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Contemporary workplaces are often characterized by diversity, involving participants from multiple linguistic and cultural traditions (e.g., Angouri, 2014). In such settings, participants draw on their rich cultural assumptions and values to co-construct meaning (e.g., Takamiya & Aida Niendorf, 2019), as language use and communication patterns have been found to be inextricably linked to different group belongings. While diversity enriches workplace interaction linguistically and culturally, it also presents “communicative challenges to many employers and co-workers” (Holmes, 2018, p. 335). These communicative challenges include increased likelihood of miscommunication, social exclusion (Lønsmann, 2014), and limited interpersonal communication (Tange & Lauring, 2009). While considerable research has been devoted to understanding intercultural workplaces communication, little research exists on the linguistically and culturally diverse Swedish workplace. To gain greater insights into how diversity may enrich workplace interaction and the communicative challenges employees may experience, this pilot study explores employees’ attitudes to and beliefs about intercultural communication in the Swedish workplace. The pilot study is part of a larger project on digital professional communication in multilingual workplaces in Sweden. Five employees in managerial positions in Swedish higher education and corporations were interviewed. We adopt a critical intercultural communication approach, seeing “culture” as a dynamic concept, which employees may attribute to self and others, and (dis-)align with in different ways. Findings show that: (a) language competence in English is seen as indexing general competence; (b) categorisations of cultures are prevalent: Participants often view culture as synonymous with nation and point at differences between groups as a challenge to achieve effective communication; (c) identity and face are foregrounded: Some participants feel like a different person when using a different language, while others see a specific language as a way to adopt a different persona or professional role; and (d) culture and language are used to explain group dynamics (e.g., feeling as an outsider or as part of the group), and as tools to actively integrate or exclude others. The material has raised our awareness about not seeing the workplace as a monolith, but workplaces may be marked by internal variation when it comes to intercultural communication. 

References   Angouri, J. (2014). Multilingualism in the workplace: Language practices in multicultural contexts. Multilingua 33, 1-9.     

Holmes, J. (2018). Intercultural communication in the workplace. In B. Vine (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of language in the workplace (pp. 335-347). Routledge.    

Lønsmann, D. (2014). Linguistic diversity in the international workplace: Language ideologies and processes of exclusion. Multilingua 33, 89–116.    

Takamiya, Y. & Aida Niendorf, M. (2019). Identity (re)construction and improvement in intercultural competence through synchronous and asynchronous telecollaboration: Connecting Japanese language learners in the United States and Sweden. In Zimmerman, E. & McMeekin, A. (Eds.), Technology-supported learning in and out of the Japanese language classroom: Theoretical, empirical, and pedagogical developments (pp. 111-145). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.    

Tange, H., & Lauring, J. (2009). Language management and social interaction within the multilingual workplace. Journal of Communication Management 13(3), 218–232.     

Inherent in classroom research are the inevitable, and often unanticipated, challenges experienced by researchers. This article moves beyond the main issues highlighted in the literature and identifies some of the problems the authors encountered when conducting two common methodological procedures, classroom observations and stimulated recall interviews (SRIs), as part of our dissertation research investigations. The paper first surveys what the literature describes as the main areas of concern with these two procedures. It then pulls away from these resources to explore actual difficulties we experienced that we believe are inadequately addressed in the literature. Using illustrations from our dissertation projects, we examined several recurring challenges we faced, including participant discomfort with specific types of SRI questions and different forms of participant-researcher interaction during non-participatory classroom observations. For each of these problems, we provide a series of recommendations for researchers who plan to use similar methodological protocols in classroom research.

This corpus-based study compares L1-English and L1-Chinese undergraduate students' use of lexical bundles in English argumentative essays, and identifies the most common bundle misuses in L2 student writing. Data consist of two corpora of student-produced argumentative essays: 101 high-rated essays written by L1-English students and 105 high-rated essays written by L1-Chinese students. Using Biber's (Biber et al., 1999; Biber et al., 2004) structural and functional taxonomy, we compared the forms and functions of four-word bundles used by L1-English and L1-Chinese university students. Findings indicate that L2 students not only use substantially more bundle types and tokens than L1 writers, but the structural and functional patterns of bundles also differ. While L1 writers' bundles consist of mostly noun and preposition phrases, L2 students use significantly more verb phrase (clausal) bundles. Results also show that L2 student writers use significantly more stance bundles than L1 writers. In addition, most of the misused bundles in the L2 writers' essays pertain to grammatical mistakes, particularly with articles and prepositions. We conclude with some pedagogical implications for ESL composition.

