Refocusing writing style education? Relationships between stylistic lapses and the quality of Dutch secondary school students' argumentative texts
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17239/jowr-2022.13.03.03Keywords:
argumentative writing, style, stylistic lapses, text quality, comparative judgementAbstract
In Dutch L1 classrooms, style in non-fictional genres is typically taught by means of normative exercises in which students are tasked to identify stylistic lapses. Not much is known about the effectiveness of such exercises when teaching style. Unknown factors include what kinds of stylistic shortcomings are found in Dutch students’ writing, and how the occurrence of certain stylistic lapses relates to writing quality. The current study empirically explores these scarcely investigated issues. Teachers rated 125 argumentative texts written by tenth-grade pre-university students by means of comparative judgement. Additionally, these texts were manually analyzed to investigate the occurrence of stylistic lapses, taking into account stylistic lapses that are common in text books (‘standard category’) and other types of style related errors (‘other category’). Multilevel regression analyses revealed that only one of the stylistic lapses from the standard category negatively influenced text quality as evaluated by teachers, namely the use of detached phrases. In the other category, only mistakes in question marks negatively predicted text quality. A final model including those two predictors explained 11.1% of the variance in text quality. The article discusses the implications of these findings for non-fictional style education, suggesting that it might need to be refocused.
References
Beardsley, Monroe C. (1967) Style and Good Style. In: Martin Steinmann Jr. (Ed.), New Rhetorics. New York: Scribner's, pp. 191-213.
Biber, D. & Conrad, S. (2019). Register, Genre, and Style. Second edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bomer, R., Land, C., Cira Rubin, J. & Van Dike, L. (2019). Constructs of teaching writing in research about literacy teacher education. Journal of Literacy Research 51(2), 196-213.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1086296X19833783
Breetvelt, I., Van den Bergh, H. & Rijlaarsdam, G. (1994). Relations between Writing Processes and Text Quality: When and How? Cognition and Instruction 12(2), 103-123.
https://doi.org/10.1207/s1532690xci1202_2
Claes, P. & Hulsens, E. (2015). Groot retorisch woordenboek: lexicon van stijlfiguren. [Great rhetorical dictionary: lexicon of tropes]. Nijmegen: VanTilt.
Coppen, P.-A. (2006). Strikt genomen. [Striktly speaking.] Blogpost. Consulted from
http://taalprof.blogspot.com/2006/10/strikt-genomen.html on February 2nd, 2020.
Cumming, A., Kantor, R., & Powers, D. (2001). Scoring TOEFL essays and TOEFL 2000 prototype writing tasks: An investigation into raters’ decision making and development of a preliminary analytic frame-work. Ewing, NJ: Educational Testing Service.
Cumming, A., Kantor, R., & Powers, D. (2002). Decision making while rating ESL/EFL writing tasks: A descriptive framework. The Modern Language Journal 86(1), 67–96.
https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-4781.00137
Field, A. (2013). Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS Statistics (4th edition). Washington: Sage.
Frank, H., E. Grezel, M. Kooiman, W. Steenbergen & H. Zetstra (2013). Nieuw Nederlands 4-vwo. [New Dutch 4 vwo]. Groningen: Noordhoff.
Gill, T., & Bramley, T. (2013). How accurate are examiners’ holistic judgements of script quality? Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice 20(3), 308–324.
https://doi.org/10.1080/0969594X.2013.779229
Gragner, S. & Meunier, F. (2008). Phraseology. An interdisciplinary perspective. Amsterdam: John Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1075/z.139
Otnes, H. & Solheim, R. (2019) Acts of responding. Teachers’ written comments and students’ text revisions. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice 26(6), 700-720. https://doi.org/0969594X.2019.1595524
Gerards, L. & Van Rijt, J. (2018). Bewuste taalvaardigheid bewerkstelligen met behulp van de klassieke retorica. Een didactische verkenning. [Towards conscious language proficiency with the help of classical rhetoric. A pedagogical exploration.] Internationale neerlandistiek 56(1), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.5117/IN2018.1.GERA
Haeseryn, W. et al. (Eds.).(1997). Algemene Nederlandse Spraakkunst. [General Dutch Reference Grammar]. Groningen: Martinus Nijhoff.
