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Arab World English Journal (AWEJ) Volume 15. Number 3, September 2024 Pp. 333-346
Department of English, College of Languages, University of Human Development, Sulaimani, Kurdistan Region – Iraq
The present study is a contrastive interlanguage analysis of propositional idea density in the written language of native English speakers and Asian learners of English. The study adopted a quantitative method to analyse the ICNALE written essays v2.4 using CPIDR v5.1 software. The study aimed to identify the level of propositional idea density in the writing of English native speakers and Asian learners of English and to examine the effect of the type of English, the theme type, the proficiency level and nationality on propositional idea density. The study is one of the very few studies about propositional idea density in ESL and EFL contexts. Many statistical analyses were performed on CPIDR results using jamovi v2.3 software, and the results of the tests revealed that the propositional idea density in native speakers’ essays was higher than that in Asian learners’ essays. Moreover, the results showed that there was a statistically significant difference among all the participants based on the theme types of part-time jobs and smoking, among native speakers based on occupation type (students, teachers, others) and among Asian learners of English based on the type of English proficiency level and nationality. The findings of the study showed that propositional idea density is a psycholinguistic index of the amount of presupposed knowledge language users have on a specific topic. In other words, propositional idea density is a window to language users’ schemata. Additionally, the findings of the study can be considered an insightful contribution to contrastive interlanguage analysis.
Sayer, I. M., & Mzeil, A. H. (2024). Propositional Idea Density in the Writing of Native Speakers and Asian Learners of English: A Corpus-Based Contrastive Interlanguage Analysis. Arab World English Journal, 15(3): 333-346
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Dr. Inaad Mutlib Sayer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at the University of Human Development. He has been a faculty member there since 2014. Dr. Sayer received his PhD in English Language & Linguistics from Baghdad University in 2008. His teaching experience at the tertiary level is about 26 years. His research interests involve psycholinguistics, phonology, language teaching and learning. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4766-1653
Dr. Ahmad H Mzeil is an Associate professor in English Literature. He obtained his Ph.D. in English literature in 2010. His main research interests are in post-colonial studies and second language acquisition. Throughout his 16-year career in managerial positions, teaching, and freelance translation and interpretation, he published papers on post-colonial English literature and English language teaching and learning. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1457-0920