A Comparative Study Of Boosters In Argumentative Essays By Chinese EFL Learners And American Native College Studentsî—Ž

In the light of Hyland’s framework of metadiscourse and corpus linguistics, the present study aims to explore the use of boosters employed in the argumentative essays written by Chinese EFL learners of different language proficiency levels and American native college students, and to make comparison between Chinese EFL learners and American native college students on the frequencies and features demonstrated in comparable corpora. The present study also attempts to offer some opinions and advice for teaching and writing English argumentative esaays. The sample data used in the study are retrieved from WECCL(Written English Corpus of Chinese Learners(2.0)) and LOCNESS(Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays), and all 3 sub-corpora that are built from WECCL on the basis of what grade writers come from represent different competence levels of Chinese EFL learners. The results of the present study show that on one hand Chinese EFL learners demonstrate a similar tendency in the overall use of boosters to American native college students; on the other hand, by analyzing different boosters, Chinese EFL learners of different competence levels and American natives share similarities as well as significant differences in the use of boosters and there exists overuse and underuse of boosters among the four sub-corpora. In most cases, the advanced learners tend to use boosters in a way closer to their American counterparts.