中英学者学术英语写作中的词汇难度对比研究

非英语母语者与英语母语者在学术英语表达上的风格差异是学界关心的问题之一。本研究从量化词汇难度特征的角度探究中国学者和英语母语学者在学术英语写作中的用词差异。首先收集1132篇中英学者发表的英语论文,统计每篇论文的多项词汇难度特征,然后经过特征筛选和因子分析得出对中英学者论文区分效果显著的五个维度,最后计算中英学者论文对应维度的分值以分析它们之间的差异。结果发现,相较于英语母语学者,中国学者论文中词汇的通用性较弱,二元词串和三元词串的稳固性较弱,词的加工难度较低,实词的关联性较强,虚词的关联性较弱。

Relative pronoun in the acquisition of English relative clauses by Chinese EFL learners

The paper focuses on the properties of relative pronouns in the acquisition of relative clause by Chinese EFL learners. Based on the NPAH （noun phrase accessibility hierarchy）, comparison and contrast of some aspects of English and Chinese relative pronoun, the paper conducts two experiments, and has proved the hypotheses that students＇ performance generally follows the hierarchy of NPAH and students do have problems with relative pronoun involving prepositions. Besides, some pedagogical implications for foreign language teaching are discussed.

How Unique is ′China Model′: A Review of Theoretical Perspectives on China′s Urbanization in Anglophone Literature

As a major aspect of the ′China Model′, urbanization in China is being heatedly discussed in the Anglophone literature in the last two decades. By considering China′s urbanization as a ′testing ground′ of ′western′ theories, these studies are important for the understanding of China′s ongoing urban restructuring and exchanging knowledge with ′western′ insights. Based on a survey of existing studies, this paper identifies various endogenous and exogenous concepts and explanations of China′s urbanization. It is suggested that China′s urbanization is mainly driven by a combination of political decentralization and neoliberalization with various forms of social stratification and mobility. However, it is argued that the distinctness of the ′China Model′, which is usually used to support the legitimacy of studies of China′s urbanization, has led to many controversial arguments and diminished the due contributions of Chinese scholars in the knowledge production of China′s urbanization. To consolidate the legitimacy of studies on China′s urbanization and enhance the roles of Chinese scholars, we suggest future studies to pay more attentions to the fundamental theories with looser constraints and ′true questions′ on China′s urbanization.

Research on the role of attribution in reading comprehension among Chinese EFL learners

This empirical study investigates Chinese EFL students＇ attributions in reading. The purposes ot this study are to investigate the development of Chinese EFL learners＇ attributions for their perceived success and failure in second language reading and to clarify the relationship between learners＇ reading proficiency levels and their attributions. The results show that （1） Nearly half of the university students feel ＂Just so so＂ in English reading; （2） Environmental variables such as teacher feedback, peers or classroom play an influential role in the learners＇ attribution. This paper concludes with a number of pedagogical suggestions for the teaching and learning of English reading.

Intensifier-Verb Collocations in Academic English by Chinese Learners Compared to Native-Speaker Students

It is difficult for L2 English learners in general, and especially Chinese learners of English, to form idiomatic collocations. This article presents a comparison of the use of intensifier-verb collocations in English by native speaker students and Chinese ESL learners, paying particular attention to verbs which collocate with intensifiers. The data consisted of written production from three corpora: two of these are native English corpora: the British Academic Written English(BAWE) Corpus and Michigan Corpus of Upper-Level Student Papers(MICUSP). The third one is a recently created Chinese Learner English corpus, Ten-thousand English Compositions of Chinese Learners(TECCL).Findings suggest that Chinese learners of English produce significantly more intensifier-verb collocations than native speaker students, but that their English attests a smaller variety of intensifier-verb collocations compared with the native speakers. Moreover, Chinese learners of English use the intensifier-verb collocation types just-verb, only-verb and really-verb very frequently compared with native speaker students. As regards verb collocates, the intensifiers hardly, clearly,well, strongly and deeply collocate with semantically different verbs in native and Chinese learner English. Compared with the patterns in Chinese learner English, the intensifiers in native speaker English collocate with a more stable and restricted set of verb collocates.

