scholarly journals Understanding the Sustainable Growth of EFL Students’ Writing Skills: Differences between Novice Writers and Expert Writers in Their Use of Lexical Bundles in Academic Writing

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 5553
Author(s):  
Shaojie Zhang ◽  
Hui Yu ◽  
Lawrence Jun Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
Sustainable Growth ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Student Writers ◽  
Lexical Bundles ◽  
Academic Scholarship ◽  
Novice Writers

Lexical bundles, as building blocks of discourse, play vital roles in helping members from the same academic community achieve successful communication and disseminate sustainable disciplinary knowledge. However, little attention has been paid to lexical bundles in postgraduate writing. Drawing on Biber et al.’s (1999) structural taxonomy and Hyland’s (2008a) functional taxonomy, we identified and compared lexical bundles in two self-built corpora, an EFL student writing corpus and an expert writing corpus. The results indicate considerable structural differences between the two groups: the student writers used verb phrase-based bundles more frequently and prepositional phrase-based and noun phrase-based bundles less frequently. In terms of function, although the two academic groups showed similar distributions of the three main functional categories, as student writers they exhibited insufficient reader-awareness and incomplete knowledge of stance expressions. It is hoped that the findings will shed light on future pedagogical practices to help novice writers improve their academic writing competence as a sustainable goal in enhancing their academic scholarship.

scholarly journals Chinese Postgraduates’ Explanation of the Sources of Sentence Initial Bundles in their Thesis Writing

RELC Journal ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-52
Author(s):  
Liang Li ◽  
Margaret Franken ◽  
Shaoqun Wu
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Writing Pedagogy ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Student Writers ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Lexical Bundles ◽  
Language Writing ◽  
Functional Features ◽  
Thesis Writing

Lexical bundles, recurrent multiword combinations in a register, are extremely common and important discourse building blocks in academic writing. An increasing number of studies have investigated lexical bundles in academic writing in recent years, but few studies have explored L2 learners’ interpretations of their own bundle production, particularly sentence initial bundle production. Investigating the sources that have appeared to influence learners’ choices and knowledge of bundles is important as it complements what we know about the structural and functional features of lexical bundles and provides useful first-hand information for second language writing pedagogy. The present study interviewed five Chinese postgraduate students to probe possible reasons for their use of the typical sentence initial bundles identified in the self-built Chinese Masters and PhD thesis corpora. The interviews revealed diverse explanations including interlingual transfer, classroom learning, noticing in reading, a lack of rhetorical confidence, and misunderstanding of rhetorical conventions. The results suggest the need for raising students’ awareness of the common sentence starters in postgraduate academic writing, increasing their confidence as student writers, familiarizing them with rhetorical conventions, and incorporating effective corpus-based tools into pedagogical practices.

scholarly journals Paradigmatic influences on lexical bundles in research articles in the discipline of education

Corpora ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-263
Author(s):  
Duygu Candarli ◽  
Steven Jones
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Structural Characteristics ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Lexical Bundles ◽  
Research Paradigms ◽  
Quantitative And Qualitative Research ◽  
Writing Research ◽  
Novice Writers ◽  
English Academic Writing

Lexical bundles are pervasive in English academic writing; however, little scholarly attention has been paid to how quantitative and qualitative research paradigms influence the use of lexical bundles in research articles. In order to investigate this, we created two equal-size corpora of research articles in the discipline of education. We examined four-word lexical bundles in terms of their structural characteristics and discourse functions in the quantitative and qualitative research articles published in international English-medium journals. We attribute intra-disciplinary variations in the use of lexical bundles to the knowledge-making practices that are specific to quantitative and qualitative research articles. This paper provides further evidence that the research article is not a unitary construct. The results have implications for academic writing, and corpus building and design in academic discourse. One of the key implications of this study is that L2 novice writers need to take into account the influences of research paradigms on the use of lexical bundles when writing research articles for English-medium journals in the discipline of education.

