Concept-based instruction(C-BI)has proven to be effective in improving students’command of grammar items used out of context by offering the students revision lessons,but its effect in teaching newly-introduced gramm...Concept-based instruction(C-BI)has proven to be effective in improving students’command of grammar items used out of context by offering the students revision lessons,but its effect in teaching newly-introduced grammar items in a complex context of a specific genre remains unclear.To probe C-BI’s effect on students’use of the past simple and present perfect tenses out of context and in the context of a narrative by its description of the grammar concept in its materialization,that is,the Schemas of a Complete Orienting Basis of an Action(SCOBAs),we taught the two tenses to 40 eighth-graders in a Chinese middle school in our three-week teaching experiment.The qualitative and quantitative analysis of the results shows that i)in both out-ofcontext use and in-context use,accuracy of using the target tenses is higher after C-BI intervention;ii)by improving their conceptual knowledge through C-BI,the students are helped to pin down reference time and are hence more certain in using the target tenses.Moreover,they are encouraged to use the newly-introduced tenses in the complex context of the narrative genre;iii)both in simple contexts or complex contexts,the SCOBAs are effective in helping students navigate the learning task and determine their intended meaning by establishing temporal reference in the context.展开更多
English thesis writing and tutoring process is traditionally loose and open-ended. Both students and teachers enjoy much liberty in the maneuver of different steps in the whole process, which, as it were, may cause a ...English thesis writing and tutoring process is traditionally loose and open-ended. Both students and teachers enjoy much liberty in the maneuver of different steps in the whole process, which, as it were, may cause a series of problems and dissatisfactions, consequently undermining the quality and significance. This paper is intended to explore a streamlined and systematic procedure to ensure both the students and teachers are doing their bit and make due contribution to the thesis perfection.展开更多
Although much is known about the benefits of providing creative writing courses to English learners, little research is available on Chinese ethnolinguistic minority learners’ creative writing in formal education. In...Although much is known about the benefits of providing creative writing courses to English learners, little research is available on Chinese ethnolinguistic minority learners’ creative writing in formal education. In response, this ethnographic study explored three ethnolinguistic minority learners’ engagement with a three-month elective English creative writing course at a Chinese university. Data(drafts, interviews, and reflection) were analyzed to reveal the three learners’ investment in creative writing and its impact. It was found that creative writing helped the learners to develop more confident writer identities, that they became more proficient in writing, and that their language proficiency also grew. The study suggests creative writing can serve as identity texts,which reflect back on their emergent creative writer identity, and can be a beneficial pedagogical option for ethnolinguistic minority learners.展开更多
The present study constitutes a critical appraisal of the deconstructive reading of Rousseau's Confessions that Derrida undertakes in the second part of Of Grammatology. In this examination, the author will first lis...The present study constitutes a critical appraisal of the deconstructive reading of Rousseau's Confessions that Derrida undertakes in the second part of Of Grammatology. In this examination, the author will first list some of the significations into which Derrida disperses (forced, as he asserts himself, by an "inassimilable residue" in the text itself) the meaning that he has already construed as apparently simple during the first moment of deconstructive reading (i.e., "the doubling commentary"); the author will then go on to enquire into the operations which enable Derrida to arrive at these self-conflicting significations. The main aim of this essay is to demonstrate that it is not language alone that disables the philosophy of Rousseau and enables the philosophy of Derrida. When Derrida attempts to support his philosophy through an analysis of Rousseau's theory of language and the alleged contradictions in Rousseau's texts, he misinterprets basic tenets of these texts in order to make them conform to the presuppositions of the deconstructive approach. The "reversal" and "displacement" of metaphysical conceptuality in the text of the Confessions is made possible after the text has had meanings transposed into it from a plurality of other texts. Derrida attributes to the text significations he discovers by construing, explicating and over-reading passages that occur elsewhere in Rousseau's total oeuvre (especially in the Essay on the Origin of Languages).展开更多
