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World
representations in language exam
batteries:
critical discourse
analysis of
texts
used to
test
reading
comprehension. [zip]
Amalia Balourdi
PhD Thesis,
Faculty of English Language and
Literature, School of
Philosophy, National and
Kapodistrian University of Athens
Abstract
Adopting the view that
“anything said or written
about the world is
articulated through language
from a particular
ideological position” (Fowler,
1991:
10), the basic
assumption upon which this
thesis rests is that the
texts used by English
language examination systems
are invested with the
particular ideologies that
characterise the
institutions which are
responsible for the exams.
The basic aim of the thesis
is twofold: (a) to explore
the ways in which the texts
used to test reading
comprehension in three
popular English language
proficiency exam batteries
in Greece (i.e. the state
certificate for language
proficiency, known as the
KPG Exams, the Cambridge
ESOL Exams, and the Michigan
Exams) linguistically
construe or represent the
world, and the subject
positions they create for
their readers, and (b) to
develop a systematic and
accurate model of analysis
that will best serve this
purpose.
Understanding that “the
grammar of a language is its
theory of reality” (Kress
& Hodge, 1993: 7), the
present study, which follows
the traditions of Critical
Discourse Analysis and
Critical Testing and adheres
to the principles of
Halliday’s theory of
language as social semiotic,
combines the methodological
tools of Systemic Functional
Linguistics with corpus
linguistics techniques and
attempts a detailed
lexicogrammatical analysis
of a corpus of texts. This
corpus of texts consists of
three sub-corpora, each
containing 31 texts from
each exam battery. The
analysis, which focuses on
the investigation of the
experiential and
interpersonal meanings the
texts make, indicates that
the texts of each
examination battery sub-corpus
are characterised by
particular linguistic and
discursive choices, by means
of which three different
realities are construed. The
method of analysis applied
in this study has helped
reveal the different
ideological positions from
which the texts of each exam
battery are articulated,
thus demonstrating the
effectiveness of the SFL
analytical tools,
particularly in combination
with those of corpus
linguistics, in studies with
critical aims.
The importance of this study lies in that, apart from
providing a systematic
method of lexicogrammatical
analysis, by revealing the
ideological implications of
English language tests viewed as powerful social
institutions which
administer and introduce
specific knowledge, it also
introduces a critical and
political angle from which
to view texts for teaching
and testing language(s). In
fact, the ultimate goal of
this thesis, and consequently
the gap in the current
literature it hopes to fill
in is to generate a critical
stance to the content of
foreign language testing, by
clearly demonstrating that
there are particular
linguistic constructions of
reality in the texts used
for testing reading
comprehension.
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