Improving writing skills of efl students through textlinguistics

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DIVISION OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

A MASTER’S THESIS

IMPROVING WRITING SKILLS OF EFL

STUDENTS THROUGH

TEXTLINGUISTICS

FATMA ÖZKAN

ADVISOR

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Muhlise COŞKUN ÖGEYİK

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am heartily thankful to my advisor Assoc. Prof. Dr. Muhlise COŞKUN ÖGEYİK whose encouragement, guidance and support from the initial to the final level enabled me to write this thesis study by developing an understanding of the subject. She provided me with invaluable feedback in each phase of the study.

I would like to extend my sincere thanks to prep class students who participated in this study. With their great contribution to my study, this research has been possible.

I owe special thanks to my friend and colleague Aslı ÖZEN who never hesitated to help me by providing with documents and gave encouragement throughout my study. My intimate thanks also go to my friends and colleagues Cazibe YİĞİT and Neslihan ERE who have contributions in the implementation process of the study. Furthermore, I offer my regards to all of those including friends and colleagues Esin, Öngül, Özge and Yeliz in the office who supported me in any respect during the completion of the study.

My greatest and sincere thanks also go to my family for supporting me and caring my little son throughout the preparation of my thesis. Without their unconditional support and understanding I could have never completed this study.

Last but not least, I am deeply grateful to my dear husband Levent ÖZKAN for giving continual support and being so motivating throughout the study.

This thesis is dedicated to my son, Bora ÖZKAN. Life blessed me with the opportunity to have him. With his presence, I have been more creative, determined and inspired in my studies.

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Title: Improving Writing Skills of EFL Students through Textlinguistics Author: Fatma ÖZKAN

ABSTRACT

The aim of the present study is to investigate the effect of textlinguistics on writing instruction in foreign language and its impact on gaining awareness towards text types. The design of the study is based on action research procedure since the study explores the probable effects of textlinguistic analysis of different texts in promoting the achievement of writing skills during their learning processes. The participants of the study consisted of 25 advanced level students of a preparatory class in the School of Foreign Languages at Trakya University. The departments of the students are English Language Teaching, and English Translation and Interpretation. The study carried out in the fall term of 2010-2011 academic year lasted eleven weeks. The students were given a pre-test before the implementation in order to determine their success in writing skill and then they were given the same test at the end of the study as a post-test in order to find out to what extent they could improve their writing skill. The results were statistically analyzed. Moreover, as a qualitative research method, the reflection letter and classroom observation were used. According to the research results, using textlinguistic analysis and introducing text types had a positive effect on promoting writing skills in English and developing awareness towards text types.

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Başlık: Yabancı Dil Öğrencilerin Yazma Becerilerinin Metindilbilim Yoluyla Geliştirilmesi

Yazar: Fatma ÖZKAN

ÖZET

Bu çalışmanın amacı metindilbilimin yabancı dilde yazma becerileri üzerindeki etkisini ve metin türlerine farkındalık kazandırmadaki faydasını araştırmaktır. Çalışmanın modeli eylem araştırma yöntemine göre hazırlanmış olup; çalışma, hazırlık öğrencilerinin öğrenme süreci içinde yazma becerilerini geliştirmede, farklı metinlerin metindilbilimsel analizinin olası etkilerini araştırmayı hedeflemektedir. Çalışmanın katılımcıları, Trakya Üniversitesi Yabancı Diller Yüksekokulu’nda aynı hazırlık sınıfında bulunan 25 ileri seviye grubu öğrencilerinden oluşmaktadır. Öğrencilerin bölümleri İngilizce Öğretmenliği ve İngilizce Mütercim Tercümanlık’tır. 2010–2011 eğitim-öğretim yılının güz yarıyılında gerçekleştirilen bu çalışmanın uygulaması 11 hafta sürmüştür. Öğrencilere, uygulamadan önce yazma becerisinde ne kadar başarılı olduklarını görebilmek için ön-test verilmiştir; daha sonra ise yazma becerilerini ne kadar geliştirdiklerini belirlemek için aynı test uygulama sonunda son-test olarak verilmiştir. Sonuçlar istatistiksel olarak değerlendirilmiştir. Bunun yanında, nitel araştırma için düşünce yansıtma mektubu ve sınıf içi gözlem metotları kullanılmıştır. Araştırmanın sonuçlarına göre, metindilbilim incelemesi ve metin türlerinin tanıtılması, öğrencilerin yazma becerilerini geliştirmede olumlu etkisinin olduğu görülmüştür.

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THE LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Syllabus Types...56

Table 2: Research Procedure of the Treatment Group...82

Table 3: The Syllabus of the Writing Course...83

Table 4: The Result of the Wilcoxon Signed-Ranks Test for Pre-test and Post-test ...95

Table 5: The Result of the Wilcoxon Signed-Ranks Test for the First

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THE LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Summary of the Principal Orientations to L2 Writing Teaching ...53

Figure 2: Features of Writing...63

Figure 3: Principles of Textlinguistics ...64

Figure 4: Coherence and Cohesion Development of Students’ Compositions (Line Graph)...98

Figure 5: Coherence and Cohesion Development of Students’ Compositions (Bar Graph) ...99

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CHAPTER I

1.1. INTRODUCTION

As a linguistic discipline, textlinguistics is mainly concerned with the structure of texts by dealing with what the basic structural elements of texts are and how text is created and understood by others as readers. In other words, it attempts to describe what a text is either it is oral or written via linguistic elements thus extending analysis beyond the level of the sentence.

Textlinguistics investigates the diverse processes by which speakers and writers use language to influence human behavior; stresses how effective texts exploit specific linguistic patterns, and tries to define the communicative potential of texts (van Dijk, 1972). Therefore, the study field of textlinguistics takes into account the process and development of written communication and the positions of reader and writer in mutual interaction.

Günay (2003:43) defines textlinguistics as the organization of text including social, intellectual, imaginary and many other constructions in it and Aksan & Aksan (1991) add that any form of communicative or meaningful event can be regarded as a text and therefore can be a subject of textlinguistics.

A text is defined as “a communicative occurrence” by Beaugrande and Dressler (1981:3)and according to them; there are seven standards to question the textuality of a text. These are cohesion, coherence, intentionality, acceptability, informativity, situationality and intertextuality. They claim that if any of these standards are not considered to be satisfied, the text will not be communicative, that’s why a text must fulfill these standards in order to function in human interaction.