Nominalizations, or nouns derived from verbs or adjectives through suffixes, are a pervasive characteristic feature of written academic discourse. To better understand the nature of nominalization in L2 student writing and its relation to assessment in first-year writing (FYW) contexts, we report findings of a comparative corpus-based analysis of nominalization use in university student papers. Data consist of high-rated (A graded) and low-rated (C graded) L2 undergraduate research papers from multiple sections of an FYW course for international and multilingual students. Nominalizations were examined in terms of frequencies, unique types, abstract/concrete and human/non-human categories, nominal stance types, and modification types. Results reveal no statistically significant differences in the examined classifications. However, the small effect sizes for certain categories point to subtle differences between the two groups, which together might have affected the instructors’ evaluations of text quality. We conclude with suggestions for incorporating nominalization instruction in English for Academic Purposes writing courses.

This study explores the relationship between syntactic complexity and writing quality in assessed source-based research papers produced by ESL undergraduate writers in a first-year writing course through a combination of holistic and fine-grained measures of complexity. The analysis is based on a corpus of 280 student papers across three grade tiers: high, mid, and low. A one-way MANOVA was used to explore the statistical significance of differences of five commonly used syntactic complexity measures (assessed using Lu’s Second Language Syntactic Complexity Analyzer, 2010) across these grade tiers. Results reveal little variation in clausal subordination and coordination, but statistically significant lower complex nominal densities, mean length of clauses (phrasal measures), and mean length of T-units (global measure) in low-rated papers. Analysis of complex nominal composition using the Stanford Tregex with differences assessed with a one-way MANOVA shows that the highest densities of complex nominal types are present in high-rated papers, with statistical significance in adjectival pre-, prepositional post-, and participle modification, and the lowest densities in low-rated papers. While clausal complexity did not demonstrate a relationship with assessed quality, both global and phrasal complexity features appear to be important components. We conclude with implications for syntactic complexity research and ESL composition pedagogy.

As online and blended learning environments have expanded within educational contexts, online support services such as online writing labs have emerged concurrently to provide students with additional assistance. Some online writing labs now use technologies, including audio-visual-textual conferencing (Yergeau, Wozniak, & Vandenberg, 2009), that allow tutors and student writers to engage in sustained, synchronous, one-on-one interactions. Though researchers and teacher trainers have begun to explore the processes involved in preparing teachers for online classrooms (e.g., Wang, Chen, & Levy, 2010), less attention has been paid to the training and preparation of writing tutors to be effective in digital contexts. Nonetheless, Kastman Breuch and Racine (2000) argue that “online tutors need training specific to online writing spaces” while noting the difficulty of translating training for physical spaces to digital ones in spite of the fact that learning outcomes can be “equally facilitated” in both contexts (p. 246). In this chapter, we present our reflective approach to this issue in the English Language Improvement Program (ELIP) Academic & Global Communication Program’s Writing Lab at Ohio University. 

An overview of ESP Journal and the desk review (Section 1) 

One of the most important steps in any submission to a journal is understanding and demonstrating how the article fits with the aims and scope of the journal. This section of the panel provides an overview of English for Specific Purposes and outlines the purpose (and challenges) of the desk review as the first element of peer review.

The review process and responding to reviews (Section 2) 

The review process has multiple steps and much of this work is largely undertaken in the ‘back room’ of the journal. In this section, we outline the various steps beyond the desk review and discuss the possible decisions on manuscripts which authors might receive, from accept through to reject. We also suggest ways to deal with responding to reviewers’ comments.

Developing skills as reviewers through SEB membership (Section 3)

This section begins with questions that an early career reviewer might have about carrying outa peer review. Our SEB members will discuss how they developed their various reviewing strategies, and how interacting with members of the ESP board during peer reviewing has helped with developing skills as reviewer and writer.

