林维燕著的《大学生英语机切口语语块的元话语特征探究》探讨了不同国家大学生的英语“机切”口语语块的元话语特征，以期揭示英语本族语者高频“机切”口语语块作为元话语短语单位的形式、意义和功能特征；同时，通过分析中国大学生及多国大学生元话语语块的使用特征来诠释外语学习者的元话语语用能力，尤其是起始话语的能力，能为中国大学英语口语教学提供参考和借鉴。

林维燕，暨南大学外国语学院副教授，博士2012年获华南师范大学教育学博士学位，2014年8月至2015年8月于剑桥大学理论与应用语言学系访学。主要研究方向为语料库语言学、英语课程与教学论。在Journal of Pragmatics，《中国外语》《外语与外语教学》《外国教育研究》等期刊上发表学术论文近20篇，主持教育部社科项目1项，参与国家社科项目1项，负责跨国语料库建设项目1项。

Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Research orientation
1.2 Research rationale
1.3 Research overview
Chapter 2 Approaching Metadiscourse
2.1 Definition
2.2 Forms
2.3 Functions
2.4 Theoretical accounts
2.4.1 Discourse analysis perspective
2.4.2 Functional perspective
2.4.3 Pragmatic perspective
2.4.4 Comments
2.5 Empirical studies
2.5.1 Effects of metadiseourse on language comprehension
2.5.2 Relationship between the use of metadiscourse and the quality of language output
2.5.3 Cross-cultural differences in the use of metadiscourse
2.5.4 Effects of explicit teaching of metadiscourse
2.5.5 Comments
2.6 Summary
Chapter 3 Approaching Chunks
3.1 Chunks
3.1.1 Phraseological tendency of language
3.1.2 Definitions of chunks
3.1.3 Perspectives of chunk analysis
3.2 "Machine-cut" oral chunks (OCs)
3.2.1 Definition
3.2.2 Phraseological status
3.3 Metadiscoursal tendency of "machine-cut" OCs
3.3.1 Theory of pragmaticalization
3.3.2 Theory of oral production
3.3.3 Empirical evidence
3.3.4 Comments
3.4 Previous studies on EFL learners' "machine-cut" OCs
3.4.1 Research objectives, targets and findings
3.4.2 Comments
3.5 Summary
Chapter 4 Research Design
4.1 Research questions
4.2 Research data
4.2.1 LOCNEC
4.2.2 LINDSEI
4.2.3 ICE-GB-Spoken
4.3 Research tool
4.4 Working definition of MOCs
4.4.1 Utterance-initiating signals
4.4.2 Non-propositional elements
4.4.3 Four contiguous words
4.5 Research procedure
4.5.1 Patternizing NS OCs
4.5.2 Identifying NS MOCs
4.5.3 Analyzing NS MOCs in depth
4.5.4 Casting light on CH MOCs
4.5.5 Verifying a CH MOC feature in larger EFL databases
4.6 Summary
Chapter 5 Results and Discussions
5.1 Metadiscoursal features of NS OCs
5.1.1 Linguistic patterns
5.1.2 Association between OC metadiscoursal tendency and frequency cut-offs
5.1.3 Summary of metadiscoursal features of NS OCs
5.2 Features of CH MOCs
5.2.1 General frequencies
5.2.2 Linguistic patterns
5.2.3 Association between OC metadiscoursal tendency and frequency cut-offs
5.2.4 Summary of CH MOC features
5.3 Verification of a CH MOC feature
5.4 Summary
Chapter 6 Conclusion
6.1 A recapitulation of major findings
6.1.1 The forming of phraseological units of metadiscoursal meanings in NS OCs
6.1.2 Chinese university students' metadiscoursal performance as reflected in their MOCs
6.2 Implications
6.2.1 Theoretical implications
6.2.2 Methodological implications
6.2.3 Pedagogical implications
6.3 Limitations and suggestions for future research
References
Appendices
Appendix 1 Top 40 NS MOCs in the formal pattern of "and/ERM/YEAH/but/so+pronoun-type subject"
Appendix 2 Top 40 NS MOCs in the form-meaning pattern of "I/it/that/you+stance-type words"
Appendix 3 Cartoon used in the picture description task (Gilquin et al.,2010:109)
Appendix 4 Topic choosing signals in LINDSEI-CH
Appendix 5 Topic choosing signals in LOCNEC
Appendix 6 Top 40 interpersonal CH MOCs
Appendix 7 Top 40 textual CH MOCs
Appendix 8 Top 40 mixed-functional CH MOCs
Appendix 9 Top 40 hedging CH MOCs