A Study Of Attitudinal Resources In Story Genres From English Textbooks For Senior High Schools

As the main media of teaching practices,textbooks play an essential role in education processes.Previous studies of English textbooks for senior high schools domestically focused mostly on the aspects of specific contents in textbooks and textbook use in teaching practice.However,there are few studies focused on the convey of meaning at the level of language and discourse itself based on genres,which may help to reveal the underlying meaning with different themes and the writer’s intentions of diverse passages.Accordingly,the study of meaning within different text genres in English textbooks based on linguistic theories is of great significance,which can help to analyze whether the arrangement of text contents is conducive to the cultivation of students’ reading ability and to the promotion of discourse-based teaching methods for teachers.However,the relevant research domestically has just started,and especially the achievements of senior high school English textbooks are limited.Although textbooks published by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press and People’s Education Press are investigated by previous studies,the English textbooks published by Yilin & Oxford press,which is wildly used in Jiangsu and Hunan provinces,are still short of concentration.Besides,story genres in textbooks are seldom coped with.Based on the above background,taking story genres from English textbooks for senior high schools published by Yilin & Oxford press as research samples,this thesis applied the attitude system within appraisal theory raised by Martin and the UAM Corpus Tool version 3.3 to identify and classify the attitudinal resources in different sub-story genres and discussed their types,distribution features,functions and interpersonal meanings.Two research questions are discussed in the thesis: 1.What are the types of attitudinal resources in story genres from English textbooks for senior high schools? How are they distributed in story genres? 2.What are the functions of attitudinal resources in story genres from English textbooks for senior high schools?According to the statistics and the detailed analysis of the four sub-category stories,the conclusions are as follows:(1)firstly,from the perspective of types of attitudinal resources,all kinds of attitudinal resources are abundant in the stories including affect,appreciation,and judgement with their sub-systems,among which affect resources account for the maximal proportion(46.37%)while judgement resources occupied the least(12.80%).Secondly,in terms of the distribution features,the sub-system of attitudinal resources shows distinct features in sub-story genres.Affect resources account for the largest proportion in recounts,narratives and observations with the proportion of 52.55%,46.03% and 48.28% respectively.They also abound most in the middle stage of each sub-story,followed by appreciation resources,which also abound in the middle stage and present more frequently in the opening(57.14%,75%)and concluding stages(61.54%,87.5%)of narratives and observations.Judgement resources,however,are only abundant in exemplum which can be rarely seen in other sub-stories.(2)As for the functions of attitudinal resources,considering the distribution features of attitudinal resources in each stage and the emotional tendency(sub-system of attitudinal resources in positive or negative form)of sub-stories within the six perspectives: the appraising items,the appraiser,Affect,Judgment,Appreciation and the appraised,it can be concluded that attitudinal resources in sub-story genres are goal-oriented rather than randomly arranged.To begin with,accounting for the largest proportion and especially in the middle stage,affect resources present the writer’s attitude and emotional tendency which leads the whole mood of the texts.That’s why the sub-story recount contains more affect resources since the appraiser most likely to be the writer himself in first-person perspective to illustrate his feeling and mood by applying abundant affect resources.Appreciation resources presented mostly in the opening and concluding stages showing the environment and characters participating to illustrate background information in the beginning to attract the readers’ attention and in the end bring readers back to the story.Judgement resources,however,only abundant in exemplum to show the writer’s judgement of the incident and the attitude towards characters as well as the way they behave in the event,which leads to the more subjective discourses.What is more,the analysis of attitudinal resources contributes to the reveal of distinct emotional lines and the themes of various sub-stories,which can help readers to understand the motifs and implicit meanings of various stories.Finally,the interpersonal meaning is also accomplished in that the writers can transmit his/her purpose and manage to have a conversation with readers through the implication of the attitudinal resources,which will help the readers to perceive how the writers set the implications and arouse their empathy.Theoretically,this study contributes to the supplement of the analysis of meaning based on appraisal theory combined with story genres in English textbooks for senior high schools.Practically,this study provides a different perspective for both sides of the process of reading teaching in that attitudinal resources can be the clue for teachers and students to analyze story genres in English textbooks for senior high schools.