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In its study field, textlinguistics includes all kinds of texts and text types. While studying a text it is really beneficial to be aware of the type of text and its characteristics. That’s to say, the reader can understand the text better and become more competent in language skills. Günay (2007: 217) states the text types which readers can come across in daily life as follows:

Narrative Text Types: Novel, memoir Poetic Texts: Poem, song

Media Texts: Declaration, news

Specific Informative Texts: Scientific books Functional Texts: User’s manual

Instructive Texts: Course Books Scientific Texts: Experiments, studies

Occupational Texts: Report, advertisement text

Communication Texts: Formal Correspondences, letters among family members

Texts of warning, notice boards Posters

Studying the properties of all kinds of texts as mentioned above and their usages in communicative interaction, textlinguistics focuses on the patterns of how information flows within and among sentences by looking at aspects of texts like coherence, cohesion, the distribution of topics and comments, and other discourse structures (URL 1). In English Language Teaching (ELT) setting,texts are the tools to reflect the productive and receptive skills of learners. In this sense, productive skills are activated in writing courses, and receptive skills are fostered in reading and listening courses.

Writing skill is perceived as more complex and difficult skill comparing to other language skills by the learners of foreign language. Over the 30 years, the research on teaching writing in foreign language has revealed some issues which are

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still considered as controversial in writing instruction. For instance, Brown (2000) explains that the term “process approach” helps students to understand their own composing process and builds strategies in writing and authenticity. Furthermore, the role of the teacher in writing instruction is emphasized in process approach. Providing students with a wide range of instruction practices and perspectives has a broad impact on their writing performances thus developing strategies in their writing.

In fact, According to Gabrielatos (2002), reading skills are indispensable for the development of writing skills. While dealing with the texts, they also raise awareness towards the steps and strategies of writing by discovering the specific elements of writing and features of text types. He then adds that a comprehensive EFL writing programme requires the systematic treatment of a large number of interrelated elements.

Since language is always connected with communication the learners should be emphasized that it is a tool and necessary to learn to use the communicative function of language in their writing skills as well. As Werlich (1976:14) states “sentence grammars do not tell the learner of a foreign language the whole story about communication by means of language”; therefore, teaching textlinguistics gains importance in improving learners’ writing abilities in foreign language by being exposed students to texts as natural contexts rather than studying isolated sentences. On this crucial point, textlinguistics and teaching writing skills become more related to each other since Beaugrande (1984) mentions texts are studied as a part of a dynamic process characterized by interactions between text and context.

In conclusion, studying linguistic structure of a text, and dealing with coherence and fact of meaning in a text, textlinguistics offers ideas on how to integrate the text into the process of writing and when the learners are introduced specific features of the text type they get familiar with a specific text structure thus taking the opportunity to use them in their writing given in different tasks.

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1.2. Statement of the Problem

The main problem of this study is writing in second language. Of all the four skills, writing is intellectually the most challenging one for learners to gain competence. They mostly have difficulty organizing their ideas, writing coherently and cohesively, reflecting their intentions and purposes. In spite of the difficulties, writing is a skill that can be learned and developed with sufficient practice and an appropriate strategy. Hence, by the use of textlinguistic analysis, the implementation process of the study aims to promote achievement in students’ writing skills in English.

1.3. Aim of the Study

The study aims at discussing the insights of textlinguistics in English Language Teaching field specifically practicing writing skills. As a way to examine written texts as communicative forms, it is also aimed to find out whether learners’ writing skills improve by raising awareness about the text types and textual elements in them. In this way, the study attempts to respond to the need to develop an alternative syllabus design to teach writing in foreign language setting. For that reason, the following research questions and sub-questions are answered at the end of the study.

1) Does the textlinguistic analysis improve writing skills of the prep-class students at Trakya University?

a) Does textlinguistic analysis create awareness about textuality while producing texts?

b) Is there any meaningful effect of textlinguistic analysis on coherence and cohesion of these students’ compositions?

c) How does textlinguistic analysis help students distinguish text types?

2) What are the opinions of the students regarding the textlinguistic analysis for improving writing skills?

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1.4. Significance of the Study

Textlinguistics is regarded as an essential branch of linguistics that could be a strategy for developing writing skills in second language in terms of several aspects. While analyzing grammatical, lexical, contextual and textual features of the text, they will develop awareness towards the concept of text, textual elements, and text types which will enable them to enhance their writing. In this way they will start using these features in their writings and improve their level of literacy in English. Moreover, when they are taught textlinguistics, they may become aware of the different genres they can use depending on the audience, level of formality, etc. Therefore, developing understanding of the language they are learning, the learners may be able to use it in their writing more effectively. The results of this study may assist teachers in designing writing syllabus by the use of text types and textlinguistic analysis of them.

1.5. Assumptions

In this study it is assumed that;

• The linguistic level of participants in the present study is advanced level, and they complete writing tasks asked them to deal with throughout the implementation period by attending the classes regularly.

• Textlinguistic analyses of texts and introducing text types as a strategy in writing course contribute students to write more effectively in English and gain awareness towards text types.

• The findings of the study are going to provide significant contributions for the writing course syllabus at preparatory advanced level classes in particular in the School of Foreign Languages.

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1.6. Restrictions

• The implementation of the study is restricted to fall term of 2010-2011 academic year.

• The research in this study is restricted to twenty-five preparatory students of English Language Teaching and English Translation and Interpretation Departments at Trakya University.

1.7. Concepts

Linguistics: Linguistics studies language. It is the scientific study of human languages, which seeks answers to the questions of “what is language?” and “how is it represented in human mind?” “The main purpose of linguistics is to reveal the universal qualities of language” (Tercanlıoğlu, 2000: 51).

Textlinguistics: Textlinguistics is the field of linguistics primarily concerned with the analysis of written texts. It deals with how texts function both as internally coherent systems and how certain kinds of texts function in relation to their larger sociological contexts. It takes into account the form of a text, “but also its setting, i.e. the way in which it is situated in an interactional, communicative context”. Both the author of a text and its addressee are taken into consideration in their respective roles in the specific communicative context (URL 2).

Seven Principles of Textuality:

1- Cohesion: Cohesion describes the ways in which components of the sentences of a text, i.e. the words we actually hear and use, are mutually connected grammatically and lexically (URL 3).

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2- Coherence: Coherence deals with the whole text and analyses it as semantic unity.

3- Intentionality: Every text has an aim and produced with this aim by the writer. It deals with communicating with his readers and creating influence on readers.

4- Acceptability: Acceptability requires that a sequence of sentences be acceptable to the intended audience in order to qualify as a text (Renkema, 1993:60).

