A Comparative Study Of Reporting Verbs In Literature Reviews Of Chinese English Learners’ And Native English Speakers’ M.A. Theses

Reporting speech plays a very important role in academic writing,especially in Literature Reviews(LRs).As signals of reporting speech,reporting verbs(RVs)have received considerable attention in the L2 research area.However,previous studies on RVs didn’t pay attention to the dialogic function of RVs in construing different dialogic relations with readers.Besides,in terms of research method,previous studies on linguistic resources in academic writing mainly adopted corpus-only approach,which is criticized for ignoring contextual features,while the integrated corpus-based and genre-based approach is recommended to overcome the problem to some extent.Thus,the author proposes a modified four-move structural model of LR based on Kwan’s model to compare the RVs used in different moves of LRs between M.A.theses written by Chinese English Learners and native English speakers.Besides,the author classifies RVs into seven different dialogic options based on the engagement system to compare the dialogic relations with readers construed by the two groups.There are two research questions:1.What are the similarities and differences of RVs used in different moves of LRs in M.A.theses of Chinese English learners and native English speakers?2.What are the similarities and differences of RVs of different dialogic options used by Chinese English learners and native English speakers in LRs of their M.A.theses to construe different dialogic relations with readers?In order to answer the research questions above,two corpora are constructed,consisting of 30 LRs from M.A.theses in the discipline of Linguistics written by Chinese English learners and native English speakers respectively.Different moves in the two corpora are coded respectively and RVs of different dialogic options are retrieved with Antconc.The Log-likelihood Ratio Calculator is employed to test the significance of difference between the two corpora.Based on the comparative analysis and discussion of the data,some major findings can be summarized as the following:Overall,the frequency of RVs in total moves of LRs between the two corpora presents no significance of difference.However,the RVs used by Chinese English learners are less diversified than that by their native counterparts.As for the RVs distributed in each move,Chinese English learners use fewer RVs in Move 1compared with their native counterparts,which reveals their lack of consciousness of providing background information as well as evaluating the chosen topics in LRs.Besides,they use fewer RVs in Move 3 to evaluate the state of the ? eld as well,which can be attributed to their lack of critical evaluation awareness and as their ignorance of the purpose of LR to evaluate the research field.For both groups,the RVs are primarily centralized in Move 2 for establishing a research territory and are least employed in Move 4 for summary.In terms of the RVs of different dialogic options,Chinese English learners are more inclined to use dialogically contractive RVs than their native counterparts.As for the RVs of dialogic expansion,Chinese English learners use less Entertain and Acknowledge RVs but more Distance RVs than native English speakers.In addition,Chinese English learners often misuse Distance RVs,which reveals their identities as English learners who cannot choose RVs correctly to realize the expected dialogic function.Besides,for both groups,the Acknowledge RVs are most frequently used RVs in expanding the dialogic space and the Distance RVs the least.As for the RVs of dialogic contraction,Chinese English learners use significantly more Deny RVs and Endorse RVs than native English speakers.Their overuse of Deny RVs indicates that they have difficulty in weighing the face-threatening effect of these verbs and thus leaves people with an immature impression of persuading readers too eagerly.There is no significant difference in terms of the use of Concur RVs and Reinforce RVs.The findings of this research contribute to our better understanding of the problems encountered by the Chinese English learners in general,and in particular they shed light on further studies to explore the dialogic function of RVs used in English academic writing.Based on the findings,this study provides several implications for English academic writing and English academic teaching as well.