Nguyễn Thị Trung's Doctoral Thesis: Discourse Features of IELTS Sample Essays from a Functional Grammar Perspective

THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ TRUNG DISCOURSE FEATURES OF IELTS SAMPLE ESSAYS - A FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR PERSPECTIVE Major: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS Code: 9.01 DOCTORAL THESIS IN SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES SUPERVISOR: Assoc. Nguyen Thi Quynh Hoa Danang, 2021 luan an i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP Except where reference is made in the text, this thesis contains no material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma. No other person's work has been used without due acknowledgements in the thesis. This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other tertiary institution.

Da Nang, November 2021 Nguyen Thi Trung luan an ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Above all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Associate Professor Nguyễn Thị Quỳnh Hoa, for her understanding, encouragement, helpful comments and professional guidance at every stage of this thesis. I am also deeply indebted to Associate Professor Trần Văn Phước for his constructive feedback, distribution of materials, and continuing support. My special thanks goes to Professor Hoàng Văn Vân, and Associate Professor Phan Văn Hòa for their advice in the first steps of the research paper, saving me from confusion. My heartfelt gratitude goes to Associate Professor Tôn Nữ Mỹ Nhật for her astute comments and encouragement.

I would like to express my deepest appreciation to the University of Foreign Language Studies, The University of Danang and the Faculty of English for their generous support and timely assistance. Finally, I am indebted to my family for their love, care and sacrifice; and to my colleagues and friends for all their encouragement and untiring assistance. luan an iii ABSTRACT Over the past three decades, the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) has been considered as the preferred test to assess English language proficiency of non-native English speakers. With a view to improving the quality of IELTS candidates’ answers to the academic writing test, the thesis addresses three aspects of meaning, namely textual, interpersonal and experiential meaning in formulating IELTS Academic essays based on the Systemic Functional Theory developed by Halliday (1994), and Halliday and Matthiessen (2004, 2014).

A descriptive method accompanied by qualitative and quantitative approaches was used to give a detailed description of three kinds of meaning in relation to the band descriptors. 180 sample essays with band scores of 7.5 and others rated 9 were selected as data for text analysis. The findings revealed that the prevailing types of Themes deployed in the essays were multiple Themes, demonstrating high levels of English proficiency among IELTS writers in constituting a message. It is also noticeable that more successful IELTS writers favoured marked topical Themes and exhibited tactical manipulation of thematic progression to arrange information logically in the text.

From the perspective of interpersonal metafunction, successful writers were good at building up and maintaining appropriate relationships with examiners thanks to appropriate modality and mood choice. In terms of experiential meaning, the writers employed more clause complexes than clause simplexes to specify the type of interdependency in the texts. From the findings, it is recommended that IELTS writers should choose clause complexes over clause simplexes, make good use of cohesive devices, modality and mood choice, different types of interdependency as well as deploy multiple Themes. In particular, more marked Themes, and subtly a few interpersonal Themes are suggested to be deployed in order to create logical connections between experiential events and to make the writing more academic.

It is obvious that IELTS test-takers with better insights into the salient linguistic features of IELTS essays in terms of thematic structure, cohesion, mood, modality, logico-semantic relation and transitivity can produce a piece of writing in accordance with the IELTS community expectation, thus reaching the perceived and desired IELTS band score. luan an iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE. Aims and Objectives of the Study. Scope of the Study.

Significance of the Study. Organization of the Thesis. 11 LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND. Review of Systemic Functional Linguistics.

Review of Studies Related to Academic Writing in the light of Systemic Functional Linguistics. Review of IELTS Academic Writing Studies. IELTS Writing as Academic Writing. The IELTS Test.

IELTS Writing as Academic Writing. Discourse Analysis through Systemic Functional Linguistics. Context: Culture and Situation. The Three Metafunctions.

62 luan an v RESEARCH METHODOLOGY. Criteria for Collecting Data. Description of Sampling. Clause and Above the Clause.

The Coding Scheme. Reliability and Validity. 76 TEXTUAL MEANING IN IELTS ACADEMIC SAMPLE ESSAYS. Types of Themes.

Marked and Unmarked Theme. Topical, Interpersonal and Textual Theme. Simple and Multiple Theme. The Use of Reference.

The Use of Substitution. The Use of Ellipsis. The Use of Conjunction. The Use of Reiteration.

The Use of Collocation. Textual Meaning in Relation to the IELTS Band Descriptors. 112 INTERPERSONAL MEANING IN IELTS ACADEMIC SAMPLE ESSAYS. 112 luan an vi 5.

Interpersonal Meaning in Relation to the IELTS Band Descriptors. 125 EXPERIENTIAL MEANING IN IELTS ACADEMIC SAMPLE ESSAYS. Logico-Semantic Relation Analysis. Logico-Semantic System.

Experiential Meaning in Relation to the IELTS Band Descriptors. Suggestions for Further Research. 156 APPENDIX A: SOURCES OF DATA. 175 APPENDIX B: SUMMARY OF TABLE OF CONJUNCTIVE RELATIONS.

188 luan an vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS CEFR Common European Framework of Reference IELTS The International English Language Testing System MOET Ministry of Education and Training NFL Vietnam’s National Foreign Language Project SFG Systemic Functional Grammar SFL Systemic Functional Linguistics TOEFL Test of English as a Foreign Language || clause divider ||| clause complex divider ^ clause conjunction α , β, Ɣ hypotactic related clauses 1, 2, 3,… paratactic related clauses ’ Idea ” Locution + Extension = Elaboration X Enhancement […] Embedding luan an viii LIST OF TABLES Table 2. IELTS Task 2 Writing band descriptors (public version). Types of grammatical and lexical cohesion. Giving or demanding.