Agency Fluctuations and Identity Transformations in Chinese English-Majors on Their Learning Trajectories

This paper explores agency fluctuations and identity transformations in Chinese English-majors and how they are related to the process of English learning. By tracing a group of students for four years in a Chinese university and conducting qualitative analyses to their oral narrations of learning experiences at different periods, the study has found that most participants started and ended their university life at relatively high levels of agency, with inevitable ups and downs in between. Agency fluctuations in the learners are the result of their identity positioning and repositioning within a complex and ever-changing context. Concordant or conflicting identities may co-exist within an individual learner and keep changing across different situations. Learner identities will cause increase or reduction in their investment in English learning, while their learning experience will in turn reinforce or undermine their identities. The study sheds light on the intricate relationships between agency, identity and language learning and therefore has important implications for English learning and teaching in China.

A Development Study on the Ordering Distribution of Temporal Adverbial Clauses by Chinese EFL Learners Based on Dependency Treebank

Temporal adverbial clause is an important language structure and exhibits different features in English and Chinese,which brings about difficulties for Chinese EFL learners.Based on the theory of Dependency Grammar,the study attempts to investigate the ordering distribution of temporal adverbial clauses by Chinese EFL learners at the beginning,intermediate and advanced levels.The results show that:1)Chinese EFL learners at different proficiencies tend to precede temporal adverbial clause to main clause.With the increase of proficiency,the postposition of temporal adverbial clauses by learners increases and is approaching to the ordering preference of target language.2)The ordering distribution of subordinators for temporal adverbial clauses by Chinese EFL learners is consistent with native English,showing a tendency of 100%preposition,which ascribes to the high frequency and salience of subordinators in English.3)MDD is one of the significant motivations that cause the preference of prepositional temporal adverbial clauses by Chinese EFL learners.As a kind of natural language,interlanguage has a unique cognitive mechanism which distinguishes from both native and target language.This study provides a more comprehensive theoretical reference for learners at different proficiencies to understand and learn temporal adverbial clauses,as well as data support from empirical research for language teaching.

"Oh My Gosh! The Expression Is Too Chinese" :Attitudes of University Teachers and Students towards China English

With the wide spread of English in the global context, scholars increasingly call for the reshaping of English education towards teaching English as an international language. One oft-mentioned proposal is to increase students＇ exposure to more English varieties, in particular the variety of English used in their country or region. Against this backdrop, this study investigated the attitudes of Chinese university students and teachers towards China English （CE）, an emerging variety in China and the ideological underpinnings beneath their attitudinal responses. In the study, 33 English teachers and 31 students were asked to first evaluate the understandability and acceptability of CE features that are identified in literature and then provide reasons justifying their choices in a questionnaire survey. Results show that both teacher and student participants were reluctant to accept CE as a legitimate variety but their attitudes diverged as regards specific CE features. The in-depth exploration of their justifications revealed that native speaker English ideology, Chinglish stigma and the communicativeness of CE to the outside world were their major concerns in evaluating CE. Findings in this study have implications for educators who attempt to localize English language teaching.

The Use of Amplifiers in the Doctoral Dissertations of Chinese EFL Learners

This paper reports a study into the use of amplifiers and amplifier collocations in the doctoral dissertations of Chinese EFL learners. A sample corpus of doctoral dissertations by Chinese doctoral students and a control corpus of doctoral dissertations by native speaker doctoral students were compiled and used for the analyses. Results showed that the overall number of amplifiers used by the Chinese students and the native speaker students were comparable. However, the Chinese learners overused totally, very and really and underused entirely and highly in their writing. Moreover, the Chinese learners tended to use more amplifier collocations than their native speaker counterparts. In particular, they tended to use clearly much more frequently to intensify the reporting verbs and to use the amplifiers to intensify the meaning of general adjectives in their writing. It was also found that many amplifier collocations used by the Chinese learners were congruent collocations. The findings may indicate a non-native style within Chinese learners＇ writing. We argue that Chinese learners overuse amplifiers and amplifier collocations in order to focus the reader＇s attention as well as to enhance the meaning of general adjectives. Meanwhile, the Chinese learners＇ mother tongue exerts a clear influence on their use of amplifiers and amplifier collocations. Pedagogical implications are also discussed within the paper.