Henderson, D.A. & Denison, D.R. (1989). Stepwise Regression in Social and Psychological Research. Psychological Reports 64, 251-257. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1989.64.1.251
Hogeweg, L., Ramachers, S. & De Hoop, H. (2018). Singular Agreement in Special Partitive Constructions in Dutch. Journal of Germanic Linguistics 30(4), 335-370.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S1470542717000149
Hulshof, H. (2009). Holistische en analytische principes in taalkunde en taalonderwijs. [Holistic and analytical principles in linguistics and language education.] In R. Boogaart et al. (Eds.) Woorden wisselen. Voor Ariane van Santen bij haar afscheid van de Leidse universiteit, pp. 285-299. Leiden: Stichting Neerlandistiek Leiden.
Jansen, C. (2016). Taal-en communicatieonderwijs in beweging. [Language and communi¬cation education on the move]. Internationale Neerlandistiek 54(2), 137-146.
https://doi.org/10.5117/IN2016.2.JANS
Jeffries, L. & McIntyre, D. (2010). Stylistics. Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Karreman, J. & Enschot, R. van (Eds.) (2013).Tekstanalyse. Methode en toepassingen. [Text analysis. Method and applications.] Assen: Van Gorcum.
Kashefi, O., Lucas, A. & Hwa, R. (2018). Semantic Pleonasm Detection. Proceedings of NAACL-HLT, 225-230. https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/N18-2036
Kennedy, G. (1994). A new history of classical rhetoric. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
King, P.M. & Kitchener, K.S. (2004). Reflective judgement: Theory and research on the development of epistemic assumptions through adulthood. Educational Psychologist 39(1), 5-18. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326985ep3901_2
Lee, D. (2001). Genres, registers, text types, domains and styles: clarifying the concepts and navigating a path through the BNC jungle. Language Learning and Technology 5(3), 37-72. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004334236_021
Lehmann, C. (2005). “Pleonasm and hypercharacterisation”, in: Geert Booij – Marle van Jaap (Eds.), pp.119-154. Markus, Manfred. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4066-0_5
Lesterhuis, M., Verhavert, S., Coertjens, L, Donche, V., & De Maeyer, S. (2016). Comparative
Judgement as Promising Alternative to Score Competences. In G. Ion and E. Cano (Eds.),
Innovative Practices for higher education assessment and measurement (pp. 120-140). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
Lesterhuis, M., Van Daal, T., Van Gasse, R., Coertjens, L., Donche, V., & De Maeyer, S. (2018). When teachers compare argumentative texts. Decisions informed by multiple complex aspects of text quality. L1-Educational Studies in Language and Literature 18, 1-22. https://doi.org/10.17239/L1ESLL-2018.18.01.02
MacArthur, C.A., Jennings, A. & Philippakos, Z.A. (2019). Which linguistic features predict quality of argumentative writing for college basic writers, and how do those features change with instruction? Reading and Writing 32(6), 1553-1574.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-018-9853-6
Macrae, A. (2016). Stylistics. In: M. Giovanelli & D. Clayton (Eds.) Knowing about language: Linguistics in the secondary English classroom. London: Routledge, pp. 51-63.
Mason, C.H. & Perreault, W.D. (1991). Collinearity, Power, and Interpretation of Multiple Regression Analysis. Journal of Marketing Research, 28(3), 268-280.
https://doi.org/10.2307/3172863
Medzerian, S. (2010). Style and the Pedagogy of Response. Rhetoric Review 29(2), 186-202.
https://doi.org/10.1080/07350191003613468
Myhill, D. A (2008). Towards a Linguistic Model of Sentence Development in Writing. Language and Education 22(5) 271-288. https://doi.org/10.2167/le775.0
Naciscione, A. (2010). Stylistic Use of Phraseological Units in Discourse. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/z.159
Nezlek, J. B. (2008). An introduction to multilevel modeling for Social and Personality Psychology. Social and Personality Psychology Compass 2, 842-860.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2007.00059.x
Norgaard, N., Busse, B. & Montoro, R. (2010). Key terms in Stylistics. London: Continuum International Publishing Group.
Pollitt, A. (2012). Comparative judgement for assessment. International Journal of Technology andDesign Education 22(2), 157-170. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-011-9189-x
Renkema, J. (2004). Introduction to Discourse Studies. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Renkema, J. (2012). Schrijfwijzer. [Writing guide]. Amsterdam: Boom.
