Investigating the Appraisal System in Written English by Chinese EFL Learners

Based on Martin's Appraisal System, the study adopts contrastive interlanguage analysis to explore the characteristics of appraisal resources in Chinese English learners' written productions. On the basis of the description of the general characteristics of stance markers used in written productions, this study takes a contrastive approach to examine the stance markers in 30 pieces of Chinese English learners' writings and 30 pieces of native English speakers' writings. The results show that among the 9 appraisal resources reflected in the writings, Affect resources is overused by Chinese English learners. All the other eight appraisal resources are under used.