ASSESSING LEARNERS’ ACADEMIC PHRASEOLOGY IN THE DIGITAL AGE: A CORPUS-INFORMED APPROACH TO ESP TEXTS

Andreea Dinca, Madalina Chitez

DOI Number
https://doi.org/10.22190/JTESAP2101071D
First page
071
Last page
084

Abstract


In the field of English for Specific Purposes (ESP), as in any other type of interlanguage, phraseology contributes significantly to successful academic writing (Biber and Barbieri 2007). For particular learner varieties, such as Romanian English, few studies have examined formulaic sequences (Hyland 2008), mainly focusing on lexico-grammatical patterns (Chitez 2012, 2014).  The proposed paper investigates the use of phraseology in Romanian students’ academic papers, written during their ESP courses, by adopting a double contrastive perspective: first, we contrast texts produced in two different disciplines (Literature Studies and Information Technology), and, second, we compare the academic phraseology in learner language with native speaker phraseology. For the analysis, we have compiled two corpora (ESP-LIT and ESP-IT), each consisting of 40 texts representing a discipline specific didactic genre, e.g. essay. As reference, we used the Academic Phrasebank (Davis and Morley 2018). The aim is to find out whether the use of academic formulaic expressions differs according to the discipline and the extent to which students integrate expert academic phrases into their writing. The methodology can be replicated for different language learning settings.

Keywords

phraseology in ESP, discipline-specific phraseology, corpus-based contrastive phraseology, ESP in Romania

Full Text:

PDF

References


Ädel, Annelie. Metadiscourse in L1 and L2 English. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 2006.

Belcher, Diane. “What ESP Is and Can Be: An introduction.” In English for Specific Purposes in Theory and Practice, edited by Diane Belcher, 1- 20. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2009.

Belcher, Diane. “Recent developments in ESP theory and research: Enhancing critical reflection and learner autonomy through technology and other means”. In Synergies of English for specific purposes and language learning technologies, edited by Nadezna Stojković, M, Tošić, and V. Nejković, 2-19. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars, 2017.

Bercuci, Loredana, and Madalina Chitez (2019). “A corpus analysis of argumentative structures in ESP writing”. International Online Journal of Education and Teaching (IOJET) 6, no. 4 (2019): 733-747.

Biber, Douglas, and Federica Barbieri. “Lexical bundles in university spoken and written registers.” English for specific purposes 26, no. 3 (2007): 263-286. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2006.08.003.

Brezina, Vaclav., Pierre Weill-Tessier and Anthony McEnery (2020). #LancsBox (version 5.x). http://corpora.lancs.ac.uk/lancsbox, 2020

Chen, Yu-Hua and Paul Baker. “Lexical Bundles in L1 And L2 Academic Writing.” Language Learning & Technology 14, no. 2 (June 2010): 30-49. http://dx.doi.org/10125/44213

Chitez, Madalina, and Loredana Bercuci. „Calibrating digital method integration into ESP courses according to disciplinary settings”. New Trends and Issues Proceedings on Humanities and Social Sciences, 7, no. 1 (2020), 20-29.

Chitez, Madalina, and Loredana Bercuci. „Data-driven learning in ESP university settings in Romania: multiple corpus consultation approaches for academic writing support”. In CALL and complexity – short papers from EUROCALL 2019, edited by Fanny Meunier, Julie Van de Vyver, Linda Bradley and Sylvie Thouësny, 75-81. Research-publishing.net, 2019.

Chitez, Madalina. “Corpus-informed vocabulary teaching: a case study on energy discourse in German”. In Doing Applied Linguistics. Enabling Trandisciplinary Communication, edited by Daniel Perrin and Ulla Kleinberger, 238-243. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2017.

Chitez, Madalina. Learner corpus profiles: the case of Romanian learner English. Linguistic Insights Series (Series Editor: Maurizio Gotti). Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Oxford, Wien: Peter Lang, 2016.

Chitez, Madalina. “Lexical frequency profile applications on learner corpora: a Romanian learner English explorative analysis.” In New trends and methodologies in applied English language research II: Studies in variation, meaning and learning. Linguistic Insights Series, Vol. 145 (Series Editor: Maurizio Gotti), edited by Paula Rodríguez-Puente, David Tizón-Couto, Beatriz Tizón-Couto and Iria Pastor-Gómez: 15-36. Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Oxford, Wien: Peter Lang, 2012.

