Construing emotion in academic writing
L2 writers’ use of Affect in historical explanation essays
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/wap.32850Keywords:
historical discourse, appraisal framework, affect, evaluative language, second language writingAbstract
Writing about historical change involves advancing causal explanations that show how events impact people and how their emotions contribute to historical outcomes such as wars and revolutions. This study uses Martin and White's (2005) Appraisal framework to examine how the language of emotion (Affect), an overlooked feature of historical discourse, is used by L2 writers of an under-examined genre, the Factorial Explanation. The study was conducted in a content-based, politicalhistory course for 63 upper-intermediate learners of English at a Japanese university. Results show that while writers made extensive use of the Affect categories Positive Inclination and Negative Satisfaction, which were often realized as adjectives and verbs, nominal formulations for building cohesion were infrequent. Writers also tended to intensify Affect resources by construing feelings as static attributes rather than destabilizing forces of change. The paper makes recommendations for teaching genre-specific language features to aid learners in construing the emotion of history.
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de Oliveira, L. C. and Lan, S. (2014) Writing science in an upper elementary classroom: A genre-based approach to teaching English language learners. Journal of Second Language Writing 25.1: 23--39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2014.05.001
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Oteíza, T. (2003) How contemporary history is presented in Chilean middle school textbooks. Discourse & Society 14.5: 639--660. https://doi.org/10.1177/09579265030145005
Oteíza, T. and Pinuer, C. (2013) Valorative prosody and the symbolic construction of time in recent national historical discourses. Discourse Studies 15.1: 43--64. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445612466447
Schleppegrell, M. and Achugar, M. (2003) Learning language and learning history: A functional linguistics approach. TESOL Journal 12.2: 21--27. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1949-3533.2003.tb00126.x
Tardy, C.M. (2006) Researching ?rst and second language genre learning: A comparative review and a look ahead. Journal of Second Language Writing 15: 79--101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2006.04.003
University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (2001) Quick Placement Test. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Veel, R. and Coffin, C. (1996) Learning to think like an historian: The language of secondary school history. In R. Hasan and G. Williams (eds.) Literacy in Society 191--231. Harlow, Essex: Addison Wesley Longman.
Wahl-Jorgensen, K. (2013) The strategic ritual of emotionality: A case study of Pulitzer Prize-winning articles. Journalism 14.1: 129--145. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884912448918
White, P. R. R. (2012) Exploring the axiological workings of ‘reporter voice’ news stories--attribution and attitudinal positioning. Discourse, Context & Media 1: 57--67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2012.10.004
Ball, P., Kelly, K. and Clegg, J. (2016) Putting CLIL into Practice. (Oxford handbooks for language teachers). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Barnard, C. (2000) Protecting the face of the state: Japanese high school history textbooks and 1945. Functions of Language 7.1: 1--35. https://doi.org/10.1075/fol.7.1.02bar
Bednarek, M. (2009) Language patterns and ATTITUDE. Functions of Language 16.2: 165--192. https://doi.org/10.1075/fol.16.2.01bed
Celce-Murcia, M. and Larsen-Freeman, D. (1999). The Grammar Book: An ESL/EFL Teacher's Course. Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle.
Christie, F. and Derewianka, D. (2008) School Discourse. London: Continuum.
Coffin, C. (1997) Constructing and giving value to the past: an investigation into second school history. In F. Christie & J. R. Martin (eds.) Genre and Institutions: Social Processes in the Workplace and School 196--230. London: Cassell.
Coffin, C. (2000) History as Discourse: Construals of Time, Cause and Appraisal. (Unpublished PhD thesis), University of New South Wales, Australia.
Coffin, C. (2003) Reconstruing the past: Settlement or invasion? In J. Martin and R. Wodak (eds.), Re/reading the Past: Critical and Functional Perspectives on Time and Value 219--246. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Coffin, C. (2006) Historical Discourse: The Language of Time, Cause and Evaluation. London: Continuum.
Coyle, D., Hood, P. and Marsh, D. (2010) CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
de Oliveira, L. C. (2010). Nouns in history: Packaging information, expanding explanation and structuring reasoning. The History Teacher 43.2: 191--203.
de Oliveira, L. C. and Lan, S. (2014) Writing science in an upper elementary classroom: A genre-based approach to teaching English language learners. Journal of Second Language Writing 25.1: 23--39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2014.05.001
Fitzgerald, J. C. (2014) An analysis of causal asyndetic constructions in United States history textbooks. Functional Linguistics 1.5: 1--17. https://doi.org/10.1186/2196-419x-1-5
Goldstone, J. A. (2014) Revolutions: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Halliday, M. A. K. and Matthiessen, C. M. I. M. (2004) An Introduction to Functional Grammar (3rd ed.). London: Hodder Arnold.
