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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
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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.
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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
صخٍِ ... 68
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.
2 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 becompared 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.
11 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:
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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.
12 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
14 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
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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.
21 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.
25 -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
26 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:
27 - 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.
28 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
30 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.
35 - 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.
36 - 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