Analysis of evaluative language in business English students’ writing

Abstract

The study aims to analyze how Business English Students (BES) express attitudes and opinions, engage readers, and measure attitudes in writing, in accordance with the Appraisal Model of Martin and White (2005). It also attempts to investigate BES’ linguistic deficiencies which affect the quality of evaluative writing in business contexts. Seventy- one students at College of Management and Technology, at AASTMT Alexandria, participated in the study. Following a mixed quantitative-qualitative design, the study reveals that BES are able to express attitudes with a remarkable preference of verbal forms in contrast to a slighter use of adjectives. Influenced by the direct technical nature of business discourse, BES minimize emotional and figurative expressions in attitudinal contexts. Among all the attitudinal sub-levels, appreciation is mostly realized thanks to the involvement of multiple non-human elements in their discussions. They contract their dialogues rather than expand them, with a nearly equivalent distribution of disclaiming and proclaiming lexis. They frequently personalize their authorial voices while minimally referencing others’ opinions, as notable in the minimization of reporting verbs and attribution devices. Vocabulary of higher intensity and scalability are preferred for measuring attitudes, thus disclosing BES’ tendency to amplify their attitudes imprecisely. For improving the quality of BES’ evaluative writing, the study recommends practicing reporting verbs and citation referencing, paraphrasing techniques, rhetoric questions, and figurative language. They should control their use of personal pronouns and avoid repetition and redundancy which hinder the readers’ interest in following the propositions, reflect imprecise assessments, and cause obscurity in negotiating the attitudinal meanings. It also recommends that BE instructors foster a meaning-based instruction, debate teaching methodology, and direct their learners to read on business journalism to develop an evaluative sense and aptitude for professional writing. Keywords: appraisal model, Evaluative Language, Business English Students, attitude, engagement, graduationReceived: 02 August 2023 Accepted: 31 January 2024 Published: 28 February 2024

Keywords

• appraisal model
• attitude
• engagement
• graduation
• evaluative language
• deficiency analysis