5- Informativity: Informativity broadly has to do with the way in which parts of the text have communicative value.

6- Situationality: Situationality is related to the concepts of time and place. It should be identified in the borders of the text.

7- Intertextuality: Intertextuality is the shaping of texts’ meanings by the presence of actual elements of other texts (URL 4).

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1. 8. Abbreviations

EFL : English as a Foreign Language ELT : English Language Teaching

ETI : English Translation and Interpretation ESL : English as a Second Language

FL : Foreign Language

L1 : First Language

L2 : Second Language

SLA : Second Language Acquisition

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CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE

2.1. Linguistics and ELT

The term linguistics refers to the study of language and languages; its primary goal is to enlighten the nature of language. As a recent academic discipline, like other intellectual disciplines and also a scientific area, contemporary linguistics investigates the rationale behind languages. Increasing our knowledge and understanding of the world, linguistics is composed of several branches and approaches that are also called theories of linguistics. Each theory of linguistics deals with one aspect of the language, contributing us the understanding of linguistic description from different theories. Moreover, since language and communication are, by all means, very complicated aspects of our lives, linguistics has a vital impact on many other disciplines such as education, language teaching, sociology, philosophy, computer science, anthropology, etc. They all serve to answer the questions regarding the nature of language and how people communicate.

Contributing to the development of language teaching theory, linguistics plays a significant role in the whole process of teaching. Linguistics influences language teaching on many aspects. Fundamentally, it provides an understanding of the nature of language being taught and its use. It also directs the teacher while teaching the components and the elements of language such as phonemes, words, phrases, etc.; how they are combined to get larger pieces, and how these pieces are constructed; i. e. grammar, structure. Grammar of a language is considered as the main component that must be taught first in language classes. Siobhan states that:

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…the description of a natural language is divided into three different categories: the phonological, the semantic and the syntactic. The phonological description of a language concerns the way in which its sounds are patterned and related. Semantics concerns the meanings of the individual words contained in a language, and also the meanings which result when these words are combined in various ways. Syntax is the study of these ways of combining words: the regularities which can be observed in the construction of sentences. These three branches of linguistic description are seen as totally separate and independent from each other, but together they make up the grammar of the language (2000:5).

Thus, it is seen that linguistics cannot be separated from teaching, and the sound system, structures and the lexicon are organized for language teaching purposes. It also contributes learners to gain language awareness in their learning process. While planning an English language teaching program, all aspects of language are needed to include.

Linguistics also contributes to applied linguistics which mainly relates to language teaching and the problems faced in the area. Being a fairly modern discipline, applied linguistics conducts researches in the field of practical teaching in a pedagogical context. Specifically, it investigates how a person learns a foreign language in the language classroom. Moreover, it deals with the studies on linguistic analysis. According to applied linguists, teaching a language makes necessary the analysis of the language first. The scope of linguistic analysis involves semantic studies, textlinguistics, discourse analysis and all kinds of language in which language is accepted as a social phenomenon. In this context, applied linguistics is accepted as multi-disciplinary. As Halliday reveals,

Our practice as language teachers depends more on our being able to adopt the complementary perspectives of two conflicting themes, that of ‘learning’ and that of ‘meaning’, than on putting together pieces from linguistics with from psychology and sociology (1992:61).

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The field of language teaching requires studying several disciplines such as linguistics, psychology, pedagogy, sociology since the nature of language and language learning cover all these disciplines. Language teachers make use of the ideas and the findings of research on language teaching of these disciplines in their profession.

In conclusion, Lado (1946) implies that language teaching derived from linguistic theory. Linguistics is about language and we teach language, so both first language teaching and foreign language teaching benefit from linguistics.

2.2. Recent Linguistic Theories

Throughout the history of linguistics or language studies, different aspects of language came into prominence, and each aspect was acceptable in its own right and seen as valuable to study on it. For instance, in nineteenth century, historical linguistics also called as diachronic linguistics dealt with the ‘states of the language’ which aimed to show the process of how languages changed through ages. Then, at the beginning of twentieth century, Saussure, whose ideas contributed a lot for significant developments in linguistics, emphasized the importance of two different aspects of language studies, which he called “synchronic” and “diachronic”. By his distinction, contemporary linguistic studies started and linguists focused on synchronic analysis which studied a language at one particular period of time. Although it experienced many changes in its aims, methods or theoretical positions, contemporary linguistics as a field obtained considerable achievements in particular periods. Each theory developed from the previously existing one, and provided the starting point for the next one.

Actually, the point for any change and new trends in research can be regarded as the products of the factors concerning the social context. Since the late 1960s language studies have transferred from description of structure, vocabulary

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and sound system into the language use especially naturally occurring contexts and discourse properties of a language. Traditional linguists focused on analyzing single sentences or other statements in an isolated way, but contemporary linguists have devoted themselves to study the functional side of language. As a result of the development of communicative side of language, the notion of meaning and use has been emphasized in linguistic studies, and language has been perceived in social and cultural contexts.

Stern touches upon the changes in language studies after the 1960s by stating:

Since the late 1960s, language has begun to be viewed increasingly in social, pragmatic, and semantic terms. Sociolinguistics as a discipline has established itself. Discourse analysis has related language to interpersonal realities. In other words, a whole area which in the past had been one of the main justifications for a cultural emphasis is now part of the treatment of language itself (1992:211).

Furthermore, the change as the ‘pragmatic turn’ in linguistics is described by Mey as “a shift from the paradigm of theoretical grammar in particular, syntax to the paradigm of the language user” (2001:4).

From this brief historical review of linguistics in particular after the 1960s, it can be drawn that at the present stage of linguistic studies, spoken language, functions of discourse in social context, and communicative aim of texts have become important in language studies. Verbal utterances have begun to be seen not only as sentences, but also specific forms of social action. This development of linguistics towards a study of language use will be explained in detail. Within this framework, textlinguistics which is the focus of this current thesis will be brought out by focusing on the pragmatic concept to which textlinguistics is strongly related; in addition, discourse analysis will be discussed to make a distinction between the two notions “textlinguistics” and “discourse analysis”.

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2.2.1. Pragmatics

After its introduction as a theory into linguistics in the late 1960s, pragmatics has brought a new perspective to language studies since earlier theories have become inadequate to explain the meaning in context that is beyond words. Pragmatics has put the emphasis on the social function of language in use. It focuses on explaining language use in context. Referring to the social language skills that we use in our daily interactions with others, pragmatics is interested in both what we say in a particular situation and how we say it. As Crystal noted, pragmatics includes “factors that govern our choice of language in social interaction and the effects of our choice on others” (1987:120). As mentioned, the meaning is dependent on the speaker, the addressee and other characteristics of the context of utterance. Considering following conversation:

A: I get bored.

