A Study On The Use Of Meta-discourse Devices By Non-English Majors

Discourse has two levels: primary discourse and meta-discourse. Meta-discourse is the discourse about discourse. It doesn't add the prepositional meaning to the content, but projects the writer into the discourse and helps guide and direct his readers to organize, interpret, evaluate, and react to the prepositional content as well as the writer's attitude towards the text and the reader. Meta-discourse consists of textual meta-discourse and interpersonal meta-discourse.Scholars have done a lot of theoretical and empirical studies on meta-discourse. However, most of these studies were carried out in the native language environment, dealing little with the second language learners in non-native environment. Therefore, the researcher carried out this study to explore the use of meta-discourse devices by Chinese non-English majors at two years and underlie the deep reason for the change.This study adopts cross-sectional developmental method, analyzing and comparing the use of meta-discourse devices by non-English majors. This study addresses three questions: 1) Are there any quantitative differences in the use of textual meta-discourse devices? 2) Are there any qualitative differences in the use of textual meta-discourse devices? 3) Is there any relationship between the use of textual meta-discourse devices and writing quality? The result shows the similarities in the use of meta-discourse devices between these two groups. As for the number of textual meta-discourse devices per T-unit, there are no significant differences. As for the quality of the use of meta-discourse devices, both groups commit the similar errors. This paper explains the similarities from internal and exogenous factors. Internal factors include writing schemata and writing model, while exogenous factors are teacher's instruction, time pressure, and mother tongue interference.In the end, this paper suggests the pedagogical implication and future research dimensions.