A Study Of The Effects Of English Majors' Reader Awareness On Metadiscourse Marker Use In Writings

Reader awareness,as one of the significant dimensions of assessing writing quality,has not been paid much attention in Chinese English writing teaching and research.Previous studies have explored the theories of metadiscourse markers of reader awareness in writings,but few studies have probed into the use of metadiscourse markers in English majors' writings,even fewer into the effects of reader awareness on metadiscourse markers.Therefore,the purpose of this study is to identify the reader awareness and metadiscourse markers used by Chinese EFL learners in their writing,trying to address the following two questions:1)What are the effects of English majors' reader awareness on the quantities and types of interactional metadiscourse markers in writing?2)What are the effects of English majors' reader awareness on the quantities and types of interactive metadiscourse markers in writing?Both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed in the study.56 final exam essays were first collected from sophomore students at the tertiary level and then the number and types of metadiscourse markers were closely calculated and analyzed.The students were then asked to finish a questionnaire to find out their level of reader awareness.The major findings of this study are as follows:1)In general,students with a higher level of reader awareness use more interactional metadiscourse markers.However,these students do not differ significantly in the types of interactional discourse markers used in the writings from those with a lower level of reader awareness.2)Students with a higher level of reader awareness use more types of interactive metadiscourse markers,but they do not use more interactive markers than those students with a lower level.The study shows that the level of reader awareness is closely related to the use of metadiscourse markers.Students with a higher level of reader awareness are more proficient in using metadiscourse markers accurately.These results have some pedagogical implications.On the one hand,teachers should focus on enhancing learners' reader awareness and developing their ability to accurately use metadiscourse markers.On the other hand,students should also take the initiative to improve their reader awareness in the writing process.However,due to the limited corpus collected,the study only partially reflects the effects of reader awareness on the use of metadiscourse markers.Further studies are recommended to focus on more levels of students and the effects of reader awareness on the use of metadiscourse markers in different genres.