Assessing pragmatic performance in advanced L2 academic writing through the lens of local grammars: A case study of ‘exemplification’

Hang Su, Xiaofei Lu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

This study explores the relationship between pragmatic performance of discourse acts and second language (L2) English writing proficiency. To this end, the study focuses on one specific discourse act, i.e., exemplification, and adopts a local grammar approach to investigate the performance of exemplification in three corpora of academic writing by Chinese undergraduate English as a foreign language (EFL) learners, Chinese postgraduate EFL learners, and expert writers. The results show that both the frequency of exemplificatory markers and, more notably, the quantity, strategic use, and diversity of local grammar patterns largely increase with proficiency level, suggesting that pragmatic performance of discourse acts could be a useful indicator of L2 writing proficiency. The implications of our findings for L2 writing research and assessment are discussed.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number100668
JournalAssessing Writing
Volume54
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2022

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Language and Linguistics
  • Education
  • Linguistics and Language

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