Development of argumentation skill in English and Spanish FL writing Pieter de Haan Department of En

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Development of argumentation skillin English
(and Spanish) FL writingPieter de
HaanDepartment of EnglishP.deHaan_at_let.ru.nlwww
.let.ru.nl/p.dehaan

• Radboud University Nijmegen

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General background
Communicative competence in writing Grammatical
competenceDiscourse competenceSociolinguistic
competenceStrategic competence

• English and Spanish FL writing

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General background
writing product Differences between L1 and
L2/FL Fluency Accuracy Quality Coherence writing
process Similarities between L1 and
L2/FL Strategies Global approach Objectives

• English and Spanish FL writing

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General background
Learner corpora Categories (Polio 2001) Assessing
development Shaw Liu (1998) Wolfe-Quintero et
al. (1998) Neff et al. (1998) Grant Ginther
(2000) Ortega (2003) de Haan van Esch (2004,
2005, 2007, 2008)

• English and Spanish FL writing

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Research questions

• Does the difference in general FL fluency between
  the English students and the Spanish students
  decrease over time?
• Can we observe an increase in the (appropriate)
  use of transitional words in FL over time in
  either cohort?
• Can we relate any development in argumentation
  skill to research question 2?

• English and Spanish FL writing

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Research methodology
1. Data collection Students from a single cohort
of Dutch-speaking students of English and from a
single cohort of Dutch-speaking students of
Spanish contribute three FL essays each, at
one-year intervals 2. Quantitative analysis of
essays Selected lexical and grammatical
categories are counted per essay mean scores per
year are calculated 3. Qualitative analysis of
essays Argument structure of essays is studied

• English and Spanish FL writing

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Quantitative approach
Basic statistics

• English and Spanish FL writing

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Research question 1
General fluency

• English and Spanish FL writing

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Research question 1
Anova

• English and Spanish FL writing

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Research question 1
Anova

• English and Spanish FL writing

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Research question 2
Transitional words Among 100 most frequent words
used by students of English But When Also So Anot
her / other Because If ------------------ However
Moreover
Transitional words Spanish counterparts Pero Cu
ando También Así Otro /-a /-os /-as Porque Si ----
-------------- Sin embargo Además

• English and Spanish FL writing

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Research question 2
Excerpt from (1st year) English essay The
internet is just as fast, or maybe even faster
than television. Just turn on your computer, go
online and surf to the page you want. That is the
advantage of the internet it is there when you
want it, you can chose what you want to see, when
you want to see it. When something big happens
you can watch the news on television, but the
problem is that you can only watch one station.
You can switch channels, but maybe you'll miss
something. The internet is so much more handy.
You can look at all the articles without having
to miss anything. You can even listen to
soundclips or watch pieces of the television
broadcasts. Another advantage of the internet is
that you can always go deeper, looking for more
information. On television things are said and
that's it. Online you can look for related
articles or further background information.
There's a world of information on the net, and
this world is getting bigger every day. I even
think that it's just a matter of time before
every news broadcasting can be downloaded from
the internet at any time you want. Television is
losing interest, but I don't think it will lose
all interest, because it does have it's own
beauty. The net will keep on rising and keep on
to interest more. Television and the internet
will keep on merging into one as well. Television
refers to the internet again and again to look
for further information. But the internet as well
will always refer back to television.
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Research question 2
Excerpt from (3rd year) English essay The recent
changes in our world are almost always the most
important news items and therefore they get
principal treatment in news bulletins on radio
and television. If you want to know what is
happening in the world right now, all you have to
do is turn on CNN. They will bring you the most
recent news accompanied by the most recent
images. Other channels are probably not as much
up-to-date on the whole world as CNN is, but
programmes such as RTL-Z and News 24 on the BBC
are good equivalents, if you are not as focussed
on the USA as CNN tends to be. These
television-broadcasts provide the latest news as
well as providing background information, and
therefore to me are the most valuable news
providers. A good second when it comes to
bringing the latest news are the news bulletins
on the radio, but they have the disadvantage of
providing sound only and no images. Moreover,
news bulletins on the radio are usually shorter
than their equivalents on the television. When it
comes to news, most of us want to get the latest.
To be and stay on top of the changes in the
world, I prefer watching bulletins on television
because of their being up-to-date and extensive.
However, radio bulletins make a good second
choice, because they are up-to-date and short
(which can be both a good and a bad thing).
Although I do not see newspapers as real
newsproviders, they are not to be dismissed,
because they do provide extra background
information and go on where the news bulletins on
radio and television stop.
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Research question 2
Excerpt from (3rd year) Spanish essay Hoy en
día la mayoría de la gente ve la televisión
frecuentemente y entonces sabe lo que pasa en el
mundo. También para gente que no puede leer es un
medio perfecto y al mismo tiempo se puede ver lo
que ha pasado. Cuando se lee un periódico una
sóla persona puede leer las noticias más
importantes, pero cuando se ve las noticias en la
télé todo la familia puede verlas.
Afortunadamente hay también aspectas negativas
de la televisión. Por ejemplo, cuando se lee un
periódico se puede leerlo en su propio tiempo en
se puede releerlo. Las noticias en la televisión
son bastante rápidas y no se puede
sobrepensarlas. Sin embargo, es uno de los medios
más importantes en este tiempo. Casi no se puede
vivir sin la televisión y en cada casa la
televisión juege un papel muy grande en la vida
cotidiana. Es un medio que reuna la familia cada
noche y por eso es un medio que se puede usar muy
bien como medio de la información. También la
televisión no cuesta mucho. En comparación con la
internet y los periódicos la televisión es uno de
los medios más baratos. Y eso es importante
también. La radio tiene menos preferencia en mi
opinión por que tiene la misma rapidez que la
televisión pero no se puede ver ningún hecho. Y
para captar más la información a la gente se
tiene que exposar fotos y (beelden). En la
televisión se oye las noticias y se ve las
noticias.
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Research question 2
English

