海外留学已经成为越来越多家庭子女教育的选择。留学生也逐渐成为海外华人群体中重要的组成部分,进入外国媒体的视野中。在各个留学国家之中，美国因其重要的政治和经济地位、丰富的教育资源和开放的学术氛围等一直是许多中国学生首要考虑的国家。对美国主流媒体中有关中国留学生的报道进行分析不仅有助于了解中国留学生的形象及外国媒体的语言构建过程，对于留学生群体正确认识和维护自身及国家形象也有着重要意义。

本文以语料库语言学及批评话语分析中的历史话语分析为理论基础，以纽约时报等美国主流媒体过去十年内关于中国留学生的新闻报道为语料进行研究。通过对收集报道的关键词及部分索引分析发现，美国主流媒体对于中国留学生最常报道的话题包括留学趋势、学业发展、文化生活、安全事故及政治影响。对“中国留学生”的命名策略和述谓策略进行定量研究和解释分析发现，报道通过具体数字和比喻等谓语描述体现赴美学习的中国留学生呈增长趋势且年龄范围逐渐扩大。留学生安全事故相关报道多采用被动语态将其中的中国学生刻画为不幸的受害者。而在日常生活和学习方面，多数报道通过消极的谓语描述强调中国留学生不匹配的学术生活能力、诚信问题以及语言文化障碍，少数报道聚焦中国留学生通过努力取得的成就。近年来因为贸易战等政治原因，也有部分中国学生被怀疑可能是政府派来窃取机密的伪装间谍。

Studying abroad has become the primary choice for more students and their families. International students are a major part of the overseas Chinese community and an important subject in news media. The United States has always been a top priority for many Chinese students who intend to study abroad. Analyzing news reports about Chinese students in American mainstream media from a linguistic perspective could not only understand the image of Chinese students but also study the way American mainstream media portray it.

This article is based on the synergy of corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis. It analyzed the news reports about Chinese students during the past ten years in American mainstream media. According to the analysis of keywords and concordance lines, there are five topics about Chinese students that are most commonly reported in American mainstream media, which are trend, study, life, safety, and politics. According to the description of concrete numbers and metaphorical predicates, newspapers and transcripts showed more and younger Chinese students studying in the United States in the last decade. Most Chinese students involved in safety incidents were portrayed as unfortunate victims through passive voice. In terms of daily life and study, a lot of reports emphasized the difficult adaptation to local life, poor academic ability, and integrity problems through negative predicates, while the achievement of Chinese students was rarely touched upon. In recent years, some Chinese students were even suspected as spies working for the Chinese government to steal secrets due to the tense political relationship between the two countries.