A corpus-based study of connectors in student writing

2002 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kingsley Bolton ◽  
Gerald Nelson ◽  
Joseph Hung
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
University Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Methodological Issues ◽  
Wide Range

This paper focuses on connector usage in the writing of university students in Hong Kong and in Great Britain, and presents results based on the comparison of data from the Hong Kong component (ICE-HK) and the British component (ICE-GB) of the International Corpus of English (ICE). While previous studies of Hong Kong student writing have dealt with the ‘underuse’, ‘overuse’, and ‘misuse’ of connectors, this study confines itself to the analysis of underuse and overuse, and is especially concerned with methodological issues relating to the accurate measurement of these concepts. Specifically, it takes as its benchmark of overuse and underuse the frequency of connectors in professional academic writing, in this case the data in the ICE-GB corpus. The results show that measured in this way, both groups of students – native speakers and non-native speakers alike – overuse a wide range of connectors. The results offer no evidence of significant underuse.

Linguistic and cultural dictionary of geographical names of great Britain and the USA

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Сергей Гарагуля ◽  
Sergey Garagulya
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Background Knowledge ◽  
Place Names ◽  
Universities And Colleges ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The World ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Cultural Linguistics

The dictionary is built on the principles of cultural linguistics, is a collection of culturally significant place names of great Britain and the USA included in the background knowledge of native speakers of British and American linguistic cultures, and are part of their linguistic picture of the world. It aims to reveal the contents of this toponymic vocabulary. It is addressed to students and postgraduates of philological specialties, teachers of universities and colleges, as well as a wide range of readers interested in English and onomastics

scholarly journals Corpus Routes and Experiments in Language Teaching

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 36-53
Author(s):  
O. G. Gorina ◽  
N. S. Tsarakova
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Quantitative Aspect ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Lexical Bundles ◽  
Quantitative Evidence ◽  
Communicative Strategies ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Awareness Tool ◽  
Subjective Phenomenon

Corpus quantitative approach in teaching, which is of growing interest, entails some revision of the L2 vocabulary selection procedures and provides solutions for a wide range of practical problems. The focus throughout is on the discussion of research on the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of language which both teaching content and language acquisition practice could draw on. This research regards human language as a rank distribution, which has serious implications on quantitative aspect of learner’s vocabulary. We also looked into the ways to factor in the data from a small professional discourse corpus in order to target the units that have the greatest statistical prominence. Both BNC and our own collection of texts are explored. The study also elaborates on academic writing cohesive devices and grammar patterns introduction, which is approached through concordancing corpus strings to (i) provide frequency evidence and (ii) introduce a contrast in usage in various corpus genres. Striking differences that are evidenced by the frequency lists could be related not only to register, but also to the choice and instances of academic cohesive clusters which are favoured by the apprentice writers and the expert writers. With the aim of capitalizing on corpus approach a number of small-scale corpus research tasks were developed. This study also uses corpus tools and data to give a seemingly subjective phenomenon of hedging some quantitative measurement. While experimenting on corpus in the classroom, the attention of learners was drawn to various means of hedging, such as lexical bundles or down-toners that manifest themselves as important communicative strategies. Thus, corpus was used to inform both the language instructor and the student in the classroom to look in detail at differences in the use of lexical and grammatical units in different varieties of language, address contrasting register variations, and readily provide contemporary professionally relevant examples of actual language usage. It has to be noted that university students have a tendency not to perceive register violations as language errors on a par with those of grammar, lexis or punctuation. Hence, corpus investigation as raising awareness tool also proved to be an effective teaching material generator. Nowadays syllabi have the opportunity to be rather sensitive to the quantitative evidence that corpora offer us; what is more, as a result of this study, we would conclude that university students are responsive to the small-scale investigation of register differences, lexico-grammatical frequency and patterning, which have been brought directly into the L2 classroom.

scholarly journals Academic literacies twenty years on: a community-sourced literature review

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Hilsdon ◽  
Cathy Malone ◽  
Alicja Syska
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Academic Literacies ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Learning Development ◽  
Professional Fields