Ways to become a reviewer (Section 4)

This final section focuses on opportunities for becoming a reviewer as a postgraduate student or early career researcher. It also provides suggestions on possible traps to avoid in reviewing. The session ends with time for questions with the whole panel.

This book presents a corpus-based study of spoken learner language produced by university-level ESL students in the classroom. Using contemporary theories as a guide and employing cutting-edge corpus analysis tools and methods, the authors analyse a variety of learner speech to offer many new insights into the nature and characteristics of the spoken language of college ESL learners. Focusing on types of speech that are rarely examined, this original work makes a significant contribution to the study and understanding of ESL spoken language at university level. It will appeal to students and scholars of applied linguistics, corpus linguistics, second language acquisition and discourse analysis.

Contemporary workplaces are characterized by diversity, involving participants from multiple linguistic and cultural traditions. In such settings, translanguaging is considered a common practice in which multilinguals “create an apparently seamless flow between languages and language varieties and to transcend the boundaries between named languages and/or language varieties as well as the boundaries between language and other semiotic systems” (Hua et al., 2022, p. 315). Little research, however, exists on such practices in multilingual workplaces (Du & Zhou, 2022), and even less on the linguistically diverse Swedish workplace. To gain greater insight into the seamlessness, transcendence, and boundaries such language users create and perceive, we explore the communication practices of employees in different Swedish workplaces. As an initial departure point, five employees in managerial positions were interviewed in the pilot study. We adopt a critical intercultural communication approach, seeing “culture” as a dynamic concept, which employees may attribute to self and others, and (dis-)align with in different ways. Findings show that categorisations of languages are prevalent, with participants applying a scale of linguistic sophistication or complexity and ranking formality conventions on a strong-to-weak scale. When categorising people and groups, participants foreground identity and face, and group dynamics is a recurring theme, with distinctions made between groups and orientations. This presentation focuses on participants’ descriptions of L1 and L2 identities and their perceived effects on workplace communication. Findings suggest that translanguaging has yet to be commonplace in the workplaces we investigated and shed light on lay perspectives on (trans)languaging in the workplace.

References

Du, J., & Zhou, X. (2022). Translanguaging practices in Chinese/English bilingual engineers’ communications in the workplace. Applied Linguistics Review, 13(3), 389-402.

Hua, Z., Jones, R.H. & Jaworska, S. (2022). Acts of distinction at times of crisis: An epistemological challenge to intercultural communication research. Language and Intercultural Communication, 22(3), 312-323.

In this talk, we present a research project that we plan to launch in late 2023. The aim of the project is to investigate professional communication in video meetings, which is justified given their growing importance in the modern and post-pandemic workplace. The setting is workplaces in Sweden where English is used as a lingua franca, due to the increasing societal impact of multilingual workplaces. In the specific context of study, communication is embedded in several layers of complexity: It takes place in an institutional setting; it is digital and takes place in video mode; it is done across cultures and marked by diversity; and it is done partly in English as a lingua franca. The project focuses on internal communication within the workplace and does not consider external communication, for example involving customers. The overarching research question is: What factors contribute to (un)successful digital intercultural interactions in multilingual workplaces, specifically in video meetings? To map the characteristics of video meetings, we compare them to in-person meetings. We thus ask: (a) What (perceived and actual) differences and similarities are there between digital and in-person workplace meetings? To map the video meeting as a genre, we ask: (b) What are the key structural, linguistic, and interactional patterns of the video meeting? Given the central role of English as a lingua franca in these workplaces, we ask: (c) To what extent and how does English language proficiency—including participants’ beliefs about and attitudes to English language proficiency—affect workplace communication in digital intercultural interactions? Finally, we adopt a critical intercultural communication approach, seeing ‘culture’ as a dynamic concept (e.g., Hua et al., 2022), which employees may attribute to self and others, and (dis-)align with in different ways. We ask: (d) To what extent and how is culture seen as relevant in multilingual workplaces? Participants will be interviewed about communication practices in the workplace both individually and in focus groups. We will also record and analyze samples of (i) video and (ii) in-person meetings, to enable triangulation of different types of data. We conclude by discussing how the project's findings can be used as a basis for best practices and for developing workplace communication training materials.