The imperial examination system not only has profound influence on prose development in Tang and Song Dynasty, but also has an important influence on the whole Tang and Song Dynasty and even the later literature and c...The imperial examination system not only has profound influence on prose development in Tang and Song Dynasty, but also has an important influence on the whole Tang and Song Dynasty and even the later literature and cultural development. In the feudal autocratic rule, any system implemented by the state will have an important influence on all aspects of the whole society~ especially it is related with the imperial examination system of education and talents. Once it becomes a "basic national policy" , the role in social development is incalculable. This paper takes the relationship between imperial examination system and Tang and Song prose development as the breakthrough point, analyzing the influence of thesis writing of imperial examination on the prose in Tang and Song Dynasty and "Eight great men in Tang and Song Dynasty" .展开更多
Communicative Language Teaching approach is widely accepted in English-speaking countries. This article briefly introduces What is Communicative Language Teaching and its influence on the instruction of English compos...Communicative Language Teaching approach is widely accepted in English-speaking countries. This article briefly introduces What is Communicative Language Teaching and its influence on the instruction of English composition. After that, it puts forward some principles that teachers of English writing should adhere to when trying to employ this teaching method in China.展开更多
Good writing is about making good choice of a thesis statement. A thesis statement is not only our source of writing but also our limit and measure. Based on the structure and function of a thesis statement, three cri...Good writing is about making good choice of a thesis statement. A thesis statement is not only our source of writing but also our limit and measure. Based on the structure and function of a thesis statement, three critical thesis statement formulating strategies are suggested. The thesis statement formulating strategies are targeted as the critical points in this paper because thesis statement formulating strategies can provide a learner with possibilities of selecting clear and concise thesis statements for writing purposes. These strategies ensure a learner to write effectively in English.展开更多
This paper attempts at an in-depth exploration of lexical mismatching, a pattern of vocabulary errors. In this paper, errors per se were collected from 107 writing samples of Chinese college students, and then investi...This paper attempts at an in-depth exploration of lexical mismatching, a pattern of vocabulary errors. In this paper, errors per se were collected from 107 writing samples of Chinese college students, and then investigated from a variety of linguistic perspectives. Traditional theoretical approaches, i.e. CA and EA, are incorporated in the source analysis for a more comprehensive interpretation. Hopefully, the findings of the study will shed lights on lexical instruction and acquisition in the field of SLA.展开更多
Literature about Hemingway's writing style has been fully explored in the past 80 years, while his style has not yet been well probed into from the perspective of corpus-based stylistics. This paper focuses on the an...Literature about Hemingway's writing style has been fully explored in the past 80 years, while his style has not yet been well probed into from the perspective of corpus-based stylistics. This paper focuses on the analysis of his writing style as a news reporter and as a literary writer in order to investigate whether there exists some links between the two or whether his training as a reporter has any effect on his writing as fiction writer. By employing a corpus-based stylistic approach, the paper analyzes in great details Hemingway's early news writing in Kansas City Star ( 1917-1918) and his later fiction writing in the novella The Old Man and the Sea (1952). The stylistic features at lexical level are explored quantitatively in both writings via statistical data. The paper concludes that Hemingway's writing style has his own heritage. The style in his early news articles does find its way into his later fiction writing. There do exist certain similarities in the choices of lexical items and phrasal expressions. It also indicates that a further exploration on their syntactic, rhetorical, and discourse levels is needed ira fuller picture of Hemingway's writing style is to be unveiled.展开更多
Competence in academic writing in college is a challenging as well as an engaging task for many college students. Argumentative writing and acknowledging the counterargument is one of modes that is introduced in fresh...Competence in academic writing in college is a challenging as well as an engaging task for many college students. Argumentative writing and acknowledging the counterargument is one of modes that is introduced in freshman classes; however, college students approach writing with a certain mindset. Learning to write in different modes could be exciting when taught utilizing a film or a documentary. Using a documentary, such as Devil's Playground, writing professors not only initiate interest in culture learning and cultural understanding but also motivate students to use argumentation to foster critical thinking as well as cultural understanding.展开更多
