Towards the Synergy of Genre- and Corpus-Based Approaches to Academic Writing Research and Pedagogy

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-71
Author(s):  
Xiaofei Lu ◽  
J. Elliott Casal ◽  
Yingying Liu
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Writing Assessment ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Writing Pedagogy ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Computational Tools ◽  
Form Function ◽  
Writing Research ◽  
Novice Writers

This paper outlines the research agenda of a framework that integrates corpus- and genre-based approaches to academic writing research and pedagogy. This framework posits two primary goals of academic writing pedagogy, that is, to help novice writers develop knowledge of the rhetorical functions characteristic of academic discourse and become proficient in making appropriate linguistic choices to materialize such functions. To these ends, research in this framework involves 1) compilation of corpora of academic writing annotated for rhetorical functions, 2) analysis of the organization and distribution of such functions, 3) analysis of the linguistic features associated with different functions, 4) development of computational tools to automate functional annotation, 5) use of the annotated corpora in academic writing pedagogy, and 6) exploration of the role of form-function mappings in academic writing assessment. The implications of this framework for promoting consistent attention to form-function mappings in academic writing research, pedagogy, and assessment are discussed.

scholarly journals SUBJECT IT-EXTRAPOSITION IN APPLIED LINGUISTICS RESEARCH ARTICLES: SEMANTIC AND SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-46
Author(s):  
Seyed Foad Ebrahimi ◽  
Reza Moghaddam
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Syntactic Analysis ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Writing Research ◽  
The Common ◽  
Novice Writers

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.

scholarly journals Linguistic Markers and Stylistic Attributes of Hedging in English Academic Papers Written by Native and Non-Native Speakers of English

MANUSYA ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Amara Prasithrathsint
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Linguistic Markers ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
English Academic Writing ◽  
The Impact

Hedging means mitigating words so as to lessen the impact of an utterance. It may cause uncertainty in language but is regarded as an important feature in English academic writing. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the style of academic writing in English with particular reference to the significant role of hedging and the linguistic features that mark it. The data was taken from academic articles in the humanities written by native speakers of English, Filipino speakers of English, and Thai speakers of English. It is hypothesized that speakers of English as a foreign language use fewer and different hedging devices than native speakers of English. The result of the analysis shows that the prominent linguistic markers of hedging are the auxiliaries may, might, could, the verbs suggest, appear, seem, and the adverbs perhaps and often. They are divided into three groups according to their stylistic attributes of hedging; namely, probability, indetermination, and approximation. The use of hedging found in the data confirms what Hyman (1994) says; i.e., that hedging allows writers to express their uncertainty about the truth of their statements. It is also found that English native speakers use hedges most frequently. The Filipino speakers of English are the second, and the Thai speakers of English use hedges the least frequency. This implies that hedging is likely to be related to the level of competence in English including knowledge of stylistic variation, and that it needs to be formally taught to those who speak English as a second or foreign language.

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.

scholarly journals The impact of an instruction to improve L2 learners’ academic conference abstract writing in multidisciplinary programmes

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-169
Author(s):  
Godwin Ioratim-Uba
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Writing Assessment ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Post Intervention ◽  
Conference Abstract ◽  
Guided Learning ◽  
Academic Conference ◽  
Learning Instruction ◽  
World Class ◽  
The Impact

AbstractWriting successful academic conference abstracts is essential for PhD students to enable them to access world-class conferences for the presentation of their research. However, these students often face both discourse-structure and linguistic difficulties in writing their conference abstracts. This study evaluates the impact of genre, process, elicitation and guided learning instruction on students’ performance in academic conference abstract writing. Participants are multidisciplinary L2 PhD students at a Sino-British university. The first dataset used for the impact evaluation comprises post-intervention written abstracts collected from 10 focal students. To evaluate the instruction, a scoring descriptor instrument adapted from the university’s academic writing assessment rubric is used to grade the abstracts’ move-structure, and linguistic features of cohesion, hedging, passive, and present simple. Trends in the scores are analysed statistically. The second dataset consists of students’ questionnaire-elicited experiences of the instruction. Findings show improvements in post-intervention abstracts’ move-structures and linguistic features, which suggests pedagogical effectiveness. Questionnaire responses also display positive perceptions of the pedagogy. Due to the impact of disciplinary genre materials, disciplinary discrepancy is more evident in linguistic structures than in move structures. Writer characteristics also appear to gravitate towards a discipline-centric writing ethos due to the impact of disciplinary-genre materials and the desire to enhance the abstract’s selection chances. Thus, there is potential for language-feature functions, process writing, exact-genre materials and interactive learning process pedagogies to mediate learning and improvement in disciplinary L2 writing.

scholarly journals WRITING INTRODUCTION SECTIONS OF RESEARCH ARTICLES IN APPLIED LINGUISTICS: CROSS-LINGUISTIC STUDY OF NATIVE AND NON-NATIVE WRITERS

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryam Farnia ◽  
Safoora Barati
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Writing Pedagogy ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
Genre Studies ◽  
Communicative Functions ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Novice Writers

