A Study Of Chinese English Majors' Spoken English Textual Patterns Based On SECCL

Developing spoken English ability is not only one of the objectives of English teaching, but also an inevitable demand of the socialist market economy. Syllabus for English Majors (2000 Edition) mentioned that foreign language talents in the 21st century should have the following five characteristics: proficient basic skills of the language, broad knowledge, professional knowledge, strong competence and good comprehensive quality. Proficient basic skills means that English majors should have good pronunciation and intonation, master the rules of morphology, syntax, textual pattern (the layout of a whole text), express their thoughts appropriately with a strong integrated competence of the English language including good listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating skills. Proficient basic skills are the primary qualities of professional foreign language talents. In the study of L2 learners'spoken English, the previous studies mainly focus on the learners'pronunciation, intonation, vocabulary and grammar, very few concerns about the organizational pattern (layout) of spoken English texts. Thus, the previous researches provide the author with inspiration for the current study, and based on their achievements, the following three hypotheses are raised and testified in this dissertation. (1) The five most common text organizational patterns proposed by Michael Hoey,Eugene Winter,Michael McCarthy and Ronald Carter in the light of thorough researching of written English texts also exist in spoken English texts. (2) Chinese English majors adopt different text organizational patterns in narrative and argumentative texts. Problem-Solution Pattern is used for narrative speeches and General-Particular Pattern is often seen in argumentative addresses. (3) Chinese English majors'spoken English texts of different levels exhibit obviously different text organizational patterns. Higher level speakers'texts have clearer organizational patterns than those of the lower level speakers'.For the purpose of testifying those hypotheses, the sub-corpus SECCL2.0 from Spoken and Written English Corpus of Chinese Learners, (SWECCL, 2.0 Edition) (Wen Qiufang,Liang Maocheng,Yan Xiaoqin, 2008) developed by Beijing Foreign Languages University is chosen to be the research materials of this paper. The resources of SECCL 2.0 are from 2003-2006 TEM4 (Tests for English Majors, Band 4)-Oral Tests and 2003-2007 TEM8 (Tests for English Majors, Band 8)-Oral Tests. 95 transcriptions are gathered from the corpus as the research samples of this study. The author builds new research framework based on the previous studies and divides each transcriptional text into three parts, that is, introduction, body and conclusion. On the basis of Mann & Thompson's Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST), Clause Relations of Winter and Hoey, Lexical Relation Theory of Hoey, and the five most common text organizational patterns proposed by Michael Hoey,Eugene Winter,Michael McCarthy and Ronald Carter in the light of thorough researching of written English texts, the paper analyzes the distribution frequencies of the textual patterns in three parts of the transcriptional texts and explores the characteristics of Chinese English majors'spoken English text organizational patterns.From analysis, we have the following findings: firstly, the five most common text organizational patterns in written English convention also can be found in spoken English texts. Secondly, after analyzing the Chinese English majors'spoken English textual patterns in narrative and argumentative texts, it is obvious that Chinese English majors adopt different text organizational patterns in narrative and argumentative texts. Problem-Solution Pattern is preferred in narrative speeches and General-Particular Pattern is often adopted in argumentative addresses. Thirdly, Chinese English majors'spoken English texts at different levels exhibit different textual patterns, higher level speakers'text has clearer organizational patterns than those of the lower level speakers'. Thus, the three hypotheses are proved.These findings may have some significant implications in text analysis as well as in second language acquisition, especially for spoken language learning and teaching in L2.Unlike the previous studies which examined the characteristics of L2 learners at the microscopic level (words, sentences or grammar), this study grasped the structure of whole discourse and its characteristics at the macroscopic level, thus they may give better guidance for oral presentation.