‘This novel is not totally full of tears...’: Graduation Resources as Appraisal Strategies in EFL Students’ Fiction Book Review Oral Presentation

Abstract

Today, scholars in the field of text analysis are increasingly interested in studying evaluative language. However, few, if any, studies on classroom language have examined EFL students' fiction book review oral presentations from the perspective of the appraisal model. This study aimed at examining students’ use of graduation resources as part of appraisal strategies in classroom discourse, as well as lexico-grammatical resources for coding these strategies in texts. Graduation, in functional perspective is the sub-system of appraisal that is connected with force and focus in creating interpersonal meaning. The dataset comprised three transcripts of students’ fiction book review oral presentations in scientific presentation course, comprising 7.593 words in total. The data were examined quantitatively to identify the statistical variations in utilizing graduation resources in EFL students’ oral presentations. The preferences for lexico-grammatical resources for the construal of these strategies were also illustrated through a qualitative analysis. The results of the study reveal that the classroom discourse of EFL students’ fiction book review oral presentation is loaded with graduation resources. The results of the study show that all students used all graduation resources, specifically force and focus. In terms of force, the sub-systems of intensification (e.g., just, so, never, quiet, full of) and quantification (e.g., only, one of, some of, closely, etc) were applied. Meanwhile, in terms of focus, students only used the sharpen sub-system (e.g., originally, especially). The sub-systems within the system of graduation were shown to serve as strong tools developing the student’s skill to have critical thingking competence.