LEXICAL BUNDLES INDICATING AUTHORIAL PRESENCE: A CROSS-CULTURAL ANALYSIS OF NOVICE CZECH AND GERMAN WRITERS’ ACADEMIC DISCOURSE

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga Dontcheva-Navratilova
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Academic Discourse ◽  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Variation ◽  
Important Indicator ◽  
Lexical Bundles ◽  
Academic Texts ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Novice Writers

With the widespread use of English as the lingua franca of academia, there is a growing need of research into how non-native speakers striving to be socialized in target academic discourse communities deal with variation in meaning and organization of academic texts across fi elds, languages and cultures. An important indicator of competent linguistic production is the mastering of the register- and genre-specifi c formulaic expressions termed lexical bundles, which are defi ned as sequences of three or more words with frequent co-occurrence in a particular context (Biber et al. 1999). While recent studies have addressed disciplinary and novice-expert differences in the use of lexical bundles, cross-cultural variation in bundle use remains underexplored. This paper investigates lexical bundles indicating authorial presence in a specialized corpus of Master’s degree theses from the fi elds of linguistics and methodology written by German and Czech university students. The aim of the study is to compare how novice Czech and German authors use lexical bundles indicating authorial presence, to consider whether and to what extent the novice writers have adapted their writing style to the conventions of Anglo- American academic writing, and to discuss the role of the L1 academic literacy tradition and instructions received in writing courses for the modelling of novice writers’ academic discourse. The analysis shows that the variety and frequency of interpersonal bundles in Czech and German novice writers’ discourse do not approximate to the standard of published academic texts in English. The fi ndings also indicate that while the considerable similarities in the way Czech and German novice writers use the target structures for constructing authorial presence refl ect their common roots in the Central European tradition of academic discourse, the divergences may be attributed to a difference in the degree of adaptation to Anglo-American writing conventions.

scholarly journals A Comparative Study of Saudi and International Journals of Applied Linguistics: The Move–Bundle Connection Approach

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 9-30
Author(s):  
Basim Alamri
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
English Language ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Writing For Publication ◽  
Lexical Bundles ◽  
Raising Awareness ◽  
Novice Writers ◽  
Rhetorical Structures

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.

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 Digital Writing, Word Processors and Operations in Texts: How Student Writers Use Digital Resources in Academic Writing Processes

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-58
Author(s):  
Sofia Hort
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Digital Writing ◽  
Student Writers ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Writing Processes ◽  
Writing Practices ◽  
Academic Genre ◽  
Word Processors

This study explores the use of digital technologies in the writing of an academic assignment. Fine-grained studies on student writing processes are scarce in previous research. In relation to the increasing demands on students’ writing, as well as the debate on students’ poor writing (Malmström, 2017), these issues are important to address. In this study, screen captures of five students’ essay processes are analyzed. The results show that students handle text at different levels: they make use of one or more word processors, arrange texts spatially on screens and use resources to operate directly in texts. Above all these actions seem to meet the need to move and navigate within one’s own text, an aspect that could be especially important in relation to the academic genre and for handling texts as artifacts in activity (Castelló & Iñesta, 2012; Prior, 2006). The results of the study point to the importance of making digital writing practices visible, especially those that could create possibilities to intertwine digital texts, thereby enhancing potentials for academic writing and meaning-making.

scholarly journals Exploring academic identities of EFL novice writers

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanna Juliaty
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Academic Identities ◽  
Writing Culture ◽  
Novice Writers ◽  
Writing Practice

In academic writing, undergraduate EFL learners are not required only to apply correct L2 writing system, but more profoundly, construct and convey ideas in ways recognised in their discipline as they continuously create and recreate identities as members of their academic community. Such a process of identity construction shapes EFL novice writers’ characteristics and nurture their growth as writers in the academic environment. This study, thus, aims to explore the portrayal of academic identities of undergraduate EFL novice writers. Eight Indonesian undergraduate students of an English Department in a private Indonesian university participated in this study. The data collected included an autobiography journal, a semi-structured interview and two essay assignments. The data were analysed qualitatively by employing Ivanič’s (1998) concept of writer identity, consisting of autobiographical self, discoursal self and authorial self, and Hyland’s (2010) metadiscourse model. The findings reveal that despite numerous writing repertoires applied to display aspects of autobiographical, discoursal and authorial selves in the learners’ academic writing, the portrayal of academic identities in the writing is overall weak due to the struggles that the learners faced in adjusting and engaging themselves in the academic community of their discipline. Some recommendations in relation to L2 academic writing practice for EFL undergraduate students include facilitating students to have more exposure and access into L2 academic writing culture and academic community of their discipline.