In 1998, the paper ‘Student writing in higher education: an academic literacies approach’ by Mary Lea and Brian Street reinvigorated debate concerning ‘what it means to be academically literate’ (1998, p.158). It proposed a new way of examining how students learn at university and introduced the term ‘academic literacies’. Subsequently, a body of literature has emerged reflecting the significant theoretical and practical impact Lea and Street’s paper has had on a range of academic and professional fields. This literature review covers articles selected by colleagues in our professional communities of the Association for Learning Development in Higher Education (ALDinHE), the association for lecturers in English for Academic Purposes (BALEAP), and the European Association of Teachers of Academic Writing (EATAW). As a community-sourced literature review, this text brings together reviews of wide range of texts and a diverse range of voices reflecting a multiplicity of perspectives and understandings of academic literacies. We have organised the material according to the themes: Modality, Identity, Focus on text, Implications for research, and Implications for practice. We conclude with observations relevant to these themes, which we hope will stimulate further debate, research and professional collaborations between our members and subscribers.

A comparison of argument structures in L1 and L2 student writing

2004 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kara Gilbert
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Argumentative Discourse ◽  
Humanities Faculty ◽  
Context Of Learning ◽  
Australian English ◽  
L1 And L2

The study consisted of an investigation into the argument structures employed in the English academic writing of Japanese native speakers and Australian English native speakers in the Arts (humanities) faculty of an Australian university. In order to investigate naturally occurring written argument structures, an in-depth case-study analysis of a small number of coursework essays was conducted. The complexity of argument structures in terms of the elaboration of individual arguments and the relational links between multiple related arguments of extended persuasive discourse were examined. Consequently, the similarities and differences between the L1 and L2 argumentative structures in the English essays and the nature of argument in English native speaker and Japanese ESL writing were identified. The findings indicate that although there were some differences between the micro- and macro-structures of written arguments in the coursework essays of L1 and L2 students, there were also similarities across both groups of writers. This may suggest that the context of learning plays a role in shaping the argumentative discourse patterns of written texts, which has significant implications not only for L2 writers learning the conventions of English discourse in an academic environment but also for future research investigating forms of written argument.

Vocabulary Fluency and Writing Skill: A Case Study on Kurdish Students in Learning English Vocabulary

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 10
Author(s):  
Areen Ahmed Muhammed
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
English Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Male Dominance ◽  
Discussion Section ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Low Efficiency ◽  
Vocabulary Problems

Currently, a wide range of papers have been conducted in the field of L2 learners’ vocabulary problems and difficulty in academic written texts; commonly, L1 processing routine over L2 learning brought problems in maintaining vocabulary fluency in academic writing for non-native speakers of English. The establishment of an initial form-meaning link should be regarded as early steps of vocabulary learning. The study investigates major problems of Kurdish learners of English Language in homogenous classes regarding the fluency use of vocabulary in their writings. Besides all those studies which have been carried out in the specified field; however, still, less progress can be seen, and still, students face obstacles when it comes to vocabulary fluency in English taught program.The study was conducted on Kurdish university students (n=33). English department of Charmo University was selected as the setting for the study. Moreover, 30 students who participated in the questionnaire were equally divided on both genders. Later, few students, in the range of 3, were tested from the same department. Though tests were considered as the main criteria for finding out students’ major problems in writing and especially vocabulary fluency, whenever the students were put in the position of the test, outer factors will take the bigger slice and main piece of the puzzle. Several essay writings were collected from them and different problems were carried out through those feedbacks that were given by the assigned program.As it can be seen in the discussion section personal desires and interest on the aforementioned language is not to the degree that they can improve their abilities; besides, each of culture, society, and family awareness plays a crucial part in common sense. Moreover, Sociology and psychology of the student, as each of culture, religion, gender differences, male dominance, and family motivation, have vital roles and effects on their use of low efficiency and contextually low frequent vocabulary when they compose in English.

