scholarly journals Features of Informality in Applied Linguistics Research Articles Published in Iranian Local Journals

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-143
Author(s):  
Seyed Foad Ebrahimi ◽  
Seyed Aqil Fakheri

AbstractThis study was motivated by the recent study on informality in academic writing carried out by Hyland and Jiang (2017), to see the status of informality in Applied Linguistics research articles published in Iranian local journals. To this end, 50 research articles from two Journals of “Research in Applied Linguistics” and “Iranian Journal of applied Linguistics” were selected. The research articles were published in 2014 and 2015 issues. They were analyzed based on Hyland and Jiang’s (2017) taxonomy. The results imply that unattended anaphoric pronouns and sentence initial conjunctions have received the greatest attention from Iranian writers of Applied Linguistics writers while exclamations and contractions were totally ignored. Compared to the results reported by Hyland and Jiang (2017), the use of features of informality by Iranian writers of the present study varies to a great extent. The variations could stress the necessity of awareness of Iranian Applied Linguistics and related fields of study writers concerning the use of these features by successful writers.

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 259-293
Author(s):  
Isaac Nuokyaa-Ire Mwinlaaru

Abstract This study explores the benefits of a synergy between ESP research on genre and theoretical dimensions of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). It models genre on SFL dimensions and employs this model to analyse 200 biodata written by Applied Linguistics scholars, 100 each from research articles and seminar posters. Data were analysed from contextual, logico-semantic and lexicogrammatical perspectives. The findings reveal five generic stages in biodata. The frequency distribution of these stages and the phases that realise them shows variation between research article bios and seminar bios. The most frequent logico-semantic (or rhetorical) relations identified among stages and phases are of the expansion type, namely addition and elaboration, Further, collocational frameworks are used in organising some generic phases into waves of meaning and in construing different identities. Finally, evaluative resources, in the form of lexical bundles, modification and circumstantial elements in the clause, are employed by writers to boost their professional achievements and promote themselves. These findings contribute to theoretical discussions on genre and the scholarship on the interface between identity construction and academic writing, and also motivate further research.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 8
Author(s):  
Xindi Zheng

This study investigates the transitivity structure of research articles and examines the variations of process types across sections, aiming to explore experiential meaning construction in academic discourse. The corpus for this study consists of ten applied linguistics research articles published from 2018 to 2020 in the top journals of the discipline. Features of the transitivity structure of the whole research articles are presented. The distribution of different process types is also examined in relation to the rhetorical purposes and stylistic features of the abstract, introduction, method, results and discussion, and conclusion sections. The findings reveal that transitivity structure could largely reflect the stylistic features of research articles, which are characterized as being informative and objective as well as interpersonal. Results also show that the distribution of process types may contribute to the regularity manifestation and purpose fulfillment of distinctive sections. This study has implications for both academic writers and academic writing courses.   


Author(s):  
I Nyoman Suka Sanjaya ◽  
Anak Agung Raka Sitawati ◽  
Ni Ketut Suciani

The study examines whether English and Indonesian research articles written by their respective native speaker scholars are significantly different from each other in terms of the number of hedges used. Hedges are rhetorical features (e.g. may, perhaps, suggest) used to withhold complete commitment to the truth-value of propositions. The ultimate goal of the study is to examine whether Indonesian scholars need special instruction in hedging propositions. The assumption underlying the present study is that when they write in English, Indonesian scholars will deploy rhetorical features inherent in the Indonesian academic writing. Statistical analysis on 52 Applied Linguistics research articles (26 from each language) reveals that English research articles contain significantly more hedges than their Indonesian counterparts (Mann-Whitney U = 68.00, n1 = n2 = 26, p < 0.05, r = - 0.69), suggesting that Indonesian scholars are indeed in need of instruction that specifically focuses on hedging propositions in English.


2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 09 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerannaz Zamani ◽  
Saman Ebadi

The structure of the conclusion sections in Research Articles (RAs) is of significance in academic writing. The conclusion section does not only provide an outline of the study, but also other important elements, such as recommendations, implications and statements of possible lines of future research. This paper reports on an analysis of the conclusion sections of Persian and English Research Articles (RAs) published in international journals. To meet this end 20 RAs were selected from the fields of Civil Engineering and Applied Linguistics. The Conclusion sections of the papers were examined for their moves based on Yang and Allison’s (2003) move model.  The frequency analysis of the moves showed slight differences among the moves employed and the Chi-Square analysis did not show significant differences between the moves used in Conclusion sections of RAs in Civil Engineering and Applied Linguistics as well as between Persian and English RAs. The study contributes to a richer understanding of the conclusion structure of research articles and offers ESP/EFL instructors and researchers, insights which can be used in the instruction of the conventions or expectations of academic writing. Novice writers and non-native students can benefit from it, mainly because it helps them eliminate their writing dilemmas and assists them to take part in international discourse communities.  Key Words: Conclusion section; Contrastive move analysis; Genre analysis; Research articles


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 9-30
Author(s):  
Basim Alamri

The present study implemented a genre-based approach to analyze the rhetorical structure of English language research articles (RAs): specifically, the Introduction-Methods-Results-Discussion-Conclusion (I-M-R-D-C) sections. Next, lexical bundles (LBs) associated with patterns of moves were identified by applying a corpus-driven approach. The study analyzed two corpora of 30 RAs purposely selected from 16 peer-reviewed journals of applied linguistics published in Saudi Arabia and internationally during the years of 2011-2016. First, a genre-based approach was used to identify the move structures of RAs through analyzing different RA sections by different models. Next, lexical bundles associated with each identified move in each IMRDC section were analyzed using a corpus-driven approach, based on structural and functional taxonomies. The study findings showed that both corpora share similarities and differences related to rhetorical structures and lexical bundles. These findings have pedagogical implications for novice writers, graduate students, and English for Academic Purposes (EAP) instruction, including raising awareness of rhetorical structures and LBs in academic writing for publication, which could help produce more successful publishable research articles.


