1

Peoples’ Democratic Republic of Algeria

Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research

Larbi Ben M’hidi University-Oum El Bouaghi

Faculty of Letters and Languages

Department of English

A dissertation submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the

master degree in Language Sciences and Teaching English as a Foreign

Language

Submitted by:

Hacini Hania Loucif Salima

Supervisor: Dr. BENYAHIA Amel

President: Mrs. ARROUF Samira

Examiner: Mrs. ADJAJ Djalila

2018-2019

A Corpus -Based Study of the Use of Adverbs in EFL Learners’ Writings:

Investigating Problems and Suggesting Solutions

The Case of Second Year Students of English at Larbi Ben M’hidi University

I

Dedication

In the Name of Allah the Most Beneficent the

Most Merciful

All gratitude goes to him for helping his

servants

We dedicate this work to our lovely mothers

and dearly fathers, the ones who stood beside

us every single moment

We would have done nothing without their

precious advice and encouragement

May Allah enlighten your path to paradise

dear parents.

We are so grateful to our dear husbands for

their support and all believing in us, in

addition to our sisters and brothers.

II

Acknowledgement

First gratitude is to Allah, the almighty, on whom we depend for sustenance and guidance.

Second, we would not have finished this work, after God‟s help, without our supervisor‟s

patience and encouragements as well as her constructive feedback. We would like to

sincerely thank our supervisor Dr. Amel Benyahia.

We would also thank all our teachers who inspired us and guided us all over our five years

at Larbi Ben Mhidi Universit

Moreover, we would thank all our friends and classmates.

Abstract

III

Abstract

This study investigates the use of adverbs by second year EFL students at the department

of English, Larbi Ben Mhidi University-OEB. The main tool of investigation consisted of

a corpus analysis including thirty exam papers of „written expression‟ and „linguistics‟

modules. The papers were selected randomly from three groups of second-year. Relying

on Biber‟s (1999) classifications of adverbs, data was analyzed manually in terms of

frequency, variety, and problems concerning adverbs‟ use. The results revealed that

second-year students used a considerable amount of adverbs in their written output in both

modules. In addition, they tend to employ various types of adverbs. However, it was

noticed that they still have difficulty in using them appropriately. It is suggested that

explicit and systematic instruction on adverbs‟ accurate use is required.

IV

List of abbreviations

ANC: American National Corpus

BNC: British National Corpus

EAP: English for Academic Purposes

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

ICLE: International Corpus of Learner English

L1: First Language

L2: Second Language

Ling: linguistics

LMD: Licence, Master, Doctorat

LOCNESS: Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays

MA: master

NS: Native Speakers

NNS: Non-native Speakers

OEB: Oum El Bouaghi

TESOL: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

VS: versus

WE: written expression

V

List of tables

Table1: Different uses of corpora………………………………………………………...12

Table2: Categories of adverbs developed by Biber(1999)………………………………28

Table3: Types of adverbs according to their semantic meaning…………………………29

Table4: Frequency of adverbs‟ use in WE writings………………………………………43

Table5: Variety of adverbs in WE writings………………………………………………45

Table6: Frequency of adverbs‟ use in linguistics writings……………………………….48

Table7: Variety of adverbs in linguistics writings………………………………………..50

Table8: Frequency and variety of adverbs‟ use in WE…………………………………..53

Table9: Frequency and variety of adverbs‟ use in linguistics……………………………54

VI

List of figures

Figure1: Frequency of adverbs in WE papers……………………………………………44

Figure2: Types of adverbs used in students‟ WE writings……………………….………47

Figure3: Frequency of adverbs in linguistics papers……………………………………..49

Figure4: Types of adverbs used in students‟ linguistics writings…………………...……52

Figure5: Algerian learners‟ Problems in adverbs‟ use………………………..……….....60

VII

Table of content

General Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1

1. Statement Of The Problem ................................................................................................ 1

2. Aims Of The Study ............................................................................................................ 1

3. Research Questions .......................................................................................................... 2

4. Research Hypotheses ......................................................................................................... 2

5. Research Methodology ...................................................................................................... 2

6. Structure Of The Study ...................................................................................................... 3

CHAPTER ONE: AN OVERVIEW ABOUT ACADEMIC WRITING

SECTION ONE: CORPUS LINGUISTICS AND ACADEMIC TEXTS

Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 6

1. Definition Of Corpus Linguistics ...................................................................................... 6

2. Principles Of Corpora: ....................................................................................................... 7

3. Types Of Corpora .............................................................................................................. 8

3.1. Generalized Vs Specialized Corpora .............................................................................. 8

3.2. Learner Vs Pedagogic Corpus: ....................................................................................... 9

3.3. Comparable Corpora Vs Parallel Corpora: ................................................................... 10

3.4. Historical Vs Diachronic Corpus: ................................................................................ 10

3.5. Monitor Corpus: ........................................................................................................... 11

4. Aims Of Corpora: ............................................................................................................ 11

5. Different Uses Of Corpora: ............................................................................................. 12

Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 14

Section 2: Academic Writing ........................................................................................... 15

Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 15

1. Definition Of Writing ................................................................................................................... 15

2. Why Is Academic Writing A Difficult Skill To Achieve? .......................................................... 16

3. Purposes Of Writing ..................................................................................................................... 17

4. Writing Strategies......................................................................................................................... 19

4.1. Pre-Writing: .............................................................................................................................. 19

4.2. Drafting And Redrafting: .......................................................................................................... 20

4.3. Editing: ...................................................................................................................................... 20

VIII

CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................... 21

SECTION THREE: ADVERBS AND ACADEMIC WRITING .................................. 22

Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 22

1. Definition Of Adverbs ..................................................................................................... 22

2. Adverbs‟ Formation......................................................................................................... 23

3. Types Of Adverbs............................................................................................................ 24

4. Adverbs‟ Classification ................................................................................................... 26

4.1. According To Their Syntactic Function: ...................................................................... 26

4.2. According To Their Semantic Meaning: ...................................................................... 28

4.3. According To Their Position: ....................................................................................... 30

5. Characteristics Of Adverbs‟ Placement ........................................................................... 31

6. Research On L2 Adverb Use ........................................................................................... 36

Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 39

CHAPTER TWO: INVESTIGATING ALGERIAN LEARNERS USE OF

ADVERBS

Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 41

1.Research Methodology ..................................................................................................... 41

1.1. Method Of Data Collection .......................................................................................... 41

1.2. Corpus Compilation...................................................................................................... 41

1.3. Procedure ...................................................................................................................... 42

2. Analysis And Results ...................................................................................................... 42

2.1. Written Expression Papers‟ Analysis ........................................................................... 42

A. Frequency Of Adverbs‟ Use ........................................................................................... 42

B. Types Of Adverbs Used .................................................................................................. 44

2.2. Linguistics Papers‟ Analysis ........................................................................................ 47

A. Frequency Of Adverbs‟ Use ........................................................................................... 47

B. Types Of Adverbs Used .................................................................................................. 50

2.3. Discussion Of The Main Results .................................................................................. 53

2.4. Problems‟ Investigation ................................................................................................ 55

2.5. Discussion Of The Identified Problems ....................................................................... 57

General Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 61

1.Summary Of The Findings ............................................................................................... 61

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2. Pedagogical Implications................................................................................................. 62

3. Limitations Of The Study ................................................................................................ 63

4. Suggestions For Further Research .................................................................................. 63

References ........................................................................................................................... 64

68 .................................................................................................................................... خص

Resume ................................................................................................................................ 69

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General introduction

1. Statement of the Problem

Adverbs are among the grammatical items that play a crucial role in academic writing.

They might answer questions of how, when, where or in what circumstances something is

done. In addition, the use of adverbs is an inevitable aspect of academic writing in the

sense that they can perform a rhetorical function (Hinkel, 2004). Thus, EFL learners

should pay attention to the use of adverbial markers and to the fact that academic writing

requires more formal and academic vocabulary to be more proficient. Moreover, adverbs

require a great deal of effort to be mastered, and even advanced users of foreign and

second languages have difficulty in using them correctly (Narita&Sugiura,2006;

Peacock,2010; Lei,2012; Leedham&Cai,2013). Despite the fact that adverbs play a crucial

role in academic writing, EFL learners lack the ability to use them appropriately.

The present study investigates the use of adverbs by EFL Algerian students at Larbi

Ben M‟hidi University. It investigates the way adverbs are used in Algerian learners‟

writings and attempts to discover the impact of learners‟ misuse of adverbs on the quality

of their written production. This study will be beneficial for both teachers and learners in

the sense that it raises their awareness of the importance of using adverbs in their writing

and to shed light on this issue in future teaching processes.

2. Aims of the Study

The present study aims at investigating the way adverbs are used in Algerian EFL

learners‟ written productions. Moreover, it attempts to discover the impact of the nature of

the subject matter on the frequency and variety of adverbs‟ use. Finally, the study seeks to

suggest solutions to some of the problems that learners face in using adverbs in their

academic writing.

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3. Research Questions

Three main questions are raised:

a. To what extent do Algerian students of English make use of adverbs in their academic

writing?

b. What is the impact of the nature of the topic on students‟ frequency and variety of

adverbs‟ use?

c. What are some of the problems that face students as far as the use of adverbs is

concerned, and what can teachers do to help them overcome these weaknesses?

4. Research Hypotheses

a. Algerian EFL learners at Larbi Ben Mhidi University use adverbs frequently in their

writing. However, we believe that second year students face some problems in relation to

the placement and variety of adverbs use.

b. Learners‟ use of adverbs is highly affected by the nature of the topic and the subject

matter as a whole. Some topics are more appealing for adverbs‟ use than others.

c. Students face some problems in using adverbs properly. In order to overcome such

problems, more time should be devoted to practice and to giving feedback on learners‟

written production.