This paper discusses the development and implementation of a locally-sourced corpus to address the specific needs of an ESL writing program. The paper begins with a description of the motivation and development of the Corpus of Ohio Learner and Teacher English (COLTE), a large in-house corpus consisting of assessed ESL student writing and teacher feedback from first-year writing courses. The paper illustrates research conducted within the local context using the COLTE and discusses how the program's corpus-based approach influenced curricular revisions and instructional practice. It addresses the evaluation of these efforts, challenges encountered, and considerations for building and using corpora at the program level. The paper concludes by arguing that stakeholders within programs can work collaboratively to build and use locally-sourced corpora grounded in their specific setting to explore local practices and address the English language learning and teaching needs of their own particular context.

This paper discusses the development and implementation of a locally-sourced corpus to address the specific needs of an ESL writing program. The paper begins with a description of the motivation and development of the Corpus of Ohio Learner and Teacher English (COLTE), a large in-house corpus consisting of assessed ESL student writing and teacher feedback from first-year writing courses. The paper illustrates research conducted within the local context using the COLTE and discusses how the program's corpus-based approach influenced curricular revisions and instructional practice. It addresses the evaluation of these efforts, challenges encountered, and considerations for building and using corpora at the program level. The paper concludes by arguing that stakeholders within programs can work collaboratively to build and use locally-sourced corpora grounded in their specific setting to explore local practices and address the English language learning and teaching needs of their own particular context.

Appropriate use of linking adverbials (LAs) is a key feature of successful academic writing because these devices (e.g., furthermore, however) enhance meaning and establish textual cohesion explicitly (e.g., Shaw, 2009). In fact, studies have shown that academic writing includes more LAs than other registers (Liu, 2008). Despite their importance in academic writing, second language (L2) learners of English have been reported to struggle with LAs, frequently overusing, underusing, and misusing these devices (e.g., Appel & Szeib, 2018). Despite the growing interest in L2 students’ use of LAs, little attention has been given to whether L2 students’ use of these cohesive devices in their writing changes over time. Using corpus-based methods, this study presents an analysis of the developmental trajectory of L2 university students’ use of LAs. Specifically, adapting Appel and Szeib’s (2018) semantic framework, the study examined the extent to which L2 university students’ use of LAs changes over time. Data consist of a specialized corpus of 80 argumentative essays written by 40 L2 undergraduate students at two different points in time. The first subcorpus (ESL-1) includes 40 argument essays (~40,000 words) written by these students in the first of two first-year writing courses, while the second subcorpus (ESL-2) consists of 40 essays (~58,000 words) written by the same student writers in the second writing course. Preliminary analysis reveals changes in overall frequency of LAs, with ESL-2 consisting of fewer LAs than ESL-1. Furthermore, the results show that some semantic categories decreased in ESL-2, yet little to no change was observed for other semantic categories. Upon closer analysis, specific types of LAs decreased while others increased in ESL-2, thus demonstrating students’ changing use of LAs as they gain more experience over time. The presentation begins by reporting and discussing the results, followed by implications for L2 writing research and pedagogy.

Technology has played a crucial role in the analysis of spoken and written discourse. Not only has it impacted how discourse data are collected, transcribed, and analyzed, but it has also crucially changed the types of social interactions and texts that are examined. Utilizing technological tools to capture and investigate language in use, the field of discourse studies has profoundly transformed our views of human communication, communicative repertoire needed to interact effectively in various discourse domains, and approaches to language teaching and learning.