Realization of modality in English. Examples of verbs serving as Process in material clauses. Examples of verbs serving as Process in mental clauses. Examples of verbs serving as Process in relational clauses.

Examples of verbs serving as Process in behavioural clauses. Examples of verbs serving as Process in verbal clauses. Examples of verbs serving as Process in existential clauses. Clauses in paratactic and hypotatic clause complexes.

Basic types of clause complexes. Abbreviation for data analysis. Textual meaning in relation to the IELTS band descriptors. Interpersonal meaning in relation to the IELTS band descriptors.

Distribution of clause simplexes and clause complexes. Distribution of logico-semantic relation. Distribution of logico-semantic relation (Corpus 1). Distribution of logico-semantic relation (Corpus 1- Discussion essays).

Distribution of logico-semantic relation (Corpus 1- Exposition essays) .133 luan an ix Table 6. Distribution of logico-semantic relation (Corpus 2). Distribution of logico-semantic relation (Corpus 2- Discussion essays). Distribution of logico-semantic relation (Corpus 2- Exposition essays).

Experiential meaning in relation to the IELTS band descriptors .145 luan an x LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2. Common European Framework of Reference. Genre and register in relation to language. Field, tenor and mode in relation to metafunctions.

The MOOD system network (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014, p. The mood system. System network of Modality (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014, p. The modality system.

Types of process in English. The system of the clause complex. Distribution of topical, interpersonal and textual Themes. Distribution of marked and unmarked Themes.

Distribution of marked and unmarked Themes (Corpus 1). Distribution of marked and unmarked Themes (Corpus 2). Distribution of topical, interpersonal and textual Themes. Distribution of simple and multiple Themes.

Distribution of each type of modality. Distribution of modality of Corpus 1 & 2. Distribution of modal values. Distribution of modality orientation.

Distribution of taxis. Distribution of taxis (Corpus 1). Distribution of taxis (Corpus 2). Transitivity in IELTS sample essays.

Transitivity in IELTS sample essays (Corpus 1). Transitivity in IELTS sample essays (Corpus 2) .139 luan an 1 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Foreign language competence has been identified as essential for young Vietnamese graduates to be able to work effectively and make a significant contribution to the international integration of the country. Recognising the importance of foreign languages in human resource, the Prime Minister has approved the document ‘The scheme on foreign language teaching and learning in the national education system in the 2008-2020 period’ (Decision No.1400/QD-TTg dated September 30, 2008).

The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has implemented Vietnam’s National Foreign Language 2020 Project (NFL2020) and applied the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 2080/QD-TTg dated 22 December 2017 on "Approving amendments and supplements to the scheme of teaching and learning foreign languages in the national education system for the period of 2017-2025". In tertiary education, graduates majoring in English language are required to achieve a minimum language competence at level C1 according to the Common European Framework for Reference (CEFR), a guideline used to describe achievements of learners of foreign languages, equivalent to an IELTS score of 7.org/ielts-for-organisations/common-european-framework). As a result, a multitude of Vietnamese tertiary institutions such as Can Tho University, Hue University of Foreign Languages, and Quang Nam University have included IELTS in their curriculum so that the students can gain an international English certificate indicating their English proficiency level, which is considered to be one of the most essential requirements in applying for a good job or tertiary education in another country.

The International English Language Testing Systems (IELTS), which involves the assessment of four English language skills, namely listening, reading, writing and speaking has been regarded as the preferred test to measure English language proficiency of those who study English as a foreign language or second language. It is now accepted by over 6000 tertiary institutions in over 135 countries (IELTS luan an 2 Research Reports Online Series, 2017). Achieving a high score in this international exam is the key that enables candidates to open the door to their future career. Among the four English language skills assessed by IELTS, Academic Writing, especially Task 2 of the Academic Module, which is given more weight than Task 1, is generally considered one of the most challenging skills for IELTS test- takers since it requires a higher level of productive language manipulation.

How to enhance IELTS writing outcomes, therefore, has been a matter of concern for language researchers and educators in different countries where English is taught as a foreign language or second language. A considerable amount of practical research has been carried out to investigate the IELTS writing tasks in the past few years (Allen, 2016; Bagheri, 2016; Dickinson, 2013; Majdeddin, 2010; Mickan & Motteram, 2008, 2009; Moore & Morton, 2005, 2007; Panahi, 2015). It is clear that most of these studies present valuable findings related to the field of IELTS writing. However, only limited studies of IELTS essays (e.

Ebrahimi, 2014; Moghaddam, 2010; Nakamura, 2009; Soleymanzadeh & Gholami, 2014) have been conducted from the functional grammar perspective up to now. Thus, this thesis is aimed at identifying the linguistic features of IELTS sample essays, particularly the experiential meaning, interpersonal meaning and textual meaning in the light of functional grammar with a view to enabling test-takers to make good use of the salient linguistic features in order to formulate good quality IELTS Academic essays. The theoretical framework adopted for analysing and explaining how experiential meanings, interpersonal meanings, and textual meanings are expressed in clause structures in IELTS sample essays is Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) developed by Halliday (1994), and Halliday and Matthiessen (2004, 2014).