The Use Of First Person Pronouns And Writer Identity In Chinese EFL Learners’ Argumentative Writing

First person pronoun is the most salient device for writers’self-reference in writing. The use of first person pronouns enables the writer to perform different writer identities for a range of communicative purposes. With the aim of examining how Chinese students employ first person pronouns to construct their writer identity and present their authority in argumentative writing, this thesis investigates, both quantitatively and qualitatively, the frequency, semantic references, and writer roles encoded in first person pronouns.The statistical analyses show that these students widely use first person pronouns to self-refer, especially the plural pronouns to narrate experience and seek for common knowledge and cooperation with the reader. Besides, students mostly use the inclusive plurals to present a "collective identity". With regard to the various author roles, students prefer the role of narrator the most, and then come the representative, opinion-holder and guide. The roles that contain less authorial power such as representative and narrator are much favored, whereas the most authoritative role, opinion-holder is relatively neglected, which reflects an overall weak authority in students’writing.In allusion to the results, this thesis also explores some social and cultural explanations. The reasons for the phenomenon that Chinese EFL students prefer first person plurals can be attributed to the cultural collectivism, self-orientations and other-orientations, distinct writing conventions, and sense of writer authority. Besides, different strategies of arguing, diverse writing instructions and individual differences will also contribute to different ways of presenting writer identity.