Journal of English for Academic Purposes最新文献

Many higher education institutions support the linguistic needs of ESL students by providing various kinds of tutorial services. Although tutorial interaction has received much research attention, few studies have investigated how tutors and students make decisions about what language skills and activities to focus on during tutorials. In this article, we use conversation analysis (CA) to explore how participants jointly set the tutorial agenda in video recordings from ESL tutorials in dyadic tutor-tutee interactions between an L1 English tutor and L2 tutees at a community college in the United States. We examine participants' interactional practices of initiating agenda management, identifying the tutee's language learning needs, proposing learning activities, and managing disagreement about proposed activities. Our analysis shows how the participants orient to the tutee as the person who is expected to take the lead in agenda setting. From the perspective of a learner-centered EAP pedagogy, agenda management constitutes an important practice because it enables the individualization of the tutorial, which is essential in an instructional environment characterized by a diversity of students' language skills and learning needs. Recognizing the situated, collaborative, and negotiated nature of tutorial interaction can help educational institutions and EAP practitioners further promote learner-centeredness in their practice.

Graduate students often approach research with predefined steps emphasising procedural aspects that occasionally expose their inadequate preparation for research as social practice. The purpose of this paper is to show how an action research (AR) methodology, in conjunction with English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), has facilitated the scaffolding of explicit formal, rhetorical, procedural, and strategic knowledge in research discourse. We followed a cyclical action research model consisting of 1) recognising students' limited understanding of research as a social practice, 2) developing interventions to promote understanding of how language is structured, represented, and negotiated in scientific discourse, 3) results of the intervention, and 4) reflection. Thematic analysis of six participants' data, including their tasks, reflections, and draft proposals, revealed a discernible progression towards scholarly thinking, transformative learning, and the embodiment of scholarly identity. Integrating ESP and SFL frameworks enhanced our ability to guide students through research-specific discourses, moving beyond a purely theoretical understanding to engage in authentic practices. This approach contributed to the cultivation of Communities of Practice (CoP) in which student-faculty collaboration fostered a shared scholarly mindset and facilitated the gradual integration of students into these academic communities.

English-medium instruction (EMI) has become a key aspect of internationalisation agendas in higher education, which are also increasingly promoting cosmopolitanism and global citizenship. Within EMI programmes, however, lecturers' non-native English accents can pose challenges for students' content understanding and influence their evaluations of lecturers and education quality. Motivation, whether instrumental or integrative, can also be crucial for EMI and students' (language) learning. Despite this, limited attention has been given to how students' cosmopolitan and motivation orientations may shape their attitudes towards English accents used in EMI. This quantitative exploratory study, conducted at a university of applied sciences in the Netherlands, therefore aimed to gain insights into 1225 students' attitudes towards Dutch-English and standard English accents in EMI, and the potential predictors of these attitudes. The findings revealed that students had more positive attitudes towards standard English accents, but those with higher cosmopolitan orientations also had more positive attitudes towards Dutch-English accents. To further investigate these attitudes and understand changes in students’ motivation and cosmopolitan orientations, future studies should employ longitudinal and mixed-methods research designs. The findings from such research, along with this study, can guide higher education institutions in adjusting their policies to create more meaningful and inclusive EMI experiences.

In response to Petrić’s (2012) call for comparing citation practices between student and published writing in the same field to better understand the interaction between developmental and disciplinary influences on the utilization of direct quotation, this paper conducts a comparative analysis of citation choices in 100 literature review sections of L2 master's theses and 100 research article literature review sections in the field of translation studies. This analysis utilizes a modified framework of functional options for cited information. The findings reveal a significant difference in the normalized frequency of citation options between the student corpus and the expert corpus. L2 master's students predominantly rely on single-source, author-responsible, long direct quotations with active voice and past tense. This approach is used to present source information without active engagement, suggesting their primary objective is to showcase knowledge of the research field. Conversely, experts strategically employ citations to support their claims and establish intertextual links. The differences in citation choices between master's theses and research articles might be attributed to the L2 students' limited grasp of the subtle nuances associated with citation forms, reporting verbs, verb tenses and voices, as well as a lack of proficiency in employing various pragmatic and rhetorical functions achievable through citation. Additionally, these differences may be attributed to the comprehensive knowledge and experience accumulated by expert writers over time. The implications of these findings for teaching English academic writing are discussed within the paper.