English majors' B.A. (Bachelor of Arts) thesis writing is an important part and test of the students' four-year undergraduate education. It lays solid foundation for their future study and work. Yet serious proble...English majors' B.A. (Bachelor of Arts) thesis writing is an important part and test of the students' four-year undergraduate education. It lays solid foundation for their future study and work. Yet serious problems exist during the process. The author of the paper collects and analyzes the 289 titles of English majors' B.A. writing in the recent two years in Changchun University, China. The results of the analysis reveal that almost 40% of the titles are on literature every year and among them there are some similar titles. In view of this situation, the author first explores the reasons that caused those problems. One of the important reasons is that the increasing of the supervisors and reference materials cannot keep the pace of the expanding of students' numbers. The author, after that, makes some reflections on those problems, then proposes five practical supervising strategies, and makes some relevant suggestions for English major's thesis writing. Meanwhile some other related problems in thesis writing in China are also discussed.展开更多
In the female writers of "5.4" , the quantity of Ling Shuhua' s works is not large, but the achievement isn't low because of her practiced skill and acute observation. By taking the novels for example, it is a ref...In the female writers of "5.4" , the quantity of Ling Shuhua' s works is not large, but the achievement isn't low because of her practiced skill and acute observation. By taking the novels for example, it is a reflection on three aspects: a kind of sad feeling under the poetic charm; the contrast of backward and new thought; the concealed comment and revealed value judgment. From these contrasts, people can know the Chinese female' s true state in the transition and the writer' s skill of fiction creation.展开更多
This article discusses four major transformations that took place in China during the Republican period from 1912 to 1949. The imperial institution fell and was replaced by a republican form of government. Changes in ...This article discusses four major transformations that took place in China during the Republican period from 1912 to 1949. The imperial institution fell and was replaced by a republican form of government. Changes in the writing style took place. The new colloquial style pulled people away from the idea of searching the past for answers to future questions. Popular culture changed. Men abandoned the queue and long gown, women forgot about footbinding. New technologies brought new ways of life to most Chinese and, surprisingly, many of the despotic warlords adopted telegraphs, railroads, and automobiles. By the 1950s, China had changed, but in a manner very similar to the rest of the world. In that sense China in the Republican period was in the mainstream of modern change.展开更多
Compared structural approach with communicative approach, the former puts too much emphasis on linguistic knowledge and neglects the language application, while the latter lays too much emphasis on the communicative c...Compared structural approach with communicative approach, the former puts too much emphasis on linguistic knowledge and neglects the language application, while the latter lays too much emphasis on the communicative classroom activities and neglects the systematic study of linguistic knowledge. Both of them cannot meet the requirements of improving the non-English major students' argumentative writing scores. So based on the Lexical Approach theory, taking the College English Integrated Course 4 (LI, 2003) as the main teaching material and lexical phrases as teaching and learning units, this study explores the effectiveness of the Lexical Approach in improving non-English major students' argumentative writing through classroom activities of input, absorption, and output of lexical phrases. The results show that lexical phrases have more effects on students' English competence than single words. They can help to improve the argumentative writing scores and cultivate an interest in learning English independently.展开更多
African-American writers during the 19th century wrote in the shadow of the prominent romance, sentimental, and domestic fiction. Harriet Wilson's Our Nig (1859) reflects an "alternative social character", for th...African-American writers during the 19th century wrote in the shadow of the prominent romance, sentimental, and domestic fiction. Harriet Wilson's Our Nig (1859) reflects an "alternative social character", for the female protagonist suffers racism in the free North, because she is a mulatto child. Through depicting the life of free blacks, who supposedly lives a better life than Southern slaves, Wilson exposes how she has actually lived and sensed life in antebellum America. According to Raymond Williams (2011), there are two kinds of literary writings. The first represents the general tendency of the age, and he calls it "dominant social character"; representing the majority content of both the public writing and speaking. But, another different literary writing lives in its shadow; one that usually leads the conflicts of the time. It is the "alternative social character"; the literature of the victims of repression and marginalization, produced by the lower class, women, and blacks. They reflected how they were dehumanized, and exposed their suffering and abasement. They also aimed to prove individualism. The novel reveals how racism in the North could be worse than the slavery of the South. This paper shows Wilson deviation from the "her brethren" in writing her novel. It unveils significant truths concerning black women's status in antebellum America. It discusses how the author attempts to correct certain misconceptions through her female character展开更多
