The Effect Of Instruction In Meta-discourse On The Writing Of Non-English-Major College Students

Discourse has two levels: primary discourse and meta-discourse. Meta-discourse is the discourse about discourse, which is closely related to students'writings. This dissertation explores the relationship between instructing non-English-major college students in meta-discourse and their writings.This study centers on two questions: (1) Can instructing students in meta-discourse improve their writings? (2) If the answer to the first question is positive, what is the improvement of writing after the teaching of meta-discourse? 70 non-English-major sophomore students in one university in China take part in this study which lasts for 14 weeks. In the first week, the first paper assignment is given, which should be revised twice. The third draft (D3) serves as pretest. After the pretest, there is an instruction in meta-discourse which enables students to be familiar with the knowledge of meta-discourse and to do some exercises concerning the (in) appropriate use of meta-discourse and so on. In the last week, all the students are required to revise D3 again by the knowledge of meta-discourse. This is the fourth draft which serves as the posttest. Through the quantitative and qualitative comparison of the features of meta-discourse in pretest and posttest, it can be concluded that instructing students in meta-discourse can improve their writings dramatically. After learning, students tend to use more meta-discourse markers with higher quality to reinforce the textual and interpersonal meanings, which in turn helps improve the writing.At the end of this dissertation, the implications for teaching and future research as well as the limitations of this dissertation are suggested.