Exploring General Versus Academic English Proficiency as Predictors of Adolescent EFL Essay Writing.
Language learning is context-dependent and requires learners to employ different sets of language skills to fulfill various tasks. Yet standardized English as a foreign language assessments tend to conceptualize English proficiency as a unidimensional construct. In order to distinguish English profi...
| Publicado en: | Written Communication Vol. 38; no. 2; pp. 208 - 247 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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Sage Publications Inc.
Apr2021
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=149613977&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 149613977 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 07410883 WRC jtl: Written Communication issn: 07410883 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Apr2021 vid: 38 iid: 2 pid: 344 pub: Sage Publications Inc. artinfo: ui: 149613977 10.1177/0741088320986364 ppf: 208 ppct: 39 formats: tig: atl: Exploring General Versus Academic English Proficiency as Predictors of Adolescent EFL Essay Writing. aug: au: Jo, Claire W. affil: Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA su: Language ability Language ability testing Academic language English as a foreign language Academic discourse sug: subj: Language ability Language ability testing Academic language English as a foreign language Academic discourse keyword: academic English proficiency academic language adolescent EFL adolescent literacy EFL writing persuasive essay writing quality ab: Language learning is context-dependent and requires learners to employ different sets of language skills to fulfill various tasks. Yet standardized English as a foreign language assessments tend to conceptualize English proficiency as a unidimensional construct. In order to distinguish English proficiency as separate context-driven constructs, I adopted a register-based approach to investigate academic English proficiency (i.e., specific set of language skills that support academic literacy) and general English proficiency (i.e., wide range of language skills undifferentiated by context that are measured by traditional assessments) as separate predictors of overall essay quality. In the study, students completed a general English proficiency assessment and an academic language proficiency assessment, and essays were coded for academic writing features at the lexical, syntactic, and discourse levels. Beyond the contribution of academic writing features and general English proficiency, academic English proficiency emerged as a significant contributor to essay quality. Findings suggest that academic English proficiency scores more precisely identified a subset of academic language skills that is relevant to essay writing. The article concludes by discussing implications for strategic writing instruction that articulates the key expectations of academic writing used in and beyond school contexts. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y dt: @attributes: year: 2021 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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