A Study Of Emphasizing Devices In Chinese EFL Learners' Writing

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the Chinese EFL learners' recognition and application of emphasizing devices. There is no denying that the components of the information we deliver or interpret do not receive equal prominence. In order to fulfill the communication task, we should know where to assign or locate the emphasis. So the study on emphasizing devices should become an important part of linguistic research. Though there are many publications on English emphasizing devices, there lacks student-based study. Besides that, the dominating research classifies emphasizing devices into phonetic, lexical and grammatical categories. What should be noticed is that typography, punctuations and other textual tools such as spacing and indentation are gaining momentum. This paper has taken these new areas into consideration because they are equally important in fostering communication-adaptive learners.The paper begins with the delineation of emphasizing devices and points out that people's understanding of emphasizing devices is a dynamic, evolutional process. The third part covers the difference of emphasizing devices between the Chinese and English languages, with the emphasis on the underlying factors that make these differences. In the fourth part, the author carries out the student-based research with the purpose of working out Chinese EFL learners' real application of the various devices.The evaluation of this paper is not final because there are many factors influencing Chinese EFL learners' application of emphasizing devices, e.g. nonproficiency in handling linguistic structures, deficiency in cultural exposure, and so on. Besides, the collected compositions are confined to argumentative and descriptive styles. Thus further research, especially native-speaker-based study, is recommended to eliminate these obstacles and to achieve a clearer view.