A Study Of Attitudinal Resources In Narratives From English Textbooks For Senior High Schools

Reading comprehension is one of the skills that students must grasp in English learning.It is required that teachers not only focus on words and expressions,sentence structures as well as grammar teaching,but also help students find the purpose of a writer and conclude the theme of a text.Therefore,reading teaching needs a discourse-based approach.And using functional grammar can analyze and interpret discourse.In the tradition of systemic-functional linguistics(SFL),James Martin studies evaluative lexis and puts forward APPRAISAL system(AS)in the early nineties of the 20 th century.The system of ATTITUDE is a central domain of AS,through which the speaker or writer's opinion on good/bad parameter is expressed.According to the object evaluated,attitudinal resources consist of affect resource,judgement resource and appreciation resource.In English textbooks for senior high schools,narrative accounts for a large proportion.In the meanwhile,it is rich in expressions of feelings.It is suitable to be explored attitudinal resources within AS.However,research applying appraisal theory to English reading teaching has been done in college level domestically,less in senior high school.Therefore,the studying material is chosen from required module English textbooks for senior high school students,published by People's Education Press.Through the evaluation of semantics in narratives from English textbooks for senior high schools,this thesis intends to help students find the purpose of a writer and understand the theme of a text.In order to achieve the goal of this thesis,three questions will be discussed in this study:1)What attitudinal resources are used to express the opinion of the writer?2)What are the distribution features of attitudinal resources in narratives?3)What are the thematic functions of attitudinal resources in narratives from English textbooks for senior high schools?Combined with the outcome of this study,it is found that attitudinal resources are rich in 18 narratives and the amount of each kind differs.Appreciation resource occurs the most times,then judgement resource and the least one is affect resource.It means these 18 narratives are objective rather than subjective in style.Among different stages of narratives,attitudinal resources mainly distribute in the complication and evaluation stage.It shows narrators use a large number of attitudinal resources to describe major characters and develop the plot so that readers can have better understanding of them.The use of abundant attitudinal resources realizes the thematic functions in narrative.Through the analysis of attitudinal resources,readers understand the attitude of the narrator towards characters or events and finally the implied meaning and intention of the narrator are grasped by them.On the one hand,the study of this thesis adds the evidence of the exploration of attitudinal resources in narratives within AS theoretically.On the other hand,it provides both teachers and students with an effective method in reading comprehension.