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Themes in Swedish advanced learners' writing in English

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Abstract

Advanced non-native learners’ writing may contain very few grammar mistakes but still appear somewhat deviant from native writing. This study investigates to what extent this deviance may be a result of differences in the non-native learners’ organization of information. Using a Systemic Functional Linguistic approach, it compares theme selection and thematic variation in argumentative writing by Swedish advanced learners in the International Corpus of Learner English and native speakers in the Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays. The results show that the Swedish learners’ themes tend to contain more interpersonal information. The Swedish learners also tend to overuse cleft constructions, especially to thematize new information and to express personal opinions. This results in a more emphatic style of persuasion and greater involvement and interaction with the reader.

Abstract

Advanced non-native learners’ writing may contain very few grammar mistakes but still appear somewhat deviant from native writing. This study investigates to what extent this deviance may be a result of differences in the non-native learners’ organization of information. Using a Systemic Functional Linguistic approach, it compares theme selection and thematic variation in argumentative writing by Swedish advanced learners in the International Corpus of Learner English and native speakers in the Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays. The results show that the Swedish learners’ themes tend to contain more interpersonal information. The Swedish learners also tend to overuse cleft constructions, especially to thematize new information and to express personal opinions. This results in a more emphatic style of persuasion and greater involvement and interaction with the reader.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors vii
  4. Introduction: Corpora and language teaching 1
  5. Part 1. Corpora and second-language acquisition
  6. The contribution of learner corpora to second language acquisition and foreign language teaching: A critical evaluation 13
  7. Some thoughts on corpora and second-language acquisition 33
  8. Part 2. The direct corpus approach
  9. Who benefits from learning how to use corpora? 47
  10. Oslo Interactive English : Corpus-driven exercises on the Web 67
  11. Corpus research and practice: What help do teachers need and what can we offer? 83
  12. Part 3. The indirect corpus approach
  13. Themes in Swedish advanced learners' writing in English 101
  14. Thematic choice and expression of stance in English argumentative texts by Norwegian learners 121
  15. The usefulness of corpus-based descriptions of English for learners: The case of relative frequency 141
  16. Part 4. New types of corpora
  17. Income/interest/net : Using internal criteria to determine the aboutness of a text 157
  18. New types of corpora for new educational challenges: Collecting, annotating and exploiting a corpus of textbook material 179
  19. The grammar of conversation in advanced spoken learner English: Learner corpus data and language-pedagogical implications 203
  20. Index 231
Corpora and Language Teaching
This chapter is in the book Corpora and Language Teaching
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.33.11her

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors vii
  4. Introduction: Corpora and language teaching 1
  5. Part 1. Corpora and second-language acquisition
  6. The contribution of learner corpora to second language acquisition and foreign language teaching: A critical evaluation 13
  7. Some thoughts on corpora and second-language acquisition 33
  8. Part 2. The direct corpus approach
  9. Who benefits from learning how to use corpora? 47
  10. Oslo Interactive English : Corpus-driven exercises on the Web 67
  11. Corpus research and practice: What help do teachers need and what can we offer? 83
  12. Part 3. The indirect corpus approach
  13. Themes in Swedish advanced learners' writing in English 101
  14. Thematic choice and expression of stance in English argumentative texts by Norwegian learners 121
  15. The usefulness of corpus-based descriptions of English for learners: The case of relative frequency 141
  16. Part 4. New types of corpora
  17. Income/interest/net : Using internal criteria to determine the aboutness of a text 157
  18. New types of corpora for new educational challenges: Collecting, annotating and exploiting a corpus of textbook material 179
  19. The grammar of conversation in advanced spoken learner English: Learner corpus data and language-pedagogical implications 203
  20. Index 231
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