Investigando o uso de recursos de engajamento em modelos de textos-resposta elaborados para a prova de escrita integrada do TOEFL iBT.

Abstract

Thousands of institutions use the TOEFL iBT exam as proof of language fluency. Because of this, several materials aim to prepare students for this exam. This research investigates the use of engagement resources in 8 text-response models of writing integrated tasks in texts of the type Addition of Information collected from the book Longman Preparation Course for the TOEFL Test: iBT, Second Edition (Phillips, 2013). For this, the Appraisal Theory (Martin;White, 2005) is used, focusing on the Engagement System, as the theoretical framework of this research. The analysis revealed that each of the three types of paragraphs proposed by Phillips (Topic Statement, Supporting Paragraph on Reading Passages and Supporting Paragraph on Listening Passages) have different lexico-grammatical realizations of engagement resources. The paragraph on the topic sentence makes greater use of Acknowledgement resources. The supporting paragraph on reading passages is marked by the majority use of the Acknowledgement, Distance and Endorsement resources. The supporting paragraph on reading passages largely uses the Acknowledgement resource. This research might contribute to other investigations about the Theory of Appraisal, academic writing and exams.