Misused Referential "It" In English Academic Writing:The Perspective Of ELF

English commands a dominant role in academic writing.It is the lingua franca{English as a lingua franca,"ELF" henceforth)in academia.Studies have been conducted over the language forms and strategies in the field of oral ELF,with features in written academic ELF inadequately explored.This thesis aims to reveal common referential it misuses that will cause unintelligibility for readers of different language circles from the perspectives of language forms and individual strategies.The detailed questions are as follow:1)Are there statistically significant differences among the ELF participants in identifying the referents of misused it?2)Are there common referential it misuses in Chinese students’ English papers that will or will not result into misunderstanding for ELF readers?3)What factors will facilitate or hinder the participantss’ identification of the antecedents for these misused it?This thesis foresees answering these questions may contribute to the descriptive rules collection of ELF,as well as the enactment of prescription over academic ELF writing,in particular over the referential it.The methods adopted in this study consist of test,questionnaire and interview.According to Kachru’s Three-Cirle division(1985),this research recruits 40 participants and allocates them into 4 groups on their nationality basis:Inner Circle,External Circle,Expanding Circle and Chinese(a comparison group).The research stimuli include a referential test and an ELF awareness questionnaire.The referential test is to collect participants’ performance in identifying antecedents,and their perception of different types of referential it misuses-The questionnaire is to collect participants" ELF academic writing awarenesa,so as to discover the relation between subjects’ ELF awareness,perception and performance.Lastly,this research interviews 4 participants with their consent,one from every language group,so that a comprehensive understanding about readers’ real-time responses can be achievedThe statistic analysis shows that firstly,against with the null hypothesis,Inner circle do net significantly outperform other comparison groups in identifying the referents of misused it in academic written ELF.There is no significant difference among fur groups" performances in reading different types of referential it misuses.The only exception is that Chinese subjects have significant preference to process over entity.Secondly,referential it misuses will not necessarily result into ELF readers’ misuaderstanding.Different types of referential misuses vary in their possibilities of leading to misinterpretations.Thirdly,the participants significantly correlate the acceptability of a misused case with its perceived intelligibility,instead of whether they meet Native English standards or not.By subject interviews and further qu.alitative discussion,it is found that referential it number agreement misuse is the least likely type to cause difficulties for ELF readers,when long-distance reference is the least reader-friendly one.In general,referential it misuses cross sentence pose greater difficulties than when they are within sentence.And due to the social dimensions of ELF as well as the subjectivity of referential it per the participants turn to language strategies spontaneously in micro-social level.By constructing referential reticula based on the grammatical rules.and relying on the contextual information they accumulate in daily life,the participants can avoid misunderstanding in written academic ELF.