Issues in the development of the British Academic Written English (BAWE) corpus

Corpora ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sian Alsop ◽  
Hilary Nesi
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Master's Students ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Writing Tutors ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Given

The British Academic Written English (BAWE) corpus is a collection of texts produced by undergraduate and Master's students in a wide range of disciplines, for assessment as part of taught degree programmes undertaken in the UK. The majority of the contributors to the corpus are mother tongue speakers of English, but, in order to be included in the corpus, each assignment had to be judged proficient by assessors in the contributor's discipline, regardless of the writer's mother tongue. The corpus contains, therefore, only texts that have met departmental requirements for the given level of study. University writing programmes are typically aimed at undergraduate and Master's students, and it would be useful for writing tutors to know more about student assignment genres and the linguistic features of successful writing at undergraduate and Master's level. However, most large-scale descriptive studies of academic writing focus on published or publicly accessible texts, or learner essays on general academic topics, probably because there are practical difficulties associated with collecting large amounts of well-documented student output. This paper charts the experience of collecting data for the BAWE corpus, highlighting the problems we encountered and the solutions we chose, with a view to facilitating the task of future developers of academic student writing corpora.

Hong Kong university students’ perceptions of their identities in English as a Lingua Franca contexts

2014 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chit Cheung Matthew Sung
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
University Students ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Chinese Speakers ◽  
Second Language Speakers ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Asian Context

This paper presents findings from an exploratory study that investigated the perceptions of a group of Hong Kong university students concerning their identities in English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) contexts. Qualitative data were collected primarily via in-depth interviews with a group of second-language speakers of ELF who use English with people from different first-language and cultural backgrounds on a regular basis. The analysis revealed that these participants came to terms with their identities as non-native speakers of English and emphasized the importance of maintaining their cultural identities as Hong Kong or Chinese speakers of ELF. In addition, most of them valued their ‘multicompetence’ in English, Cantonese and Putonghua when speaking English in ELF situations. The inquiry also found that some participants’ identification with other non-native speakers of English within the ELF community was rather selective and that different members within the ELF community were not perceived as equally ideal speakers of ELF. The study offers some valuable insights into the identities of ELF speakers and the wider ELF community within an Asian context.

A Need Analysis in Academic Writing by Using Integrative-Based Approach: The Perspective of University Students

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helaluddin Helaluddin
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
University Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Integrative Approach ◽  
First Semester ◽  
Need Analysis ◽  
Initial Stage ◽  
Academic Genres ◽  
The University ◽  
Academic Year

This article discusses the needs and interests of the university students in Banten Indonesia for learning to write with an integrative approach as an initial stage in the development of academic writing textbooks. The participants in this study were 60 students in the first semester of the 2018/2019 academic year who took an Indonesian language course. It was found that students were familiar with writing activities. But the majority were limited to non-academic genres such as writing poetry, short stories, and writing personal blogs. Also, students have almost the same problems in academic writing, both from linguistic aspects, technical aspects, to issues of developing writing ideas. Another thing that was found in this study was the participation of lecturers who they expected in guiding and providing input during academic writing learning.

Geographic Variation in Behavior

1999 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Geographic Variation ◽  
Animal Behavior ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Behavioral Characteristics ◽  
Behavioral Differences ◽  
Methodological Issues ◽  
Behavioral Evolution ◽  
Evolutionary Patterns ◽  
Wide Range

Studies of animal behavior often assume that all members of a species exhibit the same behavior. Geographic Variation in Behavior shows that, on the contrary, there is substantional variation within species across a wide range of taxa. Including work from pioneers in the field, this volume provides a balanced overview of research on behavioral characteristics that vary geographically. The authors explore the mechanisms by which behavioral differences evolve and examine related methodological issues. Taken together, the work collected here demonstrates that genetically based geographic variation may be far more widespread than previously suspected. The book also shows how variation in behavior can illuminate both behavioral evolution and general evolutionary patterns. Unique among books on behavior in its emphasis on geographic variation, this volume is a valuable new resource for students and researchers in animal behavior and evolutionary biology.

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