Faculty of Education - Theses
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 1 of 1
-
ItemA metalanguage for teaching and evaluating writing: an application of systemic functional linguistics in the analysis of argumentative essays written by senior secondary students in Hong Kong( 1997)In Hong Kong, the skill of writing is the main focus in the English syllabus. This is especially true for senior secondary students who have to sit for competitive public examinations in which essay writing is a major component. However, what constitutes good writing is often not explicitly taught in the classroom. In evaluating composition assignments, teachers tend to focus on identifying grammatical mistakes, mostly at the sentence level. This impoverished approach is found to be wanting in helping students become competent writers. In view of the problem in evaluating student writing, the present study attempts to draw on a theoretical framework, namely, Systemic Functional linguistics in analyzing the essays written by senior secondary students in Hong Kong. The model provides a useful tool in understanding and explaining writing quality at the text level including the overall schematic structures and the operation of register variables. The genre of argument was selected for the study as it is one of the important text types emphasized in the examination syllabus. Three texts representing three achievement groups (i.e. rated as 'good', 'average' and 'poor') were selected from twenty nine essays written by a class of Form six students as part of an internal examination. The texts were then analyzed using the grammatical systems of Theme, Mood and Transitivity with respect to their schematic structures and register choices. It was found that the top essay demonstrated the best control of configurations of the three grammatical systems in making textual, interpersonal and experiential meanings. The middle piece was moderately successful in that there were lapses in the grammatical choices whereas in the bottom piece, inappropriate and inconsistent choices resulted in an unsuccessful piece of writing. However, all the three essays reveal the problem of a lack of relevant subject knowledge and show the inadequacy of the existing writing syllabus. The analysis, though it cannot claim to be exhaustive, helps illuminate the features of writing quality that have hitherto been ignored in the English classroom in Hong Kong. It is therefore concluded that SF grammar is a useful tool for writing pedagogy and a metalanguage based on the grammar is recommended for classroom teaching.