Argumentative writing: Comprehension and reproduction in foreign language learning

This paper presents a new framework for analysing written summaries of argu­mentative texts. Extending Sperber and Wilson's (1995) notion of explicated and implicated propositions and Halliday's (1994) metafunctions of language (ideational, interpersonal, and textual), I look at various types of propositional meaning: a. encoded propositional meanings, b. non-encoded, explicated pro- positional meanings, and c. non-encoded implicated meanings. As authorial at­titude can be expressed through a proposition and/or lexical choices, the inter­personal component cuts across the ideational and textual levels. Thus aiding students to retrieve intended/authorial and implied meanings as well as overt or covert ideological text parts will contribute to their overall comprehension of challenging texts