Genre Features of Personal Statements by Chinese English-as-an-Additional-Language Writers: A Corpus-Driven Study

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorChen, Sibo
dc.contributor.supervisorHuang, Li-Shih
dc.date.accessioned2013-05-07T15:30:54Z
dc.date.available2013-05-07T15:30:54Z
dc.date.copyright2013en_US
dc.date.issued2013-05-07
dc.degree.departmentDepartment of Linguistics
dc.degree.departmentSchool of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures
dc.degree.levelMaster of Arts M.A.en_US
dc.description.abstractPersonal Statements (PSs) are self-narrative essays written for Western graduate school applications, which serve an important role in Western graduate schools’ admission processes. However, genre features of PSs have not been sufficiently addressed by previous genre studies. Such neglect indicates a promising area for investigation as the increasing number of non-native English speakers in Western higher education systems creates an urgent pedagogical need for PS-related English-as-an-Additional-Language (EAL) instruction. The present thesis reports a corpus-driven genre analysis of PSs written by Chinese EAL students (CEAL-PSs). Based on a corpus of 120 CEAL-PS samples, genre features of CEAL-PSs were investigated from three perspectives: (1) linguistic complexity (i.e. lexical diversity and grammatical intricacy), (2) content foci (i.e. at the lexical, phrasal, discoursal levels), and (3) functional move structure. In addition, comparative analyses were made between unedited and edited CEAL-PSs for investigating whether the editing process significantly changed the unedited CEAL-PSs in the above three perspectives. There were three major findings of the current study. First, the majority of lexicons used by the collected CEAL-PSs were frequent academic lexicons and the average grammatical intricacy of these samples was at senior high school or junior college levels. Second, expressions of self-promotion and discussions of academic/professional achievements were explicitly emphasized in the collected CEAL-PSs at the lexical, phrasal, and discoursal levels. Third, an IERC model (“Introduction,” “Establishing Credentials,” “Reasons for Application,” and “Conclusion”), was found to be followed by the majority of the collected CEAL-PSs. Based on the above findings, the thesis further discusses the current study’s theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical implications for EAL writing instruction in China.en_US
dc.description.proquestcode0290en_US
dc.description.proquestcode0681en_US
dc.description.proquestemailchensibo@uvic.caen_US
dc.description.scholarlevelGraduateen_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1828/4598
dc.languageEnglisheng
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.rights.tempAvailable to the World Wide Weben_US
dc.subjectEnglish as an Additional Languageen_US
dc.subjectGenreen_US
dc.subjectPersonal Statementen_US
dc.subjectDiscourse Analysisen_US
dc.subjectCorpus Linguisticsen_US
dc.titleGenre Features of Personal Statements by Chinese English-as-an-Additional-Language Writers: A Corpus-Driven Studyen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Chen_Sibo_MA_2013.pdf
Size:
1.34 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Thesis manuscript
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.74 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download

Collections

Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD)
 
University of Victoria Libraries

We acknowledge and respect the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Songhees and Esquimalt) Peoples on whose territory the university stands, and the Lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.