B: I will change the channel then,

Here, there is a communicative intention. Such an utterance of A shows that rather than focusing on the literal meaning of his/her statement, it is understood that s/he produces a communicative act. S/he means that s/he does not enjoy while sitting and watching the same channel. S/he wants the receiver to do something to entertain him/her. It may be going out with him/her or just changing the TV channel. In other words, B deduces an inference and regards the sentence as a request since the context of situation enables him/her to think so. S/he interprets that A requests him/her to change the channel.

Pragmatics took its origin from the theory of semiosis, simply known as sign process for the meaning production. Morris (1938) discussed that semantics searched for the connections between signs and objects to which the signs are applicable, so pragmatics should be engaged in the relationships between the signs and their users

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and interpreters. That is to say, in the functioning of signs, pragmatics deals with psychological, biological and sociological aspects of semiosis (Morris, 1938 cited in Verschueren 2001:83). Therefore, it can be asserted that unlike traditional theories of linguistics, pragmatics is regarded as interdisciplinary. As language use is related to human beings, then it should be related to the conceptions of society, culture and cognition.

Sapir (1929: 209, 214) considers language as a cultural and social product and insists on being understood as such. In the scope of this social fact, pragmatics also helps to understand people’s utterances mutually, and clarifying the ambiguities in terms of meaning in social life, particular in social language interactions. Therefore, pragmatics includes a number of theories such as speech act theory, felicity conditions, conversational implicature, deixis, politeness, relevance, conversational maxims. All these theories contribute to arrange social relations between people by bringing a pragmatic view to their language use.

Moreover, one of the study areas of pragmatics is the context in which language is used. As the context affects the meaning of utterances of language users, it aims to explain how the meaning changes in different contexts by examining the utterances and their functions. For instance, the sign “Baby Sale- lots of bargains” stuck in a kid wear shop intends to say that there are clothes or equipment for babies. The sign does not say that there are babies which are for sale. It is the context in which language is used prevents us from misinterpreting the sign. There is shared contextual knowledge with the writer of the text. However, Mey (2001:16) argues that sometimes the same content is expressed differently in different contexts. It is because language communities show differences while expressing certain utterances. To illustrate this, Mey mentions about two traffic signs which intend to express the same warning for the drivers when the highway road starts climbing a hill.

In the US; the traffic sign says: SLOWER TRAFFIC KEEP RIGHT

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Yet, in Canada; it says:

KEEP RIGHT EXCEPT TO PASS

(Mey, 2001:16)

For the same context, although the same warning is intended to be used these two traffic signs are linguistically different. Semantic content of them are partly the same. As it is seen, language use is all about meaning, and meaning of a linguistic expression may vary in different situations. Meaning is something contextual concerning language and the world. In brief; pragmatics fills the gap in terms of explaining the human language behavior.

2.2.2. Discourse and Discourse Analysis

Broadly speaking, discourse analysis is regarded as a method in social science disciplines, and it has become a very wide area of study in different disciplines since language analysis is accepted very significant method for studying social phenomena. But it has recently developed as a linguistic term and approach to the analysis of language since language had a more dominant role in social context in around 1970s and it has become a study area of the social functions of language.

According to Fairclough (1992), the term ‘discourse’ primarily focuses on the situational context of language and it has two dimensions; one of which is the sample of spoken dialogue and the other is the sample of written text. Therefore, the interaction between speaker and addressee or between writer and reader is the main concern of discourse in dealing with production and interpretation of speech and writing. Moreover, language use and communication require the interest in social context, therefore discourse studies are not related to only linguistic facts, and there are many other aspects beyond this discipline. Van Dijk stresses that:

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…discourse analysis for me is essentially multidisciplinary, and involves linguistics, poetics, semiotics, psychology, sociology, anthropology, history, and communication research. What I find crucial though is that precisely because of its multi-faceted nature, this multidisciplinary research should be integrated. We should devise theories that are complex and account both for the textual, the cognitive, the social, the political and the historical dimension of discourse (2002:10).

Thus, discourse studies consider the study of language in use in a broad sense and it becomes the interest of a variety of disciplines. As language and communication are the significant parts of social action, it makes the study of discourse necessary to entail other research areas.

However, the focus of discourse analysis whether any form of written (text) and spoken language (speech) or just the spoken language has not been agreed among linguists and researchers yet. Crystal defines discourse as “a continuous stretch of (especially spoken) language larger that a sentence, often constituting a coherent unit such as a sermon, argument, joke or narrative” (1992:25). Paltridge (2006:1), on the other hand, uses ‘text’ to refer to the term ‘discourse’ and discusses different views of discourse analysis. He mentions two views of discourse analysis; one is ‘textually-oriented view’ that is related to language features of the text and the other is ‘socially-oriented view’ of discourse analysis that is about what the text is doing in the social and cultural context in which it occurs. Furthermore, Nunan states that “discourse brings together language, the individuals producing the language, and the context within the language is used” (1993:6). So, discourse analysis includes some necessary parts and studies their relationships.

People are continuously engaged in communication in their social life, the main interest of discourse analysis is the knowledge about language beyond its elements such as the word, phrase or sentence. Therefore, as Brown and Yule (1983) mention discourse analysis necessarily includes semantic, syntactic and pragmatic studies. Taking contextual considerations into account, it is mostly related to

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pragmatics. Then, they add “in discourse analysis, as in pragmatics, we are concerned with what people using language are doing, and accounting for the linguistic features in the discourse as the means employed in what they are doing” (1983:26). Moreover, discourse analysis examines what strategies or tools are needed for successful communication and how effects of the language use among the participants in their social relations. In other words, discourse analysis contributes to the study of language in use.

As noted above, Discourse Analysis has been described as analysis of the aspects of language use although there is disagreement between linguists whether it covers text, speech and context. Concerning the different views of linguists, it can be said that the term discourse is restricted to spoken language whereas the term text is used for written language, and it is Textlinguistics, emerged as the most recent discipline within the field of Linguistics, studies written texts. In this respect, it is crucial to define textlinguistics and its history in order to identify the discipline and distinguish its study fields from Discourse Analysis.

2.2.3. Textlinguistics and Its Historical Background

Textlinguistics has developed as a discipline that makes the linguistic studies possible to go beyond the sentence level and search for meaning inside the text by examining its structure. Taking text as the largest unit while using language in a communicative setting, textlinguistics considers that meaning is not presented in the single isolated sentence so it should be sought in the relations between sentences that contribute to a text for making sense.

