Analysis of Study in Lixical Words

王文濤

The fundamental theory for this study， as presented in the introduction and rationale is theoretical. The author cited several well-known theories they put forward. For instance， in the section of introduction， Chomskyan formal linguistics， and the roots of functional linguistics： Prague school， Copenhagen， London school， Michael Holliday， Eggins explanation for syntagmatic relations. Furthermore， the rationale of the thesis concentrates on applying SFL tools to the analysis of four English language arts textbook designed to be used in 2nd to 5th grade classroom. The author gives the examples of the rationale for this choice. Such as， researchers and educators idea， Ralinscar and Dukes argument， Relinscars foundation， what Schleppegrell founded， and Nathan， long &Alibalis argumentation.

The author has indicated several lines of thought and research that imply the relationship the author want to study： e.g. 2nd paragraph， page 8.

Definitions

The key variables having been defined are lexical density， lexical variation， grammatical intricacy， transitivity system （process type） and its classification and clause complexes in the review of literature. The author explained the meaning of the terms above. For example， lexical density is the proportion of lexical items （content words） to the total discourse. It can be measured in various ways： the ratio of the lexical items either to the total running words or to some higher grammatical unit， most obviously the clause. The author gave the formula of

1）A. LDU （%）= number of lexical word

Total number of words （tokens）

1）B. LDH （ index）= total number of lexical word

Total number of ranking

2）LV= number of different lexical words

Total number of lexical words

3）GI （index）= total number of ranking clauses

Total number of clause complexes

But the shortcoming of the formula is that the author didnt explain the ranking clause clearly， only stated the difference between ranking clause and ranking shift clause simply.

4）The system of transitivity： belong to the experiential multifunction of the language. The author also pointed out the defect to judge the types of process.

5）Clause complexes show “how the flow of events is construed in the development of text at the level of semantics.

（Halliday， 2004， p. 362）

6）Clause simplex： if there is just one clause in a sentence， it is called a clause simplex.

The author mentioned the way clauses are combined in a clause complex is described through two systems， taxis and logic-semantics. How ever， the definition of the title， the author defined this title of the thesis through the previous views. And then the author adopted the applied research to start his study.

Prior research

Previous linguistic research of English language arts textbooks was influenced by Chomskyan formal linguistics， since 1980s， SFL was “brought” to schools first in Australia， then in other countries by Martin， Rose， Egginns， Schleppegrell， cottin， Christie， and many others. Their research on the language of schooling concentrated mainly on the language of math. （Nathan， Long， & Alibali， 2002； Abel & Exley， 2007）， history （Moss， 2006； Martin， 2002； Schleppegrell & Achugar， 2003； coffin， 1997）， and social sciences and natural sciences （Ninnes， 2001； Halliday & Martin， 1993； Rose， 2000； Veer， 2000； Machen-Horairik， 2002）

Hypothesis

Hypotheses are explicitly stated （in page 9）. However， one is clearly implied： there exists deviation between these results of analysis of clause simplexes and ranking clauses （Table in page 35） and the results of Holladays grammatical intricacy calculation （see table， 3 in page 17）

Instrument

The instruments used to measure each of the variables are described. The author adopted the relative theory of SFL to support his claim. And SFL offers a new perspective on studying the text complexity.

For the analysis of lexical density， functional words were manually tagged using Castellos system in the texts； the number of lexical and functional words was calculated using MSWord. For the analysis of lexical variation， AntConc 3.2.1 w， a concordance program developed by Laurence Anthony， was used to calculate lemmas （word families）.

Procedure

The procedure of authors thesis is basically qualified from the structure. However， the section of the conclusion and discussion should be better elaborated separately in order to make readers clear and some detailed problem should be solved. E.g. the explanation of terms should be clearer. Specifically， the terms—ranking clause and ranking shift clause， if the author doesnt explain them clearly， the learner in the first stage will be misguided.

Data collection and analysis

Data collection

The authors research involved the analysis of four sequential elementary school texts used in U.S. schools. The textbooks selected for the study have been adopted by the south point local school district （Ohio）. The schools currently using them are south point elementary school and Burlington elementary school （Ohio）. The section of the textbooks analyzed for this research is the writers handbook placed at the end of each textbook before the glossary. The number of the pages devoted to the handbook is the same in all grades （21 pages）

Data analysis

The author used methods of analysis to analyze lexical density， lexical variation， grammatical intricacy， and clause complexes by use of the formula separately. Using adequate samples and data， the author supported his view.

Results

It is true that there exist correlation between LD， LV， GI， TS， CC and Grades from Grade 3 to Grade 5 and the author also proved that the 2nd grade deviation in the lexical density and lexical variation will be addressed in the discussion （Page 29）

Conclusion and Discussion

The author concluded the whole thesis and elaborated the advantages of linguistic analysis of the school textbooks helps to reveal some of the linguistic challenges the textbook pose and students to face （in the reciprocal third line of the second paragraph， page 42）.

The author discussed the results of the study by use of some of the statistical data. And limitation （the second line of the reciprocal line， page 6 and the front lines of the second paragraph， page 45） and implication are also addressed （in the reciprocal third line of the last paragraph， page 46）.

References：

[1]戴煒棟，束定芳.論中介語的認知發生基礎[J].外語與外語教學，2001，（9）.

[2]賈冠杰.第二語言習得理論之間的矛盾統一性[J].外語與外語教學，2004，（12）.

[3]束定芳，莊智象.外語、第二外語、母語及其他[J].外語教學， 1994，（2）.

[4]文秋芳.二語習得研究方法35年：回顧與思考[J].外國語，2004， （4）.

[5]Doughty，C.J.&M.H.Long.（eds.）.The Handbook of Second Language Acquisition[C].Oxford：Blackwell.2003.

[6]Ellis，R.The study of Second Language Acquisition[M].Oxford：Oxford University Press.1994.

[7]Flege，J.F.Age constraints on second language acquisition[J].Journal of Memory and Language.1999，（41）：78-104.

[8]Fries，C.Teaching and Learning English as a Foreign Language [M].Ann Arbor：University of Michigan Press.1945.