Some Syntactic Features Typical of Spoken English in the SeniorEnglish Majors' Writing at An-Najah National University

Some Syntactic Features Typical of Spoken English in the SeniorEnglish Majors' Writing at An-Najah National University

Malek Rasheed Saleh Nassrallah The present study attempted to identify some syntactic features of spoken English in the senior English majors' writing at An-Najah National University. Specifically, it aimed at answering the following questions: -Do English seniors apply syntactic features typical of spoken English in their writing? -What are the most syntactic features of the spoken phase of English in their writing? -What are the major sources of English spoken features in the senior English majors' writing? The population of the study (n=51) consisted of all English seniors at An-Najah National University in the academic year 1999/2000. The sample of the study consisted of forty-five students who were attending an advanced English course, Research Methodology. Guided by the survey of previous research, criteria consisting of 18 items divided into three domains were developed by the researcher by which English seniors' essays, based on Hughes's "As I grew older", were syntactically analyzed, using means and percentages. The findings of the study were as follows: -Great occurrences       of coordinated constructions, simple sentences, active voice constructions, simple present tense, parallel constructions, sentence fragments, self-references, and demonstrative modifiers. -Few occurrences of wh-interrogatives, reduced participles, nominalizations, passive voice constructions, subordinated constructions, complex sentences, and compound complex sentences. On the basis of the results, the researcher recommended that further research on other different syntactic and lexical features of spoken English would reveal more about the language used by English majors. Also, the researcher recommended that further courses in writing and, in particular, in spoken and written English would improve the writing skill of English majors as a Process including pre-writing, writing, and revision. Malek Rasheed Saleh Nassrallah Supervisors Dr. Fawas Agel Dr. Hanna Tushyeh May 2001 Zajel / An-Najah National University