http://dspace.cityu.edu.hk:80/handle/2031/711 2013-05-23T07:10:12Z http://dspace.cityu.edu.hk:80/handle/2031/6521 Title: Chinese scientists' English research articles in local and international publications : exploring the construction of writer identity Authors: Huang, Dawang ( 黃大網) Abstract: Academic writing has been prevalently conceived as part of scholarly literacy substantiated via textual competency, institutional practice and socio-political implications (Flowerdew, 2008; Lillis & Curry, 2006; Swales, 2004). Given English as the lingua franca in scientific publishing (Swales, 2004; A. Wood, 2001), multilingual academics find this "joint enterprise" an inevitable interplay of local and international community engagement and alignment (Canagarajah, 2002b; Casanave, 2002; Curry & Lillis, 2004). The present thesis reports on English research articles in local and international publications of vernacularly-educated materials scientist writers in Mainland China. Corpus-based and ethnographically-inspired studies of this two-part genre analysis are integrated under the umbrella of Bhatia's (2004) multidimensional and multi-perspective approach to written discourse. In particular, an integrative model of writer identity is developed as the analytical lens on the basis of Ivanic's (1998) clover-leaf model and Wenger's (1998) social ecology of identity. The first part of this study is based on a self-compiled corpus of research articles in materials science so as to examine discursive construction of writer identity across three different contexts, viz., L2 English texts domestically and internationally published and L1 Chinese texts locally circulated. Such identity markers as metadiscourse markers self-mentions, as-past-participial prefabricates, technical nouns, and rhetorical moves/steps are examined in this part. Two case studies are furthermore conducted to supplement the aforementioned corpus-based analysis by resorting to interviews and microhistories of focus papers. These two research subjects mainly differ in their professional status and patterns of discourse strategies consumed in response to their own understandings of multi-membership. The intensity and efficacy of local contingencies vis-à-vis global socio-cultural contrast is explored to locate their socio-historic construction of writer identity in the course of aligning with different levels of discourse community. Case Study One (i.e., Chapter Six) outlines dynamic and multiple writer identities of a junior researcher while Case Study Two (i.e., Chapter Seven) specializes in fluid and conflicting writer identities of an experienced staff. This current research has offered an integrative and relatively thick description of recontextualization or discourse-switching (Canagarajah, 2002b) among a special group of multilingual academics. In particular, the research lens of writer identity has made it possible to better understand discursive practices of vernacularly-educated scholars. It may develop applied linguists' long-standing interest in "small" disciplinary and institutional cultures (Atkinson, 2004; Connor, 2004), and more specifically, promotes our appreciation of the discursive reality and disciplinary socialization of Chinese materials scientist writers. Notes: CityU Call Number: PN146 .H83 2011; xi, 268 leaves : ill. 30 cm.; Thesis (Ph.D.)--City University of Hong Kong, 2011.; Includes bibliographical references (leaves 217-250) 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z http://dspace.cityu.edu.hk:80/handle/2031/6520 Title: Foreign language speaking anxiety : an investigation of non-English majors in mainland China Authors: He, Deyuan ( 賀德遠) Abstract: By focusing on the specific reasons leading to university students' foreign language speaking anxiety (FLSA) and the effective strategies helping reduce such anxiety, this study explores Chinese non-English major students' FLSA in mainland China. The research employed three methods to investigate such students' and their English teachers' perceptions and practices concerning FLSA: questionnaire surveys, focused interviews (group and individual), and classroom observations. The study reveals that China's university students, when compared to the participants in previous studies, demonstrated moderate levels (M = 98.27, SD = 15.62) of general foreign language anxiety (FLA) as measured by the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale. However, their FLSA was comparatively high (M = 110.95, SD = 8.80) when measured by the Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety Scale (FLSAS). The questionnaire data obtained with the FLSAS underwent factor analysis. Multivariate analysis of variance then found that the participants displayed significant group differences in terms of disciplines (science, arts, business, and engineering), identities (teachers or students), and school types (key or second-tier university) at factor level. Gender differences were also found at item level. With three triangulating research methods, the present study identified 25 specific