Chinese EFL Learners' Perceptions of Their Experience with Portfolio-Based Writing Assessment:A Case Study

In a case study investigating Chinese EFL university majors＇ perceptions of a portfolio-based writing assessment （PBWA） project, English majors were sampled to find out whether the portfolio method made them more interested in writing and/or improved their writing process and writing strategies. Four sophomores were chosen from among an experimental group at a local university in China. Analysis of data from student journals, interviews and reflective essays showed that taking part in portfolio writing empowered them to take charge of their own learning and motivated them to write better. The students welcomed PBWA as a fairer assessment tool than timed, one-shot essay tests. They held more interest in English writing, improved their writing strategies and shifted their attention from products of writing to process of writing and, thus, preferred scores from PBWA as a more satisfactory indicator of their writing ability.

On Pragmatic "Borrowing Transfer":Evidence from Chinese EFL Learner's Compliment Response Behavior

本研究通过考察中国英语学习者的恭维应答语,试图为语用"外借迁移"提供更多的实证数据。92份问卷调查(DCT)被分发给两组不同的受试(英语专业和非英语专业)。通过对比两组受试的恭维应答语,研究发现,英专组比非英专组更倾向于选择"接受"策略,而非英专组比英专组更倾向于选择"不接受"策略。L2的规范对中国英语学习者恭维应答语的影响似乎与L2学习时间长短和L2水平有关。本研究的结果为语用"外借迁移"提供了初步实证数据。

A CLEC-BASED STUDY OF COLLOCATION ACQUISITION BY CHINESE ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS

Though collocations have drawn much attention in the field of language acquisition, difficulties with them have not been investigated in much detail. This paper reports on a corpus-based exploratory study that analyzes the mistakes learners made when they produced English collocations. The current study shows that not only beginners but also advanced learners have difficulties in choosing the right collocates and the difficulties that learners of different levels have are more or less the same. The L1 influence on the production of L2 collocations exists at every stage of learning though it varies with the learners' L2 competence.

USE OF IDIOMS IN CHINESE EFL LEARNERS' SPOKEN ENGLISH:EVIDENCE FROM SECCL AND COLSEC

This paper investigates the use of idioms in Chinese EFL learners' spoken English by virtue of two corpora, SECCL and COLSEC. The results indicate that there is no difference in the use of idioms between English-major and non-English-major learners. The learners are competent at using most of the idioms of high and high-medium frequency. However, they use nearly none of the idioms of medium and below frequency. Based on the findings, we conclude that the learners do not have a good command of the most frequently used idioms in spoken English. Suggestions on syllabus designing and classroom teaching are brought about at the end of the paper.

Chinese EFL Learners' Public Speaking Skills: An Investigation of Impromptu Speeches at the “FLTRP Cup” English Speaking Contest in the Light of Communication Models

The current study applied classic communication models to investigating 34 laureate impromptu speeches at the 2010 and 2011 ＂FLTRP （Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press） Cup＂ English Speaking Contest, one of the most influential of its kind in China, to identify the features of public speaking skills of Advanced Chinese EFL learners. The speech scripts and video excerpts from the subsequent manuscript collection with the CD-Rom published by FLTRP were studied. Lucas＇ framework of speech communication process was borrowed to bridge elements of the communication models and speech delivery process. Three key aspects of the speakers＇ encoding endeavors were under close examination： the verbal preferences, the non-verbal preferences, and the topic selection for exemplification. It was found that successful speakers demonstrated a clear and strong audience orientation. They chose more first person pronouns, fewer abstract words, a controlled number of dependent clauses, clear transition words, and limited figures of speech. They used very few verbal fillers, slips of tongue, a moderate speech rate and varied tone inflections. The speakers also showed distinctive features in gestures, eye contact and facial expressions. They employed anecdotes which shared a common field of experience. Pedagogical implications on the teaching of public speaking were discussed.