Deleting, generalising and constructing: How undergraduate ESL learners explain and exemplify van Dijk’s macrorules

Abstract

Van Dijk’s (1980) macrorules of deletion, generalization and construction define the mechanisms via which readers reduce a text to its global meaning. These have long inspired the teaching of summary writing. The study explored how undergraduate ESL learners, being taught the macrostructure theory in a Discourse Analysis course, described and exhibited the three macrorules. The examination responses of thirty-one students of a public university in Pakistan were coded on a four-point scale (0 to 3) for each macrorule and the scores were analyzed through descriptive statistics, competence bands, Friedman test and Spearman correlations along with qualitative analysis of the responses. Average scores were similar for deletion (M = 1.77), generalization (M = 1.71) and construction (M = 1.84) and did not differ significantly (χ²(2) = 1.20, p = .549). The rules had different distributions: deletion and construction were dispersed over the scale, while 77.4% of learners scored at the appropriate level for generalization and no one scored at the high level. The three measures were substantially intercorrelated (ρ =.661 to.775, p <.001). The composite scores revealed 19.4% of learners in the low band, 45.2% in the intermediate band and 35.5% in the high band. The qualitative analysis produced three patterns: non-engagement with the macrostructure item, definitional treatment without operational illustration, and functional application supported by worked instances. In the strongest answers the functional application was expanded to critical discourse analysis. Instruction should take learners from textbook examples of generalization to independent abstraction.