Page 141 - English - Teaching Academic Esl Writing

PRONOUNS 127
reeled cognitive process" (p. 4), but as tasks in discourse and text construc- tion within the conventions of communicating knowledge within the norms of the academic community. According to Swales, L2 writing teachers need to prepare students to write in the disciplines because academic writingis a socially situated act that extends far beyond the writer's analysis of his or her inner explorations and thoughts.
Second-person singular and plural pronouns are also considered inap- propriate in academic prose because they are employed to address the reader directly (Smoke, 1999; Swales & Feak, 1994). The use of these pro- nouns requires a specific individual to whom the text is addressed, indicates a high degree of the writer's involvementwith the addressee, and marks the conversational register (Biber, 1988, 1995).
Corpus analyses have shown that first- and second-person pronouns are rare in academic prose. In all the rate of occurrences of I, me,we,and us con- stitutes 0.006% (6 per 100,000 words) in a large corpus of academic text (Biber et al., 1999). The rate of occurrences of you is rarer still with 0.001%. Some amount of variation of personal pronoun use has been noted across various disciplines. Prose in philosophy included the highest rates of first-person pronouns of 6.5 per 1,000 words (0.65%), followed by texts in marketing and applied linguistics with 6.2 (0.62%) and 4.8 (0.48%) occur- rences per 1,000 words, respectively (Hyland, 1999).
However, in NNS students' academic texts, personal narratives and ex- amples can be common, and rates of first-person pronoun usage varies be- tween 1.89 and 3.97% (Hinkel, 2002a). In addition, the frequency rate of second-person pronouns are also relatively high—between 0.5% and
1.00%. For example, in a senior-level psychology assignment, included next, a student employed several types of personal pronouns to an extent that may make her text appear to be a personal narrative.
Extroversion
(This excerpt starts at the beginning of the third paragraph of the paper.)
Is it possiblefor everyone to change one's behavior and thoughts by different environ- mental/actors? 7believetheanswerisnodoubt.One'schildhoodexperienceandback- ground constitute his disposition for the first period. During this period, his family or school teachers might influence his development of character. Furthermore, he, as an adult in the second period, could transfer whether from introversion to extroversion or from extroversion to introversion, depending on his religion, culture, and personal ex- perience in society. Perhaps, hispersonality will bechanged again in thefuture. The best successful example is my personal experience to support this approach. 7 was soisolated and shy that 7 was not popular in my parents' eyes when 7 was a child. It won't be changed until 7 entering high school. Mr. Lee, one of my high school teachers, encour- aged me and helped me to understand my own ability in languages that completely de- cided my future. After 7 attending many speech contests in school, 7 have become a self-confidence and talkative girl as a leader. Most friends consider me to be an extra-
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