研究问题的类型与逻辑——基于学术新手与专家英语学术论文的对比研究

Typology and hierarchy of research questions:A corpus-based comparative study between novice and expert writers'academic English papers

研究问题是确立研究目标和设计研究框架的基本依据,具有重要研究价值。本研究以应用语言学领域的450篇英语论文为语料,自建学术新手与专家语料库,对比分析了两类群体研究问题类型与逻辑的异同。研究结果显示:(1)学术新手与专家语料中,研究问题类型的频次均按“描述性问题>关联性问题>对比性问题>解释性问题>规范性问题”顺序排列;(2)专家在研究问题的层级合理性上显著优于学术新手,学术新手的研究问题构建能力随着学习阶段推进逐步提升;(3)符合层级逻辑的研究问题包含同阶平行、依序递进和平行递进3种组合模式。

Research questions(RQ),functioning as an important basis for setting research objectives and designing research frameworks,are of significant research value.Based on three self-built corpora of 450 English papers written by novice and expert writers in the field of applied linguistics,the current study aims to analyze the similarities and differences between the two groups of writers in the distribution of English RQ types and orders.The results indicate that:(1)RQ types are similarly used in the descending order of“descriptive questionscontingent questionscomparative questionsexplanatory questionsnormative questions”;(2)in terms of RQ orders,the expert writers are significantly better than the novice writers,and as learning phases advance,the quality of RQs written by the novice writers improves;(3)RQs with appropriate orders are realized in the patterns of paralleling,progression and parallel progression.