An appraisal analysis of the samples for Ielts writing task – a pedagogical Perspective

Abstract

This study examined the syntactic and semantic aspects of argumentative essays of IELTS writing task 2 (AEIWT2) written by students at an English center in Da Nang from the perspectives of Martin's (2005) appraisal framework and Halliday's (2004) systemic functional linguistics. Besides, the study analyzed students' AEIWT2 in terms of theme and rheme in the sample texts collected. The data were gathered with the qualitative and quantitative methods in order to determine the kinds of JUDGEMENT that students apply to their writing. Based on the research questions, the findings were discussed. First, a thorough analysis of each type of JUDGEMENT and its subcategories was conducted in order to assess the semantic features of the identified JUDGEMENT in the AEIWT2. Second, word groups and the theme-rheme structure of the linguistic items in the data that indicated judgment were discussed in relation to their syntactic characteristics. Through the data collected, the number of words of evaluative language belonging to subsystem JUDGEMENT used by students at the English Center for AEIWT2 was low. Besides, there was a large difference in the quantity of linguistic items of JUDGEMENT used in students’ AEIWT2. Therefore, the ability to persuade readers to seek agreement on the points raised in AEIWT2 was not high. It was anticipated that the study helped educators and English language learners comprehend the appraisal framework better, and students were able to use their teachers' teaching strategies to learn how to use appraisal resources when writing AEIWT2