A Study On The Features Of Engagement Markers In Chinese Learners' English Academic Writing

Engagement Markers are an important rhetorical device in academic writing,which can help academic writers establish harmonious relationships with their readers.There are two main ways of interaction between writers and readers: writer-oriented and reader-oriented.Engagement markers belong to the latter,which recognize the presence of readers,focus on how the writer invites readers to engage in the text in the construction of professional knowledge,and take the interests,background knowledge and expectations of readers into account.Engagement markers are important linguistic expressions of interpersonal meaning in academic discourse that can effectively achieve the purpose of writing.Appropriate use of engagement markers can not only help the author to build up a good academic image in the text,establish authority and gain the trust of the readers,but also help persuade the readers to accept their views.However,Chinese learners are found to have difficulties in using engagement markers in academic English writing,which affects the persuasiveness of academic discourse.Based on the classification framework of Hyland(2001,2005)and Hyland and Jiang(2016),This study uses International Journal Articles(IJA)as a reference corpus to examine the features of learners' use of engagement in academic English writing.The research questions include: 1)What are the overall frequency distribution features of engagement markers compared with IJA corpus? 2)What are the differences and similarities in the functional features of engagement markers in learners' academic writing compared with IJA corpus? The main research steps include: identifying the subjects,reader pronouns,directives and appeals to shared knowledge;using corpus software Wordsmith 5.0,Chi-square test and Logarithmic likelihood ratio calculation tools to analyze the data,discussing differences and similarities between learners and international scholars,and analyzing the problems and difficulties of learners in using engagement markers.This study can throw some light on how to engage readers in the discourse in the process of teaching academic writing in English.The research results are as follows: 1)In general,engagement markers are unevenly distributed in the two corpora,and MA corpus uses significantly less engagement markers than those of IJA corpus;In terms of the categories of engagement markers,compared with IJA corpus,MA corpus on the whole uses lessreader pronouns and directives,and there is no significant difference in appeals to shared knowledge between the two corpora.2)In the subcategories of engagement markers,based on the analysis of reader pronouns,we find,compared with IJA corpus,MA corpus use significantly less inclusive first person pronouns we/us/our and indefinite pronouns one/one's,and more items referring to readers reader/readers.There is no significant difference in the second person pronoun you/your between the two corpora.When MA corpus uses inclusive we collocating with possibility modal can to present the results or express views,it shows uncertainty towards the current proposition;When using items to refer to readers,MA corpus tends to show a lack of objectivity towards the propositional content.In regard to directives,MA corpus uses more obligation modals but seldom uses imperatives;When MA corpus employs imperatives and obligatory modals to remind the reader of important information,the way of expressions in the academic discourse different from those of IJA corpus.Regarding appeals to shared knowledge,MA corpus uses significantly less multi-word expressions than IJA corpus,while single word does not show significant differences in the two corpora;When using shared knowledge markers,learners cannot express these two textual functions in a variety of vocabulary.This study brings implications to the teaching of academic English writing.First of all,teachers should strengthen guidance on the use of personal pronouns which represent both writers and readers,and increase learners' awareness of using indefinite pronouns one/one's so as to avoid the interference of their mother tongue.Secondly,teachers pay more attention to the employment of obligation modals and imperatives by learners so that learners can make great efforts to choose appropriate ways of expression academic discourse.Thirdly,in order to attract readers' attention and build up the harmonious interaction between the writer and the reader,it is necessary to raise learners' awareness of the diversification of the choice of words in appeals to shared knowledge.