This exploratory study investigates the impact of class size on the rhetorical move structures and lexico-grammatical features of academic lecture introductions. From the MICASE corpus (The Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English), two small corpora of lecture introductions of small- and large-class lectures were compiled. Using a genre-based analytical approach, the lecture introductions in the two corpora were compared to examine how the size of the audience influences the rhetorical and linguistic choices lecturers make in university settings. Findings of the comparative analysis suggest that class size does affect lecturers’ discursive decisions. A large audience seems to compel experienced lecturers to use more of certain discursive strategies as a way to create positive and friendly learning environments in settings that may not be particularly favorable for establishing such conditions. However, due to the nature of small classes in which the number of students is smaller and the proximity between lecturers and students is closer, reinforcing positive rapport seems to take less rhetorical and linguistic effort on the part of lecturers. The paper ends with a number of tentative pedagogical implications for lecturer training.

Communication is central in educational contexts, as teachers facilitate learning and students demonstrate their learning through the use of language. Spoken classroom discourse practices have a profound effect on both learning environments and learning processes. For this reason, analysis of spoken classroom discourse has played a crucial role in providing important insights into the complex nature of classroom structures, interactions, and relationships. While various approaches have been used to analyze spoken classroom discourse over several decades, most of these analyses have centered on the micro-levels of teacher–student interaction, focusing particularly on the ubiquitous “triadic dialogue” (Lemke, 1990), or the three-part exchange structure referred to as the IRF: teacher initiation, student response, and teacher feedback (Sinclair & Coulthard, 1975). Until fairly recently, however, few researchers have approached the analysis of spoken classroom discourse from a corpus linguistic perspective. After briefly reviewing corpus approaches to the analysis of spoken classroom discourse, this chapter reports on a corpus-based analysis of the discourse marker you know in second-language (L2) teacher talk to illustrate how spoken classroom discourse could be analyzed through a corpus-based approach. The chapter concludes with some directions for future research in which corpus approaches can be used to analyze spoken classroom discourse.

Building on the work of Borg (2006), this article reports on a study of Japanese English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' perceptions of some of the unique characteristics of EFL teachers that distinguish them from teachers of other subjects. The data were collected by means of a questionnaire to which 163 college-level EFL students in Japan responded. Their responses were analyzed to identify the characteristics that are exclusive to the province of EFL teachers. The results of the study indicate that these learners perceive EFL teachers to be unique along four central dimensions: the complex nature of the subject matter, the content of teaching, teaching approach, and teacher personality. The findings also suggest that the particularity of the socio-cultural and educational context may ultimately influence how EFL teachers and their work are conceptualized by learners in crucial ways. I conclude by arguing that if language teacher education is to provide a more nuanced explanation of the uniqueness of EFL teachers and teaching that may be meaningful and relevant to teachers and students working within particular contexts, the voices of all stakeholders involved in EFL education need to be included in the dialogue on what it means to be an EFL teacher.

This genre-oriented analysis explores the rhetorical structure and linguistic features of EAP classroom lessons. The analysis is based on a corpus of 24 EAP classroom lessons taught by highly experienced IEP teachers. Using a focused Swalesian move analysis combined with corpus-based methods, the study examines the rhetorical moves in different phases of EAP lessons and frequent lexical phrases used to signal discourse organization in each phase. In addition, four EAP teachers were interviewed in order to gain insider perspectives into their discursive practices. The analysis reveals that EAP lessons consist of three major phases, each with three distinct moves, and with varying linguistic realizations. Findings suggest that these experienced EAP teachers have generated and internalized a stable lesson frame in response to the recurrent situation of providing meaningful, activity-driven, and logically organized EAP lessons. The paper concludes with a discussion of the power of Swales's move analysis in studying classroom lessons as well as implications for EAP teacher education.

The context for this task is an oral communication course that focuses on developing students’ academic and professional communication and presentation abilities. In university settings, many students, particularly graduate students, are expected to write and orally defend their thesis/dissertation. Yet students are often unaware of the processes involved in the oral defense portion of their thesis/ dissertation. The focus of this task is to raise students’ awareness of the organization, management, and expectations of the oral defense by acting as a sort of ethnographer of communication. Students interview their thesis/dissertation supervisors to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of the oral defense process.

Disciplinary writing requires students to become familiar with the reporting verbs commonly employed in their fields to incorporate other writers’ ideas in their texts. This lesson raises students’ awareness of the breadth of reporting verbs used in academic writing, encourages them to find out the verbs which are most commonly used in specific disciplines, and assists them in the use of discipline-specific verbs in their writing.

