The Effect of the Knowledge of Semantic Macro-Structure on the News Report Writing Ability of Iranian Students

Hamidreza Faraji Nejad, Afshin Soori, Abusaied Janfaza, Faranak Faraji Nejad

Abstract


The current study investigates whether the knowledge of semantic macro-structures, specifically local to news texts have any significant effect on the report writing of advanced learners of English in terms of three main categories of rating, namely structure, vocabulary, and organization. This study is a true experimental design which provides pretest of general proficiency test as well as pretest of writing ability. The experimental group received treatment and the control group received placebo. Finally, the students were provided with a posttest of writing. The participants of this study were 40 male upper-intermediate Iranian EFL students studying English in two well-known English institutes of Jahrom, Iran. After running a preliminary test of general language proficiency, the researcher administered the pretest. Having used a t-test, the researcher found that there was no significant difference between the subjects’ reports vocabulary, structure, and organization quality across groups of control and experimental.  After the treatment program, the researcher administered a post test, containing 5 more news texts. After collecting the papers, he asked the raters to rate them. Finally, using t-test, the researcher found that the knowledge of semantic macro-structures specifically local to news texts had significant effect on the organization quality and vocabulary quality of the learner’s report sheet but it failed to have any significant effect on the structure quality of his report sheet.

 


Keywords


Macrostructure, Macro rules, Semantic macro structure, News report, Writing ability

Full Text:

PDF

References


Branden, K. (2006). Task-Based Language Education: From Theory to Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Dörnyei, Z. (1994). Motivation and motivating in the foreign language classroom. Modern Language Journal, 78 (1), PP. 273-284.

Ellis, R (2003). Task-based language learning and teaching. Oxford University Press.

Fairclough, N. (2001). Language and Power, 2nd. edn. London: London.

Fraser, B. J. (1991). Two decades of classroom environment research. In B. J. Fraser & H. J. Walberg (Eds.), Educational environments: Evaluation, antecedents and consequences (pp. 3-27). Oxford: Pergamon Press.

Gardner, R. C. (1985). Social psychology and second language learning: The role of attitudes and motivation. London: Edward Arnold.

Hadley, A. O. (2004). Teaching Language in Context. New York: Heinle and Heinle Publishers.

Hallin, D. (1997). Sound Bite News. In S. L. (ed), Do the Media Govern? Thousand Oaks: Sage.

Hoey, M. (1983). On the Surface of Discourse. London: Allen and Unwine.

Johnson, K. (2003). Designing Language Teaching Tasks. Hampshire: MacMillan.

Kaplan, R. (1966). Cultural Thought Patterns in Intercultural Education. Language Learning 16(2) , PP. 1-20.

Van Dijk, T. (1985). Handbook of discourse analysis. London. Academic Press

Van Dijk, T. (2003). Superestruturas. Retrieved January 2, 2003, from

http://dialogica.com.ar/unr/redaccion1/unidades/unidad3/archives/000341.htmlVan Dijk (2004)

Werth, P. (1999). Text Worlds: Representing Conceptual Space in Discourse. New York: Longman.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.3n.3p.157

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Bookmark and Share


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

2012-2023 (CC-BY) Australian International Academic Centre PTY.LTD. 

International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature

To make sure that you can receive messages from us, please add the journal emails into your e-mail 'safe list'. If you do not receive e-mail in your 'inbox', check your 'bulk mail' or 'junk mail' folders.