A diachronic keyword analysis in research article titles and cited article titles in applied linguistics from 1990 to 2016

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenhsien Yang
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Domain Knowledge ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Journal Article ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Article Title ◽  
Research Article ◽  
Challenging Research ◽  
Trends Over Time

Abstract Due to the competitiveness in academic publication and the emerging heavy reliance on Internet search engines to expand visibility and readership and to promote publications, writing an attractive and appropriate research article title is essential. In addition, titles may be the first aspect of papers evaluated by journal editors in their screening of submissions in order to meet the requirements of the target audience. These demands call for the use of various academic writing skills, and thus make writing titles challenging. Research on structuring journal article titles has been extensively conducted across disciplines, but what keywords (i.e. lexical items highly distinctive of the titles) are employed to reflect current knowledge and receive high citations is still under-researched. To bridge this gap, the present corpus-driven research collected and investigated titles written in leading applied linguistics journals over 25 years to identify their keywords. These were compared to different time spans to study the significance and relevance of the domain knowledge. The most frequently cited articles were also selected to study how their titles relate to keyword use and to investigate their impact on the domain knowledge. The results reveal that keywords vary in accordance with the research trends over time. In addition, while titles are becoming longer, more keywords are employed by authors in order to expand the paper’s visibility and enhance the citations. The pedagogical implications for teaching academic writing, and suggestions for researching this appendant genre are provided.

scholarly journals Move analysis and their lexical verbs of research article abstracts of Filipino and American writers

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-63
Author(s):  
Abdul Wahid Ibrahim Tocalo
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Research Article ◽  
Writing Instructions ◽  
Native Speakers Of English

Rhetorical move analyses of research article (RA) abstracts have established variations across disciplines and cultures. However, there is still a need for more explorations on Applied Linguistics discipline. Comparing native and other group of non-native speakers of English, such as Filipino users of the language, has also been a neglect in research as far as the researcher’s knowledge is concerned. Hence, this study investigated the rhetorical moves in the RA abstracts of American and Filipino writers who are published in two journals related to Applied Linguistics field. The study also explored the lexical verbs underlying each move in all the abstracts. Each abstract was then segmented into moves. Findings revealed that the moves Situating the Research (STR), Presenting the Research (PTR), and Discussing the Research (DTR) were obligatorily used by both groups of writers, while the moves Describing the Methodology (DTM) and Summarizing the Findings (STF) were obligatory only among Filipinos and optional among Americans. Filipino writers appear to develop their own conventions deviating from Americans who are considered native speakers and norm providers. The results also amplify the existence of cultural differences even in abstract writing. Further, the study details lists of lexical verbs that may be used to realize a rhetorical intent of each move. Hence, academic writing instructions may be informed by the rhetorical and linguistic realizations unveiled in this study. Directions for future research are likewise provided.

Bridging boundaries across genre traditions

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 259-293
Author(s):  
Isaac Nuokyaa-Ire Mwinlaaru
Keyword(s):  
Identity Construction ◽  
Frequency Distribution ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Systemic Functional Linguistics ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Lexical Bundles ◽  
Functional Linguistics ◽  
Research Article

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.

scholarly journals Genre Pedagogy and Bilingual Graduate Students’ Academic Writing

Publications ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa Morell ◽  
Susana Pastor Cesteros
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Discourse Community ◽  
Graduate Course ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Research Article ◽  
Genre Awareness ◽  
Analysis Task

Genre pedagogy plays an important role in helping graduate students to enter the discourse community of their fields. Although familiarity with research genres benefits graduate students, few studies have explored the influences of instruction on learners’ subsequent generic practices. In this study, we describe the genre-based approach used in a bilingual (English and Spanish) Applied Linguistics graduate course, which aimed to enhance students’ research genre awareness to allow them to be better able to confront their own work as investigators. The description of the course is followed by a study to determine if and how a research article discourse analysis task influenced the students’ academic writing in their own papers. Our research question was the following: To what extent can course instruction influence students’ academic writing? The study entails a survey to elicit students’ perspectives on the influence of the course and its tasks on their academic writing, as well as teachers’ comments on the students’ written work. Although learning to do research at the graduate level requires a broad range of competencies that go beyond genre awareness, the findings from the survey confirmed the positive effects of genre knowledge gains in accomplishing further research goals.

scholarly journals Phrasal Discourse Style in Cross-Disciplinary Writing: A Comparison of Phrasal Complexity Features in the Results Sections of Research Articles

2020 ◽  
Vol 83 ◽  
pp. 191-204
Author(s):  
Muhammed Parviz ◽  
Alireza Jalilifar ◽  
Alexanne Don
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Disciplinary Writing ◽  
Prepositional Phrases ◽  
Manual Search ◽  
Research Article ◽  
Rate Of Success

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.