Appropriate use of linking adverbials (LAs) is a key feature of successful academic writing because these devices(e.g., furthermore, however, thus) enhance meaning and establish textual cohesion explicitly (Shaw 2009).Previous research has shown that LAs appear prominently in academic prose. In fact, these studies have revealedthat academic writing includes more LAs than other registers including conversation, fiction, and news (Biber etal. 1999; Liu 2008). Despite their importance in academic writing, second language (L2) writers of English havebeen reported to struggle to use LAs appropriately. Over the past few decades, considerable research has comparedthe use of LAs between first-language (L1) English writers and various L2 English groups including L1 Chinese(e.g., Gao 2016), L1 Korean (e.g., Ha 2016), and L1 Spanish writers (e.g., Carrió-Pastor 2013), as well as amongspecific L1 groups (e.g., Appel & Szeib 2018). These studies have shown that L2 English writers frequentlyoveruse, underuse, and/or misuse these devices. While these studies have been important in understanding L2writers’ challenges with LAs, surprisingly little attention has been given to whether L2 students’ use of LAs intheir writing changes over time or the degree to which their behaviors change with experience. Using corpusbased methods, this study reports findings of an analysis of the developmental trajectory of English-as-a-secondlanguage (ESL) university students’ use of LAs in their academic writing. The study was guided by the followingresearch question: To what extent does L2 university students’ use of linking adverbials in their writing changeover time? Through this analysis, this study aims to provide a greater understanding of the relationship betweeneducational experience and L2 writing development.Data consist of a specialized corpus of 126 high-rated source-based argumentative essays written by 63ESL undergraduate students in US-based first-year writing (FYW) courses at two different points in time. Thefirst subcorpus (ESL-1) includes 63 argumentative essays (66,424 words) written by these students in the first oftwo FYW courses, while the second subcorpus (ESL-2) consists of 63 argumentative papers (87,638 words)written by the same student writers in the second FYW course. To analyze LAs in the student essays, Liu’s (2008)taxonomy of LAs was used because his list is considered to be one of the most comprehensive (Gao 2016), witha total of 110 lexical items. The framework consists of four broad semantic categories: additive (e.g., additionally,similarly), adversative (e.g., however, in contrast), causal (e.g., as a result, hence), and sequential (e.g., first, inconclusion). Each category in this framework is classified further into subcategories. Using the concordance toolAntconc (Anthony 2018), every LA item in Liu’s (2008) list was searched in both subcorpora, and then wemanually examined each example in its textual context to ensure every item functioned as an LA. Item frequencieswere counted per text and normalized per 1,000 words. To determine whether the differences were statisticallysignificant, paired samples t-tests, with Bonferroni correction, were performed, with the alpha set at .05 (twotailed).Analysis reveals statistically significant changes in the overall frequency of LAs, with the ESL-2subcorpus consisting of fewer LAs than the ESL-1 subcorpus. Upon closer analysis, the results show that the useof additive and causal LAs decreased over time, while adversative and sequential LAs increased. However, astatistically significant difference was only found for the additive category. Analysis of the proportionaldistributions of the categories shows that with experience ESL student writers rely less on additive and more onadversative, yet the distributions of causal and sequential do not seem to change. With a few exceptions, the mostfrequently used words/phrases for all the categories are strikingly similar in both subcorpora, though thefrequencies at which they are used changes. Thus, the preliminary findings suggest that the distribution of LAsappears to change and matches more closely with published academic prose (cf. Liu 2008) as ESL students gainmore experience with academic writing; however, the specific linguistic LA devices used do not seem to markedlychange. The paper begins by reporting and discussing the results, followed by implications for L2 writing researchand pedagogy.

