On The Use Of Formulaic Sequences By Chinese English Majors In TEM8Writing

Recently, there has been an increased interest in the study of formulaic seuqencesin language acquisition. It is believed that FSs offer great beneifts to learners in bothLI and L2acquisition. In terms of writing, a great deal of research has proved that theability to use FSs helps to improve writers’ proifciency in writing. Therefore，thisstudy aims at studying the use of FSs by Chinese English majors in TEM8writing.This study focuses on answering four research questions: ifrstly, what are thegeneral characteristics of formulaic sequences used by Chinese English majors inTEM8writing? Secondly，what are the differences in the use of formulaic sequencesbetween the high-level group and the low-level group in terms of frequency andvariety? Thirdly, what is the relationship between the use of formulaic sequences andthe TEM8writing quality? Fourthly, are there any types of formulaic sequences whichare adequate to serve as the predicting indicator to learners’ writing proifciency?Some important and enlightening ifndings are made in this study. Firstly,Chinese English majors, regardless of their proifciency, are able to use a relativelysmall number of FSs, although the variety is very limited. In terms of the distributionof four categories of FSs, Chinese English majors prefer incomplete FSs to completeFSs, FSs at phrase level to FSs at sentence level. And incomplete FSs at phrase levelaccounts for the highest percentage while complete FSs at sentence level the lowest.Secondly，the high-level group performs better than the low-level group in the use ofFSs in terms of frequency and variety. The high-level group has a higher percentageof the use of incomplete FSs, both at phrase and sentence level. Thirdly, the frequencyand variety of the use of FSs are positively correlated with Chinese English majors’proifciency. Fourthly, among the four categories of FSs, only incomplete FSs atphrase level contains the predicting power to learners’ writing proifciency.Pedagogically, this study is also of great signiifcance. Firstly, apart from theconventional grammar teaching, it is of great signiifcance and necessity to raiselearners’ awareness of learning and using formulaic sequences. Secondly, considering the fact that lots of distorted formulaic sequences are employed in the TEM8writing,it is，therefore, necessary for teachers to help students to focus more attention on thestructure of formulaic sequence. Moreover, the use of FSs at sentence level in TEM8writing is not adequate as expected, which constitutes a main problem for theimprovement of Chinese English majors’ writing ability. Thus, more emphasis shouldbe placed on the learning of FSs at sentence level. On English writing teachers’ part,they should use formulaic sequences as an evaluation criterion for English writing inorder to arouse students’ interest in and emphasis on the learning of FSs.