Text structure of Korean speakers’ argumentative essays in English

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This paper examines text structure of argumentative texts in Korean speakers’ argumentative writing in English, compared with native speakers’ writing in Korean as well as native speakers’ writing in English. The text structure of 11 essays on the three argumentative topics given to American and Korean students is analyzed using the interactive text analysis model elaborated by Aston and Tirkkonen‐Condit. The results of text structure analysis using the interactional approach which is based on speech act theory show that the dominant structure of the English essays of native speakers is claim + justification + conclusion, while no one pattern represents the writing of native speakers of Korean in either their first language or in English. Furthermore, essays by the Koreans in their native language are structurally non‐linear as compared to English essays of native speakers. One out of the five English essays of Korean speakers exhibit the non‐linear structure. There are, however, similarities in the English and Korean essays, e.g. in the three basic components of text structure—claim, justification and conclusion. These common features suggest that there may be a set of universal features characterizing argumentative texts.