In writing and publishing English academic papers, EFL doctoral students face many challenges, especially in meeting rigorous standards and overcoming language barriers. There are increasing relevant studies on academic writing pedagogy in the EFL context, but research from the emic perspective of students’ cognition in this process remains insufficient. With metaphor as a powerful tool to reflect psychological representation, metaphor analysis is frequently used in educational contexts to reflect students’ and teachers’ inner thoughts. Therefore, this study, using metaphor analysis, aims to explore EFL doctoral students’ metaphor representations of their English academic writing (EAW) experiences. There are two research questions: what kind of metaphors students use to characterize their EAW experience, and what cognitive, emotive, and behavioral features can be found. Eighty-eight Chinese doctoral students from one of China’s top universities participated in a questionnaire survey, where metaphors were collected through the elicited question: “English academic writing is like……because……”. Five source domains were found to characterize the target domain: CONSTRUCTION, MOVEMENT, NOURISHMENT, ACTIVITY, and WORK. Some common features were found despite individuals’ different expressions. The present study offers a new perspective for understanding students’ cognitions and feelings in EAW potentially contributing to EAP pedagogy.

Cite as:

Yuyao, L., Shuo, C., Ao, W., & Hua, W. (2025). Researching Chinese Doctoral Students’ Experiences in English Academic Writing: A Metaphor Analysis. Arab World English Journal, 16(2): 168-184.

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awej/vol16no2.10

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Keywords

Chinese doctoral students, conceptual metaphor analysis, English academic writing, questionnaire survey, writing experience

About the author

Liu Yuyao is currently a postgraduate student at the School of Foreign Languages, Dalian University of Technology. She has a Master’s in English Education from Liaoning Normal University. Her research interests include cognitive linguistics and second language acquisition. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-8862-1782

Dr. Cao is a professor working in the School of Foreign Languages at Dalian University of Technology, China. Her interests include cognitive linguistics with a focus on multimodal metaphor. Address for correspondence: 2 Linggong Road, High-Tech Zone, Dalian, 116024, P.R. China ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-2555-1907

Wang Ao is currently pursuing a master’s degree at the School of Foreign Languages, Dalian University of Technology. His research interests include cognitive linguistics and psycholinguistics.ORCI: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-1558-8445

Dr. Wang is an assistant professor working in the School of Foreign Languages at Dalian University of Technology, China. Her interests include quantitative linguistics and corpus linguistics.ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6063-9856

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