A Study On The Use Of Four-word Phrase Frames In Expository Writing By Chinese English Learners

In this study,574 English expository essays written by English majors in a 211 university in China were used as the research materials and divided into two groups,in which 254 essays were considered as high-quality essays and 320 essays were low-quality essays.This thesis explores whether and what differences exist in the use of four-word phrase frames in English expository writing between the two groups of essays from the following four aspects: frequency,variability and predictability,structure,and function.The results showed that:(1)Four-word phrase frames were used significantly more frequently in low-quality essays than in high-quality essays;the phrase frames with simple,present tense structure appeared more frequently in low-quality essays.(2)The variability of the four-word phrase frames in high-quality essays was significantly higher than that in lowquality essays,but there was no significant difference on the predictability of four-word phrase frames used in the two groups of essays.(3)In terms of structural distribution,the clausal fourword phrase frames in the two groups of essays were used more frequently than the phrasal phrase frames,which indicated Chinese English learners’ colloquial tendency in their expository writing.The other-structure phrase frames appeared least frequently in the two groups of essays,and there was no significant difference on the other-structure phrase frames between these two groups of essays.(4)In terms of functional analysis,the four-word phrase frames achieved more discourse functions in high-quality essays,such as stance expression and discourse organization.However,in terms of stance expression,the four-word phrase frames in high-quality essays can not help writers establish good interaction with readers.Based on the findings in this study,there are some suggestions for the teaching of second language writing: teachers can pay attention to L2 learners’ flexible use of the phrase frames and the variants in them,and the use of phrase frames with different structures and functions by students at different proficiency levels.