چکیده:
The field of ELT is constantly witnessing the introduction of new instructional approaches: one such perhaps recent initiative is critical discourse analysis (CDA). Accordingly, the present study was an attempt to investigate the impact of CDA instruction on Iranian EFL learners’ descriptive and argumentative writing ability. To fulfill the aforementioned purpose, a sample TOEFL was primarily piloted among a group of 30 upper intermediate EFL learners by the researchers; with the acceptable reliability and item analysis indices achieved, then the researchers administered the test among another group of 90 upper intermediate learners. Ultimately, those 60 learners whose scores fell one standard deviation above and below the mean were chosen as the participants of the study and were randomly assigned to a control and an experimental group with 30 participants in each. Both of these groups underwent the same amount of teaching time during 20 sessions which included a treatment of CDA instruction based on Jank’s (2005) set of 14 features for the experimental group. A posttest was administered at the end of the instruction to both groups and their mean scores on the test were compared through a multivariate analysis of variance. The result (F = 14.41 and p = 0.000 < 0.05) led to the rejection of the two null hypotheses raised in this study, thereby demonstrating that the learners in the experimental group benefited significantly more than those in the control group in terms of improving their descriptive and argumentative writing ability. Hence, the major pedagogical implication of this study is that CDA instruction can be effectively used to assist EFL learners improve their argumentative and descriptive writing ability.
خلاصه ماشینی:
Using Critical Discourse Analysis Instruction in Argumentative and Descriptive Writing Classes Hamid Marashi Associate Professor, Islamic Azad University, Central Tehran Branch, Iran Elham Yavarzadeh M.
A. Student of TEFL, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Iran Received: April 8, 2014; Accepted: October 2, 2014 Abstract The field of ELT is constantly witnessing the introduction of new instructionalapproaches: one such perhaps recent initiative is critical discourse analysis (CDA).
Hence, the major pedagogical implication of this study is that CDA instruction can be effectively used to assist EFL learners improve their argumentative and descriptive writing ability.
Critical language awareness being the pedagogic arm of critical discourse analysis (CDA) as Wallace (as cited in Svalberg, 2000) called it, supports writers to make well- informed choices as the traces and cues of certain ideology reflected.
Therefore, writing instruction not merely as an object to study but as a means of communication is of growing significance in language teaching programs (Bazerman, Little, & Bethel, 2005; Hedge, 2000; Petraglia, 2005).
Hyson (as cited in Hedgecock, 2005) refers to genre as a "popular framework for analyzing the form and function of nonliterary discourse and a tool for developing educational practices in the fields such as rhetoric, composition studies, professional writing, linguistics and English for specific purposes" (p.
Does critical discourse analysis instruction have any significant effect on EFL learners‟ descriptive writing?
2. Does critical discourse analysis instruction have any significant effect on EFL learners‟ argumentative writing?