Genre studies allow researchers to observe the repeated communicative functions and their linguistic components in different genres (Brett, 1994). Writing the introduction section is a tough and burdensome task for both native and non-native speakers (Swales & Feak, 1994). Hence, the present study aimed to investigate the generic organization of English research article introductions written by native English and Iranian non-native speakers of English. A total of 160 published articles were selected from established journals in Applied Linguistics. Following Swales’ (2004) Create A Research Space (CARS) model, the researchers analyzed the articles for their specific generic patterns. Findings displayed that native English writers used significantly more strategies than Iranian non-native speakers of English, yielding richer texts. The findings of the present study contribute to the current knowledge of cross-cultural studies in academic writing to non-native English speakers in general and to non-native English novice writers in particular. Built on Swales’ (2004) CARS model, the study describes how introduction sections are developed in English by native and non-native speakers, offering insights into ESP/EAP writing pedagogy.

scholarly journals ADJECTIVES IN THE EXPRESSION OF EPISTEMIC MODALITY IN APPLIED LINGUISTICS RESEARCH ARTICLES

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 431-452
Author(s):  
Attapol Khamkhien
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Epistemic Modality ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Methodical Approach ◽  
Novice Writers ◽  
Interpersonal Model

Research in academic writing has shown that writers have a strong tendency to communicate their ideas interactively with readers. This study examines how professional writers use adjectives as part of interactional metadiscourse when writing research articles. A total of 255 research articles published in distinguished journals in the field of applied linguistics between 2015 and 2020 were systematically compiled and quantitatively and qualitatively analysed. The extent to which epistemic adjectives and typical phraseological patterns are used in research articles was investigated with the help of corpus linguistics methods, as was their epistemic strength indicated by writers. The interpersonal model of metadiscourse was used as the theoretical framework for the study. The findings suggest that the academic writing corpus, in essence, is interactionally oriented, while the use of adjectives as an epistemic modality reflects a methodical approach by article writers when presenting propositions and discussing their knowledge claims. This study provides a deeper understanding of these linguistic features to impact the reader. Pedagogically, the study can be useful for teaching academic writing to postgraduate students and help them and novice writers develop writing competency through epistemic devices, especially in research articles intended for publication.

The role of affect in travel risk perception: a new research agenda

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
I-Chieh Michelle Yang
Keyword(s):  
Risk Perception ◽  
Positive Affect ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Psychological Process ◽  
Related Research ◽  
Risk Research ◽  
Conceptual Paper ◽  
New Research

This conceptual paper proposes a new research agenda in travel risk research by understanding the role of affect. Extant scholarship tends to focus on travel risk perception or assessment as a cognitive psychological process. However, despite the phenomenal growth of the tourism industry globally, research related to travel risk perception remains stagnant with no significant breakthrough. Drawing on the existing empirical evidences in risk-related research, this paper asserts that affect plays a potent role in influencing travel risk perception – positive affect leads to more positive travel risk perception, vice versa. In this paper, existing empirical evidences and theories are presented to provide support for this proposition.

scholarly journals EIMECA: A Proposal for a Model of Environmental Collective Action

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 5935
Author(s):  
Beatriz Carmona-Moya ◽  
Antonia Calvo-Salguero ◽  
María-del-Carmen Aguilar-Luzón
Keyword(s):  
Structural Equation Modeling ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Environmental Identity ◽  
Group Efficacy ◽  
Action Model ◽  
Identity Model

The deterioration and destruction of the environment is becoming more and more considerable and greater efforts are needed to stop it. To accomplish this feat, all members of society must identify with solving environmental problems, environmental collective action being one of the most relevant means of doing so. From this perspective, the analysis of the psychosocial factors that lead to participation in environmental collective action emerges as a priority objective in the research agenda. Thus, the aim of this study is to examine the role of “environmental identity”, as conceptualized by Clayton, as a central axis for explaining environmental collective action. The inclusion of the latter in the theoretical framework of the SIMCA (social identity model of collective action) model gives rise to the model that we have called EIMECA (environmental identity model of environmental collective action). Two studies were conducted (344 and 720 participants, respectively), and structural equation modeling was used. The results reveal that environmental identity and a variety of negative emotional affects, as well as group efficacy, accompanied by hope for a simultaneous additive effect, are critical when it comes to predicting environmental collective action.

scholarly journals How Can Psychological Science Help Counter the Spread of Fake News?

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sander van der Linden ◽  
Jon Roozenbeek ◽  
Rakoen Maertens ◽  
Melisa Basol ◽  
Ondřej Kácha ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Research Agenda ◽  
Source Credibility ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Intervention Effectiveness ◽  
Motivated Cognition ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Psychological Science ◽  
Open Questions ◽  
The Individual

Abstract In recent years, interest in the psychology of fake news has rapidly increased. We outline the various interventions within psychological science aimed at countering the spread of fake news and misinformation online, focusing primarily on corrective (debunking) and pre-emptive (prebunking) approaches. We also offer a research agenda of open questions within the field of psychological science that relate to how and why fake news spreads and how best to counter it: the longevity of intervention effectiveness; the role of sources and source credibility; whether the sharing of fake news is best explained by the motivated cognition or the inattention accounts; and the complexities of developing psychometrically validated instruments to measure how interventions affect susceptibility to fake news at the individual level.

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