A Study On The Use Of Stance Markers In Chinese High School English Learners’ Argumentative Writings

In the research a descriptive study is carried out to find out the characteristicsof the use of stance markers in Chinese high school students’ argumentative writingsby employing a contrastive approach. It consists of quantitative study based oncorpus as well as qualitative study on specific stance markers. The results indicatethat the Chinese high school English learners have acquired a shared awareness ofmaking use of stance adverbials, stance complements and stance modals in theiressays. Although there is no significant difference in the overall number of stancemarkers between the argumentative writings by Chinese high school students andthose by native students, Chinese high school students are relatively limited in theways to express stance. Three aspects are respectively examined and conclusions aredrawn. Firstly, Chinese students are found to have overused stance modal verbs,especially some modals which are with hard and forceful tone. Secondly, Stanceadverbials are significantly underused by Chinese students. Thirdly, Stancecomplement is the only subcategory which does not show significant differencebetween the two groups. But the stance complements used by Chinese students fallinto certain category which is characterized as simple and common adjectives+that，while native students are able to employ different types of clause to expressstance. The reasons for the overuse or underuse are explored from such perspectivesas inadequate input, first language influence and language learning environment.