Sadler, D.R. (2009). Transforming holistic assessment and grading into a vehicle for complex learning. In G. Joughin (Ed.), Assessment, learning and judgement in higher education (pp. 1-19). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Spring. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8905-3_4
Smith, S. (1997) The Genre of the End Comment: Conventions in Teacher Responses to Student Writing. College Composition and Communication 48(2): 249-68. https://doi.org/10.2307/358669
Sommet, N. & Morselli, D. (2017). Keep Calm and Learn Multilevel Logistic Modeling: A Simplified Three-Step Procedure Using Stata, R, Mplus, and SPSS. International Review of Social Psychology, 30(1), 203–218. http://doi.org/10.5334/irsp.90
Steenbakkers, J. (2018). Stijlperspectieven – nieuwe lessen schrijfstijl voor midden- en bovenbouw vo. [Style perspectives – new lessons in writing style for middle and higher secondary school classes].In: S. Vanhhooren & A. Mottart (Eds.) Tweeëndertigste Conferentie Onderwijs Nederlands, pp. 281-285. Gent: Academia Press.
Steenbakkers, J. (2020). Reflecteren op de effecten van schrijfstijl. [Reflecting on the effects of style.] In: WODN Werkgroep Onderzoek Didactiek Nederlands (Ed.), Handboek Didactiek Nederlands. Levende Talen – Zo kan het ook. Consulted April 12, 2021 via https://didactieknederlands.nl/zokanhetook/2021/03/reflecteren-op-de-effecten-van- schrijfstijl/.
Steenbakkers, J., Stukker, N. & De Glopper, K. (2021). Formuleerproblemen in leerlingenwerk en schoolboeken Nederlands: een onderzoek naar de aansluiting tussen de leerstof en de formuleerproblemen van leerlingen. [Style problems in students’ writing and in text books for Dutch: a study into the connection between the learning materials and students’ problems in formulation.] Pedagogische Studiën 98(1), 27-45.
Stukker, N. & Verhagen, A. (2019). Stijl, taal en tekst: stilistiek op taalkundige basis. [Style, language and text: stylistics on linguistic basis.] Leiden: Leiden University Press.
Van de Gein, J. (2012). Taal op klompen. Uitkomsten van een onderzoek naar taalfouten aan het einde van het voortgezet onderwijs. [Results of a study into language errors at the end of secondary education.] Levende Talen Tijdschrift 13(4), 22-30.
Van den Bergh, H., Rijlaarsdam, G., & van Steendam, E. (2016). Writing process theory: A functional dynamic approach. In C. A. MacArthur, S. Graham, & J. Fitzgerald (Eds.), Handbook of writing research (p. 57–71). The Guilford Press.
Van Rijt, J. (2014). De hypothetische meelezer: over de effecten van een reader-oriented viewdidactiek op het verwijswoordengebruik van leerlingen uit 4-vwo. [The hypothetical co- reader: on the effects of a reader-oriented view approach on pre-university students’ use of reference words]. Levende Talen Tijdschrift 15(4), 15-25.
Van Rijt, J., Van den Broek, B. & De Maeyer, S. (2021). Syntactic predictors for text quality in Dutch upper-secondary school students’ L1 argumentative writing. Reading and Writing 34, 449-465. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-020-10079-5
Verhagen, A. (2012), Construal and Stylistics – within a language, across contexts, across languages. In: Stylistics across Disciplines. Conference Proceedings. Leiden. 1-16.
Verhavert, S., De Maeyer, S., Donche, V., & Coertjens, L. (2017). Scale Separation Reliability: What Does It Mean in the Context of Comparative Judgement. Applied Psychological Measurement. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146621617748321.
Werkgroep Taal / Expertgroep Doorlopende Leerlijnen Taal en Rekenen (2008). Over de drempels met taal: De niveaus voor de taalvaardigheid [Over the thresholds with language: The levels for language proficiency]. Enschede: SLO.
Wijnands, A., Van Rijt, J. & Coppen, P.-A. (2021). Learning to think about language step by step: a pedagogical template for the development of cognitive and reflective thinking skills in L1 grammar education. Language Awareness. Advance online publication.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Jimmy H.M. Van Rijt, Brenda Van den Broek, Huub Van den Bergh
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 Unported License.
