| Metadiscourse is a relatively new concept in current discourse analysis and language education, aiming to explore interactions between text producers and their texts and between text producers and users. Some scholars did a wide research on metadiscourse from different perspectives, including definitions, functions and classifications, etc. In recent years, many researches have been carried out to investigate and explore the functions of metadiscourse in English teaching, academic writing and different range of genres, from the studies on metadiscourse by scholars and language teachers at home and abroad.Under the theoretical framework of Hyland's(2005) interpersonal model of metadiscourse, this paper ventures to investigate the linguistic representations, frequency and function of metadiscourse in"Impromptu Speech"section of"21st Century Cup"National English Speaking Competitions from 2005 to 2009, both qualitatively and quantitatively. On the one hand, this paper aims to analyze how metadiscourse helps establish interpersonal interaction between the speaker and the audiences and how metadiscourse enable the speaker to convey his or her persuasive message. On the other hand, it is hoped that the findings of this paper might be used to guide English learners to learn effective speaking skills and expressions.It is found that among the wide range of metadiscourse instances in impromptu speeches, the interactional items are more frequently used than interactive ones. And of all the ten sub-categories used, self mentions and engagement markers, followed by transition and boosters, prove to be more heavily adopted than others. In addition, the study also finds that different metadiscourse items can help realize different interpersonal functions in English speech discourse. The present study is hoped to be a complement to the previous research, and to add an application instance of metadiscourse theory in discourse studies. |
PDF Full Text Request