Davis, Mary, and John Morley. “Facilitating learning about academic phraseology: teaching activities for student writers.” Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. Special Edition (2018): 1- 17.

Ene, Estela, and Sydney Sparks. "EFL Writing in Romania. Reflections on Present and Future". In Education beyond Crisis. Challenges and Directions in a Multicultural World, edited by Daniela Roxana Andron and Gabriela Gruber, 217–230. Brill | Sense, 2020.

Golparvar, Seyyed Ehsan, and Elyas Barabadi. “Key phrase frames in the discussion section of research articles of higher education”. Lingua: International review of general linguistics 236 (March 2020): 102804. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2020.102804.

Granger, Sylviane. “Academic phraseology a key ingredient in successful L2 academic literacy”. In Academic Language in a Nordic Setting - Linguistic and Educational Perspectives, edited by Ruth Vatvedt Fjeld, Kristin Hagen, Birgit Henriksen, Sofie Johansson, Sussi Olsen and Julia Prentice. Oslo Studies in Language 9, No. 3 (2017): 9-27.

Granger, Sylviane, and Yves Bestgen. “The use of collocations by intermediate vs. advanced non-native writers: A bigram-based study.” International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching 52, no. 3 (2014): 229-252. https://doi.org/10.1515/iral-2014-0011.

Hasselgren, Angela. “Lexical teddy bears and advanced learners: a study into the ways Norwegian students cope with English vocabulary”. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 4, no. 2 (2007), 237-258.

Hyland, Ken. “As can be seen: Lexical bundles and disciplinary variation”. English for Specific Purposes 27, no. 1 (2008a): 4-21. doi: 10.1016/j.esp.2007.06.0017.

Hyland, Ken. “Academic clusters: text patterning in published and postgraduate writing” International Journal of Applied Linguistics 18, no. 1 (2008b): 41-62. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1473-4192.2008.00178.x.

Hyland, Ken. „English for academic purposes: An advanced resource book”. London: Routledge, 2006.

Hülmbauer, Cornelia. „'We don't take the right way. We just take the way that we think you will understand' - The shifting relationship of correctness and effectiveness in ELF communication”. In English as a lingua franca: studies and findings, edited by Mauranen, Anna and Ranta, Elina, 323-34. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2009.

Lehtonen, Tuula. “Practitioner Research as a Way of Understanding my Work: Making Sense of Graduates' Language Use”. In Key Issues in English for Specific Purposes in Higher Education, edited by Yasemin Kirkgöz and Kenan Dikilitaş, 129-140. Cham: Springer, 2018.

Nelson, Cecil L., Zoya G. Proshina, and Daniel R. Davis. The Handbook of World Englishes. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Blackwell, 2020.

Nosratinia, Mania, and Zaker, Alireza. „Metacognitive attributes and liberated progress: The association among second language learners’ critical thinking, creativity, and autonomy”. SAGE Open 4, no. 3 (2014): 1-10. doi: 10.1177/2158244014547178

Paquot, Magali. “The phraseological dimension in interlanguage complexity research.” Second Language Research 35, no. 1 (2019): 121-145. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267658317694221.

Paquot, Magali, and Sylviane Granger. “Formulaic language in learner corpora.” Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 32, no. 32 (2012): 130-149. http://doi.org/10.1017/S0267190512000098.

Pennington, Martha, and Barbara Hoekje. “Framing English language teaching”. System 46 (2014): 163-175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2014.08.005.

Römer, Ute, and Ann Arbor. “English in Academia: Does Nativeness Matter?” Anglistik: International Journal of English Studies 20, no. 2 (September 2009): 89-100.

Rose, Heath. Dismantling the Ivory Tower in TESOL: A Renewed Call for Teaching‐Informed Research. TESOL Quarterly 53, no. 3 (September 2019), 895-905.

Simpson-Vlach, Rita, and Nick C Ellis. “An academic formulas list: New methods in phraseology research.” Applied linguistics 31, no. 4 (2010): 487-512. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amp058.

Szudarski, Paweł. Corpus linguistics for vocabulary. A guide for research. London and New York: Routledge, 2018.

Van Rossum, Guido and Fred L. Drake. Python 3 Reference Manual. Scotts Valley, CA: CreateSpace, 2009.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.22190/JTESAP2101071D

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


ISSN 2334-9182 (Print)
ISSN 2334-9212 (Online)