Orwell's text The Road to Wigan Pier, henceforth referred to as RWP, is problematic due to the ambiguity of its status as a literary genre. The text is subversive on many levels, namely on the level of form. In order...Orwell's text The Road to Wigan Pier, henceforth referred to as RWP, is problematic due to the ambiguity of its status as a literary genre. The text is subversive on many levels, namely on the level of form. In order to show some aspects of the author's challenge of the conventional norms and methods of literary writing, a comparison between the writer's original diary of the journey to the industrial North of England, the main site of the coal mines, and the present book could be of great import. This reveals the author's genuine intellectual ability to manipulate and rearrange the events and scenes of the story on the discourse level. The author's manipulation and rearrangement of the story (the journey), events and scenes, clearly reveals his potential literary creativity and imagination. Orwell has deployed many strategies to fulfil this purpose. Each strategy is actually a contribution to the author's overall argument and at the same time it constitutes a further aspect of subversion. The first aspect of subversion lies on the level of form itself. The form of the book is effectively very challenging. Contrary to the conventional view of the fictional novel, the study of Orwell's text based on Grrard Genette's model reveals his challenge of the basic novelistic parameters. The novelistic ingredients such as setting, characterisation, and plot development have been treated in a subverting way. Though not totally discarded, they have been manipulated for the purpose of the author's general argument, which is Socialism. For instance, characters in the novel are treated as types, that is, representatives of their class. Besides, the order of scenes and events has been rearranged for the purpose of foregrounding representative scenes like the description of the Brookers' lodging-house. The author's treatment of the material of the text is primarily based on his personal experience as an outside observer during his journey to the North. Therefore, the exploration of the novel from a structuralist perspective based on Genette's model does not merely aim at the pure application of some literary and critical approaches to Orwell's text. This may be misleading since the investigation may fall in superficiality and simplicity. But the strategy deployed is actually a further contribution to the author's general argument and a manifestation of the novel's status as a creative and subversive text.展开更多
The present study applies "Textual Patterns" like "general-specific" and "claim-counterclaim" to explore discourse coherence in Chinese students' English writing. The study confirms the function of the textual ...The present study applies "Textual Patterns" like "general-specific" and "claim-counterclaim" to explore discourse coherence in Chinese students' English writing. The study confirms the function of the textual patterns as macro-structures for discourse interpretation and production, and proves textual patterns as effective tools in identifying and solving problems with discourse coherence in Chinese EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners' writing.展开更多
English writing plays a significant part in primary school English teaching. Many problems exist m primary school English writing due to many factors, which makes English writing a common headache for both students an...English writing plays a significant part in primary school English teaching. Many problems exist m primary school English writing due to many factors, which makes English writing a common headache for both students and teachers. Register theory has important significance for English writing. Based on the register theory and taking some students' composition as typical examples, this thesis makes an analysis of common problems existing in English writing, and then points out the causes that lie behind those problems. Finally, the writer presents some corresponding solutions in the hope of improving high school English writing and teaching. It will be of great practical value for English writing and teaching.展开更多
文摘Concept-based instruction(C-BI)has proven to be effective in improving students’command of grammar items used out of context by offering the students revision lessons,but its effect in teaching newly-introduced grammar items in a complex context of a specific genre remains unclear.To probe C-BI’s effect on students’use of the past simple and present perfect tenses out of context and in the context of a narrative by its description of the grammar concept in its materialization,that is,the Schemas of a Complete Orienting Basis of an Action(SCOBAs),we taught the two tenses to 40 eighth-graders in a Chinese middle school in our three-week teaching experiment.The qualitative and quantitative analysis of the results shows that i)in both out-ofcontext use and in-context use,accuracy of using the target tenses is higher after C-BI intervention;ii)by improving their conceptual knowledge through C-BI,the students are helped to pin down reference time and are hence more certain in using the target tenses.Moreover,they are encouraged to use the newly-introduced tenses in the complex context of the narrative genre;iii)both in simple contexts or complex contexts,the SCOBAs are effective in helping students navigate the learning task and determine their intended meaning by establishing temporal reference in the context.
