A Discourse Analysis of Adverbial Participle Clauses in Taiwanese Senior High Students' Writing

• Main Authors: Ying-Hsiu Liu, 劉盈秀
• Other Authors: Hsueh-O Lin
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/7ctkzq

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 英語學系 === 97 === Adverbial participle clauses have long been among the focuses of instruction in high school English curriculum in Taiwan. However, few studies have examined the use of participle clauses in Taiwanese EFL learners’ writing. Thus, the present study aims to investigate the use of adverbial participle clauses in 177 Taiwanese senior high school students’ English compositions. Data were collected by asking EFL participants to finish a multiple-picture guided writing task in which rich occurrence of participle clauses was expected. Another set of data was collected from 23 native speakers, whose written production served as the reference norm on which the comparison with EFL participants’ production was based. Employing qualitative methods, this study focuses on (1) the comparison of the frequency of adverbial participle clauses in learner and native data, (2) the exploration of semantic relations of participle clauses produced by EFL learners, and (3) error analysis of learner productions in form and function. The results show that Taiwanese EFL learners in this study used more instances of adverbial participle clauses than the native participants, a finding that demonstrates the effect of intensive teaching and pattern practice our EFL learners receive in high school English curriculum. In addition, the analysis of semantic relations of participle clauses in learner data indicates that EFL learners behaved similarly with native speakers in that less informative relations were largely represented while more informative relations were mostly underrepresented in a depictive genre. Finally, analysis of learner errors reveals serious problems in the production of functionally proper participle clauses for both high and low level learners. These functional errors include (1) the misapplication of adverbial participle clauses in terms of problematic logical connection and the failure to recognize the backgroundiung function performed by participle construction, and (2) problematic ordering distribution. Moreover, errors made by EFL learners of different proficiency levels were further analyzed, and it was found that they have difficulty in different aspects, though functional errors still seem most common to learners of all levels. Following the analysis of learner errors, the present study argues that EFL learners’ problems with the production of participle clauses are related to EFL interlanguage as well as misleading presentation and inadequate explanation of the participle construction in the participants’ EFL textbooks. To contribute to EFL formal grammar instruction in English curriculum in Taiwan, this study proposes pedagogical implications and suggestions in hopes of improving Taiwanese high school learners’ production of participle clauses in writing.