An Analysis of Topical Structure in Argumentative Essays of EFL Learners

Authors : Bilal GENÇ, Volkan DARMAZ, Namık ÜLKERSOY

Pages : 33-39

View : 25 | Download : 11

Publication Date : 2018-12-01

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :In teaching and learning foreign language teachers and learners aim to improve four skills to the extent which is considered native-like or at least advanced. Quite naturally success in each skill is assessed based on different parameters. This paper explores improvement in writing skills of English language learners through the examinations of compositions written in May of 2014 and 2017. Syntactic and lexical complexities alongside with topical structure analysis are used to discover the potential improvement between the two groups of papers written by 31 participants of the study. The statistical analyses revealed that there were statistically significant differences between the two performances of the participant students writing performances in terms of lexical complexity and a remarkable though not significant improvement in their syntactic complexity.
Keywords : topical structure analysis, argumentative essay