Implementing Discourse Qualifying Devices to Improve Students' Stylistic Interpretation of Literary Texts

Abstract

Many first year EFL students in our university find it difficult to analyse and interpret texts. Although some of them show certain proficiency when they deal with comprehension questions, they seem to be unable to call for any background knowledge or show an awareness of text or discourse hanging-devices. The present study examined whether explicit instruction in stylistics and discourse devices improved the stylistic interpretation of literary texts by first year students of English. The study employed an intervention strategy that introduced some discourse devices to a section (sample) of 39 students who participated simultaneously in the study as the control and experimental groups. This section received instruction on coherence, cohesion, situationality and intertextuality for a period of 15 hours through 5 weeks after it had taken a pretest on the old model of exams. A posttest was then taken on the new model of exams and ANOVA tests were used to check the improvement of the students' stylistic interpretation of literary texts and overall achievement before and after the intervention. Prior to the intervention, the thirty-nine students responded to a questionnaire and the teachers of the course were interviewed to provide the researchers with insights into different aspects of the classroom situation and the programme of the first year. The analysis of the data gathered resulted in important differences in the stylistic analysis and general comprehension of texts by the students in the posttest, attaining better scores than they did in the pretest. The teachers' responses in the interviews, the students' answers to the questionnaires and the scores achieved indicated that it is important to include the teaching of discourse devices in the first year Literary Texts programme.