UTILIZATION OF SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES THROUGH REVISION CHANGES OF ENGLISH STUDENTS AT RAMBHAI BARNI RAJABHAT UNIVERSITY Dr. Tuenjai Pinkerd Rambhai Barni Rajabhat Univerity, (Language, Literature and Reading) The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA.

Background of the Study Syntax is the study of structures or patterns which are known as grammar.

A sentence is a string of words, but not every string of words is a sentence. Sentences are characterized by a very important kind of grammatical rule.

Studying Syntax: a student must learn to use syntactic structures. Writing is a good tool for structure or pattern practice.

Revision shows writing and thinking processes. Syntactic structures should be implemented through writing and revision process.

This classroom study showed implementing syntactic structures through writing and revision changes.

Related Theories Sentences of all languages have a deep structure, which gives the meaning of the sentence, and a surface structure,which gives the form of the sentence as it is used in communication.

A deep structure is an abstract object; it is a structure one assumes on the basis of the meaning of a sentence and its syntax.

A surface structure is closer to physical reality in that it concretely specifies the syntactic structure necessary for spoken or written communication.

Writing Process During a writing process even young writers learn writing through revision.

Writers are able to take control of their writing processes. A craft of writing is a process of shaping material toward an end.

There is a long, painstaking, patient process demanded to learn how to shape material to a level where it is satisfying to the person doing the crafting.

During the writing process writers know they will be able to go back to deal with conventions successfully.

Revision Revision show us what the writers see in their writing when they change something.

A writer demonstrates well concerning his/her revision. For example - erases a word, sounds it through again, writes it more neatly on the line, draws a line through his/her first sentence,

and rewrites it below where he/she has skipped lines to accommodate revisions, stops, rereads the entire page,marks a number one in the margin of the first page, draws an arrow to the bottom of the page, turns it, and marks a number one in the margin of the next page.

The taxonomy of the revision changes (Faigley and Witte, 1950: 403):

Objective of the Study The main objectives of this study were to find out how students implemented syntactic structures through writing and how they revised their writing.

Procedure Subjects The subjects of this study were 52 Business English students who enrolled in the Syntax I class in academic year 2008.

Method The study was within the Syntax I course. Nine English syntactic patterns were introduced to class through presentation, group work, and discussion.

Data collection The students were assigned as a test in class to write freely about themselves.

and they were encouraged to implement the nine syntactic patterns they studied in class for their writing.

Then they were informed to revise the first draft as the tests in class again for the second and third drafts in the following weeks.

Analysis Words, sentences, assigned syntactic patterns, revision changes were coded, counted and calculated for percentage. Taxonomy of revision changes was employed for analysis.

Results Table 1: Number of sentences the students utilized syntactic structures through writing for three drafts.

Table 2: Percentage of sentences the students utilized syntactic structures through writing for three drafts.

Table 4: Percentage of sentences the students showed their revision changes through their writing for three drafts.

Conclusion The study revealed that the students demonstrated their distinction for syntactic structures on the ‘N1 be N1’. The results showed their high level of thinking for revision using meaning preservation and microstructure changes.

Suggestions 1. Implementation of syntactic structures for writing is recommended. 2. Revision should be encouraged for writing classes. 3. Revision changes are tools to investigate thinking process. 4. Syntactic structures and revision changes should be part of a writing curriculum.

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