An Analysis On Dalian Maritime University English-majors' Persuasive Language Skills In Public Election Speaking In English

As a form of communication, public election speaking has become an important linguistic field. However, currently in China, English-majors have limited access to enough material to strengthen their public election speaking abilities in English. In order to help English majors of Dalian Maritime University to make better election speeches in English, the author applies both qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis in this thesis to analyze persuasive language skills in public election speaking in English.The author has collected data through a questionnaire. The result shows that English-majors in China are lack of language competence to enact audiences with persuasive words. Moreover, those English-majors have difficulty solving problems such as what information should be transferred in an election speech and how to make the information sounds more persuasive.Taking American presidential election speeches as successful examples, this thesis analyzes persuasive language skills in them. Through qualitative analysis, the author finds out that usually a presidential candidate will include the following five basic elements in his speech: appreciating for nomination, widening public supports, criticizing the other candidate, stating future policy plan and expressing best wishes. The candidate will intentionally obey or violate Grician theories in explaining each element in order to strengthen persuasive effectiveness. With guidance of these two findings, the author has made an exemplificative study among English-majors in Dalian Maritime University (DMU). Both qualitative analysis and quantitive analysis shows those two findings are of help to improve English-majors' persuasive language skills.This thesis consists of five parts. Chapter One is introduction, introducing the research purpose, significance and methodology. Chapter Two is literature review on theoretical background. Chapter Three is an analysis on persuasive language skills in American presidential election speeches and has induced two findings. Chapter Four is an exemplificative study among English-majors in DUM. Chapter Five is a conclusion which briefly summarizes this thesis and the trends for further research in this field.