Zarrin Khatibi; Rajab Esfandiari
Abstract
In the last few decades, the interpersonal aspect of academic writing has been stressed in English for academic purposes (EAP). This corpus-based study has focused on cross-cultural and cross-contextual analysis of engagement markers in English Physics research articles (RA) written by American English ...
Read More
In the last few decades, the interpersonal aspect of academic writing has been stressed in English for academic purposes (EAP). This corpus-based study has focused on cross-cultural and cross-contextual analysis of engagement markers in English Physics research articles (RA) written by American English writers publishing in English-medium international journals; Persian writers publishing in international English-medium journals; and Persian writers publishing in English-medium national journals. Hyland’s (2005) interpersonal model was used as the analytical framework. The analysis is based on a corpus of 240 RAs in two subsections: introductions and conclusions. The computer programme AntConc was used to analyse the data, and the engagement markers were textually examined for the various functions and uses they served in the introductions and conclusions. Results of data analyses showed differences in the overall frequency of engagement markers among the three sub-corpora. However, although American academics and internationally published Persian academics’ metadiscoursal preferences are relatively similar, Persian writers seem to be affected by cultural preferences when making their engagement choices. This implies that the linguistic background of writers in addition to the cultural contexts of publication seems to direct scholars’ rhetorical patterns when writing their RAs. Results of the current study help novice and international Physics scholars, particularly Iranian academics, to at least partially meet the disciplinary conventions of the journal they submit their manuscripts. Moreover, EAP teachers can benefit from the results to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the needs of EAP learners.
Leila Sajedi; Mahnaz Saeidi; Touran Ahour
Abstract
Writing publishable research articles is a great concern of academicians, which requires awareness on all its relevant aspects. However, the obstacles are elusive and postgraduate students' challenges are not fully explored. In this mixed methods research and for the purpose of investigating Iranian ...
Read More
Writing publishable research articles is a great concern of academicians, which requires awareness on all its relevant aspects. However, the obstacles are elusive and postgraduate students' challenges are not fully explored. In this mixed methods research and for the purpose of investigating Iranian graduate and postgraduate EFL students’ performance on their research articles in terms of language and compositional conventions, 30 students participated. Their research articles were analyzed using a researcher-made scale. The same conventions were utilized as a questionnaire to investigate participants' perceptions on the essentials of language conventions in research articles to find the relationship between their performance and perceptions. Besides, a focus group interview was conducted among 12 of the participants to investigate challenges they face in conducting research and writing research articles. The results of the content analysis of the research articles indicated a mediocre performance, while the data analysis of the questionnaire indicated a high perception towards essentials of research article writing. This discrepancy was confirmed by the statistical analysis of correlation. The results of the analysis of the multifaceted challenges students have in both conducting research and writing a research article paved the way for pertinent implications to practitioners in terms of curriculum, syllabus, and methodology.