5. Research Methodology

To investigate the problem in hand, a corpus-based analysis of the use of adverbs in

EFL learners‟ writing is used. The corpus of the study is comprised of samples of written

productions selected randomly from second year EFL students‟ exams of two different

modules. These writings will be selected as follows: 15 pieces of writing of „Written

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Expression‟ module and 15 papers of „Linguistics‟ module. These papers are coded as (L1,

L2, L3,...L15) for „ linguistics‟ and (W1, W2, W3,...W15) for „written expression‟. This

process helps in making students anonymous and making data more organized. The

collected data will be analyzed manually, in terms of frequency, variety (types) and the

problems in adverbs‟ use; then, it will be compared and discussed in the results.

6. Structure of the Study

The present dissertation is composed of two chapters. After the research proposal that

contains statement of the problem, aims of the study, research questions, hypotheses and

the research methodology .The first chapter is composed of three sections: the first one is

about corpus linguistics which covers definition of corpus, principles, types, aims and

different types of corpora. The second section covers academic writing and includes a

definition of writing, why academic writing is a difficult skill to be achieved, in addition to

purposes and writing strategies. The last section covers different aspects related to adverbs:

definition, formation, classification, characteristics of those grammatical items and ends

with an over view of research on L2 adverbs‟ use. The second chapter constitutes the

practical part which includes the method to be used for the collection and analysis of data,

results, summary of the findings, conclusion and suggestions for further research.

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CHAPTER ONE: AN OVERVIEW ABOUT ACADEMIC WRITING

SECTION ONE: CORPUS LINGUISTICS AND ACADEMIC TEXTS

INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 6

1. DEFINITION OF CORPUS LINGUISTICS .................................................................... 6

2. PRINCIPLES OF CORPORA:.......................................................................................... 7

3. TYPES OF CORPORA ..................................................................................................... 8

3.1. GENERALIZED VS SPECIALIZED CORPORA ........................................................ 8

3.2. LEARNER VS PEDAGOGIC CORPUS: ...................................................................... 9

3.3. COMPARABLE CORPORA VS PARALLEL CORPORA: ...................................... 10

3.4. HISTORICAL VS DIACHRONIC CORPUS: ............................................................ 10

3.5. MONITOR CORPUS: .................................................................................................. 11

4. AIMS OF CORPORA: .................................................................................................... 11

5. DIFFERENT USES OF CORPORA: .............................................................................. 12

CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................... 14

SECTION 2: ACADEMIC WRITING .............................................................................. 15

INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................... 15

1. DEFINITION OF WRITING .......................................................................................... 15

2. WHY IS ACADEMIC WRITING A DIFFICULT SKILL TO ACHIEVE? ................. 16

3. PURPOSES OF WRITING ............................................................................................. 17

4. WRITING STRATEGIES ............................................................................................... 19

4.1. PRE-WRITING: ........................................................................................................... 19

4.2. DRAFTING AND REDRAFTING: ............................................................................. 20

4.3. EDITING: ..................................................................................................................... 20

CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................... 21

SECTION THREE: ADVERBS AND ACADEMIC WRITING ....................................... 22

INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................... 22

1. DEFINITION OF ADVERBS ......................................................................................... 22

2. ADVERBS‟ FORMATION ............................................................................................ 23

3. TYPES OF ADVERBS ................................................................................................... 24

4. ADVERBS‟ CLASSIFICATION .................................................................................... 26

4.1. ACCORDING TO THEIR SYNTACTIC FUNCTION: ............................................. 26

4.2. ACCORDING TO THEIR SEMANTIC MEANING: ................................................. 28

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4.3. ACCORDING TO THEIR POSITION: ....................................................................... 30

5. CHARACTERISTICS OF ADVERBS‟ PLACEMENT................................................. 31

6. RESEARCH ON L2 ADVERB USE .............................................................................. 36

CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................... 39

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Chapter One: An Overview about Academic Writing

Section one: Corpus linguistics and academic texts

Introduction

Academic discourse has become a major area of investigation in applied linguistics

since many studies in second language(L2) writing claimed that learning to write second

language (L2) academic prose causes difficulties to students and scholars as well.

Flowerdew(2002) identified four paradigms for academic discourse studies including:

genre analysis, contrastive rhetoric, ethnographic approaches and corpus-based analysis.

The first three approaches to English for Academic purposes (EAP) emphasize the

situational or cultural context of academic discourse while corpus-linguistic methods focus

on the co-occurrence of selected grammatical and/ or lexical items in academic texts. In

other words, corpus-linguistics is mainly used for studying the linguistic features of

academic discourse. It can highlight words which are typical to the genre and describe the

way they are used. Moreover, corpus-based studies shed light on a set of linguistic features

that distinguish the academic discourse from other genres. For instance, Biber‟s (1988)

study of variation across speech and writing has shown that academic texts have an

informational and non-narrative focus. In addition, the Longman Grammar of Spoken and

Written English (Biber et al., 1999) provides a description concerning the range of

distinctive features of academic prose.

1. Definition of corpus linguistics

Corpus linguistics is one of the fastest growing methodologies in contemporary

linguistics. It is a method of carrying out linguistic analysis. It is concerned with the

collection in electronic format and the analysis of large amounts of naturally occurring

spoken or written data selected according to external criteria to represent, as far as

possible, a language or language variety as a source of linguistic research‟ (Sinclair ,2005,

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p.16). In other words, corpus linguistics is a tradition of investigating written and/or

spoken academic prose. It takes selected examples of naturally occurring discourse as its

starting point. It also attempts to examine large amounts of data from many texts and

provide frequency and information about the surface features of the language used. In this

regard, a corpus cannot inform about what is possible or correct or what is not possible or

incorrect in the language; it can only bring about what is present in the corpus.

Correspondingly, many corpus linguists argue that a large body of corpus-linguistic work

has a rather descriptive focus, and does not actually involve much linguistic theory.

Many scholars have contributed to the development of modern day corpus linguistics

namely (Leech,1997;Biber,1988;Johansson,1999;Hunston,2002;McCarthy, 1991). Sinclair

(1991), in particular, argued that a word in itself does not carry meaning, but that meaning

is often made through several words in a sequence. This is the idea that forms the

backbone of corpus-linguistics.

2. Principles of Corpora:

There are many requirements and pre-requisites that a corpus should fulfill. Corpus is a

collection of(1) machine readable (2) authentic texts (including transcripts of spoken data)

which is (3) sampled to be (4) representative of a particular language or language variety

(MCEnery, Xiao& Torno 2006).First of all, corpora should be in a “machine readable

form”. This raises the likelihood for corpora to be searched by computers. This electronic

mean of investigation is much quicker and less error-prone than any other methods

(McEnery & Wilson, 1996). The second criterion in corpus studies is “authenticity” by

which the texts that make up the corpus should be produced in a natural communicative

setting, i.e. from real situations of language use. According to Aarts (1991), the starting

point for linguistic enquiry is the language in use. The selection of authentic texts aids in

gaining validity for corpora under investigation. “Representativeness” is the third criterion

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which Biber (1993), as cited in McEnery & Wilson (2001)) refers to as “the extent to

which a sample includes the entire range of variability in a population”(p.243). Thus,

representativeness indicates that the corpus is a sample which includes the different

elements of the original source. In this respect, representativeness helps in the

generalization of the results. Furthermore, “sampling” is another criterion of corpus

studies. The sample selected for the study should be of an appropriate length in

correspondence to the original source. Besides, this sample should be as longer as possible.

For instance, Sinclair (1991) claimed that “a corpus made up of whole documents is open

to a wider range of linguistic studies than a collection of short samples”(p.19). Many

researchers and corpus linguists (e.g.,Aarts,1991;Biber et.al,1998;Knowles,1996;McEnery

& Wilson,1996; Sinclair,1991;Bonelli,2001) agreed on these criteria.

3. Types of Corpora

Many types of corpora can be highlighted:

3.1. Generalized VS Specialized Corpora

According to Bennett (2010), both Generalized and Specialized corpora are classified

according to the size of the sample. Generalized corpora are usually very large, more than

ten million words, and include a variety of language. Thus, the results can be generalized

because of the large size of the Corpus. The British National Corpus (BNC) and the

American National Corpus (ANC) are examples of large, generalized corpora. These

corpora cover written texts such as newspaper and magazine articles, fiction and non-

fiction works as well as writings from scholarly journals. Hence, a large general corpus

should be consulted if generalizations about language as a whole are to be drawn.

On the other hand, a specialized corpus includes texts of a particular type to be

representative of the language of this type. Specialized corpora can be large or small and

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are often made to answer too specific questions. In other words, a specialized corpus is that

of texts concerning a particular type or restricted to a particular point of time.

Hunston(2002) defined specialized corpus as:

A corpus of texts of particular type, such as newspaper editorials,

Geography, textbooks, academic articles in a particular subject,

Lectures, casual conversations, essays written by students…etc. It

aims to be representative of a given type of text. It is used to

Investigate a particular type of language. […] There is no limit to the

Degree of specialization involved, but the parameters are set to limit

The kind of texts included for example, a corpus might be restricted

To a time frame, consisting of texts from a particular century, or to

A social setting, such as conventions taking place in a bookshop, or

To a given topic, such as newspaper articles dealing with the European

Union (p.14).

Specialized corpora can be large or small and are often made to answer some kind of

questions which are too specific. Also, they are generally used in ESP settings.

3.2. Learner Vs Pedagogic corpus:

A learner corpus is a sort of specialized corpus that covers written texts and/or spoken

transcripts of language used by learners of a particular language. They are series of texts

that are generated from learners of a language (Hunston, 2002). These series of texts may

be generated in order to examine common errors made by learners. A learner corpus can

be a part of pedagogic corpus.

A pedagogic corpus covers the language used in classroom settings. It is defined by

Huntson (2002) as “a corpus consisting of all the language a learner has been exposed to”

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(p. 16). This type of corpora can include academic textbooks, transcripts of classroom

interaction as well as any other kind of written texts or spoken transcripts that are created

or produced by learners in an educational setting. Pedagogic corpora can be used to

guarantee that students are learning useful language and to act as a tool for teacher‟s

development.

3.3. Comparable corpora Vs Parallel corpora:

Comparable and Parallel corpora are both referred to as translation corpora as they

include texts written in more than one language. “Comparable corpora are two or more

corpora in different languages or in different varieties of language” (Hunston 2002, p.15).