文摘English thesis writing and tutoring process is traditionally loose and open-ended. Both students and teachers enjoy much liberty in the maneuver of different steps in the whole process, which, as it were, may cause a series of problems and dissatisfactions, consequently undermining the quality and significance. This paper is intended to explore a streamlined and systematic procedure to ensure both the students and teachers are doing their bit and make due contribution to the thesis perfection.
文摘Although much is known about the benefits of providing creative writing courses to English learners, little research is available on Chinese ethnolinguistic minority learners’ creative writing in formal education. In response, this ethnographic study explored three ethnolinguistic minority learners’ engagement with a three-month elective English creative writing course at a Chinese university. Data(drafts, interviews, and reflection) were analyzed to reveal the three learners’ investment in creative writing and its impact. It was found that creative writing helped the learners to develop more confident writer identities, that they became more proficient in writing, and that their language proficiency also grew. The study suggests creative writing can serve as identity texts,which reflect back on their emergent creative writer identity, and can be a beneficial pedagogical option for ethnolinguistic minority learners.
文摘The present study constitutes a critical appraisal of the deconstructive reading of Rousseau's Confessions that Derrida undertakes in the second part of Of Grammatology. In this examination, the author will first list some of the significations into which Derrida disperses (forced, as he asserts himself, by an "inassimilable residue" in the text itself) the meaning that he has already construed as apparently simple during the first moment of deconstructive reading (i.e., "the doubling commentary"); the author will then go on to enquire into the operations which enable Derrida to arrive at these self-conflicting significations. The main aim of this essay is to demonstrate that it is not language alone that disables the philosophy of Rousseau and enables the philosophy of Derrida. When Derrida attempts to support his philosophy through an analysis of Rousseau's theory of language and the alleged contradictions in Rousseau's texts, he misinterprets basic tenets of these texts in order to make them conform to the presuppositions of the deconstructive approach. The "reversal" and "displacement" of metaphysical conceptuality in the text of the Confessions is made possible after the text has had meanings transposed into it from a plurality of other texts. Derrida attributes to the text significations he discovers by construing, explicating and over-reading passages that occur elsewhere in Rousseau's total oeuvre (especially in the Essay on the Origin of Languages).
文摘The imperial examination system not only has profound influence on prose development in Tang and Song Dynasty, but also has an important influence on the whole Tang and Song Dynasty and even the later literature and cultural development. In the feudal autocratic rule, any system implemented by the state will have an important influence on all aspects of the whole society~ especially it is related with the imperial examination system of education and talents. Once it becomes a "basic national policy" , the role in social development is incalculable. This paper takes the relationship between imperial examination system and Tang and Song prose development as the breakthrough point, analyzing the influence of thesis writing of imperial examination on the prose in Tang and Song Dynasty and "Eight great men in Tang and Song Dynasty" .
文摘Communicative Language Teaching approach is widely accepted in English-speaking countries. This article briefly introduces What is Communicative Language Teaching and its influence on the instruction of English composition. After that, it puts forward some principles that teachers of English writing should adhere to when trying to employ this teaching method in China.
文摘Good writing is about making good choice of a thesis statement. A thesis statement is not only our source of writing but also our limit and measure. Based on the structure and function of a thesis statement, three critical thesis statement formulating strategies are suggested. The thesis statement formulating strategies are targeted as the critical points in this paper because thesis statement formulating strategies can provide a learner with possibilities of selecting clear and concise thesis statements for writing purposes. These strategies ensure a learner to write effectively in English.
