre-university students
Numerous studies on corpus linguistics and academic genres have employed the ESP approach. However, extensive research on the rhetorical structure and linguistic analysis of pre-university argumentative essays is still lacking. Thus, this research focuses on pre-university students’ written argument...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | eng eng eng |
| Published: |
2023
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://etd.uum.edu.my/10551/1/Permission%20to%20deposit-not%20allow-900586.pdf https://etd.uum.edu.my/10551/2/s900586_01.pdf https://etd.uum.edu.my/10551/3/s900586_02.pdf |
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| Summary: | Numerous studies on corpus linguistics and academic genres have employed the ESP approach. However, extensive research on the rhetorical structure and linguistic analysis of pre-university argumentative essays is still lacking. Thus, this research focuses on pre-university students’ written argumentative essays who are preparing for MUET. The data for this study comes from COMWArE, a Corpus of MUET Written Argumentative Essays compiled from two pre-university institutions. This study is framed within a corpus-based genre analysis, with the goal of analysing argumentative essays using a Swalesian move analysis and top-down analysis, also known as the BCU approach. AntConc is used to compute the frequency and distributional patterns of moves, and linguistics analysis of lexical verbs is performed by identifying the types and categories of verb forms in the most frequently used moves in COMWArE. To add credibility to the results of the corpus-based genre analysis, semi-structured interviews were conducted with six subject matter experts from the selected institutions. A framework for teaching argumentative essays at the pre-university level is conceptualised through data triangulation. The data revealed a nine-move structure with eleven steps; based on the distributional patterns, the moves and steps occur at the beginning, middle, and end of the paragraphs. Furthermore, the essays' communicative goals are realised through the effective use of lexical verbs within the moves and steps used in the essays. There are six types of lexical verbs in the argumentative essay, with the infinitive form (VVI) occurring most frequently. The majority of these lexical verbs are classified as activity verbs. Consequently, the findings are used to provide a framework of rhetorical move-step structure for instructional purposes, particularly at the pre-university level, for MUET. From a pedagogical standpoint, this study is significant for ESL teachers and novice writers in the classroom teaching and learning argumentative writing. |
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