reasons which caused students' FLSA and 34 effective strategies which helped them overcome their speaking anxiety. In addition, this study demonstrates that students' FLSA levels were negatively correlated with their self-evaluated general and oral English proficiencies, and their objective English achievement scores, although the correlation between FLSA and objective English achievement scores was not significant. Furthermore, this study reveals that both FLA and FLSA mainly debilitated Chinese students' EFL learning, while the facilitating roles of these anxieties were not so obvious. Last but not least, this study also identified 13 reactions of FLSA displayed by anxious EFL students in China's universities, which may be a promising finding, since understanding reactions to FLSA is necessary for recognizing and reducing such anxiety. It is hoped that this study will contribute to the research on FLA and FLSA, and will have pedagogical implications for EFL teaching in mainland China and other educational settings with similar cultural and social backgrounds. With the help of the reasons and strategies identified in this study, various stakeholders, especially the forefront EFL teachers and their students, may be sensitized to the debilitating effects of FLSA and the importance of applying appropriate strategies to cope with such anxiety. With the introduction of some strategy training or awareness raising, hopefully, students' EFL proficiency, their speaking skills in particular, will be enhanced in the long run. Notes: CityU Call Number: PE1074.8 .H4 2011; xv, 257 leaves 30 cm.; Thesis (Ph.D.)--City University of Hong Kong, 2011.; Includes bibliographical references (leaves 170-194) 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z http://dspace.cityu.edu.hk:80/handle/2031/6519 Title: An applied genre analysis of civil judgments : the case of mainland China Authors: Han, Zhengrui ( 韓征瑞) Abstract: This research attempts to analyze empirically judges' writing of civil judgments in Mainland China, where the judges' writing is traditionally considered structured, conventional and free from rhetorical variations. The writing of civil judgements in Mainland China requires that judges strictly adhere to a number of rules and conventions, the contravention of which deleteriously affects the generic integrity of civil judgements and the perceived professionalism of judges' writing. While rules and conventions are fixed, society is ever changing. It is therefore common for judges to manipulate rules and conventions legitimately or illegitimately to solve contemporary situation-specific problems. This research conducts a multidimensional and multi-perspective analysis of Mainland Chinese civil judgments to demonstrate some of these rules and conventions and, more importantly, show how judges manipulate them in specific cases. The research data constitutes a comprehensive medium-sized corpus of civil judgments (100 cases), interviews with ten legal specialists (seven lawyers and three judges), intertextual data of related written laws and news reports, and other law-related documents rendered by provincial courts and authorities. Research findings are divided into three groups based on move analysis, lexico-grammar and discourse coherence. Move analysis in this research identifies the required and optional moves/steps in civil judgments and macro rhetorical patterns. Since civil judgments are publicly accessible and enable laypersons to study litigation practices, there are two groups of target readers: specialists and non-specialists. Specialist readers refer to judges, lawyers, law professors, and other legal professionals. Non-specialist readers refer to laypersons who may lack legal knowledge but are interested to learn about legal affairs. The distinction between the two is important when interpreting the readability and accessibility of civil judgments. The analysis identifies several important findings. For example, Mainland Chinese litigants seldom engage lawyers when undertaking complicated litigation proceedings. More commonly, individual parties seek assistance from relatives and friends, while corporate parties are usually represented in court by non-legal staff. This is explained by a traditional distrust of lawyers in Mainland China, and by the parties' intentions to avoid costly lawyer fees. The lexico-grammatical analysis in the present research investigates the use of numerical expressions and the occurrence of metadiscourse in civil judgments. Numerical expressions are widely used by judges in the moves Parties' Arguments and Judges' Arguments. Some are used to describe a particular time when a specific event occurred, and others report specific sums of money claimed as compensation by the plaintiffs. The analysis reveals that these numerical expressions do not appear in isolation. Temporal expressions in the move Parties' Arguments always correspond closely with more exact ones used in the move Judges' Arguments. The interview and intertextual data verify that this correspondence demonstrates