A diachronic perspective on formality in students’ writing
Empirical findings from the UK
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12112522 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Filio Constantinou (0000-0002-3040-1644, University of Cambridge, corresponding author), Lucy Chambers (0000-0002-6039-8175, University of Cambridge), Nadir Zanini (University of Cambridge), Nicole Klir (0000-0003-0125-8065, University of Cambridge) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 33 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 66-83 |
| Publication date | 2019-01-12 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Language Culture and Curriculum (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0790-8318 • E-ISSN: 1747-7573 |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/07908318.2018.1563609 |
| OpenAlex | W2909669784 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 27 |
One of the missions of language education internationally is to enable students to use language in a context-appropriate manner. Against this backdrop, students’ ability to linguistically encode formality emerges as an important issue. Using extracts of writing produced by 16-year-old students in 2004 and 2014, this study sought to investigate whether the level of formality in students’ writing changed over time. The 858 extracts of writing sampled were composed as part of a high-stakes examination in English Language. The linguistic analysis carried out focused on a number of features serving either as discriminators between spoken and written discourse (e.g. lexical diversity, lexical sophistication), or as markers of informal electronic communication (e.g. abbreviations, omitted stops, non-capitalised sentences). A statistical comparison of the prevalence of these features in the 2004 and 2014 corpora indicated that students’ writing underwent informalisation. This trend was found to be stronger among lower attaining students
Context (archaeology · Formality · Lexical Diversity · Linguistics · Perspective (graphical · Social science · Sociology · Sophistication · Computer Science · Digital Communication and Language · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · History · Multilingual Education and Policy · Psychology · Artificial Intelligence
Language, Context, and Text
The Language of Schooling
Academic Writing Development at the University Level
Assessing Second Language Vocabulary Knowledge
Discourse and social change
Vocabulary Size and Use
Spoken Grammar
Developing Noun Phrase Complexity at School Age
Clause packaging in writing and speech
Lexical density in candidate output on direct and semi-direct versions of an oral proficiency test
Undergraduates’ attitudes to text messaging language use and intrusions of textisms into formal writing
Exploring Relationships Between Traditional and New Media Literacies
Should We Use Characteristics of Conversation to Measure Grammatical Complexity in L2 Writing Development
Linguistic Ruin? Lol! Instant Messaging and Teen Language
See you Online
| Citations per year | 0.67 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2020 - 2025 (6) |
| Highly cited | No |