This study reports findings of a comparative corpus-based analysis of informality in L1 and L2 undergraduate student argumentative essays. Data consist of two corpora of student essays: 101 high-rated essays written by L1-English students and 254 high-rated essays written by ESL students in US universities. Based on a taxonomy of the 10 most common informal features cited in style manuals, we compared informal language use in L1-English and ESL undergraduate student essays. Results reveal that overall frequency of informal features is significantly greater in L2 student texts. Findings also indicate that both groups rely on similar informal elements, yet they differ in distinct ways. While ESL student writers tend to employ significantly more anaphoric pronoun it and second-person pronouns, they use most other types less frequently than L1 writers, and generally appear to observe prescriptive rules more strictly. In contrast, L1-English writers tend to adopt a more liberal attitude toward these rules, employing a broader range of informal types, particularly those that have become relatively legitimized in academic writing. The paper concludes with implications for ESL composition pedagogy.

This study investigates cross-linguistic variation of metadiscourse in the results and discussion chapters of engineering master's theses written in English and Spanish. The analysis is based on a corpus of 200 master's thesis results and discussion chapters: 100 written by L1 English students and 100 written by L1 Spanish students. Using Hyland's (2005a) interpersonal model of metadiscourse, the results and discussion chapters were compared to examine the influence of lingua-cultural contexts of writing on student writer's employment of metadiscoursal resources. Findings of the comparative analysis reveal significant cross-linguistic differences for overall frequency of metadiscourse as well as for most (sub-)categories. The analysis suggests that interpersonal features of writing are inexorably linked to the specific lingua-cultural contexts in which texts are produced and consumed, even within the same discipline and (part-)genre. The paper concludes with some pedagogical implications for L2 writing instruction.

This study explores interactional metadiscourse in successful and less-successful (i.e., A- vs. B-graded) argumentative essays written by Chinese ESL university students, and how these ESL writers compare with high-rated L1 students. The analysis is based on three corpora of student writing: 25 successful ESL essays, 25 less-successful ESL essays, and 25 successful L1 English papers. Using Hyland’s (2005a) model of interactional metadiscourse, these papers were compared to examine the extent to which successful and less-successful student-produced argumentative essays differ in their employment of stance and engagement resources. Findings of the analysis suggest that successful essays, both L1 and L2, contain significantly greater instances of particularly hedging devices than less-successful essays. For some interpersonal resources, such as boosters and attitude markers, no significant differences were found. The analysis also reveals that, unlike their L1 peers, ESL students were overwhelmingly reluctant to establish an authorial identity in their writing. The paper concludes with a few implications for L2 writing pedagogy.

This study reports findings of an analysis of the citation practices of L2 undergraduate students in the context of first-year writing (FYW). Data consist of a corpus of 100 source-based research papers written by L2 students in a FYW course. Taking a multi-perspective analytical approach, we examine L2 undergraduate students' citation practices in terms of surface forms, rhetorical functions, and writer stance. Results indicate that L2 students use a restricted range of reporting structures, and they primarily use sources for attribution function to display their knowledge of the topics. Furthermore, as opposed to taking a strong positive or negative position, the findings show that L2 student writers mainly adopt a non-committal stance by merely acknowledging or distancing themselves from cited materials, suggesting that L2 students are inclined to show deference to the perceived authority of published sources. We conclude with pedagogical options for enhancing L2 university students' citation practices.

This study traces the reception history of Freeman and Johnson’s (1998) widely cited article dedicated to theory and practices of second language teacher educa-tion (SLTE). It illuminates the degree to which that article has impacted SLTE theory, research, and potentially instructional practices. The reception study analysis is based on a data set of 413 journal articles, books, book chapters, mas-ter’s theses, and doctoral dissertations that cited Freeman and Johnson (F&J) between 1999 and 2014. Using an innovative analytical approach combining both Hyland’s (1999, 2004) citation categories and Coffin’s (2009) stance framework, we investigate the citation analytics of F&J within this data set, including how it has been cited over time and the stance that citing authors have taken toward F&J’s proposals. Although F&J’s reconceptualization of the theory and practices of SLTE sparked initial controversy, our findings indicate that F&J’s article has not only been accumulating increased attention over time, but their vision for the future of SLTE also has gained greater acceptance and has edged closer to the center of SLTE. The article concludes with a discussion of implications for further reception studies in TESOL/applied linguistics.

