Comparative Analysis Of “Prepared Speeches” And “Impromptu Speeches” Of FLTRP Cup English Public Speaking Contest From The Perspective Of Appraisal Theory

Systemic-functional linguistics proposes that interpersonal functions are achieved through mood,modalities and modal adverbs,but there is no explanation of how language is used to express the views of authors or readers.In 1990,Martin discovered this problem and put forward the APPRAISAL theory,which further develops the interpersonal meaning.The APPRAISAL theory consists of three subsystems of Attitude,Engagement and Graduation.Since the establishment of APPRAISAL theory,domestic and foreign scholars have done a great deal of research on various kinds of discourse from the perspective of it(Coffin,2002;Hood,2004;Martin,1994;White,1998;Bu Zhanting,2013;Chen Xiaoyan,2007;Wang Zhenhua,2004;etc.),however,there are few comparative analysis on the APPRAISAL resources of college students'“Prepared Speech”and“Impromptu Speech”in English speech contest.This essay comparatively analyzed thirty pieces of“Prepared Speeches”at the first stage and thirty pieces of“Impromptu Speeches”at the last stage of FLTRP Cup English Public Speaking Contest from the year of 2012 to 2016.UAM Corpus Tool 3.3 and chi-square test tool are used to analyze corpus quantitatively and qualitatively,and the similarities and differences were reviewed in Attitude,Engagement and Graduation resources between“Prepared Speeches”and“Impromptu Speeches”.Through analysis,the main findings are as follows:Firstly,a lot of APPRAISAL resources are distributed in both“Prepared Speeches”and“Impromptu Speeches”.Among them,the most frequently used resources are Engagement resources,and the fewer Attitude and Graduation resources are utilized,which indicate that the speakers open up the dialogue space by using Engagement resources to realize the interpersonal meaning with the audience so as to be in harmony with the audience.Fewer Attitude and Graduation resources in the analyzed discourse are used means that the speakers avoid over-expressing their subjective judgments,thereby improving the objectivity of the speech and making the speech more persuasive.Secondly,there is significant difference in the distribution of APPRAISAL resources(?~2=69.0599,p<0.05)between“Prepared Speeches”and“Impromptu Speeches”,(1)For Attitude resources,there is significant difference in terms of Affect(?~2=25.1600,p<0.05),Judgment(?~2=26.5986,p<0.05)and Appreciation(?~2=21.5404,p<0.05)resources,which indicates that at the“Impromptu Speeches”stage,the speakers are more inclined to express his/her feelings,and are more inclined to judge things from the aspects of law,morality and social rules as well as appreciate things from the perspective of social significance.(2)For Engagement resources,there is significant difference in terms of Expansion(?~2=10.7795,p<0.05)resources,which shows that the speakers at the stage of Impromptu Speech are more willing to expand the dialogical space and enhance the interaction.(3)For Graduation resources,there is significant difference between“Prepared Speeches”and“Impromptu Speeches”in terms of Force(?~2=73.1990,p<0.05)resources,which illustrates that at the stage of“Impromptu Speeches”,the speakers are more inclined to make speech more objective through the use of data,which further arouse the audience's reaction and reach an agreement with the audience.This article reveals the similarities and differences between college students'English“Prepared Speeches”and“Impromptu Speech”,and helps English teaching and learning.In English teaching,teachers guide students to understand and master the role of APPRAISAL resources in discourse to help students make use of APPRAISAL resources rationally and enhance the interpersonal meaning of communication.For English learners,the APPRAISAL resources is conducive for learners to explore the attitude and viewpoint that expressed in the discourse and to better understand the discourse,enhance the evaluation thinking so as to achieve the purpose of communication.This article consists of six chapters.Chapter one introduces the research background,purpose and significance and the framework of the dissertation.Chapter Two reviews the domestic and foreign related research on APPRAISAL theory and speech discourse.Chapter three elaborates on the theoretical framework of this article.Chapter four is the research method of this article,includes two research questions,corpus tools,data collection and corpus analysis steps.Chapter five is the analysis results and discussion.Chapter six summarizes the main findings of this article,implications,limitations and suggestions for future research.