• English and Spanish FL writing

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Research question 2
Spanish

• English and Spanish FL writing

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Research question 3
1st year English essay I prefer to watch the
news on television. Television has all sorts of
benefits. You can see actual images from the
scenes so you know the real situations. It's much
easier to watch television than it is to read a
news paper or a magazine. It is being read out to
you. The internet usually takes a while, because
pages have to be downloaded. You of course get
all the important information when you watch
television. When you read a news paper or go on
the internet you can always miss an important
event in the world. It does not take up much of
your time when you watch the news on television,
the different fragments are always very short so
you can hear a bit of everything. Reading a news
paper can take a while, especially if you want to
read it thoroughly. So in short, I think
television has my preference because it's easy,
fast and never boring.
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Research question 3
2nd year English essay I generally prefer to
watch TV when I want to be informed about the
latest news. For this I have few reasons. One of
the benefits of watching TV is that it takes less
time to get to know all the main points that are
said. When you read a newspaper, it takes a lot
longer to read every important detail and you
yourself have to make a selection as to what is
important to you. If you watch TV, this decision
is made for you and this saves a lot of time.
Especially when you are in a hurry and want to
catch the news before going to school. You simply
watch it during breakfast and it only lasts about
five minutes. One of the things I find helpful
while watching the news on TV is that you not
only have texts but also have moving images. This
helps me concentrate and in the morning it keeps
you awake. When reading a newspaper you tend to
fall asleep again with the result that you are
sometimes late for school. It is also very often
the case that my TV is switched on just for the
sound, since I live on my own. When the news
happens to be on TV, I always hear part of it. So
TV is a source that reaches the viewer in a
better way than any other source of
information. TV is in my view the best source.
It is far livelier than any newspaper or the
Internet. Due to the images as well as the text
provided by the newsreader, you get a clear
picture of what is happening in the world today.
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Research question 3
3rd year English essay (excerpt) Through this
experience I have learned that the best, and most
importantly the quickest way to get informed is
to watch the news on television. In this time of
stress and busy schedules people often have
little or no time to sit down and read the paper
every morning. They have jobs to go to or
children to bring to daycare. In my case it is
school that keeps me from reading the paper, I
simply do not have much time in the morning since
I often have an early start and watching the news
on television only takes me about five
minutes. Another problem with the paper is that
it costs money, which I do not have enough of
since I am a student. Food is still a priority on
my list. It is also a bit of an inconvenience
that I live on the top floor of an appartment and
there is no elevator, I would have to walk eight
stairs each day just to get the paper every
morning. So television is a time and money
saver. I also prefer television to radio for the
simple fact that television gives you the actual
images of the situations. When listening to the
radio it is quite hard to picture certain
locations or scenes. Because you get live images
it is also easier not to get distracted. When I
turn on the tube to watch the news I do not get
the tendency to switch the channel, which is the
case when I listen to the radio.
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Conclusion

• Does the difference in general FL fluency between
  the English students and the Spanish students
  decrease over time? YES
• Can we observe an increase in the (appropriate)
  use of transitional words in FL over time in
  either cohort? YES, BUT
• Can we relate any development in argumentation
  skill to research question 2? YES, BUT

• English and Spanish FL writing

12 November 2009 - 20
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• English and Spanish FL writing