Stance in L2 Science Students’ Academic Writing:
Implication for Textual Competence
Titilade Adefunke Oyebade
General Studies Unit
Federal University of Technology
Akure, Nigeria
08136381060
ABSTRACT
This paper seeks to measure textual competence of science students in an L2 context by looking at the way they deploy appraisal devices in presenting their stance towards their subject matter. To do this, the appraisal theory of Martin (2000) and the parameters of evaluative semantics of White (2006) are used to analyse one hundred sampled essays of some science students on HIV/AIDS in a Nigerian university. Our aim in this paper is, firstly to see how these appraisal devices have been utilised by the text producers to project their attitudes and point of views to their subject matter and the implication of this for the teaching of composition in an ESL setting, and secondly to see how these devices help in synthesizing ideas in writing for the text producers to reach their goal of holistic communication.