Evaluation in research article introductions: A comparison of the strategies used by Chinese and British authors

2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (6) ◽  
pp. 797-818 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoyu Xu ◽  
Hilary Nesi
Keyword(s):  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Journal Article ◽  
Research Community ◽  
Research Topic ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Genre Analysis ◽  
Appraisal Theory ◽  
Cultural Variation ◽  
Research Article

Abstract This article investigates differences in evaluative style in introductions to research articles written by scholars from China and Britain. A corpus of 30 research article introductions in applied linguistics was analysed in terms of Appraisal Theory and genre analysis, using the UAM Corpus Tool. Findings from this analysis suggest that both the Chinese and the British authors were aware of the need to argue for their own opinions and maintain good relationships with their readers. However, the Chinese writers made more categorical assertions, supported by lists of references to prior studies, while the British writers were more likely to acknowledge the existence of alternative views within the research community, and were more explicit about their own attitudes towards the research topic, prior studies, and their own work. The findings, and the illustrative examples, can inform the design of programmes to help novice researchers publish internationally, and might also usefully raise the awareness of journal article reviewers and editors regarding cultural variation in approaches to stance-taking.

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.

Coherence relations in research article discussions

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-264
Author(s):  
Tomoyuki Kawase
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Discussion Section ◽  
Research Article ◽  
Coherence Relations

Abstract Constructing a coherent text and achieving genre-specific communicative purposes are crucial aspects of academic writing. However, to date, it remains unclear how coherence and genre are related to each other conceptually. This paper seeks to extend previous research on the influence of genre on coherence relations by examining how writers of applied linguistics research articles (RAs) organise sentences in the discussion section to achieve communicative purposes of the RA discussion genre. The analyses suggest that the writers of the selected discussions might have related sentences to each other differently depending on the purposes they sought to achieve. Possible reasons for relational features are considered in light of the nature of the RA discussion genre and/or the applied linguistics discipline.

scholarly journals Citation in Applied Linguistics: Analysis of Introduction Sections of Iranian Master's These

2012 ◽  
Vol 57 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alireza Jalilifar ◽  
Razieh Dabbi
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Research Article ◽  
Master's Thesis ◽  
Citation Practices

Writing a master's thesis, oftentimes the first shot by a novice researcher at writing for academic purposes, requires providing a framework and support by learning how to cite the works of others. Compared to the host of studies on research article introductions as the product of expert writing, little work has been done on citations in master's thesis introductions (MAIs), and so the paucity of research in this area calls for further investigation into citations in MAIs. To this aim, we compared the use of citation forms in 65 Iranian MAIs in the field of Applied Linguistics. Citation forms were divided into integral which play an overt grammatical role within a sentence and non-integral which play a covert grammatical role in text. Each category was further divided into sub-categories. Analyses of the citation practices indicated that integral citations constituted a greater proportion of citations in the MAIs. The study also examined stance manifested in verb controlling citations and underlined the importance of evidential marking in academic writing and discussed pedagogical implications of the research.

scholarly journals RHETORICAL MOVES AND LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF JOURNAL ARTICLE ABSTRACTS BY POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS, NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL AUTHORS IN APPLIED LINGUISTICS

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-142
Author(s):  
Rosyi Putri Andika ◽  
Safnil Arsyad ◽  
Alamsyah Harahap
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Method ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Journal Article ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Simple Sentence ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Research Article ◽  
Mixed Method Design ◽  
The Common ◽  
Present Tense

The abstract has become the first part that will be read by readers in a research article. Some important aspects in the abstract are move structure and linguistic features. This study examines the rhetorical moves and linguistic features of English research article abstract written by three groups of authors in Applied Linguistics. The research design was mixed method design combining quantitative and qualitative method with the corpus of this study consisted of 60 abstracts by postgraduate students, national and international authors found in RA abstracts. The results show that the common moves by three groups of authors have only three moves (i.e purpose, method, and results). The common linguistic features used by three groups of authors are active voice, present tense, and simple sentence. By comparing the three groups of abstracts the differences are found in the postgraduate students authors. They were used move 1 (Background/ introduction/ situation) fewer than national and international authors. Furthur the postgraduate students used past tense more dominant than present tense and using hedges is more frequently than national and international authors. This study concludes that in writing RA abstracts a writer should adjust the commonly used rules the abstract especially in using 5 moves in the abstracts.

scholarly journals A Corpus-Based Contrastive Study of Code Glosses Used in English Academic Articles Written by Authors of Politics and Applied Linguistics

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 39
Author(s):  
Ibrahim Safari
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Frequency Count ◽  
Contrastive Study ◽  
Research Article ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Writing Instructors

In the field of academic writing, it is important to create a structurally and communicatively well-organized and coherent text. Metadiscourse is the way in which writers interact through their use of language in the form of writing with readers– is a widely used term in the field of pragmatics and language teaching. This research article aims to investigate using code glosses as a sub-category of metadiscourse in the introduction section of two different disciplines, politics and applied linguistics. The corpus consists of twenty research articles from the politics and twenty from applied linguistics. The model suggested by Hyland (2005) is used for analizing the selected corpus. These articles were investigated and the number of code-glosses in each group was counted and analyzed. The result of data analysis revealed that there is significant difference between the frequency count of using code glosses used by applied linguistics and politics authors. Politics authors used more code glosses in comparison with applied linguistics and both applied linguistics and politics writers used reformulations more than exemplifications. This study can have pedagogical implications for EAP course designers as well as academic writing instructors and students.

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