“What I want you to remember is…”

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annelie Ädel
Keyword(s):  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Second Person ◽  
Advanced Student ◽  
Discourse Functions ◽  
Academic Genres

This article offers some background on notions related to intersubjectivity in applied linguistics, specifically as studied in EAP. The study takes a reflexive approach to metadiscourse, investigating audience orientation in three monologic academic genres: advanced student writing, published academic prose and spoken lectures. Specifically, audience orientation involving second person you is examined from the perspective of the discourse functions in which the word is involved. A randomly selected dataset of 150 examples from each of the three genres was coded for metadiscursive functions, applying Ädel’s (2010) taxonomy. The results showed that the distribution of discourse functions was similar in the three registers; however, the highest frequency of metadiscourse was found in the spoken lectures, not in the written modes.

Cognitive Discourse Functions meet historical competences

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christiane Dalton-Puffer ◽  
Silvia Bauer-Marschallinger
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Analysis ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
History Education ◽  
Linguistic Resources ◽  
Written Production ◽  
History Curriculum ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Literacy Level ◽  
Discourse Functions

Abstract This paper combines the perspectives of applied linguistics and history education in order to explore the viability of a genuinely non-binary pedagogy for content and language integration. Cognitive Discourse Functions (CDFs) are mapped against the model of historical competences underlying the current Austrian secondary history curriculum. The theoretical analysis shows the performance of CDFs as central to the constitution of historical competences. For the empirical part of the study, two complete didactic units on the topic of the Industrial Revolution were recorded, and oral and written utterances by students were analysed both in terms of CDF use and historical competences. The results confirm a significant connection between competences and CDFs. We argue that some explicit attention to CDFs and the linguistic resources necessary for their competent verbalization could significantly enhance the subject literacy level of Austrian CLIL history learners in both oral and written production.

A Mixed Methods Genre Analysis of the Discussion Section of MMR Articles in Applied Linguistics

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 242-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad R. Hashemi ◽  
Iman Gohari Moghaddam
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Genre Analysis ◽  
Discussion Section ◽  
Mixed Methods Approach ◽  
The Past ◽  
Research Article ◽  
Organizational Patterns ◽  
Academic Genres

The research article, among other academic genres, has attracted researchers’ attention over the past decades. Although sections such as introduction, method, and results and discussion have been addressed in such studies, the mixed methods research (MMR) discussion genre remains underexplored. Thus, the present study aimed at exploring the generic organizational patterns in applied linguistics MMR articles. A qualitatively driven mixed methods approach was utilized to explore 38 MMR discussions. As a result, there emerged a five-move model for genre macro-organization and rhetorical move structure of the MMR discussions. The study concludes by presenting implications for writing effective MMR discussions.

scholarly journals Expressions of Criticality in Expert and Student Writing: A Corpus Contrastive Analysis of Literature Reviews

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 19
Author(s):  
Muna Liyana Binti Mohamad Tarmizi ◽  
Anealka Aziz Hussin
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Contrastive Analysis ◽  
Student Writers ◽  
Research Journal ◽  
Literature Reviews ◽  
Integral Role

Literature review in academic writing plays an integral role in demonstrating writers’ knowledge about a field of study as well as in informing the writers of influential researchers and research groups in the field. More importantly, writers are expected to critically analyze previous studies related to their topic. Despite its importance to the academic text, student writers find it challenging to establish a critical stance and to provide evaluative judgment when reviewing the literature. This paper presents a contrastive analysis of student and expert writers’ expressions of criticality in literature review sections of 8 applied linguistics master theses from UiTM (a Malaysian public university) and 62 literature reviews of research journal articles from a similar field (i.e., Language and Communication, English for Academic Purposes and Applied Linguistics). Corpus techniques are used to identify the most common expressions of criticality used by these two groups of writers. The corpus was analyzed using detailed consistency analysis and concordance software from WordSmith Tools (Scott, 2012). Findings revealed that student writers prefer to use hedges and boosters to express criticality and the evaluations they make tend to sound more reporting rather than analyzing and synthesizing the resources critically. Results from this study are beneficial for constructing pedagogical instructions and guidelines for student writers in their critical analysis of the literature review.

scholarly journals Discipline, Level, Genre: Integrating Situational Perspectives in a New MD Analysis of University Student Writing

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 646-674 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheena Gardner ◽  
Hilary Nesi ◽  
Douglas Biber
Keyword(s):  
Academic Discourse ◽  
University Student ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Four Dimensions ◽  
Situational Variables ◽  
Procedural Information ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Academic Genres

Abstract While there have been many investigations of academic genres, and of the linguistic features of academic discourse, few studies have explored how these interact across a range of university student writing situations. To counter misconceptions that have arisen regarding student writing, this article aims to provide comprehensive linguistic descriptions of a wide range of university assignment genres in relation to multiple situational variables. Our new multidimensional (MD) analysis of the British Academic Written English (BAWE) corpus identifies clusters of linguistic features along four dimensions, onto which academic disciplines, disciplinary groups, levels of study, and genre families are mapped. The dimensions are interpreted through text extracts as: (i) Compressed Procedural Information versus Stance towards the Work of Others; (ii) Personal Stance; (iii) Possible Events versus Completed Events; and (iv) Informational Density. Clusters of linguistic features from the comprehensive set of situational perspectives found across this framework can be selected to inform the teaching of a ‘common academic core’, and to inform the design of programmes tailored to the needs of specific disciplines.

scholarly journals “THE OVERALL AIM OF THIS WORK IS ….” FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS OF GRAMMATICAL SUBJECT IN RESEARCH ARTICLE INTRODUCTIONS ACROSS FOUR DISCIPLINES

