A Corpus-based Study On The Use Of Evaluative Verbs In Chinese English Majors’ Theses

Writers of academic texts often adopt some linguistic resources to highlight their positioning and/or to engage with readers, and these linguistic resources are often termed as evaluation. Evaluation in academic prose has received growing research interest in the past decades, and now it has developed as a key research issue in ESP and writing studies. It is mainly embodied in adverbs and verbs, with the latter receiving considerably less attention than adverbs. This study, therefore, is designed to examine the use of evaluative verbs(EVs for short hereafter) for the following reasons:(1) insufficient research on EVs in comparison with other evaluative resources like adverbs;(2) insufficient research on L2 learners’ use of EVs, with Chinese EFL learners in particular;(3) insufficient research on the use of EVs by learners of different educational levels;(4) insufficient research on L2 learners’ use of EVs in academic writing.Taking these into consideration, the present study investigated the use of EVs by Chinese English majors with a comparison with native English writers by adopting a corpus-based approach. To be more specific, this study was designed to answer the following four questions:(1) How do Chinese English majors of different educational levels employ EVs in thesis writing? How do they differ from native English writers?(2) How do Chinese English majors of different educational levels employ the entities of EVs in thesis writing? How do they differ from native English writers?(3) How do Chinese English majors of different educational levels employ the stances of EVs in thesis writing? How do they differ from native English writers?(4) How do Chinese English majors of different educational levels employ the sources of EVs in thesis writing? How do they differ from native English writers?Based on studies of Hyland & Tse(2005), Thompson & Ye(1991) and Xu(2011),this study proposed entities of evaluation, stances of evaluation and sources of evaluation as three dimensions to examine EVs. It is found out that:(1) Chinese English majors, on the whole, significantly underused EVs in academic writing than native English writers. Generally, the frequencies and varieties of EVs declined with the increase of L2 learners’ educational levels. In comparison,L2 learners used significantly less EVs than L1 writers both in terms of the frequencies and varieties.(2) Chinese English majors significantly underused entities of evaluation in academic writing than native English writers. Generally, the frequency of each entity of evaluation declined with the increase of L2 learners’ educational levels. In comparison, L2 learners used significantly less entities of evaluation than L1 writers except for the use of Findings of the Present Study by undergraduates.(3) Chinese English majors significantly underused stances of evaluation in academic writing than native English writers. Generally, the frequency of each stance of evaluation declined with the increase of L2 learners’ educational levels. In comparison, L2 learners used significantly less stances of evaluation than L1 writers except for the use of Negative Stance by undergraduates.(4) Chinese English majors significantly underused sources of evaluation in academic writing than native English writers. Generally, the frequency of each source of evaluation declined with the increase of L2 learners’ educational levels. In comparison, L2 learners used significantly less sources of evaluation than L1 writers except for the use of Concealed Source by undergraduates.The present study has some theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically,it not only integrates and develops the theory of EVs by proposing three relatively new analytical dimensions, but also further highlights the interpersonal or interactive meaning in academic writing. Practically, the present study could provide some instructive suggestions to the teaching and learning of academic discourse; meanwhile,it will also have implications for designing teaching materials for L2 learners.