Page 154 - English - Teaching Academic Esl Writing

140 CHAPTER 6
which demonstratives in texts refer. For example, drawing connecting lines or arrows in texts or their own essays can help students understand the highly limited cohesive power of demonstratives in English (as opposed to that in many other languages, such as Arabic, Chinese, or Korean). This ex- ercise can emphasize that if a demonstrative pronoun does not point to any particular noun, phrase, or clause, then this type of pronoun probably can- not be used as an effective cohesive device.
(b) In addition, the textual uses and functions of enumerative nouns can also be discussed, and students can be similarly asked to draw the connect- ing "strings" to establish lexical ties between particular words or phrases. For instance, nouns such as advantage, factor, problem, reason, stage, term, and type are expected to have specific identifiable referents in text, to which these nouns are connected. Thus, students can be asked to "tie" each of the enumeratives to the structures, text elements, or text excerpts to which these nouns refer. If such structures or short contexts cannot be easily iden- tified, enumerative nouns may not be the best choice of a cohesive device. Foractivitiestoworkwithindefinitepronouns, seechapter 12on Hedges.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. Why should teachers direct students to reduce the number of first- and second-person pronouns in academic writing assignments? 2. If pronouns can make awkwardnoun replacements, what can be the
reasons that in the teaching of writing, pronouns are often "over- sold" as noun substitutions? What could be better ways to teach the functions and uses of pronouns?
3. What could be the reasons that indefinite pronouns are far more common in L2 than in L1 academic essays written by NSs of English? 4. What can students do to correct overuse of demonstrative pro-
nouns?
FURTHER READINGS ABOUT PRONOUNS AND TEACHING
Pronouns in Various Genres of Academic Text
Chang, Y.-Y, & Swales, J. (1999). Informal elements in English academic writing: Threats or opportunities for advanced non-native speakers. In C. Candlin &K. Hyland (Eds.), Writing texts, processes and practices (pp. 145-167). London: Longman.
Horowitz, D. (1986a). What professors actually require: Academic tasks for the ESL classroom. TESOL Quarterly, 20(4), 445-462.
Horowitz, D. (1986b). Process, not product: Less than meets the eye. TESOL Quar- terly, 20/1, 141-144.
Horowitz, D. (1991). ESL writing assessment: Contradictions and resolutions. In L. Hamp-Lyons (Ed.), Assessing second language writing (pp. 71-86). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
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