that the primary intention of Mainland Chinese judges' written civil judgments is to report the working of their results in litigation, not to provide a faithful recontextualization of parties' arguments. The occurrence of metadiscourse suggests that Mainland Chinese judges make considerable rhetorical and legal effort when resolving the tension between parties' views and when they interpret the law to build legal bases for litigation. Coherence analysis in this research concentrates on how specialist and non-specialist readers can acquire a coherent reading of Mainland Chinese civil judgments. Non-specialist readers face two levels of reading difficulty: the linguistic level and the discursive level. A civil judgment is the final textual artefact of the specialized litigation practice and employs many legalized terms and expressions to report court proceedings. A preliminary understanding of these terms and expressions is required for a coherent reading of civil judgments. However, familiarity with legalized words and expressions does not guarantee a thorough understanding of the judges' writing in civil judgments. For example, everyday language might carry specialized meanings in a legal field, the connection among specific arguments might be mediated by quoted texts, and the actual litigation practices might be intentionally or unintentionally simplified. Judges who write civil judgments presuppose that their readers will have considerable social and legal knowledge. A reconstruction of this presupposed knowledge is therefore necessary for specialist and non-specialist readers to understand civil judgments at the discursive level, which only specialist readers may achieve. This research has both academic and pedagogic significance. Few empirical studies of Chinese professional discourses exist and there are fewer still of legal discourse. This research makes a preliminary attempt to examine the genre of Chinese civil judgments from an empirical perspective and attempts to understand how judges write rules and conventions and how they manipulate them in specific cases. The research findings suggest that the impression that Chinese civil judgments primarily consist of standardized jargon and conventional syntax is inaccurate. Rather, rules and conventions are principles that are constantly manipulated by experienced judges to solve a number of situation-specific problems. The findings revealed in this research can be utilized to produce several pedagogic tasks suitable for use in legal education and training. Such tasks will help law students critically read civil judgements and raise their awareness of litigation practices embedded in this genre. Notes: CityU Call Number: KNQ48.7 .H36 2010; 249 leaves 30 cm.; Thesis (Ph.D.)--City University of Hong Kong, 2010.; Includes bibliographical references (leaves 204-210) 2010-01-01T00:00:00Z http://dspace.cityu.edu.hk:80/handle/2031/6143 Title: The role of narrative in virtual communities : the case of Chinese students aspiring to study abroad Authors: Yu, Ran (于然) Abstract: This dissertation takes a detailed look into the roles/identity of a particular subculture of Chinese youth community on the Internet, called Wemers and formation of their collective identity on Bulletin Board System (BBS) forums. With an estimated internet population of 300 million, BBS forums have become extremely popular in China. This paper provides some deep insight into manners/mechanisms of BBS subculture among mainstream University students. The paper aims to discuss how the Wemers establish their identity and maintain their virtual community through narrative analysis of their personal stories on the BBS. There are four primary research questions have been identified according to the implications of online BBS communities in shaping of identity for the Wemers through telling their personal stories of application experience: 1. What are the structures of Wemers’ personal stories, based on the Labov’s theoretical framework of narrative structure? 2. What are the functions of Wemers’ personal stories in the context of previous theories of narrative function? 3. How do Wemers present their particular identity through sharing personal stories on the BBS? 4. How do Wemers create and maintain their community on the BBS through presenting their identity through these stories? Above research questions have been examined using primary qualitative methodology, especially the narrative analysis to find out how the Wemers create and maintain their membership as well as their virtual community on the BBS. A supplementary method of interview will be used to learn the Wemers's behavior and deeper thoughts about the BBS and their virtual community. The dissertation successfully presents important conclusions/highlights for solving various research objectives outlined along with research questions in picture. Notes: CityU Call Number: P302.7 .Y8 2010; vi, 143 leaves 30 cm.; Thesis (M.Phil.)--City University of Hong Kong, 2010.; Includes bibliographical references (leaves 125-132) 2010-01-01T00:00:00Z