Style guides for scientific English frequently suggest avoiding the passive voice (Day & Sakaduski, 2011), as it is considered to weaken writing clarity. Yet research has shown that the passive is highly common in academic prose (Biber et al., 1999), particularly in scientific writing (Swales, 2004). While a few studies have investigated the passive in published scientific writing, such as medicine and physics (e.g., Hiltunen, 2016), engineering is poorly represented and understood in research on disciplinary discourse but especially on student writing. Despite increasing awareness of the challenges engineering graduate students have in writing high-stakes research genres such as the master’s thesis, little attention has been given to engineering student writing. Furthermore, specificity is a key principle in English for specific purposes (ESP) research (Hyland, 2002), yet how far we should go with this concept is still an open question. Using corpus-based methods, we present findings of a comparative analysis of the use of the passive voice in engineering master’s theses. Specifically, we systematically compare the frequencies, forms (including tenses and clause types), and functions of the passive voice across five sub-disciplines. Data consist of specialized corpora of 150 methods chapters of master’s theses in chemical, civil, electrical, industrial, and mechanical engineering. Our data show that 52% of the verbs were in the passive, and no variation was found in terms of overall frequency. Findings, however, indicate variation in the passive forms and functions across sub-disciplines. While variation also exists in verb activity types, research-oriented verbs were most frequently used by all sub-disciplines, most likely due to the part-genre of the corpora. Supporting previous research (Huddleston, 1971; Swales, 2004), certain verbs are nearly always in the passive while others rarely are. The presentation begins by reporting and discussing the results, followed by implications for research in ESP research and teaching.

This exploratory study investigates teachers' use of metadiscourse in EAP lessons and academic lectures. The analysis is based on two corpora of instructor contributions to classroom discourse: 18 EAP lessons from the L2CD corpus and 18 university lectures from the MICASE corpus. Based on Hyland's (2005) interpersonal model of metadiscourse, the two corpora were compared to examine the influence of pedagogical content and context on teachers' enactment of metadiscourse in the classroom. Findings of the comparative analysis suggest that these aspects of teaching and learning influence teachers' use of metadiscourse in significant ways. EAP teachers seem to be more concerned with explicitly framing the discourse primarily to set up classroom tasks and engendering greater student involvement and participation. On the other hand, university instructors' priority lies in establishing relationships between ideas in the unfolding arguments of lectures. Yet for some metadiscoursal features, the real-time spoken environment of the classroom appears to override pedagogical focus and approach. The paper concludes with a few pedagogical implications.

This study reports findings of a comparative analysis of the use of (un)attended this/these in high- and low-rated L2 university student argumentative essays. Specifically, the analysis systematically compares the frequencies, antecedents, verb patterns, and attending noun stance options of (un)attended this/these in 174 assessed essays written by Chinese ESL undergraduate students in a first-year composition course, grouped into high- and low-rated essays. Results reveal that high- and low-rated L2 students use this/these in different ways to establish rhetorical cohesion in building their arguments. Both groups tend to employ attended this/these more frequently, but the low-rated essays include significantly more unattended this/these. The low group relies more on copular verbs and phrasal antecedents, but the high group prefers lexical verbs and clausal/extended discoursal referents; however, with unattended this/these, both groups use copular and lexical verbs equally and the antecedents are predominantly clausal/extended discoursal referents. These two groups of student writers also select different types of stance options for attending nouns, especially in relation to the antecedent referents to which this/these plus noun indicates. We conclude with pedagogical implications for ESL composition instruction.

This in-house inquiry explores the response practices of a group of L2 writingteachers in our specific program to gain a better understanding of these teachers’feedback practices and to bring about purposeful change within our local context.Data consist of 4,313 electronic feedback (e-feedback) items given by six writingteachers to 36 L2 students on six writing tasks in a first-year writing course forinternational students. Using Ene and Upton’s (2014) e-feedback framework, eachfeedback instance was coded for feedback target, directness, explicitness, charge,and location. Although some variations exist, results show that these teachersoverwhelmingly focused on form across writing tasks. Findings also show that thee-feedback was primarily corrective, direct, explicit, and within-text. Following adiscussion of our programmatic response to this internal investigation, we con-clude by arguing that programs can establish philosophies of response grounded intheir specific context based on examination of local practices.