A Contrastive Study Of English Acknowledgements In Doctoral Dissertations By Chinese And American Students

Acknowledgements are universal in dissertation writing where they providewriters with a place to not only express their gratitude for the intellectual and moralsupport received during their research, but also to create a competent professional andpersonal identity. However, this genre has largely been neglected in the EAP (Englishfor Academic Purposes) literature, and nonnative English speaking students tend toencounter greater difficulty than their native counterparts when composing this genre.Therefore, it is worthwhile to acquaint them with the communicative purposes,generic structure and linguistic features associated with this genre.With a self-built corpus, the present study examined the macro-structuralorganization and micro linguistic features of60acknowledgements accompanyingEnglish-language dissertations in the area of linguistics written by Chinese andAmerican doctoral candidates. In addition, the study also investigated the arrangementorder of the thanked addressees, which was rarely examined in previous research.Moreover, based on the actual situation concerning the field of linguistics, the authorhas made some modification to Hyland’s classification of resource materials.The results showed that Chinese writers largely follow the conventional genericstructure of dissertation acknowledgements, while native writers tend to constructmore complex acknowledgements with greater flexibility. Moreover, Chinese studentsemploy more formal, even ritualistic ways in expressing gratitude and lack control ofthe varied ways in which thanks can be expressed in their L2language.It is hoped that the study could help to raise teachers and students’ awareness ofthe importance of acknowledgements and the necessity of a genre-based teachingapproach in EAP classrooms. Effort is worthwhile if it helps to improve Chinesedoctoral candidate’s competence of academic writing and communication.