This type of corpora is used to compare languages or language varieties; for example,

tourist brochures or job advertisements in different languages (Thompson, 2001). On the

other hand, Hunston (2002) referred to parallel corpora as they are two or more corpora in

different languages, each containing texts that have been translated from one language into

the other. In this regard, this type of corpora contains the same texts in the original and the

translated forms. These corpora can be used to compare linguistic and discourse patterns

across languages, and avoid the distortions introduced by translations (Hunston,2002).

In other words, Comparable corpora are similar texts in two or more different languages

or language varieties; but Parallel corpora is concerned with the same text translated into

two languages.

3.4. Historical Vs Diachronic corpus:

According to Hunston (2002), diachronic corpus is a collection of texts that are

gathered from different periods of time. It is used in studies that aim at following the

development of a given aspect in language through time. The „Helsinki‟ corpus is

considered as the best and the well known example of historical corpus.

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3.5. Monitor Corpus:

It is “a corpus designed to track current changes in language” (Hunston, 2002:16). This

type of corpus includes new texts that are added to monitor language change. Its size goes

up annually, monthly or even daily in a rapid way; without any changes in the type of texts

that remains unchanged.

4. Aims of corpora:

A corpus by itself can do nothing, its importance lies in the fact that it is required in

many studies as data for carrying out linguistic analysis. In addition, it can be used for the

investigation of many kinds of linguistic questions and it has the potential to bring about

interesting and fundamental new insights about language. In recent decades, corpora

witnessed various uses, some of which are shown by Hunston(2002) as follows:

- Corpora are useful in giving information on the way language functions; that can be

neglected unintentionally by its users. This can be very helpful in language teaching.

- It is encouraged to be used by learners themselves to observe variation difference

between languages.

- Comparable corpora are used by translators while comparing illusive translation

correspondents‟ use in two languages.

- Parallel corpora are called for to investigate how translation of words and phrases

happened in the past.

- General corpora can be applied for work in stylistics, clinical and in forensic linguistics;

since it is useful in establishing norms of frequency and usage according to which one‟s

texts can be measured.

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5. Different uses of corpora:

The use of corpora gained the attention of many subject specialists. It was used

extensively by many researchers regardless to the nature of their working area. The

following figure shows how corpora are used by different fields of language study (as cited

in Jablonkai, 2010:76).

Table.1

Different Uses of Corpora (Meyer,2002;McEnery & Wilson, 1996;Partington, 1998 as

cited in Jablonkai; 2010: 76)

Field of linguistics Benefits gained from corpus linguistics

Lexical studies, lexicography -quick analysis of sheer data

-lexical patterns emerge which could not be

analyzed earlier(e.g. collocation, usage)

-authenticity

Grammatical studies -patterns can be analyzed

-shed light on lexicogrammatical

interdependences

-authenticity, empirical data

-representativeness

-quantitative data

Speech research -broad range of data

-authenticity, naturalistic speech

-annotation makes comparisons between

different categories possible

Language teaching -authenticity

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-representativeness

-criticism towards non-empirically based

teaching materials

Language varieties -corpora used as testbed for theories

-representativeness

-quantitative data

Semantics -objectivity

-frequency data to establish categories(e.g.

fuzzy categories)

Historical linguistics -reservations of representativeness as

limited availability

-frequency analysis

-study of evolution of language through

time

Stylistics -quantitative data

Contrastive studies, translation -semantic, pragmatic contrastive analysis

-analysis of translationalese

Pragmatics -limited-difficult to automate

-role of certain words, phrases or pauses in

conversation

Discourse analysis -limited-difficult to automate

-co-reference

-speech acts

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Conclusion

In few words, in academic writing, it is necessary to build genre description on enough

samples of texts in order to guarantee that the obtained principles and features represent

the genre. Correspondingly, genre researchers have used corpus linguistics as a modern

approach to the study of language. Linguists and scholars argued that corpus linguistics

has a descriptive focus as it attempts to provide information concerning the surface

features of the language used in written/spoken academic prose. Moreover, many subject

specialists make use of corpora regardless to the nature of their working field.

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Section 2: Academic writing

Introduction

Writing is one of the four basic language skills which represent the main medium of

learners‟ performance of different learning assignments. EFL Algerian learners spend at

least eight years learning the English language till entering university. However, these

students struggle with fluent use of English as well as lack of the ability to express

themselves properly. In fact, writing failure for these students is more likely to result in

educational failure because lacking the means to communicate their knowledge , students

will find it difficult to answer properly the questions they are assigned .However, the

Algerian student of English still have lacks in the English language in general and in

writing competence in particular. Since most university graduates will be future teachers of

English who need to master the four skills; it is important for EFL students to be

competent in writing. The following section is aimed to give insights into students‟ writing

processes. It is devoted to defining writing, why academic writing is a difficult skill to

achieve and some of writing strategies and types.

1. Definition of writing

The term writing is claimed to have different definitions, that is why finding the exact

meaning has been and is still a debatable issue among different scholars. In the Oxford

Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary (1996) for instance, “writing” is defined as “the activity of

writing or the skill of producing a linear sequences of graphemes in time”. The dictionary

„s definition highlights the activity of producing in general and ignores the many steps the

writer goes through to obtain a readable piece of writing.

Another definition describes writing as a mechanical activity as defined in Crystal (1995,

p. 257):

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Most obviously writing is a way of communicating which

Uses a system of visual marks made on the some kind of surface.

It is one kind of graphic expression.

The term writing is defined as the activity of transforming thought into language

(Hamzaoui, 2006,p.98). This makes it a difficult skill because it requires both mental and

physical efforts to be mastered.

Nowadays the cognitive aspect is highly emphasized in the educational context where

the process of writing is not merely seen as combining letters or symbols on a paper but

rather as a whole process that is usually comprised of various stages, as pointed out in

Flower and Hayes (1981,p. 366): writing is best understood as a set of distinctive thinking

process which writers orchestrate or organize during the act of composing.

2. Why is academic writing a difficult skill to achieve?

Writing good academic English is one of the most demanding tasks students face.

Most learners need to write essays and reports for exams and coursework. Bailey (2015),

declared that writing English is more difficult than speaking. He argues that many

international students who arrive at college to study in English can speak the language well

enough for daily life like: shopping, traveling, and interacting with people. But the same

students are highly surprised when it comes to writing academic essays and reports

because they find it much more difficult. Bailey (2015), argued that many reasons lie

behind this difficulty: first, speaking is usually done face to face ,if not on the phone, if the

listener does not understand something he may ask the speaker to repeat which is

something that does not work with the reader . Also in academic writing writers and

readers have to learn special conventions like using capital letters in certain places and

using conjunctions and special vocabulary… etc. If the writer does not follow these

17

conventions the intended meaning may be changed so the reader may face difficulty in

getting the message. Another issue is related to vocabulary. Most academic subjects

require the use of semi-formal language, which is different from the idiomatic (informal)

language used in speech. One example is using a verb such as „continue‟ instead of phrasal

verbs like „go on‟. So, the vocabulary used in writing is more formal and should be picked

out carefully.

Byrne (1988) explains that the difficulty in writing stems from three kinds of problems:

- Psychological, caused by lack of interaction and feedback between the reader and the

writer. This means that there is no guidance or immediate interaction between the reader

and the writer. The latter may be confused about what to include and what to exclude, and

if the idea is not well expressed, a misunderstanding would happen.

- Cognitive, because the organization framework of our ideas in written communication

has to be mastered. This means that in speaking the speaker may say something than

restate it by adding some points or comments when necessarily. In contrast, from the right

beginning the writer must follow a certain organization.

- Linguistic, because in writing we have to express ourselves in a clearer and more

grammatical manner than in speech. So, to compensate for the absence of certain features

of spoken language such as gestures and facial expression certain vocabulary must be

present and expressed in a clearer manner.

3. Purposes of writing

Knowing the reasons behind the writing process in second or foreign language is

considered as one of the main necessities to obtain a successful, clear and effective piece

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of writing. Hedge (2005) asked groups of English language teachers from around the

world about reasons behind asking their students to write in classrooms. They identified

several purposes:

- For pedagogical purposes: to help the students learn the system of language and

principles of composition. It works as an aid to learning.

-For assessment purposes: it is a way of detecting and controlling learners’ progress and

proficiency. Also, they may be assessed on their awareness and understanding of the

approaches used in writing or the principles of composing. It allows teachers to monitor

and diagnose problems.

- For real purposes, as the main interest is to meet learners needs a real purpose is set to be

a goal of learning.

- For humanistic purposes, the aim is to allow students express themselves, their thoughts

and ideas. To help in assessing learners‟ strengths and weakness and what they can do.

- For creative purposes: the goal is to develop learners‟ self expression .How to express

things and move from one idea to another.

- For classroom management, sometimes teachers ask learners to write just as a kind of

settling students down so that to manage and control the classroom.

- For acquisitional purposes, which allows learners to explore and reflect on the language

in a conscious way.

- For educational purposes, to add and contribute to the intellectual and educational

development and raise learners‟ awareness, self-esteem and confidence. Because when

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writing, each one may express himself/herself or express the idea in a different way which

may contribute differently to the educational process.

4. Writing strategies

The process of writing is not an easy task because it requires both mental and physical

efforts on the part of the writer. Hedge (2005) declared that the writing process consists of

three main activities:

4.1. Pre-writing:

For Hedge (2005), a skilled writer takes into consideration two important questions before

start writing. The first question is about setting the purpose for writing, because the aim

influences both form and content of the produced document. For instance, when it is a

report, the writer attempts to persuade and stimulate action. When it is an explanation of

something it must be detailed and clear. The purpose of an invitation letter differs from a

letter of a job application, because the purpose of writing will influence the choice of

words and the organization. The second question is: to whom the writer is writing for?

