A Corpus-based Contrastive Study On Citations And Reporting Verbs In M.A.Theses Of Chinese Students And Foreign Students

Citations are the essential part of a scholarly article,and the appropriate use of citations is the key indicator of whether the writer follows the stylistic conventions of academic discourse and hence displays the quality of the article.However,writers using English as a foreign language,especially Chinese postgraduate students,are usually not proficient enough in English academic writing.Therefore,it is significant to reveal the problems that Chinese student writers have in citing others' research through comparing their writings with those produced by student writers in English-speaking countries,but studies of this type are still inadequate at present.Based on Hawes&Thomas's(1997)classification of reporting verbs and Li&Panther's(2014)as well as Li's(2015)discussion of Author(Date)construction,this study attempts to explore the similarities and differences in citations and in the use of reporting verbs between Chinese postgraduate students and their counterparts in English-speaking countries both majoring in applied linguistics.The features of and the problems with Chinese students' academic writing are investigated in this regard.Specifically,the investigation focuses on the following three questions:(1)What are the differences in the frequencies of citations between Chinese students and students in English-speaking countries?(2)As far as Author(Date)construction is concerned,what are the preferred reporting verbs with high frequencies used by Chinese students and by students in English-speaking countries?(3)When Author(Date)construction is used as the subject of a finite clause,what are the differences between Chinese students and students in English-speaking countries in the tenses of reporting verbs?This study collected 60 theses in order to build a small corpus:half of the samples downloaded from China Dissertation Database were written by Chinese postgraduate students,and the other 30 samples downloaded from ProQuest Dissertations&Theses were authored by students in English-speaking countries.AntConc 3.4.4 was used as the concordance tool and SPSS 22 as the statistical device.Analysis of variance and t-test were used for statistical analyses of the citations and the tenses of reporting verbs used by Chinese students and by students in English-speaking countries,and a key words list was presented as well.Three major findings are made after conducting the research.Specifically,they are:(1)Chinese students use fewer citations than students in English-speaking countries do.(2)In terms of Author(Date)construction,Chinese students use more Discourse Verbs but fewer Real-world Verbs than students in English-speaking countries,which indicates that they do not possess sufficient linguistic competence and flexibility in using Real-world Verbs.(3)Chinese students are more likely to choose the past tense for Discourse Verbs and the present tense for Real-world Verbs than students in English-speaking countries,most of which are found to be inappropriate.The results show that Chinese students are not proficient enough in citing others' work and unable to use the knowledge of English for academic purposes.Based on the findings and the conclusion mentioned above,this thesis hopes to reveal the problems that Chinese students have and to give some suggestions for academic English education in Chinese colleges and universities.