The early studies with text and the origins of language analysis are to be found in Rhetoric which is a 2,500-year-old discipline, and began with the Greek sophists and Aristotle (Beaugrande & Dressler, 1981; Putnam & Fairhurst, 2001; Smith, 2003). Since ancient times when people interacted with others by using

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language, they have aimed to express their thoughts in an effective and competent way by the use of language. Thus rhetoric emphasizes strategies of effective communication and expression. Its basic statement is defined by Enkvist as: “If you want to be effective in situation S, you will do wisely in using communicative strategies and linguistic expressions of types a, b and c” (1985:16). As it is seen rhetoricians were interested in finding the ways for effectiveness in interaction. Moreover, rhetoric shares a number of common concerns with textlinguistics as the assumptions stated below are observed closely:

a) the accessing and arranging of ideas is open to systematic control; b) the transition between ideas and expressions can be subjected to

conscious training;

c) among the various texts which express a given configuration of ideas, some are of higher quality than others;

d) judgments of texts can be made in terms of their effects upon the audience of receivers;

e) texts are vehicles of purposeful interaction

(Beaugrande and Dressler, 1981:15).

Both rhetoric and textlinguistics are involved in seeking building structures through using some operations of decision and selection for communication. What’s more, textlinguistics views text as a system resulting from selection and decision-making in a sustaining process, so it examines the stages of interactive operations that leads to the text production.

However, in the beginning of the 1970s, several approaches to text analysis appeared. The evolution of textlinguistics as a linguistic theory is substantially connected with the pragmatic turning point began at that time. Pragmatic language studies that are related to the use of language in different situational contexts have brought about that sociological aspect of language and the necessity of a unit beyond the sentence became vital for further language studies (Şenöz, 2005:21). Considering the situational contexts, the features of the sentences can be simply resolved. Both internal and external features of a text are of importance to understanding the whole structure and function of text.

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As the interpretation of a text is determined by a combination of its deep and surface structures, textlinguistics takes into account the surface and deep structures of texts. Surface structure of a text shows how the information is organized in a sentence, and text is not just the arrangement of words. It is deep structure of a text that helps readers understand the internal organization of sentences. In close analysis of a text the linguistic forms, its structure, type, what information is conveyed to, whether it is direct or indirect, what the writer intends to mean, and its relationship with the reader are considered.

Contributing to the development of methods in text analysis, textlinguistics explores how text is organized, and determines the social, intellectual, imaginary, and many other constructions which are already included in text (Günay, 2007:52). Text is the primary object of inquiry in textlinguistics. It considers text as a whole and focal point, and deals with the studies focusing on text as the study field. In addition, according to Kıran (2001), it is assumed that there are six fundamental levels of texts which seek the text structure, its functions, how they are built, and topical developments as well as aiming to determine the text types by making use of the data. The six levels of text are explained as:

1. Pragmatic level: the relation between text and its users is identified in a specific context.

2. Thematic level: the thematic development of text and its theme should be restricted. The principle of coherence that is the presence of sentences and utterances such as main theme, sub-theme, proofs, examples, quotations, etc. following one another in terms of syntactic, semantic and usage in accordance with the principle of noncontradiction should be paid attention in a text.

3. Semantic level: the meaning of text, sentence and word is analyzed comprehensively.

4. Syntactic level: the syntactic organization of the text is examined in this level. The relations of syntax and coherence, syntax and speech acts

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should be taken into consideration since the concepts of textual coherence and speech acts are considered as the core of text analysis.

5. Rhetorical level: the existence and analysis of figure of speeches such as repetition, antiphrasis, irony, metonymy, metaphor, rhyme, alliteration. 6. Ideological level: Each individual ‘text producer’ using language conveys

thoughts and values settled in language to others. On account of the dialectic between language and thought, it becomes inevitable to add ideological level to the text analysis (Kıran, 2001:280).

Through these levels of textlinguistics stated above, text is analyzed in terms of linguistic, grammatical, textual and contextual features. As Kvam (2010: 24) mentions “in its modern pragmatic form, textlinguistics aims on the one hand to describe the grammatical/semantic structure of texts, and on the other hand their social functions”.

Furthermore, Günay (2007:53) claims that textlinguistics identifies the functions and the limits of the reader and writer in writer-text-reader triangle and defines the communication held through language and text between these two poles. And text can be regarded as a dynamic process since language is used as a tool for communication by the writer to express something thus achieving his/her intentions.

2.2.3.1. Text

While dealing with a text as a subject of study or just for pleasure, one, at first, may not consider how different meanings are acquired even from words. “Words, words, words” as Shakespeare’s Hamlet teasingly shouts in the play, are the starting-point of discovering meanings, and what’s more is the additional effort to concentrate on the textual interpretation. From the outside, one never knows what a passage of text is supposed to mean. Focusing on a text, the interpreter carefully seeks both grammatical structures, meanings of words, sentences, paragraphs, simply

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discourse of it. With reference to contemporary theories of linguistics and interpretation, structural, textual and meaning oriented conceptions are analyzed in a text.

Although it has become a technical term that is mostly used in literary theory and linguistics, the word ‘text’ derives etymologically from Latin word ‘textus’, something woven or plaited. In accordance with its derivation, it is the combination of sentences in a logical way that creates unity. The term ‘texture’ is used by Halliday and Hasan (1976) in order to distinguish text from something that is not a text. Then, they add that “it derives this texture from the fact that it functions as a unity with respect to its environment” (1976:2). A text without a texture is just a collection of isolated sentences, and without any relationship they would not follow each other in a form of progression that helps create a context for meaning in text.

Another perspective for a text to handle is its communicative function. Stressing the importance of language as tool for social interaction, Halliday and Hasan (1989) define text, also as a language that is functional. They believe that text cannot be approached without its situational context in which it is embedded. It is not likely to consider text as accumulation of isolated structures since all the utterances are doing the same job in a particular context. In a basic sense text is a semantic unit. It consists of words, sentences and combined units that are meaningful components in context. This meaningful unit contributes to the communicative function of a text. Hence, text is determined both semantically and socially constructed pattern (1989:10). Further Grabe and Kaplan inspired by Hyme’s communicative competence ( Hymes, 1972, cited in Grabe and Kaplan, 1996: 40) note that text may be described directly as ‘ a text occurs when the discourse segment is identified as possible, feasible, appropriate, and performed, and has a topic’.

