On The Presentation Of Multi-Word Academic Discourse Markers In Advanced English-Chinese Learner’s Dictionaries

As one of the significant discoursal features of literature,academic discourse markers enhance the coherence of text,thus facilitating proper understanding.The idiomatic use of academic discourse markers has been regarded as an index of English proficiency level.Chinese advanced EFL learners,however,tend to misuse,underuse,or overuse academic discourse markers in composing writings in academic settings,which poses some problems to their effective communication in the academia.It is assumed that advanced English-Chinese learner’s dictionaries,as an invaluable resource for Chinese advanced EFL learners,should make some improvement so as to meet the target users’ pressing needs in this regard.In response to these requirements,academic discourse markers have found their way into the leading monolingual learner’s dictionaries.In contrast,there is little research available about academic discourse markers in advanced English-Chinese learner’s dictionaries.This thesis attempts to draw up some theory-motivated suggestions on the basis of an investigation of Chinese advanced EFL learners’ needs and expectations.For theoretical support,this thesis resorts to Rhetorical Structure Theory,a descriptive framework for text.It justifies the provisions of academic discourse markers and lends some theoretical support to the systematic and motivated way of presenting academic discourse markers.In order to better understand the status quo,an empirical study and a dictionary text survey were conducted.A total of 32 graduate students majoring in English participated in an experimental study and a follow-up questionnaire survey.The test results show that explicit presentation of academic discourse information is of significant help,and the results are confirmed by the data gleaned from the questionnaire survey.The dictionary text survey identifies four problem areas in the current representative advanced English-Chinese learner’s dictionaries,namely,unsystematic inclusion,failure in labeling,insufficient examples,and inadequate usage notes.In light of the above research findings,the author makes several suggestions from the compiler’s perspective.As regards presenting academic discourse markers in individual entries,the following four suggestions should be considered:1)Labels should be added to mark the academic nature of multi-word academic discourse markers;2)Usages and functions of multi-word academic discourse markers should be teased out;3)It is highly recommended to include at least one verbal illustration in the entry for clarification and reference;4)A cross-reference system of academic discourse markers should be constructed.For the presentation of academic discourse markers in study pages,the author puts forward six suggestions:1)It would be good that each group of academic discourse markers is organized as a list ready for selection;2)Within each group,it is advisable to order the academic discourse markers by morphological standards or by frequency of use;3)Every included multi-word academic discourse marker should be assigned a verbal illustration;4)Usage note boxes should be offered for idiomatic or conventional usages of multi-word academic discourse markers;5)It is advised to add error note boxes so as to raise the users’ awareness;6)For electronic dictionaries,it would be useful to add customized buttons such as "show more" and "show less," so as to better the users’ experience.This thesis has some theoretical and practical implications for learner lexicography.