Abstract

This research-work aims at studying the use of metadiscourse markers by foreign learners of Arabic to enhance their writing skills. First there is an introduction which explains the role of metadiscourse markers in writing within the framework of the two paradigms of meaning suggested by Halliday, i.e. the textual and the interspersonal. Second two hypotheses on which the research-work is built are spelled out. The first hypothesis assumes that writers will always use the two basic paradigms of meaning suggested by Haliday as far as metadiscourse markers are concerned. The Second one postulates that foreign learners of Arabic acquire solid knowledge of these four categories of markers that fall within the two paradigmatic classifications, their performance in writing will be improved significantly in comparison with those who did not acquire such knowledge. Before examining these two hypotheses the research provides a full-fledged account of four basic types of metadiscourse markers and their equivalents in Arabic. Then it sets out to check the two afore â mentioned hypotheses. In order to verify the two hypotheses mentioned above, two methodologies are used correspondingly to each hypothesis. The first methodology is an empirical one and the second is experimental. The empirical method used in verification of hypothesis one, involves an analysis of a sample of twenty newspaper articles about a given subject representing different styles, cultural backgrounds, personal and political affiliations of writers. In order to verify the second hypothesis, the foreign learners of Arabic will be able to improve their performance in writing significantly by mastering the use of metadiscourse markers, an experimental methodology is applied. Two groups of non-native Arabic learners are selected randomly, one serving as a control class and the other serving as an experimental class. The results show that following a post-test given to both groups, the writing level of the experimental group, who analyzed and learned metadiscourse markers, comes out higher than that of the control group, who did not go through this experience.

School

School of Humanities and Social Sciences

Date of Award

6-1-2009

Online Submission Date

9-12-2012

First Advisor

Ibrahim, Zeinab

Second Advisor

Aboelseoud, Dalal

Document Type

Thesis

Extent

102 p.

Rights

The American University in Cairo grants authors of theses and dissertations a maximum embargo period of two years from the date of submission, upon request. After the embargo elapses, these documents are made available publicly. If you are the author of this thesis or dissertation, and would like to request an exceptional extension of the embargo period, please write to thesisadmin@aucegypt.edu

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