A Comparative And Contrastive Analysis Of Metadiscourse In HSK Reading Comprehension Test

Metadiscourse is extremely important in discourse.It can reveal the author’s standpoint and help the construction of the author-reader relationship.Thus,it is called“the outline structure of the article.” In linguistics and pedagogy,most studies on metadiscourse revolve around academic texts or speeches.However,the related researches taking exam questions as research objects are rarely involved.With the development of China’s economy and improvement of its international status,the number of participants taking the new HSK test has increased gradually.Reading comprehension plays an important role in the new HSK test.Given the importance of metadiscourse in a text,it is necessary to improve its teaching in teaching Chinese as a foreign language.Against this background,this study aims to study the metadiscourse in HSK tests with the guidance of Hyland’s theories on interactive metadiscourse and interactional metadiscourse.The corpus consists of reading comprehension questions from HSK(3),HSK(4),HSK(5)and HSK(6).Applying Antconc 3.2.1 and SPSS,the study aims to explore the use of metadiscourse in new HSK reading comprehension and its importance by analyzing its functions,classifying key metadiscourse vocabularies in different levels of reading discourse.In this way,hopefully this study can promote metadiscourse teaching in Chinese as a foreign language.The results show that there are similarities and differences in the use of metadiscourse in different levels of new HSK reading comprehension.There exists a significant difference in the number of interactive metadiscourse and interactional metadiscourse.The proportion of interactive metadiscourse is relatively large,and their usage increases gradually with the increase of the level.Transitions and frame markers are used in a larger proportion while endophoric makers are used the least.In conclusion,this research demonstrates the importance of metadiscourse in the new HSK test and summarizes its use in the new HSK reading comprehension and key vocabularies of metadiscourse,and gives some suggestions for teaching and learning.The thesis suggests that teachers should pay more attention to the study of metadiscourse ontology and teach by combining its function and characteristics at different levels.At the same time,students should establish metadiscourse awareness,pay attention to accumulation,and improve the corresponding cognitive level and reading ability continuously.