Knowing to whom you are writing i.e., the audience or the eventual reader(s) helps the

writer to select the appropriate words and format. The reader may be a person that you

know, a group of colleagues, an examiner or an institution. The answers to these two

questions helps in providing possible outlines and planning of the composition. At this

stage a good writer generates plans for writing and varies his/her plan according to the

different kinds of writing. However, the plan should not be followed blindly because even

good writers change their ideas when writing and reshape their plans. White and Arndt

(1991,p.3) pointed that: Writers rarely know at the outset exactly what is they are going to

write because many ideas are only revealed during the act of writing itself.

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In fact, it is the poor writer who follows the original plan without deviation without

allowing the interplay between writing and thinking which can create new ideas.

4.2. Drafting and redrafting:

The next step is the process of writing itself. It consists of making the first draft, which is

not an easy task because it is often interrupted by stops and pauses from the part of the

writer as he stops to read, review, revise the plan or stops because of the emergence of a

new idea that is much with the flow of the text. The writer may do many pauses to

rearrange his ideas, So his focus is on the content; whereas the details like correcting the

spelling or grammatical mistakes are left to the end .What is most important for him is

transmitting the right idea. Then the writer makes some revision which involves what has

already been written and deciding on various points like: sharing the idea as clearly as

possible with the reader, covering all important points, omitting any unclear idea that may

be interpreted differently by the reader, including the appropriate vocabulary, rearranging

paragraphs and ensuring making links between sections and ideas.

4.3. Editing:

The post-writing stage consists of reading through and trying to apply a reader‟s

perspective in order to assess how clearly readers might follow the ideas. In other words,

the writer tries to imagine himself a reader to check the correctness and appropriateness of

what he has produced. The editing process makes the final readjustments to check the

text‟s accessibility for the reader. Some poor writers tend to engage in the editing stage

and assume that their writing is clear to others as it seems clear to them. So, these writers

tend to concentrate on the whole writing process as: accuracy, grammar, punctuation

…etc, without considering whether or not the overall structure is clear.

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Conclusion

All in all, this section provides some insights concerning writing academic English. As

writing represents the main medium which students use to answer examination questions

and do assignments in different subject areas, EFL learners need to understand principles

and issues related to academic writing such as definition, purposes, strategies…etc.

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Section three: Adverbs and academic writing

Introduction

The use of adverbs in academic writing is claimed to be optional because its absence in

a sentence does not affect its meaning. In this regard, Hinkel(2004) stated that establishing

an effective and successful communication does not necessarily require the use of adverbs.

However, for most linguists, adverbs play a crucial role in written and spoken discourse.

They can act as modifiers of verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, a whole sentence or even

longer parts as paragraphs. Huang (1974) stated that an adverb is a word that modifies a

verb, an adjective or another adverb. In this regard, it is obvious to say that adverbs have

many syntactic and semantic functions which are responsible for altering the meaning of

the sentence.

Adverbs are important grammatical items that make the writing style more

sophisticated. Thus, when it comes to assessing EFL learners‟ written production, teachers

may notice the difference among them. The appropriate use of adverbs may be a

distinctive feature between good and less good written production of learners. For

instance, students who tend to employ more adverbs seem to have a more sophisticated

style of writing. This can be related to the fact that adverbs strengthen sentences and add to

their meaning.

1. Definition of adverbs

An “adverb” is defined by Crystal (1980) as “a heterogenous group of items, whose

most frequent function is to specify the mode of action of the verb”.

According to Finch (2000), an adverb may modify a verb “by giving circumstantial

information about the time, place, or manner in which an action process takes place”. It is

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used, thus, to describe how an action occurs. Moreover, adverbs are used in order to

modify other parts of speech.

According to Hewings (2005), an adverb is a word that describes or gives more

information about a verb, an adjective, another adverb or a phrase. In other words, this

grammatical item is used to express qualities in relation to verbs (e.g. he runs quickly),

adjectives (e.g. she is so intelligent), other adverbs (e.g. she treated her guests so warmly),

or even a whole sentence (e.g. frankly, everyone was embarrassed).

2. Adverbs’ formation

Linguists and grammarians in English propose different ways of adverbs formation.

Eckersley and Eckersley (1960), suggest that adverbs can be formed by:

Adding the suffix (-ly) to the corresponding adjectives, as in:

- She answers carefully.

However, this rule cannot be applied to adjectives ending in (-ly), instead one can use

“similar adverbs or adverb phrases” (Thomson and Martinet, 1980). In this case, the writer

may use an adverbial phrase such as (in a friendly way) to form the adverb of the adjective

friendly.

- She is friendly

- She talked in a friendly way

Using the same form as adjectives, such as high, low, deep, fast, much, near, hard,

late…etc, such as:

- The adventurer climbed a high mountain. [adj]

- The plane flew high. [adv]

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Thomson and Martinet (1980) said that adverbs can also be formed by adding the suffix

(-ly) to some of the above stated adjectives. But these adverbs are likely to have a narrower

meaning than their corresponding adjectives, for example:

- He was highly located. (He had an interesting office).

They may differ in meaning from their corresponding adjectives, as in:

- She treated her guests warmly. (In a friendly way).

Adding the suffixes (-ly), (-ways), (-wards), (-wise) to nouns such as:

- He practices sport daily/ weekly/ monthly…etc

- Carry the box sideways through this opening.

- She usually travels forwards and backwards between Algeria and Oran.

- Turn the knob of this door clockwise.

Or adding the prefix (a-), such as (away, aside, across, abroad).

- I will be living abroad.

3. Types of adverbs

There are different types of adverbs in English like adverbs of place, time, manner,

frequency, degree, comment and point of view.

Adverbs of time: adverbs of time tell about when/ how long an action is done?

Such as: today, yesterday, later, for a while…etc.

-He will arrive tomorrow.

Adverbs of frequency: adverbs of frequency answer the question “how often

somebody does/did something?” They constitute a percentage of doing an action

such as: always, never, usually, sometimes, rarely …etc.

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-They usually visit us.

Adverbs of manner: this type of adverbs answers the question “how something

is/was done? Such as: quickly, slowly, beautifully, honestly …etc.

-He drives quickly.

Adverbs of place: they give information about “where an action takes/took place”

such as: above, here, behind, inside, down, upstairs…etc.

-I walked downstairs, i.e. (I walked down towards the lower floor).

Adverbs of degree: They answer the question “how much?” like: very, too,

completely, extremely…etc. Adverbs of degree increase or decrease the effect of

the verb.

-She is too young

Comment adverbs: they are used to make a comment on what is to be said, like:

obviously, correspondingly, undoubtedly, astonishingly, presumably…etc.

-Undoubtedly, she will lose.

Adverbs of certainty: they express affirmation such as: certainly, definitely,

surely…etc.

- I will surely come

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4. Adverbs’ classification

4.1. According to their syntactic function:

Grammarians have suggested different ways in classifying adverbs. According to Quirk

and Greenbaum (1983, p.125), adverbs in English have two syntactic functions:

Adverbials: for example, she plays the piano beautifully.

Modifiers of adjectives, adverbs, verbs, phrases or a whole sentence.

Modifier of adjectives: adverbs as modifiers of adjectives can be intensifiers

(add more emphasis). They can modify adjectives, adverbs, and verbs such as: very (which

is very common), so, rather and quite.

An adverb can pre-modify an adjective as in:

- Last winter was very cold.

It may post-modify the adjective such as:

- Good enough.

Also, adverbs as pre-modifiers of adjectives can be “viewpoint” adverbs as:

- A politically great decision.

- Ethically questionable.

Modifier of adverbs: an adverb can pre-modify another adverb and they must occur

immediately before it:

- They walk very slowly.

The only post-modifier of adverbs is “enough”, as in:

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- Fairly enough.

“right” and “out” are used to intensify adverbs that can pre-modify particles in phrasal

verbs, such as:

- He kicked the football right out.

- She did it right now.

Modifier of verbs: adverbs can pre-modify and post-modify verbs, as in:

- She speaks differently.

- He already answered this question.

Modifier of a noun phrase:

- She tells such a funny story.

- It is rather a mess.

- She is quite some singer.

- What a good brother he is.

Time and place adverbs can modify a noun phrase, as in:

- The meeting yesterday was very horrible.

- The neighbor upstairs.

Modifier of a sentence: adverbs can modify a whole sentence, for example:

- Surely, he will be on time.

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4.2. According to their semantic meaning:

Based on their semantic functions, seven categories of adverbs are developed by

Biber(1999). They include place, time, manner, degree, attitude/ restrictive, stance and

linking adverbs. A summary of each category is presented in the following table:

Table 2

Categories of Adverbs Developed by Biber 1999 as cited in Longman Grammar year.

Category Definition Example

Place Shows position, direction or

distance.

He loves it there.

Time Shows position in time,

frequency, duration and

relationship.

She always eats the onion.

Manner Shows how an action is

performed.

We would happily go to his

house.

Degree Show the extent of a

characteristic, increase or

decrease, intensity.

Our dentist was very good.

Additive/ restrictive Show one item added to

another, focus attention on a

certain element.

My dad was a great guy, too

only those who can afford

the monthly payment.

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Another table summarizes all the semantic categories, functions and sub-divisions of

adverbs and adverbials:

Table 3

Types of Adverbs According to their Semantic Meaning.(taken from Biber et. Al.1999)

Stance Show certainty or doubt,

reality or limitations of a

proposition, the attitude of

the speaker to the subject,

show the manner of

speaking.

I‟ll probably manage

Our losses were mainly due

to

It was kind of a strange

I lost the manual

unfortunately.

Quite simply, it can‟t be the

same.

Linking Show enumeration and

addition, summation,

apposition, results, contrast

and transition.

Overall, there are several

issues…

Police, however, would not

say.

Category Function Sub-divisions

Circumstance

Adverbials

Place Direction, position, distance

Time

Time position, frequency, duration, time

relationship

Process Manner, means, instrument, agent

Contingency

Reason/cause, purpose, concession, condition,

result

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4.3. According to their position:

Adverbs have been classified according to the position they occupy as:

Initial/ front position adverbs: when the adverb occurs as the first word in a

sentence, such as: time, place, comment and view point adverbs. The adverb in this

position is likely to set the scene for the following action, as in:

- Still, in spite of the efforts she made, I think she will fail.