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-30
Author(s):  
Seyed Foad Ebrahimi
Keyword(s):  
Functional Analysis ◽  
Internal Structure ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Environmental Engineering ◽  
Modified Model ◽  
Grammatical Subject ◽  
Research Article ◽  
Discourse Functions ◽  
Nature Ofthe ◽  
New Framework

This study investigates the types and discourse functions of grammatical subjects inresearch article introductions across four disciplines, namely: Applied Linguistics andPsychology, representing soft sciences, and Chemistry and Environmental Engineering,representing hard sciences. This study was carried out on a corpus of 40 research articleintroductions (10 from each discipline). The research article introductions were sourcedfrom twelve ISI journals published from 2008 to 2012. The corpus was analysed basedon the modified model in relation to grammatical subject types and discourse functionssuggested by Ebrahimi (2014). The results revealed that the grammatical subject typeselections were guided by the nature of the research article introduction. However, thefrequency of use of the grammatical subject types was constrained by the nature ofthe discipline. Discourse functions of grammatical subject types were predominantlydetermined by the divisions of the hard and soft sciences, and the specific disciplineswithin and the internal structure of the research article introductions. In addition, theresults of this study manifest a new framework for the analysis of discourse functions ofgrammatical subject types in research article introductions.

scholarly journals A Comparison of Two Genres: Lexical Bundles in the Discourse of Applied Linguistics

2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 90-109
Author(s):  
Razieh Gholaminejad
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Functional Type ◽  
Lexical Bundles ◽  
Discourse Functions

The present article is a corpus-based descriptive/comparative study of lexical bundles (LBs) in two university genres: textbooks (TBs) and research articles (RAs) on applied linguistics. It aims to identify the LBs used in the two genres, compare them on the basis of their functional type and frequency and explore how they are related to genre. To this end, four-word LBs were identified in two corpora drawn from applied linguistics TBs and RAs. The comparative analysis revealed that there are interesting differences between the two genres in terms of discourse functions: the occurrence of LBs in the TBs was lower than in the RAs; attitudinal/modality LBs occurred more frequently in the TBs than in the RAs; epistemic LBs occurred more frequently in the RAs than in the TBs; discourse organizers occurred more frequently in the RAs than in the TBs; and time, place and text reference LBs occurred almost twice as frequently in the RAs. The findings build on research into the variations of genres in terms of the use and functions of LBs in discipline-specific corpora.

scholarly journals Impact Of Teacher-Student Writing Conferences On Frequency And Accuracy Of Using Cohesive Devices In Efl Students’ Writing

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdullah Rajab Alfalagg
Keyword(s):  
Corrective Feedback ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Writing Conferences ◽  
College Level ◽  
Second Person ◽  
Oral Feedback ◽  
Teacher Student ◽  
Cohesive Devices ◽  
The Impact

Abstract While the bulk of feedback studies have focused on written corrective feedback, oral feedback in teacher-student writing conferences in EFL context has been underexplored. This article investigated teacher oral feedback based on the tenets of sociocultural theory. It examined the impact of teacher-student writing conferences on students’ accuracy and frequency of cohesive devices employment. The study followed a quasi-experimental design with a pre-test, intervention and post-test. Data were collected from an intensive writing course for intermediate students at the college level. Based on guided-free writing prompts, the students had to write argumentative paragraphs of about 150-180 words followed by individual conference sessions to offer them oral feedback. The findings showed that oral feedback in writing conferences statistically impacted the students’ writing performance with huge effect size (Cohen’s d = 2.19). Moreover, the result demonstrated empirical evidence that writing conferences positively impacted the students’ frequency of employing referential markers (t value = -3.011; p= .006 < 0.05) and conjunctions (t value=-2.200; p= .039 < 0.05). Further, oral feedback statistically impacted the students’ accuracy of utilizing referential markers (t value= -6.874; p= .000. < 0.05) and conjunctions (t value= -7.253; p= .000 < 0.05). The oral feedback assisted the students to decrease the overuse of the first, second person pronouns and the definite article ‘the’ with generic meaning in their writing. Instead, they depended on noun phrases and the third person pronouns which contributed to the text overall cohesion by creating explicit chains of references to the antecedents within the textual environment. Also, oral feedback helped the students to use conjunctions appropriately and accurately, so their texts were written densely cohesive. Pedagogical implications were discussed at the end of the article.

scholarly journals Phraseology in Two Omani Undergraduate Civil Engineering Genres: The N of (the) N Pattern

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Priya Mathew
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Civil Engineering ◽  
University Student ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Language Of Instruction ◽  
Research Attention ◽  
Specific Approach ◽  
The Past ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Discourse Functions

The study of phraseology with respect to continuous and discontinuous frames in academic writing has gathered increasing research attention over the past decade. Their prevalence in expert writing and the influence of discipline and genre on their frequency and type have led to studies that attempted to identify the most productive discontinuous frames in specific disciplines. The aim of this study is to investigate the pattern of the N of (the) N, a prolific pattern in expert academic writing, in two Omani corpora of undergraduate Civil Engineering genres, Case Studies (CS) and Methodology Recounts (MR). The two strands of inquiry involve 1) a comparison between the semantic noun categories of the first (N1) and second noun (N2) used in this pattern and; 2) the N1-N2 sequences in the pattern which realize specific discourse functions in these two genres. Strings belonging to this pattern were retrieved from the two corpora through the corpus interface, Sketch Engine. Findings indicate the prevalence of this frame in the two genres and genre influence on the choice of semantic noun categories. It was also found that the N1-N2 sequences in the pattern are used to realise distinct discourse functions in the two genres. This is one of the first corpus-based studies on university student writing in the Middle East and considering that English is the language of instruction and assessment in many of these countries, these findings have significant pedagogical implications. EFL students in such lingua franca contexts can be supported by a more discipline-specific approach. 

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