Although each text has both a grammatical and a semantic structure, and in this sense it is viewed as a linguistic category, text is also placed in a social category. Kvam et al (2010:22) states that “texts create and interpret meaning, realize power,

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define social processes, as well as creating and developing social roles”. In this manner, it can be argued that texts are significant components of human interaction, and should not be considered only a main category in linguistics. Through texts we construct and shape our lives.

It is a fact that a text is written as an attempt to communicate with the reader. Having particular intentions and aims while producing it, the writer conveys information to the reader. Therefore, each text is structured to interact with its reader within certain principles such as linguistic, sociological and psychological (Widdowson, 1980). Then, the text belongs to a specific text type since it obtains particular aims and properties. In some texts the writer addresses a general audience and presumes a general knowledge whereas the other’s target audience is a specific group in a specific situation.

Concerning the contributions of techniques and traditions to text analysis, Grabe and Kaplan point out the view that “text is a multidimensional construct; that is; no unidimensional analysis of text can offer an adequate interpretation of the nature of text” (1996:39). There are many distinctions proposed by researchers related to a text, and it is hard to examine these linguistic distinctions and features in terms of only one dimension; otherwise textual analysis becomes restricted. Furthermore, Hudson mentions that “the most obvious fact about discourse structure is that many different kinds of structure run through discourse, and any attempt to reduce them to a single type is bound to fail” (1980:131).

Smith (2003: 259) argues that “texts consist of functional units that are hierarchically structured, each contributing to the purpose of the whole. The units each realize a goal and may have smaller units with their own sub-goals”. Those units as a whole contribute to the textuality principles of a text.

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2.2.3.2. Seven Principles of Textuality

In textlinguistic analysis, a text is defined as a ‘communicative occurrence’ and textuality is questioned in a text. Beaugrande and Dressler (1981) mention seven standards of textuality. Communicative text is considered which meet these standards of textuality whereas ‘non-communicative texts’ are regarded as ‘non-texts’. Namely, the principles of textuality are:

9 Coherence 9 Cohesion 9 Informativity 9 Intentionality 9 Acceptability 9 Situationality 9 Intertextuality 9 Coherence

Coherence is considered as the main and ideal standard for textuality since it creates unity in a whole text. Therefore it helps text to be understood precisely, and in that way the text makes sense for the reader. Introducing one of the standards of textuality, Beaugrande and Dressler, describe coherence that contains the system where the aspects of knowledge are activated such that their conceptual connectivity is maintained (1981: 3-10). According to Neubert and Shreve,”a coherent text has an underlying logical structure that acts to guide the reader through the text” (1992:94). On the part of the reader, interpretation of a text is succeeded only when the text is coherent. Coherence is the central issue for comprehending a text. The reader links related pieces of information in the text, and creates connected representation of the information in it. That is why; coherence indicates the mental representation of a text and should be conceived as a result of mental operations on a text (Sanford and Moxey, 1995: 161-162).

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As referring to the grammatical and lexical properties which are on the surface of a text, cohesion can establish connections between the parts of the text. Coherence, on the other hand, is associated with the underlying meaning structure of a text. Coherence somewhat results from the existence of cohesion devices in text, cohesion makes coherence syntactically and semantically apparent in text. Therefore, cohesion contributes coherence in text since cohesion is one of the indicators for coherence in a text. It can be asserted that these two concepts are related; nevertheless, they should be thought as separate. These two properties cannot be thought separately in a text. In line with this view, Tanskanen points out:

There is interplay between them in that presence of cohesive devices in a text facilitates the task recognizing its coherence… Successful communication depends on both cohesion and coherence, which are simultaneously independent and intertwined (2006:21).

Therefore, it can be stated that cohesion makes an effect by the selection of the words and expressions which tie sentences in a text. However, coherence focuses on the effect how these words and expressions have a role in meaning of the text. Coherence is not just between the reader and the text, but also between the other participants in the interaction process.

In addition, Reinhart (1980) argues that for a text to be coherent and well-established, it must have the characteristics of connectedness, consistency, and relevance. The first of them, connectedness in a text is achieved if the clauses of a text are connected by either referentially or semantically. Connectivity is more dependent on semantic relations in a text. The second one, consistency means that the preceding sentence has to be logically consistent with the following one. And, the last feature, relevance is that each sentence of the discourse has to be relevant to main theme of a text.

“Most of us take the process of learning for granted since it is something that we have been doing for all of our lives. What do we really mean by the word

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learning? The teachers in the vignette above expressed different ideas about what constitutes learning and about what happens when learning takes place. Some teachers make the assumption that because they are teaching, their students will automatically learn. Others set benchmarks in order to recognize certain behaviors when they occur—the assumption being that the behaviors are indicators of learning. That these teachers had different ideas about learning is not uncommon. In fact, if you were able to compare your answers to the reflection task above with a partner, it is likely that your views about learning and about how these teachers constructed their notions of learning were different” (Murray and Christison, 2011:140).

What conditions make such paragraph coherent? The writers discuss the meaning of learning. The paragraph revolves around the concept learning and provides definitions of different teacher groups for readers. The writers make use of semantic connectors between the sentences in order to link the statements. Moreover, consistency is obtained between the preceding and the following sentences. At the end of the paragraph, the writer concludes his/her paragraph with the statement which intends to relate the reader to the text. It can be claimed that the statements in the text are linked to each other consistently and meaningfully, so the paragraph cited as an example is said to be coherent.

9 Cohesion

In a wide sense, cohesion establishes connection within a text. It holds all the grammatical and lexical ties together as if there are some dependent links between the items to create meaning. It is related to the surface structure of the text in which semantic links are created between sentences, clausal units, and paragraph boundaries of the text. Similarly, Grabe and Kaplan define it as” the surface manifestation of the underlying relations that bind a text” (1996:56). In addition, they assert that cohesion does not provide an entire explanation of the textual interpretation of a text, but it is a significant indicator.

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There are various devices by which cohesion operates. Halliday and Hasan (1976:29) identify five general categories of cohesive devices. These are ‘reference, ellipsis, substitution, lexical cohesion, and grammatical cohesion (conjunction). Additionally, it is essential to include ‘recurrence’, ‘parallelism’, ‘paraphrasing ’, ‘complex repetition’, ‘intonation’, ‘inferences’, ‘comparison’, and ‘motifs and themes’ because they are mostly focused on.