scholarly journals Lexical Bundles Ending in that in Academic Writing by Czech Learners and Native Speakers of English

2021 ◽  
pp. 33-69
Author(s):  
Gabriela Brůhová ◽  
Kateřina Vašků
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Academic Journals ◽  
Lexical Bundles ◽  
Academic Texts ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Novice Writers ◽  
L1 And L2 ◽  
Professional Writers ◽  
Shell Nouns

The aim of this paper is to explore how Czech learners of English use lexical bundles ending in that in their academic texts in comparison with novice and professional L1 authors. The analysis is based on three corpora (VESPA-CZ, BAWE and our own cor- pus of papers published in academic journals). The results suggest that Czech learners of English do not use a more limited repertoire of lexical bundles ending in that than pro- fessional writers. However, there are differences between the groups studied, especially in the range of various shell nouns used in nominal bundles. Novice writers, both L1 and L2, use bundles ending in that to express stance more frequently than professional writers.

scholarly journals The appearance of voice: EAP and academic literacies approaches to teaching reflective writing

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon A. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Reflective Writing ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
Academic Literacies ◽  
Student Writers ◽  
Student Cohorts ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Novice Writers

The increasingly common requirement for higher education courses to include reflective writing as part of assessment practices places additional demands on novice writers. Complex and self-referential assessment criteria mean that students on foundation and pre-sessional courses in particular find it hard to decode and match descriptors, and to balance subjectivity and critical analysis. English for Academic Purposes (EAP), the most widely adopted approach to teaching academic writing in higher education, prioritises objectivity, and teaches students to recognise generic patterns of text organisation – though it seldom includes reflective writing itself as a genre. In contrast, the less familiar teaching approach of academic literacies explores students’ subjectivity, more obviously relevant to reflection, often through the development of an authentic narrative voice. As in other forms of academic writing, voice in reflective writing can be seen as a construct. It conveys a persona via the narrative, and an ethos via its specialised content. However, unlike other forms of academic writing, the personain reflective writing must simultaneously communicate the author’s private and public self.With the purpose of developing students’ persona, an academic literacies intervention in two transition courses invited students to complete a piece of timed writing in response to an autobiographical prompt. Compared with the EAP writing produced by the same student cohorts, the autobiographical writing contained a clear persona and consistent ethos. The assessed reflective writing later produced by the same students showed little change, however, particularly in its handling of ethos. The findings suggest that teachers of reflective writing need simultaneously to develop students’ ability to communicate a credible persona and to handle a specialised ethos of formal academic content. A more principled combination of the two approaches, EAP and academic literacies, could best provide the optimum learning environment for novice student writers to develop a balanced voice and achieve reflective writing fluency

scholarly journals Preparing Postgraduates for the Profession: Toward Translingual Pedagogical Practices in Advanced Graduate Student Writing Instruction in Germany

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 188-194
Author(s):  
Micha Gerrit Philipp Edlich
Keyword(s):  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Writing Center ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Instructional Format ◽  
The Us ◽  
Academic Genres ◽  
Prior Experiences

Contributing to the literature on translingual pedagogies outside the US or Canada, this article discusses the design of a hybrid instructional format for advanced multilingual doctoral students and post-doctoral researchers offered by a bilingual writing center at a mid-sized university in Germany. Meant to prepare for future careers in academia and professional demands in different national, cultural, and linguistic environments, this format gives participants the opportunity to explore academic genres that tend to receive less attention in graduate education than journal articles, book chapters, or others needed to complete degree requirements. By the end of the course, participants will have a submission-ready portfolio including an academic CV, a job letter, a (sample) letter of recommendation, and teaching and diversity statements. To achieve these specific outcomes and to develop the advanced professional academic writing competencies needed in multicultural and multilingual contexts, participants will have to draw on their diverse linguistic backgrounds and prior experiences in these kinds of settings. Informed also by other recent theoretical and empirical work on translingualism and translingual pedagogies in global contexts, this format adopts the use of translation proposed by Horner (2017) to move beyond the monolingual and, to a lesser extent, the multilingual paradigms. While it has yet to be tested empirically, the design represents an alternative to more traditional (and usually monolingual) modes of instruction. This article concludes by discussing limitations and implications of the approach to translingual pedagogies taken here.

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