Research
The Problem-Solution Pattern in NNS Argumentation
The present study investigates the use of Problem-Solution in student essays to identify whether or not, or to what extent, this text pattern is a source of perceived difference in NNS student essays, in comparison with NS student essays. The study is a follow-up to Tahara (2017), which compared argumentation essays written by NNS students with those by NS students, conducted from the perspective of the use of metadiscursive nouns. They are general and unspecific meaning nouns that can serve as markers of the discourse in some ways by referring to a textual segment in the texts where the nouns occur. Of 33 selected metadiscursive nouns examined in Tahara (2017), this paper reexamines the use of a noun problem in relation to the Problem-Solution pattern. The focus of the noun for the investigation of the use of Problem-Solution is because in the 2017 study (Tahara), problem very often occurred in combination with a Response/Solution-indicating vocabulary in both corpora, as in ‘problem is solved’; ‘consider the problem’; or ‘problem should be dealt with’ (underlined are vocabulary signaling Response/Solution).
