A Study On The Usage Features Of Engagement Markers In Chinese And Native Scholars’ Medical Academic Texts

As a branch of metadiscourse,engagement markers is the means by which the author explicitly expresses interpersonal relationships with the reader so that the reader can participate in the text.It is not only a dominant mark of the author’s interaction with the reader,but also an important language strategy that embody the characteristics of interpersonal meaning.It involves readers in the text to realize the interaction between writers and readers.Domestic authors have less research on the usage features of engagement markers on medical journals.And the current research on it mostly focuses on scientific terminology,different genres,and interdisciplinary research.This study is based on the classification framework of Hyland and Jiang(2016),and uses the medical journals of Chinese scholars as well as native scholars as reference corpus to examine the usage characteristics of engagement markers for these two communities.Besides,the research questions in this study include: 1)What are the frequency distribution characteristics of directives,reader’s pronouns,shared knowledge and personal asides used in Chinese and native scholars’ medical academic texts? 2)What are the differences and similarities in the usage features of these four categories of engagement markers in Chinese and native scholars’ medical academic texts?Based on Hyland’s classification framework for engagement markers: directives,reader references,personal asides,shared knowledge,this study uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative approach to analyze the features of the Chinese and native medical texts.This study uses Corpus software Ant Conc and data analysis software to collect and analyze data and further explore the characteristics and distribution of engagement markers in Chinese and native scholars’ journals.By analyzing the similarities and differences between different learners in the use of engagement markers,I hope to give inspiration to the writing of medical journals.The results show that there are significant differences in the usage characteristics of engagement markers in the Chinese and native scholars: in general,the number of engagement markers used by Chinese’ papers is significantly less than that of native speakers.In the specific use of the engagement markers,Chinese scholars use the first person pronouns significantly lower than native scholars.In addition,the use of engagement markers for Chinese scholars is often limited to first-person engagement markers.Regarding the use of second-person pronouns you/your,there is little difference in the frequency of use between Chinese scholars and native scholars;for the directives,Chinese scholars often use the modal verbs should,could,but seldom use imperative verbs.While the native scholars use imperative verbs such as notes,considers and other imperative verbs to remind the reader of the important information;for the analysis of shared knowledge,the frequency of engagement markers used by native scholars is higher than that of Chinese scholars.Native scholars use logical reasoning more than Chinese scholars.In addition,the words used in native medical journals are more abundant.This study hopes to bring implications to academic English writing.First of all,Chinese scholars should strengthen their cognition of different types of engagement markers in writing and learn to use them appropriately.Secondly,teachers should pay more attention to learners’ use of indefinite personal pronouns and help learners choose the correct way to express ideas in textual expression.Thirdly,in order to attract readers’ attention and build up the harmonious interaction between the writer and the reader,it is necessary to raise learners’ awareness of the diversificationof the choice of words in appeals to shared knowledge,which helps to provide some inspiration for related teaching and research.