Page 258 - English - Teaching Academic Esl Writing

244 CHAPTER 10
cellent and proficient users of all the types of complex sentences found in ESL grammar books.
Among the three types of subordinate clauses, adverbial clauses are prob- ably easier to teach and learn than adjective or noun clauses, and the mate- rial in this chapter is organized in the order of easier first.
ADVERBIAL CLAUSES
In general, adverbial clauses are more common in speech than inwriting. However, in instruction in academic writing, and argumentative writing in particular, the uses of various types of adverb clauses such as causative, con- trast/concessive, and conditional are often recommended in explication, reasoning, and analysis (Hacker, 2000; Raimes, 1992, 1999; Smoke, 1999; Swales & Feak, 1994).
Earlier studies of L2 academic writing have demonstrated that NNS writers do not employ a great variety of clauses in their prose and largely use similar types of adverb clauses repeatedly. For this reason, the uses of complex sentences with subordinate clauses need to be encouraged in L2 writing, and students have to become familiar and comfortable with employing these constructions in their text.
What Adverbial Clauses Are For and What They Do
Adverbial clauses modify the entire sentences found in the main (independ- ent) clauses. Adverbial clauses express a variety of contextual relationships, some of which refer to time, cause, contrast, and condition (Leech & Svartvik, 1994). Some adverb clause subordinators such as while, since, and as are ambiguous because they can be found in adverb clauses of cause, time, and contrast. However, for L2 writers, being able to name the types of par- ticular clauses is not very important, and the fact that some of them are am- biguous does not matter a great deal.
ESL grammar books usually classify adverb clauses by the meanings of adverbial subordinators, and those found in most textbooks books include those with the following labels:
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Time clauses that are marked by such subordinating conjunctions
as after, as before, when, while, until (e.g., When water tables drop, water flow from springs and seeps diminishes, or As the air rises, it cools).
Cause clauseswith the highly common subordinator because and an occasional as and since (e.g., Because oceans cover about 70% of the
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