NEWS & EVENTS

Appliable Linguistics Seminar 11
(Seminar on Language Science and System Science 77

May 11, 2015

Time: 16:00, 13 May 2015

Venue: #313, School of Foreign Languages

Speaker: Dr Liu Xinghua

Title: Argument structures in Chinese university students’ argumentative writing: a contrastive study

Abstract: Situated within a Systemic Functional Linguistics genre paradigm, this study adopted a function-based linguistic approach to examine the argument structures in English writing produced by Chinese university students of English as foreign language (EFL). Their English writing was contrasted with three other sets of argumentative essays in order to explore differences and similarities in the use of argument structures. The four sets of essays were produced by three groups of university students: native English- and Chinese-speaking university students and Chinese university EFL students. Participants’ interviews and questionnaire responses were also collected. The study found that most native English-speaking participants used an analytical arguing strategy, while most Chinese-speaking university participants preferred a hortatory argument structure both in their English and Chinese writing. It was also found that Chinese participants’ English writing was influenced by both English and Chinese.

Key Words: argumentative writing; contrastive rhetoric; Systemic Functional Linguistics genre theory; Chinese university students