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Chinese EFL Learners' Voice Construction In Writing Short Stories:an Exploratory Study

Posted on:2021-05-01Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:S Y HuangFull Text:PDF
GTID:2415330626459478Subject:Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
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Voice has attracted increasing scholarly attention in the field of second language writing(SLW)in recent decades.In this area of research,a dialogic view of voice has gained currency.Comparatively speaking,empirical studies on voice construction in second language writing are impoverished in EFL contexts,especially for the genre of short stories and in the classroom context.Therefore,this study intends to contribute to the research of voice by investigating Chinese EFL learners' voice construction in the short-story writing classroom,by drawing on Canagarajah's(2014)model for voice analysis.A case-study approach was adopted in this study.Working as a teaching assistant,the researcher observed three short-story writing classes in a foreign language and trade university in South China in order to trace the students' short-story writing process.The class observations lasted five weeks and three focal participants were examined in the present study.During this process,in addition to observing classroom instruction,the researcher read multiple drafts for each student's short story,attended student-instructor conferences and offered the students feedback,and,together with the instructor,conducted an interview with each focal participant at the end of the course.The study found that,in constant negotiation with the reader,the three students were able to construct a satisfactory voice effect through character development in their short stories.The student writers used narrative voice,plot structure,and the technique of showing as the major strategies for building up a successful character.Through the character's words and actions in the story,the writers constructed and communicated their authorial voice to the reader.The voice effect achieved at the textual level resulted from complicated interactions between the writer and the reader.Both were influenced by extra-textual identities,involving aspects such as identity,role,subjectivity,awareness in Canagarajah's(2014)model.The writer sometimes disagreed with the reader and struggled during the co-construction of voice.In the end,the writer managed to strategically find amalgamation of these identities in writing through negotiations.The findings of the present study have not only enhanced our understanding of the voice construction process in the EFL classroom,but also enabled the researcher to draw pedagogical implications for assisting students to express themselves in short-story writing.
Keywords/Search Tags:short-story writing, voice construction, the dialogic view of voice, Canagarajah's model, Chinese EFL learners
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