Abstracts of Major Papers in This Issue

Multiple Rheme and Its Configuration in Systemic Functional Linguistics, by YANG Bingjun & LUO Zaibing, p. 5

The borderline between Theme and Rheme still remains controversial to some extent. Taking function as the core principle, this paper is intended to define the borderline between Theme and Rheme, the functional elements of Rheme and its sequences so as to propose a hypothesis of Multiple Rheme in the English clause. The multiple rhematic structure is composed of enabling Linking Rheme, optional Textual Rheme and inherent Experiential Rheme. The structure takes on a variable pattern of information flow from Departure, Transition, Transfer to Culmination.

A Positive Discourse Perspective on the Identity Representation of the Vulnerable Group, by TANG Qingye, p. 10

Discourse is the symbolic representation and spiritual manifestation of being. Discourse harmony is an important part of social harmony. Drawn upon the theories of van Leeuwen’s role representation and Martin’s positive discourse analysis, this paper discusses the identity representation of the vulnerable group by the mass media in China, i.e., the biased representation from the newspaper and internet, and the positive representation of the self and other from the TV news. Role representation indicates the engagement of the discourse producer into the role of the participants. The way to represent them not only reveals a certain social psychology and moral motivation, but also affects the harmony of discourse and interpersonal relationships.

Textual Functions of Appraisal Resources, by FANG Hongmei, p. 15

According to Systemic-functional Linguistics, language has three metafunctions. The Appraisal System Theory proposed by J.R. Martin is to improve the interpersonal metafunction framework, analyzing the appraisal meanings unfolded through the text and thus paying little attention to the study of the textual metafunction of appraisal resources. Appraisal is considered to be one of the important devices to organize the text; thus it realizes the textual metafunction apart from the interpersonal metafunction. This paper provides a detailed analysis of the textual functions of appraisal resources from both the micro and macro perspectives. Appraisal realizes the micro textual functions of reference, repetition, synonymy, antonymy, conjunction and “hypothetical-real” and the macro textual patterns of situation-evaluation-basis saturation and intensification.

Reflections on Modality in Systemic Functional Grammar, by YANG Shu, p. 33

Within systemic functional grammar modality represents the speaker’s judgment of the probabilities or the obligations involved in what he is saying. Usuality represents the speaker’s judgment as temporal indeterminacy. It conveys information about time and thus should not be subsumed under types of modality. Expressions of usuality can be used as resources of graduation to quantify the speaker’s evaluation as more or less frequent. There is no necessity of labeling modal auxiliaries as implicit subjective modality and modal adjuncts as implicit objective modality as they are both subjective and part of the structure of the Mood; moreover, they are often used in combination in clauses in English or Chinese.

Individual Differences in Second Language Acquisition: General Account and Future Directions, by DAI Yuncai, p. 41

Individual differences (IDs) play a key role in second language acquisition (SLA) and have become one of the tripartite core areas in SLA research. Due to research traditions, practical considerations, and the complexity of research on agents, the study in this area is however, far behind the one on universals of language acquisition. Aiming to deepen the understanding of the importance of IDs research, and elevate it to a new stage, the article has summarized the main classifications of ID factors, and analyzed the role of IDs in some influential SLA models; moreover, the latest research findings in this area are presented, and the research problems together with their solving strategies are discussed. On the basis of the review, it is argued that the study of IDs should be placed into a dynamic system incorporating linguistic factors and environmental factors to find out the interplay among them and their development trajectory in the time course.

The Attrition of EFL Learners’ Written English, by JI Xiaoling, p. 47

Language attrition became an independent field of research in the 1980s, and the recent years have also witnessed a number of survey and empirical researches at home. Most studies on the attrition of classroom-acquired second language examine attrition through tests of language ability (especially in receptive abilities) and questionnaire, with few analyzing changes of the actual language. The current study concerns attrition of the written English of a group of students 6 months after their formal instruction of English ceased. The results show that these students’ written language witnessed a decline in fluency, complexity, linguistic accuracy, lexical complexity and the overall language rating, and a slight improvement in syntactic complexity, whereas the control group showed improvement in more indices. An analysis of the possible reasons of language change suggests several contributing factors: motivation, contact with and use of English, as well as the overall language level before they stop taking English courses.

A Study of the Retention of L2 Lexical Chunks Incidental Acquisition Based on Collaborative Output Tasks, by ZHONG Zhiying, p. 55

This study investigated the retention of lexical chunks incidental acquisition on 245 English majors (8 groups, freshmen) in South China Agricultural University in terms of the comparisons of collaborative output and individual output tasks; L2-L1 and L2-L2 pairs to memorize the chunks; and four different categories of lexical chunks. The findings show: 1. No matter in listening or reading texts, groups of collaborative output tasks outperformed the individual output tasks. 2. It was more effective to memorize the lexical trunks using the L2-L1 pairs than L2-L2 pairs. 3. Verb chunks and prepositional chunks were the easiest to acquire, but verb chunks were the easiest to be forgotten and prepositional chunks were memorized best in long term memory.

The Construction of the Evaluation System of AFLLC for China’s Non-English Majors, by WEI Xiaobao, p. 61

The issue concerning the evaluation of autonomous foreign language learning capacity (AFLLC) has troubled many foreign language educators for long. This study focuses on the construction of the evaluation system of AFLLC. Based on Zimmerman’s autonomous learning theory, the study designs a questionnaire consisting of planning stage, consciousness-controlling stage and reflection stage to evaluate non-English majors’ AFLLC. Through exploratory factor analyses, it proposes a three-stage evaluation model and rating scale of AFLLC with 11 factors. Data analyses show that the rating scale has a high reliability and validity. Further discussions reveal that the proposed evaluation model operationalizes the theoretical components of learner autonomy. The study is, therefore, a rewarding reference for the quantitative evaluation of non-English major students’ AFLLC and the reform of China’s college English teaching.