This presentation reports on findings from an investigation into the passive voice usage in undergraduate STEM textbooks. More than 1 million running words were analyzed in this study. Findings revealed that passive voice is heavily used in these fields. Pedagogical implications of the findings are discussed.

1. PASSIVE VOICE USAGE IN
UNDERGRADUATE STEM
TEXTBOOKS
Huiyuan “Tia” Luo, Ph.D.
Florin Mihai, Ph.D.
University of Central Florida

2. Objectives
• RQ1
Was there a statistically significant difference of seven passive
constructions among the four STEM disciplines? If so, what are the
differences?
• RQ2
What were the most frequent verbs that tended to be associated with
passive form in STEM textbooks?

3. Passive Voice
Constructions

4. • Job market extremely optimistic for STEM graduates (Xue & Larson,
2015).
• STEM majors could earn the highest starting salaries compared to
other fields (Close, 2016). Growing trend in STEM enrollment.
• About 1/3 of first year college students intend to major in Science
and Engineering fields (The National Science Board, 2014).
• Therefore, the present study aims to explore the STEM fields.

5. Methodology

6. Methodology
• Research Design
– Quantitative, descriptive analysis
• Sample size
– 20 textbooks
– 1,004,803 running words
• Criteria of identifying main verbs and passive constructions
– Main verbs
• Finite verbs
• Transitive verbs (active & passive), intransitive verbs, command
verbs
– Passive constructions
• Be-passive (be, non-finite-ing, infinite, perfect tense, modal),
Get-passive, Prepositional passive, Bare passive, Embedded
passive

7. Findings
• RQ 1:Was there a statistically significant difference of seven passive constructions among the four STEM disciplines? If so,
what are the differences?
When separately considered the occurrences of the DVs within the MANOVA test, all six DVs
were also significantly different by areas of study with the exception of be-passive non-finite-ing
(p > .05).
Results showed significant differences of the common passive constructions in different areas of
study (p <.05).

8. 0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
be-passive non-finite-ing infinite perfect tense modal bare passive prepositional passive
Means for Areas of Study
Sciences Technology Engineering Mathematics

9. Findings
RQ 2
Science
Tech & Engineering
Mathematics

10. Pedagogical Implications
• Writing
o Many universities writing guides suggested using active voice or
switching from PV to active voice to strengthen and clarify writing. Yet,
very few noted that PV was used in certain academic contexts and may
in fact be preferred in certain cases.
o The findings of this study suggested that PV should also be emphasized
in Technology and Engineering.
o The importance of explicit instructions on how to use passive voice
even for advanced L2 learners (Hinkel, 2004).
o The findings of this study suggested that English instructors should
modify their teaching objectives and emphasize appropriate learning
goals for students majoring in different STEM fields (e.g. bare passive in
Technology; prepositional passive in Science).

11. Pedagogical Implications (Cont.)
• Reading
o Vocabulary is recognized as an essential component in language
proficiency, student acquisition of vocabulary is seen as a key for
academic success (Nagy & Townsend, 2012).
o Vocabulary list
o The findings of this study identified the most commonly used past
participles in passive voice found in college STEM textbooks
• English instructors should be aware of teaching passive
constructions, so that L2 learners know how to interpret and are able
to comprehend different passive constructions in reading.

12. Huiyuan.Luo@ucf.edu
Florin.Mihai@ucf.edu

14. To Download
• QR Code