Subsequently, some of the cohesive devices will be exemplified.

a. Reference

Some items in a language have the property of reference. They are assigned to make reference to something else. There are personal, demonstrative and comparative reference types in English. Furthermore, for textual reference, the reference item is called endophoric. Endophoric reference is classified as anaphoric and cataphoric references.

a.1. Anaphoric Reference

It refers to another unit that was previously introduced in the text. It is needed to look back in the text to understand the unit referred to by an anaphoric reference. Principally, anaphoric reference is concerned with the signs, textual cohesion, and thematic progression. Examining the anaphoric reference relations of a text or discourse is one of the main aspects of both textlinguistics and discourse analysis (Günay, 2007:76). To illustrate the use of anaphoric reference:

Walter Morel was, at this time, exceedingly irritable. His (: Walter Morel’s) work seemed to exhaust him (: Walter Morel). When he (: Walter Morel) came home he (: Walter Morel) did not speak civilly to anybody. If the fire were rather low he (: Walter Morel) bullied about that; he (: Walter Morel) grumbled about his (: Walter Morel’s) dinner; if the children made a chatter he (: Walter Morel) shouted at them (: children) in a way that made their (: children’s) mother’s blood boil, and made them (children) hate him (: Walter Morel) (Lawrence, 1913:37).

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In the paragraph above, the author refers to both Walter Morel and children, so they become referred expressions. In the following sentences, the author uses pronouns ‘he’, ‘him’, and ‘his’ for referring Walter Morel and ‘them’, and ‘their’ make reference to children. The type of reference is personal.

a.2. Cataphoric Reference

Cataphoric reference not only has a close relation with anaphoric reference but also creates symmetry with it (Günay, 2007:76). It refers to another unit which is introduced later in the text. The reader needs to look ahead in order to understand the unit referred by the cataphoric reference.

"If she were alive today, [Barbara] Tuchman would surely be preparing to pen fresh furious pages tonight, as the president seeks to rally his faltering domestic popularity with summonses of support."

(Martin Kettle, "If He Resists the Siren Voice of Folly, Blair's Legacy Is Secure." The Guardian, June 25, 2005)

A few weeks before he died, my father gave me an old cigar box filled with faded letters.

"In 'The Pendulum Years,' his history of the 1960s, Bernard Levin writes of the 'collective insanity which seized Britain.'"

(The London Evening Standard, Feb. 8, 1994, quoted by Katie Wales in Personal Pronouns in Present-Day English. Cambridge Univ. Press, 1996) "After she declared herself 'broken, betrayed, at bay, really low' in another organ yesterday, I'm not sure the Diary should even mention poor Bel Mooney's name."

(The Guardian, Aug. 9, 1994)

(cited in URL 5)

As it is seen in the examples, at first the reader does not have an idea to whom the pronouns refer, he needs to look forward to have an idea about them. All

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the pronouns written in italics are cataphoric, referring to the following nouns, phrase or expressions.

b. Recurrence and Complex Repetition

Although the writer intends to say the same thing over and over again, repeating the same words or phrases frequently should be avoided in a text. Text becomes unskillful when there is much repetition. It should be supplemented by something more. Complex repetition is a good way to avoid awkwardness. Changing the formation of words rather than repeating the same word contribute to the cohesion of text.

So, in the first sentence of the previous paragraph, I used the lexical item clumsily; in the following sentence it has become clumsy while in the third sentence of this paragraph it appears as clumsiness. Similarly, juxtapose becomes juxtaposition, and repeat becomes repetition (Hoey, 1991: 244).

Recurrence, on the other hand, is the repetition of the same lexical item in order to add to the text’s overall cohesiveness. In spite of the fact that situations, characters, and events can change, the recurrences of them makes the text becomes meaningful and united. Proper names, time and some expressions can recur in a text. It is also used to lay emphasis on these units in the text. For example, in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, one of the characters Miss Kilman is repeated many times in the same paragraph and the recurrence of the name of the character continues in different situations until the end of the book. It is likely that Woolf intends to draw the reader’s intention for the character, Miss Kilman.

Bitter and burning, Miss Kilman had turned into a church two years three months ago (Woolf, 1996: 137).

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And her mother would calling to say that a hamper had come from Bourton and would Miss Kilman like some flowers? To Miss Kilman she was always very, very nice, but Miss Kilman squashed the flowers all in a bunch, and hadn’t any small talk and what interested Miss Kilman bored her mother, and Miss Kilman and she were terrible together; and Miss Kilman swelled and looked very plain, but Miss Kilman was frightfully clever….

(Woolf, 1996: 144).

She liked people who were ill. And every profession is open to the woman of your generation, said Miss Kilman ( Woolf, 1996: 150).

c. Parallelism

Parallelism helps to reduce repetition in writing. By using it, the writer makes the expressions balanced and equal. It should be taken into consideration that both grammar and function of the elements need to be parallel. Readers expect items or ideas listed in a text to be constructed in parallel form. Creating symmetry and parallelism attract the reader’s attention. For instance:

Psychologists tell us that some people work most effectively in the morning and others work best in the afternoons or evenings. Variations on this theme include “larks”, who function best early in the morning, and “night owls”, who excel late at night. If you are a lark, it makes sense to write in the morning and teach and do research in the afternoon. And if you are an owl or a night owl, it is logical to teach and do your research in the morning or afternoon and write in the evening or late at night (depending on how late you work) (Berger, 1993:57).

In this quotation, Berger mentions effective working moments differ person to person, and what people are called according to their variations in time choices. He explains his argument by giving parallel statements, which makes the text quite clear and balanced.

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d. Paraphrasing

In paraphrasing, the writer restates an expression or a text which gives the meaning in another form. The content remains the same.

‘Women are said to live longer than men.’ ‘It is said that women live longer than men.’

e. Substitution and Ellipsis

They are two different forms of cohesive relation. Substitution replaces one item with another which is not a personal pronoun, and ellipsis is related to omission of a word, phrase, or a clause. Ellipsis can be interpreted as another form of substitution since the item is replaced by nothing. Besides, Halliday and Hasan add substitution is a relation between linguistic items, which is related to grammar and vocabulary, but reference is a relation between meanings, which is about semantic level (1976:89).

Substitution

A: ‘Were you able to find a Spanish dictionary?” B: Yes, I borrowed one from my friend.

Ellipsis

C: Bora bought some CDs, and Cansu some magazines from the bookstore. D: Would you like to eat some snack?

E: Yes, I would.

In (B), one is a substitute for a Spanish dictionary. In (C) and, there is no possible alternative; the second clause can be interpreted only as Cansu bought some magazines in (C), and as Yes, I would like to eat some snack in(E).