Extent/ degree

Intensifiers, down-toners

Addition/ Restriction

Recipient

Other

Stance

adverbials

Epistemic Doubt/certainty, actuality/reality, source of

knowledge, limitation, viewpoint/perspective,

imprecision Attitude

Style

Linking adverbials

Enumeration and addition

Summation

Apposition

Result

Contrast/concession

Transition

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Medial position adverbs: when the adverb occurs before the main verb or after the

first auxiliary in a sentence, such as: degree adverbs and adverbs of frequency. For

example:

- He always forgets to put a question mark.

- He is always pretending to be kind.

Final position adverbs: when the adverb occurs as the final word in a sentence,

such as: place, time and manner adverbs. For example:

- My friend came late.

5. Characteristics of adverbs’ placement

One major characteristic of adverbs is their ability to occupy different positions in a

sentence without changing / affecting its meaning. Some adverbs, however, are restricted

to a particular position because changing them may alter the meaning of the sentence. It is

a fact that adverbials can appear nearly anywhere within a sentence and often not so close

to the words they modify, whereas modifiers usually appear adjacent and often

immediately preceding the word they modify (Eggo 2006, p.4)

In order to make a distinction between these two types of adverbs; the position of each

category of adverbs is illustrated:

Position of adverbs of manner:

Manner adverbs are usually placed in final positions when:

They occur after an intransitive verb, or after the object of a transitive verb.

- He sang beautifully.

- She speaks Spanish well.

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They are necessary for verbs whose meaning is more clear/completed by these adverbs,

such as:

- They lived happily.

Adverbs of manner are also likely to be placed in mid position when the sentence:

a. Includes a preposition in the sentence (V+ Prep+ Obj), as in:

- She looked suspiciously at me.

b. Includes an object in a sentence (V+ Obj), mainly when the sentence contains a long

object, such as:

- He carefully picked up all the bits of the broken glass.

Furthermore, some adverbs of manner may change their position in a sentence. They may

occupy the initial position when / if they are used emphatically, as in:

- Silently, they entered the classroom.

Other manner adverbs, especially those concerned with character and intelligence, are

likely to differ in meaning when they are changed from one position to another, as in:

- He answered the question foolishly.

- He foolishly answered the question.

In the first example, the adverb “foolishly” means: his answers were foolish. However, the

word “foolishly” in the second example expresses the idea that the way he answered the

question was foolish.

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Position of adverbs of time:

Adverbs of time are normally placed in final position; but some of them can be moved to

another position. The adverb “soon”, for example, can occupy initial, medial or final

positions without any change in the sentence structure or meaning. For example:

- Soon, the farmers will be harvesting their wheat.

- The farmers will soon be harvesting their wheat.

- The farmers will be harvesting their wheat, soon.

Other adverbs of time such as: today, yesterday, tomorrow, may be placed in front or final

positions as in:

- Tomorrow, she will be here.

- She will be here tomorrow.

However, some adverbs of time are commonly used for certain positions. For example,

adverbs such as “nowadays” are common for initial position. Others are common for

medial position such as “momentarily”, “permanently”, “temporarily”… etc

- They were momentarily shocked by the news.

“Just”, an adverb of time that is restricted to medial position.

It either occurs before the main verb, as in:

- She just called me.

Or, after the first auxiliary of the sentence, as in:

- She has just told us the news.

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Adverbs as „immediately‟, late are common for the final position, as in:

- I will leave immediately.

- She came late.

Position of adverbs of place:

Adverbs of place are usually placed in final position when they occur after intransitive

verbs, or after the direct object of transitive verbs, as in:

- She went downstairs.

- I will see him downstairs.

Adverbs of place rarely occupy the medial position. Some of them may do so, particularly

those which refer to positions such as „here‟ and „there‟, as in:

- They there noticed a very curious statue.

Adverbs of place are more restricted in their placement than other types of adverbs.

Position of adverbs of frequency:

Frequency adverbs are claimed to be an important group of medial position adverbs. But

some linguists and grammarians found that position of definite frequency adverbs differ

from that of indefinite ones. Thus, definite frequency adverbs are placed in final positions,

as in:

- The meeting takes place every week.

Whereas, indefinite frequency adverbs are normally placed in medial position before the

main verb or after the first auxiliary of the sentence, as in:

- They sometimes visit us.

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- He can never work in group.

On certain occasions, adverbs of frequency are placed before the auxiliary when:

a. The auxiliary is used alone, in addition to remarks, or in answers to questions, as in:

- I know I should take exercises, but I never do.

b. The auxiliary is stressed to give emphasis to a compound verbs, as in:

- I never can remember.

Position of adverbs of degree:

Single-word degree adverbs usually occur in medial position, as in:

- I totally agree with you.

Adverbs of degree which modify adjectives or other adverbs are placed before the

adjectives or adverbs they modify, as in:

- It was too cold to study.

- He played extremely badly.

The degree adverb „enough‟, on the other hand, follows the adjective or the adverb it

modifies, as in:

- The bag is not big enough.

- He didn‟t walk quickly enough.

Other degree adverbs are likely to modify verbs. They precede the main verb or follow the

first auxiliary of the sentence, as in:

- I quite understand.

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- She can nearly swim.

6. Research on L2 adverb use

Because of their complexities, adverbs have been studied in various ways by many

linguists. For instance, Granger and Rayson (1998) looked at the differences between

French English learners‟ argumentative essays and ICLE (International Corpus of Learner

English) and compared them with equal number of argumentative essays they collected

from the LOCNESS (Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays). The results have shown

that adverbs make up 5% of the corpus in native speakers‟ writing and approximately 6%

in non-native speakers‟ texts. This highlights that adverbs are used with low frequency

despite the fact that they are among the most abundant word classes . Furthermore, they

state that short adverbs (only, also, even, so, very…etc) were overused, while adverbs

ending with (-Ly) were underused.

A recent study by Sheikhani and Abdollahi-Guilani (2017) investigated how Iranian

MA EFL learners use adverbs in their academic writing and also attempted to find out the

relationship between gender and adverbs‟ use. They examined “460” argumentative and

descriptive essays. They found that Iranian learners tend to overuse linking, stance, degree

and manner adverbs whereas they underuse adverbs of time and place. Concerning gender

differences, the study concluded that females resort to use more adverbs than males.

Another study conducted by Bourgonje (1984) in which he examined native language

L1 interference with adverb use. He focused specifically on adverb placement. Students

from five different native languages were asked to perform two tasks. One was to insert an

adverb into a sentence; while the other was to judge the acceptability of this sentence. In

both tasks, the researcher found evidence for L1 interference. He also found that because

adverbs in English do not follow the same placement rules, L1 interference helped these

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students to perform well on certain adverbs, but hindered them on others. For example,

they failed to place adverbs that occur pre-verbally in English. However, they performed

well in placing adverbs that occur post-verbally in English like “silently”.

Other studies investigated adverbs using corpus methods to compare frequencies and

errors in ESL students‟ texts to those of native speakers of English. In this regard,

Dissoway(1984) conducted a study comparing errors in ESL students‟ written production

to those of native students. She categorized errors into three types: misplacement,

confusion with other word classes‟ form, and inappropriate usage. She found that students

resort to use an adjective where an adverb is required. She also conducted a review of ESL

grammar texts. She surveyed thirty texts and concluded that the treatment of adverbs was

inconsistent. For example, the common way of presenting adverbs was to compare them

with adjectives. However, only fifteen texts included explanation of this, and just nine of

them provided accompanying exercises. This kind of instruction corresponded with highest

amount of learner error. She proposed that inconsistent treatment of adverbs encourages

students‟ errors rather than preventing them; and suggested that a more systematic and

comprehensive presentation of adverbs helps students clearly understand what an adjective

is, and thus minimizing the number of errors.

Chen (2006) examined the semantic class of linking adverbs in academic writing. She

focused on four types of conjunctive adverbials: additive (besides, also), adversative

(however, in contrast), causal (consequently, thus) and temporal (then, next). She

examined conjunctive adverbials using corpus methodology; she compared Taiwanese

TESOL master students to a self-created corpus of published articles in TESOL journals.

She found that non-native speakers (NNS) had a slightly higher frequency of usage per

10,000 words. However, when she considered usage per sentence, she found that native

speakers (NS) had a higher rate of usage per one thousand sentences. She suggested that

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this difference is explained by the fact that NS produced longer and more complex

sentences, and thus needed more linking adverbs than NNS. Moreover, she concluded

NNS frequently used additive conjunctive adverbials such as “besides” and “also”, while

NS used adversative ones such as “however”. Thus, she concluded that NNS resort to use

adverbs that are more associated with an informal register. In addition, she suggested that

explicit and systematic instruction on using register-appropriate adverbs is required.

A similar study on linking adverbials was conducted by Liu (2013). He analyzed the

use of such adverbials in Chinese EFL learners‟ speaking and writing using a corpus-based

approach, and comparing learners‟ corpora with native speakers‟ corpora. The results

showed that Chinese EFL learners use more linking adverbials in their speaking than in

their writing, which is the opposite speaking-writing pattern to native speakers. In addition,

it is found that Chinese learners tend to overuse linking adverbials. However, they show

different tendencies between registers in the sense that they overuse corroborative

adverbials in speaking and underuse them in writing. These tendencies are claimed to be

linked to factors as L1 transfer, pedagogical instruction, stylistic and register awareness,

and semantic understanding.

Concerning register awareness, Hinkel (2004) highlighted that even the most advanced

EFL/ESL learners lack the ability to use appropriate adverbs and adverbials in relevant

registers. For example, they resort to use “it is really good” to express stance/degree

instead of using more formal forms of the same function. This points to a lack of register

awareness. In other words, academic writing requires the use of more formal words and

expressions. Thus, it is necessary to raise register awareness when it comes to teaching

adverbs in the context of academic writing.