文摘This paper attempts at an in-depth exploration of lexical mismatching, a pattern of vocabulary errors. In this paper, errors per se were collected from 107 writing samples of Chinese college students, and then investigated from a variety of linguistic perspectives. Traditional theoretical approaches, i.e. CA and EA, are incorporated in the source analysis for a more comprehensive interpretation. Hopefully, the findings of the study will shed lights on lexical instruction and acquisition in the field of SLA.
文摘Literature about Hemingway's writing style has been fully explored in the past 80 years, while his style has not yet been well probed into from the perspective of corpus-based stylistics. This paper focuses on the analysis of his writing style as a news reporter and as a literary writer in order to investigate whether there exists some links between the two or whether his training as a reporter has any effect on his writing as fiction writer. By employing a corpus-based stylistic approach, the paper analyzes in great details Hemingway's early news writing in Kansas City Star ( 1917-1918) and his later fiction writing in the novella The Old Man and the Sea (1952). The stylistic features at lexical level are explored quantitatively in both writings via statistical data. The paper concludes that Hemingway's writing style has his own heritage. The style in his early news articles does find its way into his later fiction writing. There do exist certain similarities in the choices of lexical items and phrasal expressions. It also indicates that a further exploration on their syntactic, rhetorical, and discourse levels is needed ira fuller picture of Hemingway's writing style is to be unveiled.
文摘Competence in academic writing in college is a challenging as well as an engaging task for many college students. Argumentative writing and acknowledging the counterargument is one of modes that is introduced in freshman classes; however, college students approach writing with a certain mindset. Learning to write in different modes could be exciting when taught utilizing a film or a documentary. Using a documentary, such as Devil's Playground, writing professors not only initiate interest in culture learning and cultural understanding but also motivate students to use argumentation to foster critical thinking as well as cultural understanding.
文摘English majors' B.A. (Bachelor of Arts) thesis writing is an important part and test of the students' four-year undergraduate education. It lays solid foundation for their future study and work. Yet serious problems exist during the process. The author of the paper collects and analyzes the 289 titles of English majors' B.A. writing in the recent two years in Changchun University, China. The results of the analysis reveal that almost 40% of the titles are on literature every year and among them there are some similar titles. In view of this situation, the author first explores the reasons that caused those problems. One of the important reasons is that the increasing of the supervisors and reference materials cannot keep the pace of the expanding of students' numbers. The author, after that, makes some reflections on those problems, then proposes five practical supervising strategies, and makes some relevant suggestions for English major's thesis writing. Meanwhile some other related problems in thesis writing in China are also discussed.
文摘In the female writers of "5.4" , the quantity of Ling Shuhua' s works is not large, but the achievement isn't low because of her practiced skill and acute observation. By taking the novels for example, it is a reflection on three aspects: a kind of sad feeling under the poetic charm; the contrast of backward and new thought; the concealed comment and revealed value judgment. From these contrasts, people can know the Chinese female' s true state in the transition and the writer' s skill of fiction creation.
文摘This article discusses four major transformations that took place in China during the Republican period from 1912 to 1949. The imperial institution fell and was replaced by a republican form of government. Changes in the writing style took place. The new colloquial style pulled people away from the idea of searching the past for answers to future questions. Popular culture changed. Men abandoned the queue and long gown, women forgot about footbinding. New technologies brought new ways of life to most Chinese and, surprisingly, many of the despotic warlords adopted telegraphs, railroads, and automobiles. By the 1950s, China had changed, but in a manner very similar to the rest of the world. In that sense China in the Republican period was in the mainstream of modern change.
文摘Compared structural approach with communicative approach, the former puts too much emphasis on linguistic knowledge and neglects the language application, while the latter lays too much emphasis on the communicative classroom activities and neglects the systematic study of linguistic knowledge. Both of them cannot meet the requirements of improving the non-English major students' argumentative writing scores. So based on the Lexical Approach theory, taking the College English Integrated Course 4 (LI, 2003) as the main teaching material and lexical phrases as teaching and learning units, this study explores the effectiveness of the Lexical Approach in improving non-English major students' argumentative writing through classroom activities of input, absorption, and output of lexical phrases. The results show that lexical phrases have more effects on students' English competence than single words. They can help to improve the argumentative writing scores and cultivate an interest in learning English independently.
