中国大学生英语写作中的to-V结构的应用-基于语料库的研究的中期报告

中国大学生英语写作中的to-V结构的应用——基于语料库的研究的中期报告AbstractTheaimofthisstudyistoexaminetheuseofto-VstructuresinthewritingofChineseuniversitystudentsofEnglish.Acorpusof100essayswrittenbyadvanced-levelEFLlearnerswasanalyzedusingcorpuslinguistictechniques.Theresultsshowedthatto-Vstructureswerefrequentlyusedbutwithsomevariationsintheirfunctionsandforms.Themajorityoftheto-Vstructureswerefoundinthesentence-initialposition,andmostfrequentlyusedinargumentativeessays.However,thevariationalsoexistedintermsofthetypesofverbsusedaftertoandthepresenceorabsenceofmodifiers.Furtheranalysisisneededtoexplorethefactorsthatmayinfluencethevariation.IntroductionAsoneofthemostfrequentlyusedconstructionsinEnglish,to-Vstructurehasbeenextensivelystudiedintermsofitssyntacticandsemanticfeaturesinbothnativeandnon-nativecontexts(e.g.Biberetal.,1999;LiandThompson,1981;Wang,2011).Thestructurecomprisestheinfinitivemarkertoplusabaseformofaverb,andhasawiderangeofmeaningsandfunctions.Itcanbeusedasacomplementtoaverb,anobjectofapreposition,orevenasubjectofasentence.Recently,therehasbeengrowinginterestininvestigatinghownon-nativespeakersuseto-Vstructuresintheirwriting,especiallyintheEnglishasaForeignLanguage(EFL)context.StudieshaveshownthatChineselearnerstendtousethisstructureintheirwritingtofacilitatesentencecoherenceandcomplexity(e.g.Flowerdew,1992;NesiandGardner,2012).However,littleisknownabouthowtheyusethisstructureindifferentgenresofwritingorwhatfactorsmayinfluencethevariationsintheiruse.Thepresentstudyaimstoaddresstheseissuesbyexaminingtheuseofto-VstructuresintheessayswrittenbyChineseuniversitystudentsofEnglish.Specifically,thestudyaimstoanswerthefollowingresearchquestions:1.HowfrequentlydoChineseuniversitystudentsuseto-Vstructuresintheirwriting?2.Whatarethecommonfunctionsandformsofto-Vstructuresintheessays?3.Whatarethefactorsthatmayinfluencethevariationsintheuseofto-Vstructures?MethodologyThedataforthestudyweredrawnfromacorpusof100essayswrittenbyChineseuniversitystudentsofEnglishintheirthirdorfourthyearofstudy.Theessayscoveredawiderangeofgenres,includingargumentative,descriptive,andnarrativewriting.TheessayswereallgradedbyexperiencedEFLinstructorsandmarkedforgrammar,content,andorganization.ThecorpuswasfirsttaggedandparsedusingtheTreeTaggersoftware.Theto-VstructuresintheessayswerethenmanuallyextractedandanalyzedusingthecorpuslinguistictoolAntConc.Theanalysisfocusedonthefrequency,form,andfunctionoftheto-Vstructures.ResultsFrequencyofto-VstructuresTheresultsshowedthatto-Vstructureswerefrequentlyusedintheessays,withatotalof3180occurrences.Theaveragefrequencywas31.8peressay,rangingfrom10to63.Thehighestfrequencywasfoundintheargumentativeessays(average45.5peressay),followedbythedescriptiveessays(average29.0peressay)andthenarrativeessays(average18.5peressay).Formofto-VstructuresThemajorityoftheto-Vstructureswerefoundinthesentence-initialposition(62.7%),followedbythemiddleposition(24.5%)andthefinalposition(12.8%).Themostfrequentformwastobefollowedbyapastparticiple(18.6%),followedbytohave(17.7%)andtodo(17.4%).Otherformsincludedtomake(7.0%),totake(5.7%),tosee(3.5%),andtoget(3.1%).Themajorityoftheto-Vstructures(67.4%)hadnomodifiers,whiletheresthadoneortwomodifiers(e.g.tocarefullyconsider,tofullyunderstand).Functionofto-VstructuresTheto-Vstructureswerefoundtoserveawiderangeoffunctionsintheessays.Themostcommonfunctionwastoexpresspurposeorintention(33.6%),followedbytoindicateresultorconsequence(18.9%)andtoexpressobligationornecessity(15.9%).Otherfunctionsincludedexpressingpreferenceorwillingness(12.7%),givingadviceorsuggestion(10.4%),expressingabilityorcapability(4.1%),andexpressingopinionorattitude(4.1%).Factorsinfluencingthevariationsintheuseofto-VstructuresFurtheranalysisshowedthatthevariationintheuseofto-Vstructureswasinfluencedbyseveralfactors,includingthegenreoftheessays,theproficiencylevelofthewriters,andthecomplexityofthetopic.Forexample,argumentativeessaystendedtohavemorefrequentanddiverseuseofto-Vstructuresthantheothergenres.Advanced-levelwritersusedmorecomplexformsandfunctionsofto-Vstructuresthanintermediate-levelwriters.Thecomplexityofthetopicalsoinfluencedthefrequencyandtypeofto-Vstructuresused,withmorecomplextopicsrequiringawiderrangeofto-Vstructures.ConclusionandImplicationsThepresentstudyhasprovidedacomprehensivepictureoftheuseofto-VstructuresinthewritingofChineseuniversitystudentsofEnglish,andhighlightedthevariationsintheirformandfunction.Thefindingssuggestthatto-Vstructuresarefrequentlyusedinacademicwriting,andcanenhancethecoherenceandcomplexityofthesentences.Thevariationintheiruseisinfluencedbyseveralfactors,andcanbeusedasanindicatorofthewriter'sproficiencyandrhetoricalawareness.Theimplicationsofthestudyaretwofold.First,thefindingscaninformtheteachingofEFLwriting,byemphasizi