An Appraisal Discourse Analysis Of High Schoolers’ Attitudes Towards Sex

According to Appraisal Theory,language signals attitude and stance.The application of appraisal resources not only reflects the speaker/writer’s stances,attitudes and values,but also denotes the cultural cognition and value orientation of the society in which he or she is located.The research on the sexual discourse of teenagers contributes to a knowledge of their attitudes towards “sex”,which is the foundation of appropriate guidance systems.From a linguistic perspective,this study aims at analyzing sexual discourse to deconstruct their sexual attitude under the framework of Appraisal Theory.The researcher collects from one-on-one semi-structured interviews with 12 senior high school students and analyzes the distribution and realization of appraisal resources to explore the hidden attitude towards sex in their expressions,and thus to find out the current state of local sex education.The results are as follows.First,the subjects make a relatively balanced use of the three subsystems of appraisal resources with Attitude being the most frequent,Graduation the second,and Engagement the least.Specifically,affect and judgement under Attitude,deny,counter,entertain under Engagement,and force under Graduation are favored.Second,the effect of gender may not be assigned as an absolute influencing factor,which is only reflected in the fact that the dominant attitudinal motif for female subjects is affect,while that for male subjects is judgment.Third,the subjects’ attitudes towards different topics are reflected in their discourse.The use of negative affect and judgment and engagement such as deny,distance and entertain shows feelings like confusion on reproduction,menstruation and spermatorrhea,and their dissatisfaction with the absence of sex education;concerning homosexuality,puppy love and sexual behavior,different subjects show different attitudes through the use of attitude and engagement resources like endorse and distance;on the topic of sexual harassment,negative affect and judgment resources are extensively employed,revealing the harm caused by it and repulsion against it.The significance of this study lies in the following aspects: firstly,the linguistic perspective serves as a complement to previous studies’ angles on sexual attitude and sexual discourse;secondly,it also expands the application of Appraisal Theory in oral discourse analysis,and enriches the coverage of the topics;in addition,this study also provides insights for design and application of sex education curriculum.