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Another study concerning the use of linking adverbials was conducted by Leedham and

Cai (2013). They examined the use of such adverbials in the essays of L2 undergraduate

students in universities in the UK. They also talked about the notions of overuse, underuse

and misuse of certain grammatical features in learners‟ texts such as the use of informal

language, pronouns and linking adverbials. They stated that, at the starting point of their

education in the UK, students are influenced by their secondary education in terms of

lexical and grammatical items‟ choice for academic writing. However, they claimed that

those students are likely to benefit greatly from L2 environment and the samples that

students would encounter throughout their university education.

Conclusion

Adverbs constitute a wide range in English grammar. Studies on adverbs‟ use took

different approaches. At a beginning level, grammatical accuracy is considered to be

students‟ primary issue. However, as they progress in grammatical proficiency, other

problems come to appear such as: overuse, underuse and misuse of certain types of

adverbs, L1 interference, poor grammatical instruction and lack of register awareness.

Thus, the appropriate use of adverbs remains a challenging task for even the most

advanced learners of English.

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CHAPTER TWO: INVESTIGATING ALGERIAN LEARNERS USE OF

ADVERBS

INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................... 41

1.RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ..................................................................................... 41

1.1. METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION ......................................................................... 41

1.2. CORPUS COMPILATION .......................................................................................... 41

1.3. PROCEDURE .............................................................................................................. 42

2. ANALYSIS AND RESULTS ......................................................................................... 42

2.1. WRITTEN EXPRESSION PAPERS‟ ANALYSIS ..................................................... 42

A. FREQUENCY OF ADVERBS‟ USE............................................................................. 42

B. TYPES OF ADVERBS USED ....................................................................................... 44

2.2. LINGUISTICS PAPERS‟ ANALYSIS ........................................................................ 47

A. FREQUENCY OF ADVERBS‟ USE............................................................................. 47

B. TYPES OF ADVERBS USED ....................................................................................... 50

2.3. DISCUSSION OF THE MAIN RESULTS .................................................................. 53

2.4. PROBLEMS‟ INVESTIGATION ................................................................................ 55

2.5. DISCUSSION OF THE IDENTIFIED PROBLEMS .................................................. 57

GENERAL CONCLUSION ................................................................................................ 61

1.SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS ................................................................................... 61

2. PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS ............................................................................... 62

3. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY .................................................................................. 63

4. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH ........................................................... 63

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Chapter two: Investigating Algerian learners use of adverbs

Introduction

This chapter is devoted to discuss the methodology followed to investigate the use of

adverbs by second year Algerian students at the English department, Larbi Ben M‟hidi

University. Data will be analyzed in terms of frequency and variety of adverbs used. Such

analysis helps in discovering the impact of the nature of the subject matter on the quality

and quantity of adverbs‟ use. Moreover, problems related to adverbs‟ inaccurate use will

be investigated. Correspondingly, some solutions will be suggested in order to overcome

the identified problems. In few words, this chapter is devoted to clarify the method of data

collection, the corpus compilation, procedures, analysis and results, discussion of the

findings, summary of the findings, implications, limitations of the study, and suggestions

for further studies.

1.Research methodology

1.1. Method of data collection

Corpus analysis is the main tool of data collection in this study. In order to achieve

representativeness, balance and diversity in corpus design, the study followed the

technique of random sampling by which a number of students‟ written production is

chosen randomly to be analyzed.

1.2. Corpus compilation

1.2.1. Corpus

The corpus of this study is comprised of thirty pieces of writing, fifteen exam papers

of „written expression‟ module (WE) and fifteen exam papers of „linguistics‟(Ling),

produced by second year(LMD) students at the department of English (Larbi Ben M‟hidi

42

University). The papers were extracted from the English department archive of the current

academic year (2018-2019); they were selected randomly from three groups of second year

students. These written productions were coded W1/ W2/ W3…W15 for written

expression papers and L1/ L2/ L3…L15 for linguistics‟ papers. This process helped in

maintaining the students‟ written production anonymous and facilitating their analysis.

1.3. Procedure

The collected data was analyzed manually. Depending on Biber‟s (1999) classification

of adverbs learners written productions were analyzed in terms of frequency, i.e. the

number of adverbs used in each single paper, and variety, i.e. the types of adverbs that are

mostly used in both modules. Moreover, the analysis of students‟ papers helped in

identifying some of the most common problems concerning the use of adverbs. The last

part of the study is an attempt to suggest possible solutions which might help in reducing

learners‟ weaknesses in adverbs‟ use.

2. Analysis and results

2.1. Written expression papers’ analysis

a. Frequency of adverbs’ use

One reason which motivated the choice of „written expression‟ papers is related to the

nature of the topics given in this module. The themes are, most of the time, related to the

general knowledge and interest to the students, the fact which may be appealing for

adverbs‟ use. The following table presents the frequency of adverbs„s use in students‟

written production of the „written expression‟ module.

43

Table 4

Frequency of Adverbs’ Use in WE Writings

The above table illustrates the number of adverbs used in each paper separately

as well as the total number of adverbs’ use in the ‘written expression’ module. The

results show that students’ use of adverbs ranged from three adverbs per paper, i.e.,

1.5% as the least amount of adverbs’ use; the case of W1 and W2 to thirty (30) adverbs,

i.e., 15.07% as the highest frequency of adverbs’ use; the case of W12. These statistics

indicate that all students actually use adverbs in their writing but with different degrees.

Whereas some students tend to be heavily employing them, others tend to have a

restricted use of these grammatical items. The following figure shows the frequency of

adverbs used in students’ production in ‘written expression’.

/ Frequency Percentage

W1 3 1.51%

W2 3 1.51%

W3 4 2.01%

W4 11 5.53%

W5 12 6.03%

W6 15 7.54%

W7 20 10.05%

W8 13 6.53%

W9 12 6.03%

W10 12 6.03%

W11 21 11.56%

W12 30 15.07%

W13 9 4.52%

W14 12 6.03%

W15 20 10.05%

Total 199 100%

44

Figure 1.Frequency of adverbs in students‟ WE papers

b. Types of adverbs used

Students‟ frequency of adverbs‟ use may not necessarily reflect a variation in such use. In

other words, a student may use a big number of adverbs, but they are all of the same type.

Others may use fewer adverbs but cover a wider range of adverbs‟ categories the following

table illustrates the types of adverbs used in students‟ writings of WE.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

W1 W2 W3 W4 W5 W6 W7 W8 W9 W10 W11 W12 W13 W14 W15

Fre

qu

en

cy

WE papers

45

The following table shows the types of adverbs used in students‟ writings of WE

Table 5

Variety of Adverbs in WE Writings

/ adverbs Frequency total percentage

Place

here 4 10

٪5.03 there 5

down 1

Time

every 14 30

٪15.08 always 12

sometimes 10

nowadays 4

Manner

well 2 20

٪10.05

more 3

constantly 2

simply 1

carefully 1

especially 4

absolutely 3

kindly 1

poorly 1

wrongfully 1

patiently 1

Degree

so 17 40

٪20.1

very 15

really 3

well 1

extremely 2

more 1

too 1

Additive/

Restrictive

even 12 48

٪24.12

also 14

just 4

only 6

similarly 3

too 9

Stance

really 7 25

٪12.56

about 4

like 2

actually 4

46

personally 2

normally 3

obviously 3

Linking

firstly 3

26

٪13.07

secondly 3

thirdly 2

finally 3

so 7

however 4

therefore 4

Total / 199 199 100%

Table 5 represents diversity of adverbs used in learners‟ compositions when writing in

WE module. Students‟ use of adverbs covered seven categories overall: place, time,

manner, degree, additive/restrictive, stance and linking adverbs. This reflects a wealth in

adverbs‟ use which may be reflected in a good writing quality. Among the seven

categories, additive/restrictive adverbs tend to be the most appealing for students, with

approximately 24%. Examples of this category of adverbs as used by students include:

„also‟, „even‟, „just‟ and „too‟. The second most dominating category is degree adverbs

with a percentage of 20%. The most frequently used degree adverbs are „very‟ and „so‟.

Time adverbs are used with a percentage of 15%; examples of adverbs used by students

are „every‟, „always‟, „sometimes‟ and „nowadays‟. In addition, linking adverbs are used

with a percentage of 13% including „firstly‟, „secondly‟, „thirdly‟, „however‟, „therefore‟

and „so‟. The next closest percentage covers stance adverbs with 12.25% including

„normally‟, „obviously‟, „personally‟ and „like‟. Manner adverbs are the next category

which covers a percentage of 10% containing „constantly‟, „simply‟, „carefully‟,

„patiently‟, „especially‟, „kindly‟, „wrongfully‟, „poorly‟ and „well‟. The percentage of 5%

is related to the last category which is place adverbs that appeared just 10 times (5.03%).

These adverbs are „here‟, „there‟ and „down‟.

47

All in all, it may be concluded that students‟ use of adverbs in the written expression

module can be described as positive regarding frequency(table4) and variety(table5). The

following diagram illustrates the types of adverbs used in students‟ writings in written

expression.

Figure 2.Types of adverbs used in students‟ WE writings

2.2. Linguistics papers’ analysis

a. Frequency of adverbs’ use

In order to get a clearer idea of students‟ use of adverbs in different academic

contexts, it was necessary to examine students‟ written production in another module. The

second chosen subject was “ linguistics”, and the choice of it was mainly motivated by the

5.03%

15.08%

10.05%

20.1%

24.12%

12.56%

13.07%

place

Time

Manner

Degree

Additive/restrictive

Stance

Linking

48

fact that it differs from the “written expression” module because of its technical and

scientific nature.

The following table presents the frequency of adverbs used in students‟ written

production of „linguistics‟ module.