Hunston, S. (2003) Frame, phrase or function: A comparison of frame semantics and local grammars. In D. Archer, P. Rayson, A. Wilson and T. McEnery (eds.) Corpus Linguistics 2003 (Technical Papers 16) 342--358. University of Lancaster: University Centre for Computer Corpus Research on Language.
Hunston, S. (2011) Corpus Approaches to Evaluation: Phraseology and Evaluative Language. New York, NY: Routledge.
Hunston, S. and Thompson, G. (eds.) (2000) Evaluation in Text: Authorial Stance and the Construction of Discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Johns, A.M. (ed.). (2002) Genre in the Classroom: Multiple Perspectives. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Llinares, A. and Morton, T. (2010) Historical explanations as situated practice in content and language integrated learning. Classroom Discourse 1.1: 46--65. https://doi.org/10.1080/19463011003750681
Llinares, A., Morton, T. and Whittaker, R. (2012) The Roles of Language in CLIL. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Llinares, A. and Pascual Peña, I. (2015) A genre approach to the effect of academic questions on CLIL students’ language production. Language and Education 29.1: 15--30. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2014.924964
Martin, J. R. (1984) Language, register and genre. In F. Christie (ed.), Children Writing: Reader 21--29. Geelong, Victoria, Australia: Deakin University Press.
Martin, J. R. (1993) Life as a noun: Arresting the universe in science and the humanities. In M. A. K. Halliday and J. R. Martin (eds.) Writing Science: Literacy and Discursive Power 221--267. London: Falmer.
Martin, J. R. (2000) Beyond exchange: APPRAISAL systems in English. In S. Hunston and G. Thompson (eds.) Evaluation in Text: Authorial Stance and the Construction of Discourse 142--175. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Martin, J. R. (2003) Making history: Grammar for interpretation. In J. R. Martin and R. Wodak (eds.) Re/reading the Past: Critical and Functional Perspectives on Time and Value 19--57. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Martin, J. R. and White, P. R. R. (2005) The Language of Evaluation: Appraisal in English. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Miller, R. T., Mitchell, T. D. and Pessoa, S. (2014) Valued voices: Students use of Engagement in argumentative history writing. Linguistics and Education 28: 107--120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2014.10.002
Miller, R. T., Mitchell, T. D. and Pessoa, S. (2016) Impact of source texts and prompts on students’ genre uptake. Journal of Second Language Writing 31: 11--24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2016.01.001
Morton, T. (2010) Using a genre-based approach to integrating content and language in CLIL: the example of secondary history. In C. Dalton-Puffer, T. Nikula and U. Smit (eds.) Language Use in Content-and-Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) 81--104. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Morton, T. and Llinares, A. (2016) Students’ use of evaluative language in L2 English to talk and write about history in a bilingual education programme. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2016.1192101
Moss, G. (2010) Textbook language, ideology and citizenship: The case of a history textbook in Colombia. Functions of Language 17.1: 71--93. https://doi.org/10.1075/fol.17.1.03mos
Ngo, T. and Unsworth, L. (2015) Reworking the Appraisal framework in ESL research: Refining attitude resources. Functional Linguistics 2:1. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40554-015-0013-x
Oteíza, T. (2003) How contemporary history is presented in Chilean middle school textbooks. Discourse & Society 14.5: 639--660. https://doi.org/10.1177/09579265030145005
Oteíza, T. and Pinuer, C. (2013) Valorative prosody and the symbolic construction of time in recent national historical discourses. Discourse Studies 15.1: 43--64. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445612466447
Schleppegrell, M. and Achugar, M. (2003) Learning language and learning history: A functional linguistics approach. TESOL Journal 12.2: 21--27. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1949-3533.2003.tb00126.x
Tardy, C.M. (2006) Researching ?rst and second language genre learning: A comparative review and a look ahead. Journal of Second Language Writing 15: 79--101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2006.04.003
University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (2001) Quick Placement Test. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Veel, R. and Coffin, C. (1996) Learning to think like an historian: The language of secondary school history. In R. Hasan and G. Williams (eds.) Literacy in Society 191--231. Harlow, Essex: Addison Wesley Longman.
Wahl-Jorgensen, K. (2013) The strategic ritual of emotionality: A case study of Pulitzer Prize-winning articles. Journalism 14.1: 129--145. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884912448918
White, P. R. R. (2012) Exploring the axiological workings of ‘reporter voice’ news stories--attribution and attitudinal positioning. Discourse, Context & Media 1: 57--67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2012.10.004
Published
2018-09-24
Issue
Section
Research Matters
How to Cite
Myskow, G., & Ono, M. (2018). Construing emotion in academic writing: L2 writers’ use of Affect in historical explanation essays. Writing and Pedagogy, 10(1-2), 191-219. https://doi.org/10.1558/wap.32850
