Appraisal Resources in Spoken Promotional Texts: Novice versus Professional Marketers

Abstract

This paper aims to describe how novice and professional marketers use appraisal resources in their spoken promotional texts. To achieve this aim, content analysis was applied. The data were gathered from the performance of novice and professional marketers in presenting spoken promotional texts and were analyzed by using Martin and White (2005)’s appraisal theory framework. The research findings revealed that both marketers had similarities and differences in using appraisal resources. In terms of similarity, both marketers used attitude resources, particularly appreciation resources the most. In terms of differences, the novice marketer had fewer types of appraisal resources than the professional marketer; the novice one also had fewer lexical items to demonstrate his evaluative stance than the professional marketer; and the novice marketer tended to create persuasive text with a less rigid structure. The research findings suggest ESP teachers should provide scaffolding strategies for students to practice using adequate appraisal resources to create a powerful persuasive text.

Keywords

• evaluative language
• interpersonal meaning
• persuasive text
• spoken promotional text
• systemic functional linguistics