Reexamining the Utility of the Passive Voice in Authentic Texts

Reexamining the Utility of the Passive Voice in Authentic Texts

  This paper examined Korean EFL writers" attitudes toward the passive voice and their understanding of the role of the passive voice. To check whether the participants" knowledge about the passive is limited, attention was, then, paid to identify the actual use of the passive in newspaper articles written by native writers of English. The findings of this study revealed that the attitudes of Korean EFL writers toward the passive were somewhat negative. Their understanding of the role of the passive fairly coincided with common advices against the use of the passive in many writing handbooks. Newspaper articles covered in this study showed that the passive plays a huge role in making a text reader-friendly; specifically, passive sentences are effective in managing the flow of information between sentences and shaping a consistent topic string. This study suggested that the passive voice should be taught in context in order to help learners see the utility of the passive.