Corpus-based Study on Chinese College Students' Use of Formulaic Language in English Public Speaking

Yiming Zhang

《Frontiers in Economics and Management》 3卷3期 (2022/03) Pp. 443-451

https://doi.org/10.6981/FEM.202203_3(3).0051

摘要

The teaching and learning of formulaic language in EFL setting has been systematically researched. However, up to date, little work has focused exclusively on EFL learners' use of formulaic language in English public speaking. This paper attempts to bridge this gap by studying the use of formulaic language of Chinese college students in English public speaking and further explore to what extent their use of formulaic language is different from that of native speakers. The data analyzed in the study are drawn from two corpora, i.e. the corpus of speeches of Chinese college students, and the corpus of speeches of native speakers selected from American Rhetoric. The results show that (1) Chinese college students use fewer polywords and institutionalized expressions than native speakers, both in number and in variety; (2) Chinese students tend to rely on sentence builders more than native speakers.

關鍵字

Formulaic Language ； English Public Speaking ； Corpus ； Chinese College Students ； Contrastive Study

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