Table 6

Frequency of adverbs’ use in Linguistics

/ Frequency percentage

L1 1 0.9%

L2 6 5.5%

L3 5 4.6%

L4 8 7.3%

L5 10 9.2%

L6 3 2.8%

L7 6 5.5%

L8 3 2.8%

L9 16 14.7%

L10 8 7.3%

L11 11 9.1%

L12 5 4.6%

L13 14 12.8%

L14 8 7.3%

L15 5 4.6%

Total 109 100%

Table 6 indicates the percentage of adverbs‟ use in students writings of „linguistics‟

.The overall number of adverbs used in linguistics‟ written production is 109. It is clear

that it is an inferior number from the total number of adverbs in „written expression‟. One

possible interpretation of this difference is related to the technical and scientific nature of

„linguistics‟ which seems to be less appealing for the use of adverbs. Students‟ use of

adverbs in the linguistics module ranges from one adverb per paper, i.e., 0.9% (L1) to 16

adverbs, i.e., 14.7% (L9) which are, again, inferior to minimal and maximal figures in the

49

written expression module. The following figure illustrates the frequency of adverbs in

students‟ linguistics writings.

Figure 3.Frequency of adverbs in Linguistics papers

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

L1 L2 L3 L4 L5 L6 L7 L8 L9 L10 L11 L12 L13 L14 L15

fre

qu

en

cy

Linguistics papers

50

b. Types of adverbs used

The following table shows the types of adverbs used in linguistics papers

Table 7

Variety of Adverbs in Linguistics Writings

Adverbs Frequency Total percentage

Place

Here 7 19 ٪17.4

There 3

Where 6

Whereby 1

Inside 1

Down 1

Time

After 1 23 ٪21.1

Before 1

till now 2

Now 2

up to now 1

With time 2

Through time 2

Over time 2

When 5

sometimes 4

never 1

Manner

directly 1 21 ٪19.3

particularly 1

socially 4

essentially 1

especially 3

largely 1

gradually 3

completely 2

necessarily 1

strongly 1

well 1

truly 1

hard 1

Degree

so 2 5 ٪4.6

very 2

really 1

Ad

dit

ive/

re

stri

ctiv

e

also 5 14 ٪12.8

moreover 1

In addition to 1

furthermore 1

even 1

51

only 3

namely 1

just 1

Stance

somehow 1 2 ٪1.8

may be 1

thus 4

so 12

firstly 1

finally 2

though 2

Linking

however 4 25 ٪22.9

thus 4

so 12

firstly 1

finally 2

though 2

Total / 109 109 ٪100

The Table 7 above represents the various types of adverbs used in students‟ written

output in linguistics. As it can be noticed, learners‟ use of adverbs covered seven types

which are: place, time, manner, degree, additive/restrictive, stance and linking which are

exactly the same types used in the written expression module. However, linking adverbs

tend to be the most widely used in linguistic written production (22.9%) as opposed to

additive/restrictive category in written expression. These adverbs include „however‟,

„though‟, „thus‟, „so‟, „firstly‟ and „finally‟ which are used repetitively by almost all

students. Adverbs of time are also used with a high frequency and with a percentage of

21.1%. These adverbs include „sometimes‟ and „never‟ (frequency adverbs), „after‟,

„before‟, „when‟, „overtime‟, „through time‟, „with time‟, „till now‟, „ up to now‟, and

„now‟. Like linking adverbs, adverbs of time are used frequently by most students.

Similarly, manner adverbs are used by an important number the of students with a

percentage of 19.3%. These adverbs are „socially‟, which appeared in different papers;

„especially‟, „gradually‟, „truly‟, „completely‟, „necessarily‟, „largely‟, „essentially‟,

„particularly‟, „directly‟, „strongly‟, „hard‟ and „well‟. Repetitive use of the same adverbs

52

in different papers may be related to the fact that some students resort to learn by heart in

such modules. In addition, adverbs of place are used frequently as well; with a percentage

of 17.4%. These adverbs are „there‟, „where‟, „down‟, „inside‟, and „whereby‟. They are

used repetitively in the different examined papers. The following semantic category is

additive/restrictive adverbs with a percentage of 12.8%. These include adverbs like „also‟,

„moreover‟, „in addition to‟, „furthermore‟ and „even‟; while restrictive adverbs are „only‟,

„namely‟ and „just‟. The remaining three categories of adverbs used by students are degree

adverbs (very, so and really), and stance adverbs (somehow and maybe) with percentages

of 4.6% and 1.8% respectively. The following diagram illustrates the percentages of

adverbs used in students‟ writings in linguistics.

Figure 4.Types of adverbs used in students‟ Linguistics writings

21.1%

19.3%

4.6%

12.8% 1.8%

23%

17.4%

Time

Manner

Degree

Additive/restrictive

Stance

Linking

Place

53

Unlike students‟ writing in „written expression‟, students‟ use of the different categories

of adverbs seems to be more balanced. Except for place and degree adverbs ( which are

rarely used in students‟ writings), there seems to be an equal distribution of the other

categories which reflects some consistency in their writing which, again, can be explained

by the scientific nature of the subject matter.

2.3. Discussion of the main results

So far, the attempt in this chapter has been to identify the frequency of adverbs as well

as the semantic categories mostly used. According to Opdahl (2000), “looking at

frequency alone does not provide the full story”. The following tables (8,9) summarize

both frequency and types of adverbs used in students‟ linguistics and written expression

writing.

Table 8

Frequency and Variety of Adverbs’ Use in Written Expression

place time manner degree Additive/restrictive stance linking Total percentage

W1 1 2 3 ٪1.51

W2 2 1 3 ٪1.51

W3 1 3 4 ٪2.01

W4 3 2 4 2 11 ٪5.53

W5 1 4 3 1 3 12 ٪6.03

W6 2 3 7 2 1 15 ٪7.54

W7 2 1 7 8 2 20 ٪10.05

W8 1 2 1 1 6 2 13 ٪6.53

W9 1 3 1 4 3 12 ٪6.03

W10 1 3 1 2 3 2 12 ٪6.03

W11 1 4 5 4 3 3 3 21 ٪11.56

W12 1 1 6 4 10 6 2 30 ٪15.07

W13 1 1 3 4 9 ٪4.52

W14 1 4 3 2 1 1 12 ٪6.03

W15 6 1 9 3 1 20 ٪10.05

Total 10 30 20 40 48 25 26 199 ٪100 Percentage 5.03 15.08 10.05 20.1 24.12 12.56 13.07 /

54

Table 9

Frequency and Variety of Adverbs’ Use in Linguistics

Place time manner degree Additive/

restrictive

Stance Linking total percentage

L1 1 1 ٪0.9

L2 1 2 1 1 1 6 ٪5.5

L3 1 1 1 2 5 ٪4.6

L4 1 1 4 2 8 ٪7.3

L5 3 2 2 3 10 ٪9.2

L6 1 1 1 3 ٪2.8

L7 1 3 1 1 6 ٪5.5

L8 1 1 1 3 ٪2.8

L9 9 1 1 5 16 ٪14.7

L10 1 2 1 3 1 8 ٪7.3

L11 1 4 1 2 3 11 ٪19.1

L12 1 1 3 5 ٪4.6

L13 6 2 1 2 3 14 ٪12.8

L14 1 5 2 8 ٪7.3

L15 2 1 1 1 5 ٪4.6

Total 19 23 21 5 14 2 25 109 ٪100 Percentage ٪17.4‟ ٪21.1 ٪19.3 ٪4.6 ٪12.8 ٪1.8 ٪22.9 /

The tables above indicate that students‟ tend to use more adverbs in „written

expression‟ than in „linguistics‟. This may be related to the nature of the topic or the nature

of the modules themselves. In „written expression‟, students discuss general topics often of

personal interest which provides a more suitable context for adverbs‟ use. In the present

corpus, students were asked to write about the problems that primary school teachers face.

In this case, they are likely to express their opinions and provide arguments. This is the

reason why they overused „additive/restrictive‟, „linking‟, „stance‟ and „degree‟ adverbs.

Furthermore, in written expression, students are expected to pay more attention to both

form and content. So, they are more likely to apply grammar rules and respect academic

writing‟s requirements.

55

On the other hand, linguistics‟ productions tend to discuss very technical issues where

the language is mostly scientific or academic giving little chance for the use of adverbs.

Students, in the present study, were given direct question about Chomsky‟s and

Desaussure‟s theories of language. Thus, they were required to explain those theories

without expressing stance. This may be a reason for students‟ underuse of „stance‟ and

„degree‟ adverbs in this module. In addition, they focus just on the content, this may be

due to the fact that even teachers of such modules base their assessment on the content

without paying attention to the form.

Despite these differences, students seem to cover the same categories of adverbs. In

both modules, students made use of seven categories of adverbs, but with different

frequencies. In written expression, „additive/restrictive‟ and „degree‟ adverbs tend to be the

most dominating categories, whereas in linguistics „linking‟ and „time‟ adverbs are the

mostly used. This difference is mainly due to the nature of the topics discussed in both

subjects which provides different contexts and, consequently, different languages.

2.4. Problems’ investigation

Despite the positive frequency and variety of adverbs‟ use in students‟ writing, the

analysis of students‟ written production in both modules revealed some weaknesses which

can be summarized in the following:

Adverbs‟ misplacement: second year EFL students showed inconveniencies in

positional distribution of some adverbs as in:

- “In this case, directly you know that this person is communicating”.

- “The job of a primary school teacher can be understandable sometimes”

- “They need really special care”

- “the teacher must know how to treat young students not old people only”

56

- “Also teaching in primary school is hard”

- “This is meaningless completely”

Overuse of adverbs typical for spoken language: students resort to use adverbs

which are more typical to their informal spoken prose. The majority are degree

adverbs “so”, “too”, “very”, “really” which are used with a considerable amount in

the actual corpus.

- “Teaching in general is very hard”

- “It is so difficult to make students know a point”

- “Children are so sensitive creatures”

- “Teachers have to be so patient”

- “The job of teaching is really hard”

- “the teaching process is too long”

Overuse of short adverbs like “only”, “also”, “just”, “here”, “there”, “so”; and the

underuse of (ly) adverbs.

Students‟ mother tongue interference: students transfer forms of their first language

to their academic writing. The following examples give a better illustration

- “The teacher is the key here”

- “so, here langue is something that exist in mind”

- “Here, when Chomsky and Desaussure agreed on”

- The adverb “especially” is highly used.

- Using the result adverb “so” repeatedly.