2020 ◽  
Vol 83 ◽  
pp. 191-204
Author(s):  
Muhammed Parviz ◽  
Alireza Jalilifar ◽  
Alexanne Don

The present study aimed at exploring how research article writers from two academic disciplines exploit phrasal complexity features (PCFs) to verbalize the results sections of research articles with the eventual aim of assisting advanced EFL writers with their composition strategies. To this end, following a manual search, 200 empirical research articles in the fields of Applied Linguistics and Physics were comparatively examined. Due to the low rate of success of tagging programs in identifying the occurrences of PCFs, the datasets were also manually analyzed. The results revealed that the research article writers drew upon three high-frequency phrasal complexity features, namely, pre-modifying adjectives, post-modifying prepositional phrases, and nominalizations. The study also revealed that the results sections of research articles included different amounts of exceedingly complex patterns of pre-modification, a hybrid of novel appositive structures, and great reliance on hyphenated adjectives. Overall, we believe that these findings can be used to heighten the awareness of academic writers and instructors regarding the linguistic characteristics of academic writing and of the variations of how such phrasal features of compression are constructed in different academic subjects.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajab Esfandiari ◽  
Mohammad Ahmadi

Abstract Complexity measures in academic writing have experienced a shift from clausal to phrasal indices in recent years. Drawing on a subset of Biber et al. (2011) hypothesized stages of writing development, we explored phrasal complexity across sections of research articles (RAs) in applied linguistics and clinical medicine. A 389,332-word corpus consisting of 80 randomly selected RAs from leading journals in applied linguistics and clinical medicine was compiled for the purposes of the present study. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and independent-samples t-test, as implemented in SPSS (version 25), were employed to find differences across the RA sections and between two groups of academic writers. The findings indicated that RAs in clinical medicine relied more heavily on noun phrase modifiers in all sections than those in applied linguistics, suggesting that the distributional pattern of these linguistic expressions is discipline-independent. The implications of the findings are also discussed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-80
Author(s):  
Alireza Jalilifar ◽  
Elham Saleh ◽  
Alexanne Don

Abstract One of the most distinctive linguistic characteristics of academic writing is the high frequency of nominalized structures. The present study explores how nominalization was used as an approach to making knowledge claims in applied linguistics research articles. Data comprised the introduction and method sections of 16 empirical papers featuring the IMRD (Introduction, Method, Result, Discussion) format, drawn from the most recent issues of 10 journals, with a total of 40,122 running words, from which 3,150 instances of nominalization were drawn. Analyzing these nominalized structures in the cotext of their local spans revealed 15 patterns, with the preference for some of the patterns varying across the introduction and method sections of these articles. Results showed a higher concentration of nominalization in the introductions. The study also identified the more prevalent nominal expressions in each section. The fact that each of these sections serves different purposes appears to justify the use of a contrasting range of nominal expressions. Based on the findings of this study, some pedagogical implications for academic writing and reading, ESP/EAP courses, and researchers are proposed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-91
Author(s):  
Norma Patricia Barletta ◽  
Diana Chamorro ◽  
Jorge Mizuno

Opposite to what is traditionally stated, the theoretical framework often constitutes an independent section in research articles. Therein writers establish the theoretical tradition that supports their research and make an account of the theoretical and research developments in their discipline, specifically, in their topic of research, thus establishing a dialogue with other voices. This article examines how writers organize their theoretical framework by means of verbal clauses using the resources of the graduation subsystem proposed by the systemic functional linguistics to express force —which will help them to construct their authorial voice. This study analyzed the verbal clauses and the graduation resources of the theoretical frameworks in 20 research articles in Spanish language published in Colombian journals from the area of applied linguistics. Findings show the variety of resources deployed by writers in their verbal clauses to strengthen their commitment to their tenets, especially in prominent places of their theoretical framework, such as the macroTheme, hyperThemes, macroNew and hyperNew. Awareness of these theoretical framework features may be relevant for teaching academic writing.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-46
Author(s):  
Seyed Foad Ebrahimi ◽  
Reza Moghaddam

During the last two decades, numerous studies have focused on linguistic features of academic writing. One of these features, which appears frequently in academic writing and which writers need to improve their use of, is the it-extraposition construction. The existing literature on subject it-extraposition has focused on syntactic analysis (types and patterns) of this construction and little attention has been paid to semantic analysis (meanings); thus, this study aims to explore the types, patterns and meanings of subject it-extraposition used in Applied Linguistics research articles. The study was run on a corpus of 57 Applied Linguistics research articles, wherein the common extraposed subject clauses were the that-clause followed by the infinitive to-clause. It was also evident that minimal attention was devoted to the use of the wh-clause and the -ing participle clause. Concerning patterns of it-extraposition subject clause, subject + predicate and subject + predicate + complement were the most commonly utilised in Applied Linguistics research articles. The findings showed that Applied Linguistics writers were more concerned with expressing and evaluating their opinions and claims semantically. This study could help novice writers, especially novice non-native writers, to increase their awareness regarding how such construction is used syntactically and semantically by expert writers in writing research articles.


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