A rotten apple spoils the barrel: Cause markers employed by native speakers of Turkish when writing cause paragraphs in English and Turkish

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2014-6

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Uluçay, Çiğdem

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This study aims to identify and analyse the frequencies and functions of cause markers employed by native speakers of Turkish when writing cause paragraphs both in Turkish and English. It also examines whether the employment of the cause markers differs while writing in L1 versus L2 and whether or not the students have any problems while using the cause markers in English. The effect of teaching materials (input) on the written products of the participants (output) is also investigated. A number of studies examined the L2 writing habits/skills of native speakers of Turkish so far; however, as far as the author is aware, there is not a study focusing specifically on the cause paragraphs written by Turkish students in English yet. Therefore, this study is hoped to contribute to filling in the gap in the field. The study was conducted with 63 participants attending the pre-intermediate level classes of METU NCC. Each participant was first asked to write a cause paragraph of about 150-180 words both in Turkish and in English, and then, to discuss the why and how of cause markers employed by them in their cause paragraphs. All of the paragraphs and the writing hand-out were coded, transcribed and analysed by using CLAN CHILLDES program. The interviews were transcribed and the common topics in those were identified and examined. As it describes the way Turkish students employ cause markers in their L1 and L2 compositions and identifies their weaknesses and the steps to be taken to create more natural paragraphs, the results of the present study provide invaluable suggestions to experts teaching writing in Turkish as L1 and L2, writing in English as a foreign language, preparing teaching materials and developing institution curricular.

Subject Keywords

L2 Writing, L1 Writing, Cause Paragraphs, Turkish, English As A Foreign Language, Linguistic Devices Of Causality, Teaching Writing

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/69869

Collections

Northern Cyprus Campus, Thesis

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Citation Formats

Ç. Uluçay, “A rotten apple spoils the barrel: Cause markers employed by native speakers of Turkish when writing cause paragraphs in English and Turkish,” M.A. - Master of Arts, Middle East Technical University, 2014.