Discourse Analysis Of English Majors' Argumentative Writing

English writing is a basic, however, a difficult language skill in English language learning. In traditional English writing teaching, focus is put mainly on the micro-level as grammar, spelling, vocabulary, etc., while features on the discourse level are usually neglected.Under the framework of the genre description of the argumentative essay by Hyland(1990) and Halliay and Hasan's taxonomy of cohesion, sampling 80 argumentative compositions from the timed writing of Grade two English majors from East China University of Science and Technology, this study makes a tentative analysis of the text features of argumentative compositions of Chinese English majors from the perspective of discourse analysis, attempting to find out the features and problems on the use of moves of different stages at the macro-level and cohesive devices at the micro-level.The result of this study shows that, at the macro-level, not all the students are totally aware of the surface structure of argumentative writing, of all the samples, only 33 compositions are in accordance with Hyland's model, with problem existing mainly at the argument stage. When it comes to the micro-level, the compositions also display some weakness in the use of cohesive devices. The main problems include ambiguous and inconsistent relationship of the items and the presupposed referents; misuse of the definite article "the"; confusion on the use of "this" and "that". As for the conjunction, the frequency of items forms a contrast, some items are highly frequently used, while other conjunctives are rarely employed, moreover, misuse of some conjunctives also constitutes a problem. In terms of lexical cohesion, simple lexical repetition covers the highest frequency of use.The finding of the present study shows the general text features of Chinese English majors'argumentative compositions, injecting vitality into English writing instruction. It is suggested that teachers should shift from the traditional grammar-oriented writing teaching and cultivate students'text awareness so as to upgrade writing instruction and enhance students'writing proficiency.