Chinese MAs’ Evaluation in English Academic Writing: A Student-oriented Perspective

Abstract

Though it is well acknowledged in the academia that constructing authorial evaluation is important in English academic writing, L2 novice writers’ views of and attitudes towards evaluation, which can help to understand their problematic evaluation demonstration in English academic writing, is generally underexplored. To address this gap, this study aims to investigate Chinese MA students’ views of and attitudes towards evaluation in English academic writing, especially in the subgenre of literature review. To achieve this end, a semi-structured questionnaire survey among 174 Chinese MAs of Applied English Linguistics as well as interviews was conducted. Quantitative and qualitative data analyses show that the majority of the Chinese students have recognized the importance and necessity of evaluation in English academic writing, and their understandings of evaluation are generally accurate and in compliance with the institutionalized nature of academic writing. However, there are still quite many students possessing inadequate knowledge and underestimation of evaluation in English academic writing, which can partly be attributed to the general underplay of evaluation demonstration in the pedagogy of English academic writing and by supervisors as well. Explicit instruction on evaluation in the teaching of English academic writing as well as postgraduate supervisors’ attention to and guidance in students’ constructing authorial evaluation are therefore appealed for by the study.