Abstract:
This study was framed on the theory of Language Socialisation and a Systematic Functional Linguistic (SFL) approach. The aim of the study was to analyse the oral presentation discourse produced by an elemen- tary Iranian English as Second Language (ESL) postgraduate student in an American university four times (September/December, 2015 and March/September, 2016) over one year. The data were collected in terms of textual resources during the discourse socialisation process while in a second language community. The data relating to oral presentations were taken through the Oral English Proficiency Test (OEPT) and later transcribed for further analyses. The findings revealed that the participant became more competent as he continued his language socialisation in the second language academic community. He made progress through the use of textual resources, through the use of basic cohesive devices, including ‘and’ and ‘so’ over time. The study contributes to the language socialisation research by employing a systemic functional lin- guistics approach as a tool for the discourse development. It is intended that the findings will contribute to the knowledge around curriculum and the delivery of second language oral skills.
Machine summary:
The aim of the study was to analyse the oral presentation discourse produced by an elemen- tary Iranian English as Second Language (ESL) postgraduate student in an American university four times (September/December, 2015 and March/September, 2016) over one year.
Keywords: Discourse socialisation, Language socialisation, Oral academic discourse, Social cultural theory, Systemic functional linguistics, Teaching English as a second language, Second language learn-ing, Second language teaching INTRODUCTION Oral academic presentation is often viewed as an important skill in a post-graduate course (Kim, 2006).
This research study aimed to ex- plore how language socialisation process, over time, results in English as second language (ESL) learner’s progress in an academic discourse community?
As the participant continued the process of language socialisation in his academic community, he produced longer texts and used more cohesive devices, both in terms of variety and quantity.
Despite the absence of com- parative groups, the oral discourse finding, in the present study, reveals similar conclusions to Hin- kel’ s (2002) study that found participant’s as presenter’s tend to have a rather limited number of cohesive devises to create cohesive texts, when learning English as a second language.
Exploring the research aim This study investigated the discourse socialisa- tion progress of an Iranian English as second lan- guage (ESL) learner, studying in an American university, using the Systematic Functional Lin- guistics (SFL) approach.
In other words, SFL approach was applied, in this study, to analyse the oral presentation discourse constructed by an Iranian postgraduate student, over time, in terms of textual resources.