Comparing stance expression in student and expert writing: A needs analysis of Czech PhD students in linguistics
| Autoři | |
|---|---|
| Rok publikování | 2024 |
| Druh | Další prezentace na konferencích |
| Fakulta / Pracoviště MU | |
| Citace | |
| Popis | To publish, not perish, PhD students must learn to express an appropriate stance in their research writing, one which the reader will find both convincing and credible. Since writing conventions vary across linguacultural backgrounds, this task is even more difficult for student writers with English as L2. While stance has been extensively researched in expert academic writing, less attention has been given to the writing of students at the PhD level. This lack of knowledge of students’ specific language needs can make it challenging for teachers when designing academic writing courses. To address this gap, in my ongoing doctoral research, I investigate stance expression in writing by Czech PhD students in the form of a needs analysis. The aim is to identify the students’ needs regarding stance-taking in research article writing to better prepare them to publish internationally. The study uses a mixed methods design, combining corpus-based analysis of student and expert writing and interviews with PhD students and academics. Two specialised corpora were compiled for the study: a learner corpus of student writing comprising 24 PhD theses by students in linguistics (L1 Czech) and a reference corpus of 24 research articles in linguistics by expert writers (L1 English). Analysis of the frequency and rhetorical function of stance features is carried out based on Hyland’s (2005) model of stance. The follow-up interviews focus on students’ experience of academic writing, views on stance expression, and their perceived needs. The interviews follow a semi-structured or discourse-based format and include a discussion of extracts of the student’s own writing. Preliminary results from a pilot study suggest that the students’ expertise in academic writing, previous instruction, and L1 background all appear to influence their use of stance features to some degree. |