In academia, the assessment of scholarly works is conducted through diverse evaluative genres, each characterized by genre-specific linguistic features. This study adopts a corpus-assisted approach to compare how stance-taking strategies are employed in the contexts of manuscript reviews and doctoral defense sessions, with particular attention to the contributions of Iranian researchers. Following Hyland's (2005) interactional model, both datasets are examined to identify stance-taking strategies, including self-mentions, boosters, hedges, and attitude markers. The study unveils genre-specific norms in reviewers' and examiners' approaches to self-representation, epistemic perspectives, and attitudinal orientations, revealing commonalities and variations in their usage. These linguistic nuances are discussed in terms of the interpersonal relationships between evaluators and their audiences, a crucial factor shaping the landscape of scholarly assessment in these genres. The findings contribute to the literature on stance and deepen our understanding of genre-specific aspects in oral and written academic evaluative contexts. Incorporating these insights into the instruction of English for research writing can assist junior researchers in effectively responding to criticisms during thesis examinations or manuscript reviews, thereby enhancing their prospects of earning recognition in their disciplinary community.

Chinese returnee scholars' trans-spatial integration and identity (re)construction have received considerable attention in recent discussions. However, their collaborative academic writing practices in English have been relatively neglected in research. This paper addresses this gap by examining how a group of Chinese returnees engage in collaborative English writing for publication, aiming not only to navigate the challenges of competitive academia but also to excel within it. The concept of community of practice is used as a lens to analyze these returnees' motivation in seeking collaboration in English writing. The examination encompasses the affordances derived from such collaborative efforts and the subsequent impact on the scholars' (re)constructed identities. The paper explores their perceptions of how collaborative writing has built their professional social capital and strengthened their identity as academics. This study contributes to understanding Chinese returnee scholars' international publishing practices and urges universities to reconsider their policy when assessing scholars’ collaborative writing and publishing practices.

This study explores the relationship between pre-lecture reading compliance and lecture comprehension in English-medium instruction (EMI) settings. The primary objective of the research was to investigate the influence of pre-lecture reading compliance on English lecture comprehension, with a secondary aim of identifying factors influencing pre-lecture reading compliance. Data were collected from 258 Taiwanese EMI students in 17 courses. A PLS-SEM model utilizing data from 249 participants evaluated the impact of pre-lecture reading compliance on lecture comprehension, accounting for English listening ability, and examined the role of reading expectancy and value in reading compliance. Additionally, open-ended responses from all 258 participants provided insights into students’ perspectives on factors affecting their reading compliance. Results indicate that academic listening ability had a large effect on lecture comprehension whereas the effect for reading compliance was small. Moreover, academic reading expectancy and value were identified as having only a small effect on pre-lecture reading compliance. Further consideration of EMI reading compliance among EMI instructors and researchers is recommended.

The aim of this research was to gain insights into the current state of English for Higher Education (EHE) teaching in Poland from the perspective of its key stakeholders – EHE teachers. A total of 128 EHE teachers employed in Polish universities participated in an online survey-based study that explored their self-reported practices and beliefs regarding various facets of teaching English at university level. On the one hand, the findings suggest that the participants place considerable emphasis on developing students' communicative and social skills as well as their lexical competence. On the other hand, the study also identified some language components that seem to receive insufficient attention in the classroom. In particular, pronunciation, academic writing, intercultural/pragmatic competence, and grammar are among the most neglected areas. The findings also confirm that EHE teachers are generally open to a shift from general to content-based English teaching in the academic setting and willing to incorporate innovative technological solutions into their teaching. Nevertheless, the data suggest that there is a lack of ready-made materials for teaching specialized English and a need for more institutional guidance and support for EHE teachers.