| Bidirectional optimalization is a new term in pragmatics focusing on the balance of individual benefits from the interpersonal communication. As a matter of fact, college writing can be viewed as a way of interpersonal communication of which both parties, writers and readers, try to obtain their "optimal benefits". For the writers, college students, attempt to express their viewpoints and to persuade the readers; while the readers, the teacher and other students, comprehend and then evaluate their compositions. Bidirectional optimalization is the first focus of both theoretical construction and teaching practice in this thesis, and much emphasis has been laid on its construction and application. In the current study, it is newly defined and constructed aiming to improve the college students’English writing proficiency. Besides, fillers with meaning, which can be considered as a new branch of pragmatic markers, is the secondary focus in the current research. As a matter of fact, there have been a great amount of studies on pragmatic markers and the functions on English pedagogy. Fillers with meaning, however, is seldom mentioned by linguistic scholars, let alone its application in writing teaching. In the present research, the fillers with meaning is redefined and classified into five types and then is taught as a systematic knowledge in college English writing classes. And the application of bidirectional optimalization in English writing class is achieved successfully by means of the teaching of the use of fillers with meaning as well as the implementation of the thought in the specific procedures of writing teaching.The current study tries to explore the construction and application in contemporary college writing class from the perspective of fillers with meaning by experiments conducted during the authentic college English writing classes where the teacher has taught the students how to use filler-type markers and instructed them in English writing in accordance with a self-designed teaching procedure. And the research aims to answer the following two questions:(1) What are the effects and functions of fillers with meaning in college English writing? Can college students’English writing proficiency be improved by learning the use of fillers with meaning?(2) How to construct and apply bi-directional optimalization in college English class? Are there any positive effects on students’English communication proficiency by introducing the concept of bi-directional optimal communication?This thesis first overviews the global studies on pragmatics markers and their functions in English pedagogy in Chapter Two. Based on the previous classifications of pragmatic markers, in the chapter of Conceptual Framework the author newly defines the fillers with meaning and comes up with the classification:evidential markers, attitudinal markers, validity markers, explanatory markers and sequential markers. And Chapter Three presents a detailed account of the pragmatic functions and adequate correspondent exemplifications of each type of markers, which are concluded from the research of a great number of writing materials. Meanwhile, the chapter of Literature Review also presents the related studies on bidirectional communication and Chapter Three gives a definite study sphere of bidirectional optimalization in the current research and explore the meaning of this term. And a more comprehensive and complete analysis is presented in Chapter Five, including its definition, construction and application in college English writing class from the perspective of fillers with meaning. Besides, the effects and functions of fillers with meaning in college English writing are also analyzed and discussed in this chapter according to the result of the teaching experiment conducted on the sophomores in Dalian Software University, which is described in the chapter of Methodology. |
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