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f. Lexical Cohesion

It refers to semantic relations such as synonmy or near-synonmy, antonymy, hyponymy and collocation created by the correct vocabulary choice. This type of cohesive effect is understood if the semantic structures are known well. As to exemplify the lexical cohesion,

Collocation

There is a mutual predictability between strong and tea or light and tea. But, Tea is not modified with powerful or weak.

Hyponmy

This place is the habitat of snakes. A snake spends its time on the ground and in a tree during the day. The animal is so dangerous.

In the example, the nominal group a snake is replaced by a superordinate the animal. When the meaning of one form is included in the meaning of another, their relationship is defined as hyponymy.

g. Grammatical Cohesion (Conjunction)

Grammatical cohesion ties clauses within or between sentences in discourse. It is achieved by using a large group of connectors, referred to as conjunctions. Baker (1992:200) comments on how information is signaled by means of, what she calls conjunctions as” “formal markers”, and adds that it is “the way the writer wants the reader to relate what is about to be said to what has been said before”. That is to say, conjunctions contribute to create discursive connections in a text.

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There are different types of conjunctions in English. They can be classified according to their emphasis on different aspects of the facts. As to illustrate a few of them,

“Although, at the time, so strong a gale was blowing landward that a brig in the remote offing lay to under a double-reefed trysail, and constantly plunged her whole hull out of sight, still there was here nothing like a regular swell, but only a short, quick, angry cross dashing of water in every direction-as well in the teeth of the wind as otherwise” (Poe, 1993:49).

The excerpt quoted from Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe includes a number of conjunctive relations. ‘Although’ and ‘but’ originate adversative conjunctive relations, whereas ‘and’ indicates additive conjunctive relation. To sum up, cohesive devices are concerned with the relationships among the statements constructing text.

9 Informativity

Informativity is regarded as a function of what is delivered by the text. It concerns the extent to which the occurrences of the text are known or unknown by its receiver. According to Renkema, a text should include new information to the reader. If everything in the text is known by the reader, the text does not qualify. Similarly, if the text does not make any sense to the reader, it also does not qualify as a text (1993:35). In the science news titled “Where Does All Earth’s Gold Come From? Precious Metals the Result of Meteorite Bombardment, Rock Analysis Finds” (see Appendix 1) a scientific research on the precious metals and old rocks on earth serves new information for the readers. Reading this scientific text, the reader gets new information on the research that the analyses of the oldest rock samples on Earth provide clear evidence that the planet’s reserves of precious metals are the result of a bombardment of meteorites after Earth was formed.

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In order to have a communicative value, every text or parts of a text no matter which type it belongs to is at least somewhat informative. The principle is applied to content. The degree of informativity can be discussed in a text. If a reader does not receive anything new from the text, the information content is said to be low. Moreover, the informativity of a text is in a way related to the semantic relationships expressed by its linguistic surface. Beaugrande and Dressler (1981) put forward the term contextual probability which is concerned with the degree of informativity in a text. For example,

¾ He is a human.

The statement is not informative, but it becomes informative in a more complex statement.

¾ What do you expect? He is a human. Of course, he can make mistakes from time to time just as all of us. To err is human, to forgive is divine.

Although the first statement is syntactically probable, it has no informative value. The second statement is informative, and the degree of probability of it is high. It is both conceptually and syntactically probable.

9 Intentionality

Each text is written with a particular intention. While producing the text, the writer wants to achieve something with the text, so s/he shapes the text to reach his/her goals. Intentionality, as Beaugrande and Dressler describe, “designates all the ways in which text producers utilize texts to pursue and fulfill their intentions” (1981:116). It is significant for the writer to attain his/her goal. Therefore, it concerns the writer’s attitude that the text is intended to be cohesive and coherent. Indeed, sometimes the intentionality may not be perceived obviously in a text; however, the

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writer still produces it with a purpose. In that sense, Neubert and Shreve mention that “intentionality is meant to sensitize us to the correlation between intentions and texts” (1992:72). As an example, the quotation taken from Nelson Mandela’s speech text titled Glory and Hope indicates his aims for a better world:

“…Our daily deeds as ordinary South Africans must produce an actual South African reality that will reinforce humanity’s belief in justice, strengthen its confidence in the nobility of the human soul and sustain all our hopes for a glorious life for all… We must therefore act together as a united people, for national reconciliation, for nation building, for the birth of a new world.

Let there be justice for all. Let there be peace for all.

Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.

Let each know that for each the body, the mind and the soul have been freed to fulfill themselves…” (Prentice Hall, 2000 443-445).

In his speech and poem, Mandela is offering some messages to both his nation and other nations. He aims to declare to the humanity what kind of future his country will have in future. Combating poverty and inequality in his country, he confers that democratic and good life will start in South Africa. His poem also includes intentions for reflecting his ideas to all people in the world. Both in his speech and his poem, he desires to create an effect for safeguarding the human rights of all people throughout the world.

Furthermore, the following is an excerpt from the user manual of Philips Salon Pro hairdryer (See Appendix 7). It is presented as another example of a text which possesses intentionality. It is recommended for the users of this appliance. The text is prepared as a booklet involving several sections such as introduction, general description, important, using the appliance, cleaning, etc. Two warning items from the important section are cited:

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“Important Warning

- Check if the voltage indicated on the appliance corresponds to the local mains voltage before you connect the appliance.

- Check the condition of the mains cord regularly. Do not use the appliance if the plug, the cord or the appliance itself is damaged”.

Users of the appliance can clearly make sense of this text. The producer of the text also has a goal that is trying to make the use of the appliance safer. The text is divided into multiple sections because the purpose and planning of the text are reflected in the structure. In this way, a set of intentions are presented in the text.

9 Acceptability

Acceptability is associated with the receiver’s attitude towards the text. The producer of a text has the intention to give particular information for the receiver. If the text has some relevant information for the receiver, s/he accepts it. For a text to possess acceptability principle, it should identify its target receivers and determine which information in text will be acquired by the receivers. On the other hand, socio-cultural factors may affect the reader to decode some codes in text since the reader may not be a member of society that the text belongs to. It can be asserted that the reader’s cultural background contributes to his/her understanding of the text. From the reader’s point of view, acceptability of a text is associated with both his/her personal background such as age, education, culture, etc. which is subjective and his/relationship with the society s/he lives in (Günay, 2007:131). This also affects the interpretation of the text, and communication between the writer and the reader becomes successful. To illustrate,

Rules and Regulations of Gayaza High School General Behaviour

Improving writing skills of efl students through textlinguistics

DIVISION OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

A MASTER’S THESIS