GUOYE WU (NORTHWESTERN POLYTECHNICAL UNIVERSITY)

A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON DIFFERENCES OF PHRASAL VERBS IN ACADEMIC WRITING BETWEEN ENGLISH WRITERS AND CHINESE WRITERS : ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC/SPECIFIC PURPOSES

Academic writing is of great importance to scholars in different fields so as to convey professional views on certain research questions and get their own papers published. However, it is common that scholars show different features in their academic writing due to various factors such as disciplinary features, individual habits in language use. Therefore, it's meaningful to get known of differences embodied in academic papers of authors from different backgrounds. This study investigates whether there is significant difference in the use of phrasal verbs in English academic writers between Chinese authors and foreign authors. It employed the independent sample t-test with two groups of academic writings in the discipline of linguistics with 4 by Chinese authors and 4by foreign authors to make a qualitative analysis. The results show that there is a significant cross-language difference in the use of PVs of Chinese authors and foreign authors in their English academic writing. Potential reasons for these differences are given based on authors' cultural backgrounds, language level, and other factors as well as some suggestions for Chinese writers to improve their diversity in the use of phrasal verbs while writing academic papers in English. In addition, feasible researching directions are provided in academic writing in English for both Chinese and English scholars.

Wu Guoye is a postgraduate student in School of Foreign Studies, Northwestern Polytechnical University(NPU), China. My major is linguistics and applied linguistics.