PASAA
Publication Date
2008-04-01
Abstract
Professional academic articles often contain long, complex sentences, which can hinder comprehension. This study investigated the ability of 151 EFL health science graduate students taking an EFL course entitled Technical English for Medical Science Graduates in 2006 and 2007 in identifying the core parts of 15 long, complex sentences with an average length of 27.47 words (S.D. = 6.17), a minimum of 17 words and a maximum of 40 words. The readability index of these test sentences was 13.85 and the Flesch Index 44.18, indicating that students may find them difficult to read. Each sentence included one dependent clause - a noun, adjective or adverb clause. This study found that the graduate students' ability to identify the sentence core was moderate (64.6%). Sentence length did not always affect identification of the sentence core, but other factors, such as position of the subject and distance between the subject and its verb, modifier, conjunction, punctuation and adverbial, distracted students. Identification of the sentence core becomes more difficult when there is a long dependent clause or additional information between the subject and the main verb.
DOI
10.58837/CHULA.PASAA.42.1.5
First Page
97
Last Page
110
Recommended Citation
Banpho, Phan
(2008)
"Ability of EFL Health Science Graduate Students in Identifying the Core Parts of Long, Complex Sentences,"
PASAA: Vol. 42:
Iss.
1, Article 5.
DOI: 10.58837/CHULA.PASAA.42.1.5
Available at:
https://digital.car.chula.ac.th/pasaa/vol42/iss1/5