中国内地传统高校本科毕业生和中国内地中外合作办学(EMI)高校本科毕业生的学术英语写作能力的对比研究

A Comparative Analysis of the English Academic Writing Proficiency of Students Who Graduated from Conventional Universities in China's Mainland and Students Who Graduated from English as a Medium Instruction (EMI) Universities in China's Mainland

英语课在中国内地的大学中是一门必修课,但是这些英语课的主要目标是国家英语四六级考试[College English Test (CET)] [1]。这些英语课主要是关注英语的广泛日常使用[English for General Purposes (EGP)]从而忽略了学术英语[English for Academic Purposes (EAP)] [2] [3] [4]。然而,内地有一些大学采用了全英文教学,它们也被称为English-Medium Instruction (EMI)大学。这些大学给本科生们提供了EAP课,其中包含了英语学术写作课。英语学术写作是EAP体裁中的一个重要部分。其中,词汇能力是第二语言写作能力中一个重要的部分[5] [6] [7]。总的来说,本研究是采用先定量后定性的研究方法。第一大部分是定量分析,本研究要研究是否EMI大学的本科生(组别2)比传统大学的本科生(组别1)在学术英语词汇方面能力更强。本研究中,词汇能力表现在词汇多样[lexical variation (LV)],词汇复杂性[lexical sophistication (LS)]和词汇密度[lexical density (LD)] [7]。MANOVA分析法被用于分析这三个元素。第二大部分采取的是定性分析。半结构化采访被采用于调查和对比组别1和组别2学生们对于他们本科英语课程的经验,建议和评价。本研究的定量分析部分表明了在学术英语词汇能力方面,组别2和组别1的学生并没有表现出显著的差异。然而,定性分析部分发现了组别2的学生比起组别1的学生对于英语学术写作更加熟悉和自信。总的来说,本研究推荐中国内地高校开设学术英语(EAP)课程。

Although English courses are compulsory in the universities of China's Mainland, these English courses are College English Test (CET) driven within the English for General Purposes (EGP) curriculum [1] and they overlook English academic writing [2] [3] [4]. However, there are several novel English as a Medium Instruction (EMI) universities providing English academic writing training to their undergraduates. Academic English writing training is a crucial part of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) genre. These EMI universities provide English courses within EAP genre. Lexical competence is a crucial factor of the general quality of the second language (L2) writing [5] [6] [7]. Firstly, this study aims to examine whether the English academic writing proficiency of students graduating from EMI universities (Group 2) is significantly greater than those graduating from conventional universities (Group 1) based on their academic lexical competence. In this study, the academic English lexical competence is determined by lexical variation (LV), lexical sophistication (LS) and lexical density (LD) based on the framework of Laufer and Nation [7] by a statistical quantitative analysis of MANOVA. Secondly, a qualitative study is conducted by semi-structured interview to investigate and compare the experiences, comments, feedbacks and suggestions between Group 1 and Group 2 towards their undergraduate English curriculums. As a result, the quantitative study indicates that there is no significant difference of the academic lexical competence between Group 1 and Group 2. However, the qualitative approach demonstrates that Group 2 is more familiar and more confident with English academic writing than Group 1. Overall, EAP is suggested to the undergraduate English curriculums in China's Mainland.