文摘African-American writers during the 19th century wrote in the shadow of the prominent romance, sentimental, and domestic fiction. Harriet Wilson's Our Nig (1859) reflects an "alternative social character", for the female protagonist suffers racism in the free North, because she is a mulatto child. Through depicting the life of free blacks, who supposedly lives a better life than Southern slaves, Wilson exposes how she has actually lived and sensed life in antebellum America. According to Raymond Williams (2011), there are two kinds of literary writings. The first represents the general tendency of the age, and he calls it "dominant social character"; representing the majority content of both the public writing and speaking. But, another different literary writing lives in its shadow; one that usually leads the conflicts of the time. It is the "alternative social character"; the literature of the victims of repression and marginalization, produced by the lower class, women, and blacks. They reflected how they were dehumanized, and exposed their suffering and abasement. They also aimed to prove individualism. The novel reveals how racism in the North could be worse than the slavery of the South. This paper shows Wilson deviation from the "her brethren" in writing her novel. It unveils significant truths concerning black women's status in antebellum America. It discusses how the author attempts to correct certain misconceptions through her female character
文摘Orwell's text The Road to Wigan Pier, henceforth referred to as RWP, is problematic due to the ambiguity of its status as a literary genre. The text is subversive on many levels, namely on the level of form. In order to show some aspects of the author's challenge of the conventional norms and methods of literary writing, a comparison between the writer's original diary of the journey to the industrial North of England, the main site of the coal mines, and the present book could be of great import. This reveals the author's genuine intellectual ability to manipulate and rearrange the events and scenes of the story on the discourse level. The author's manipulation and rearrangement of the story (the journey), events and scenes, clearly reveals his potential literary creativity and imagination. Orwell has deployed many strategies to fulfil this purpose. Each strategy is actually a contribution to the author's overall argument and at the same time it constitutes a further aspect of subversion. The first aspect of subversion lies on the level of form itself. The form of the book is effectively very challenging. Contrary to the conventional view of the fictional novel, the study of Orwell's text based on Grrard Genette's model reveals his challenge of the basic novelistic parameters. The novelistic ingredients such as setting, characterisation, and plot development have been treated in a subverting way. Though not totally discarded, they have been manipulated for the purpose of the author's general argument, which is Socialism. For instance, characters in the novel are treated as types, that is, representatives of their class. Besides, the order of scenes and events has been rearranged for the purpose of foregrounding representative scenes like the description of the Brookers' lodging-house. The author's treatment of the material of the text is primarily based on his personal experience as an outside observer during his journey to the North. Therefore, the exploration of the novel from a structuralist perspective based on Genette's model does not merely aim at the pure application of some literary and critical approaches to Orwell's text. This may be misleading since the investigation may fall in superficiality and simplicity. But the strategy deployed is actually a further contribution to the author's general argument and a manifestation of the novel's status as a creative and subversive text.
文摘The present study applies "Textual Patterns" like "general-specific" and "claim-counterclaim" to explore discourse coherence in Chinese students' English writing. The study confirms the function of the textual patterns as macro-structures for discourse interpretation and production, and proves textual patterns as effective tools in identifying and solving problems with discourse coherence in Chinese EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners' writing.
文摘English writing plays a significant part in primary school English teaching. Many problems exist m primary school English writing due to many factors, which makes English writing a common headache for both students and teachers. Register theory has important significance for English writing. Based on the register theory and taking some students' composition as typical examples, this thesis makes an analysis of common problems existing in English writing, and then points out the causes that lie behind those problems. Finally, the writer presents some corresponding solutions in the hope of improving high school English writing and teaching. It will be of great practical value for English writing and teaching.