Repetitive use of the same adverb in the same piece of writing as in

- L2:

“when a person sneezes, you know directly that he is sick”

“In this case, directly you know that the person is communicating”

“In the biological period the child writes directly after speaking”

57

- W12:

“ the teacher needs to be constantly aware of his responsibility”

“ they need to be constantly dealing with other people”

“ parents who constantly argue that their children‟s teacher are not good”

Overuse of initial and final positions when it comes to placing adverbs as “also”

and “too”.

- “also it is a feature of traditional grammar”

- “also teaching in primary school is hard task”

- “it is based on the actual use of language through time too”

- “it is the whole system that makes speech possible too”

Some papers contain adverbs with a lower frequency (adverbs underuse) as in

L1,L6 L8, W1 and W2 (from 1to 3 adverbs).

2.5. Discussion of the identified problems

After a detailed semantic and syntactic analysis of the corpus, a set of problems

concerning adverbs‟ use has been identified. Although students use a considerable amount

of adverbs in their writings, there is a limited proficiency in their accurate use when it

comes to writing academic texts. The first problem is adverbs‟ misplacement which can be

explained by students‟ native language L1 interference. Bourgonje (1984) found evidence

for L1 interference with adverbs‟ placement. He explained that because adverbs in English

do not follow the same placement rules, L1 interference helped students perform well on

certain adverbs and hindered them on others. Similarly, in the present study, some students

failed to place adverbs that occur pre-verbally in English such as „frequency adverbs‟

.However, they performed well in adverbs that occur post-verbally in English such as

„carefully‟, „gradually‟. On the other hand, EFL students showed differences in the

58

positional distribution of adverbs like „also‟ and „too‟. They prefer to place these two

adverbs in initial and final positions respectively. Their overuse of these positions can be

viewed as an avoidance of medial placement. This avoidance may be due to learners‟

preference of a simpler construction. In order to avoid such problems, Dissoway (1984)

suggested that a more systematic and comprehensive instruction concerning adverbs‟

placement should be provided.

Moreover, It is found that students tend to use „also‟ as an additive adverb. Chen (2006)

concluded that non-native speakers NNS frequently used additive adverbials „also‟ and

„besides‟, while native speakers NS used adversative ones like „however‟. She concluded

that NNS resort to use adverbs that are more associated with an informal register. She

suggested that explicit and systematic instruction on using register-appropriate adverbs is

needed.

Furthermore, Students tend to use „really‟, „very‟, „so‟, „too‟ to express degree and

stance instead of using more formal words. This points to lack of register awareness.

Hinkel (2004) insisted that academic writing requires the use of more formal words. In

addition, students‟ tendency to use speech-like expressions and adverbs that are common

in the conversational discourse is also explained by their lack of register awareness. For

instance, they resort to overuse the expression „so, here‟, intensifiers, linking and additive

adverbs which are common in the informal spoken language. Hyland‟s (1997) said that

students “mix informal spoken and formal written forms and transfer conversational uses

to academic genres”. Thus, it is necessary to raise register awareness when teaching

adverbs in ESL classes.

Despite the fact that -ly- adverbs are the category of adverbs mostly appropriate to the

academic prose, the majority of students underused them in their writing. In the light of

59

Biber‟s (1999) findings regarding the difference in distribution of adverbs in conversation

and academic writing. He found that “ conversation and academic prose represent opposite

extremes of use: in conversation, over 60% of the common adverbs are simple forms, and

only about 20% - ly forms; in academic prose, about 55% of the common adverbs are –ly

forms, and slightly 30% simple forms”( Biber 1999, p.540). Furthermore, the overuse of

short adverbs like (even, just, only, too, very, also), and the repetitive use of the same

adverb in the single paper affect writing negatively in several ways. The overuse of a

particular single item can decrease the breadth of vocabulary choice. Consequently,

students who overused the same words tend to have a narrower range of adverbs used.

Generally, students who misuse adverbs seem to have a less sophisticated style of writing.

In order to minimize the likelihood of these problems to occur, it is suggested that

explicit instruction/ input on how, where and when to use adverbs is required. Also, it is

necessary to give a consistent presentation of adverbs, and provide more exercises

concerning adverbs‟ placement and native-like selection of words. Moreover, students

need more instruction on using register-appropriate adverbs. In addition, more time should

be devoted to practice and giving feedback on learners‟ written production.

The following scheme summarizes the findings concerning students‟ weaknesses in

adverbs‟ use

60

Figure 5.Algerian learners‟ Problems in adverbs‟ use

61

General conclusion

This study offered a detailed analysis of adverbs‟ use in second year LMD students‟

writings at the English department- Larbi Ben M‟hidi University. The corpora chosen for

the study were taken randomly from three groups of students in the academic year

2018/2019. On the basis of Biber‟s (1999) semantic classifications, a manual analysis of

adverbs‟ frequency and variety was done. Relying on this analysis and on the light of

previous studies, many problems were identified. This section attempts to summarize the

main findings, limitations of the study, some pedagogical implications and, finally, some

suggestions for further researches on adverbs use in academic writing.

1.Summary of the findings

The analysis of corpora has revealed that second year EFL students tend to use a

considerable amount of adverbs in their writings in both written expression and linguistics.

In addition, the seven types of adverbs identified by Biber (1999) are all employed.

Frequency and variety of the adverbs used in written expression papers differ from those

used in linguistics papers. This can be related to nature of each module as well as the

nature of the topic given in each. Furthermore, a range of problems has been identified

such as overuse, underuse, and misuse of particular types of adverbs. It is also highlighted

that the appropriate use of adverbs remains an issue for even the most advanced learners.

Thus, grammatical accuracy does not guarantee the accurate use of adverbs. These

problems can be related to students‟ mother tongue interference, poor grammatical

instruction, and lack of register stylistic awareness which leads to speech-like selection of

words. Adverbs‟ misuse, overuse and underuse affected students‟ written production

negatively in the sense that students who misuse adverbs seem to have an unsophisticated

style of writing. Relying on previous studies and the actual experience, it is suggested that

62

a systematic and explicit instruction on the accurate use of adverbs as well as on the use of

register-appropriate adverbs is required. Practice on adverbs‟ use in academic writing and

native-like selection of words is also needed.

2. Pedagogical implications

This study is of a crucial significance at the academic level. Observing such a word

class gives the opportunity to observe variability in students‟ language development; how

they choose adverbs, the categories they prefer to use and where they place them in

sentences gives insights into their language proficiency. Moreover, examining the way

adverbs are used in EFL students‟ writings gives a much more comprehensive picture of

how learners are using adverbs and what areas need further instruction. Thus, the results

gained from the present study are of a great importance for EFL students, teachers and

curriculum designers.

For EFL students, they must be aware of the different classifications of adverbs

especially of those that fit the academic prose and those that do not. They should learn

about the accurate use of adverbs as well as the rhetorical functions that adverbs perform

in academic writing.

For instructors, consistent and systematic presentation of adverbs helps students using

them appropriately. In addition, more practice concerning adverbs‟ use is required.

For curriculum designers, they should know the essential role of these grammatical

items and include them within courses of academic writing in order to make students more

aware of their accurate use.

63

3. Limitations of the study

Like any other research, some difficulties were encountered in this study. The most

important of which are:

Difficulty in using the computer softwares specific to corpus analysis, such as

“AntConc”, has been the main problem in this study. Manual analysis of students‟

written output has made the study more time consuming.

Some learners‟ hand writing was not legible, the reason why the analysis of their

papers was challenging to some extent.

The learner corpus is smaller than other corpora. Its size may have had an influence

on the obtained frequencies.

4. Suggestions for further research

A similar study should be conducted to investigate the role of gender and the

difference between male and female EFL students in the employment of adverbs.

Another study maybe conducted to find out how a specific type of adverbs is used

by EFL students.

Differences and similarities between native and non-native speakers‟ use of

adverbs might be another area worth investigating.

Further focus should be laid on adverbs that function as hedging devices and sheds

light on their significance when it comes to writing academic texts.

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خص

اغة لث طلاب اسة اراة ف "فاظش "ف طشمة اسحخذاجثذد ز اذساسة

ف ز اذساسة جذ . جاثال أ -جاؼة اؼشت ت ذي ة فجثأ وغة لإجزة

ساق . ج اخحاس ز الأ'اساات'وزه 'احؼثش اىحات 'دذاتذلاذ سلة احذا

(9111جصف) تاثش ذلاخ جػات اسة اراة تالاػحاد ػى ائتشى ػش

اشاو احؼمة تالاسحؼاي عاح اات ذا دد احشدداث دث ."لأداي "

ا ػذد ؼحثش طلاب اسة اراة اسحخذ. أظشت احائج أ"ظشف "اصذخ

فة اظشف اع خحاى ره ف اى جظف أ تالإضافةاظشف ف صص

ان محشح أ. لا زاي ذ صؼتة ف اسحخذاا تشى اسة غ ره فمذ دظ أ

.داي جة دي الاسحخذا اذلك لأداجة اى جؼات اضذة

Résumé

Cette étude examine l‟utilisation des adverbes par les étudiants de la langue Anglaise

comme une langue étrangère (2ème

année), dans le département d‟Anglais, Laarbi Ben

Mhidi University-OEB. L‟outil principal dans l‟étude consistait en une analyse du corpus

comprenant trente papiers d‟examens d‟expression écrite et de la linguistique. Les papiers

ont été sélectionnés au hasard parmi trois groupes de troisième année. Basant sur les

classifications des adverbes par Biber (1999), les données ont été analysées manuellement

en termes de fréquence, de variété et de problèmes concernant l‟utilisation des adverbes.

Les résultats ont révélé que les étudiants de deuxième année utilisaient un nombre

considérable d‟adverbes dans leur production écrite dans les deux modules. En plus, ils

ont la tendance d‟utiliser différents types d‟adverbes. Cependant, il a été remarqué qu‟ils

ont encore du mal à les utiliser correctement. Il est suggéré q' une instruction explicite et

systématique sur l‟utilisation correcte des adverbes est nécessaire.