It was found that…: Introductory it Patterns by Native and Non-Native Authors

It was found that…: Introductory it Patterns by Native and Non-Native Authors

Introductory it pattern, as in it was found that, is of significance in academic writing but the use ofintroductory it might be challenging especially for native- and non-native students and non-nativeacademic writers. However, few studies have been conducted to compare the use of introductory itpattern by native and non-native scholars. This study investigates the frequencies, variability andfunctions of the introductory it patterns in the research articles of native and non-native academicprofessionals. The study uses data from the MCRA-L1 and MCRA-L2 corpora of MCRA (MultilingualCorpus of Research Articles) corpus. The size of each corpus was one million words. In order to extractintroductory it patterns, four-word lexical bundles were searched for through WordSmith Tools with acut-off point of 5 times per million words for 4-, 5- and 6-word bundles. The results revealed that therewere 38 different introductory it patterns in the MCRA-L1 and 66 in the MCRA-L2, and the frequencyand percentages showed the tendency of the Turkish authors to overuse the introductory it-structures intheir research articles.

___

  • Ädel, A. (2014). Selecting quantitative data for qualitative analysis: A case study connecting a lexicogrammatical pattern to rhetorical moves. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 16, 68-80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2014.09.001
  • Allen, D. (2010). Lexical bundles in learner writing: An analysis of formulaic language in the ALESS Learner Corpus. Komaba Journal of English Education, 1, 105-127. Retrieved from http://park.itc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/eigo/KJEE/001/105-127.pdf
  • American Psychological Association. (2009). Publication manual of American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
  • Bal, B. (2010). Analysis of four-word lexical bundles in published research articles written by Turkish authors (Unpublished MA dissertation). Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/alesl_theses/2/
  • Baratta, A. M. (2009). Revealing stance through passive voice. Journal of Pragmatics, 41(7), 1406-1421. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2008.09.010
  • Basturkmen, H. (2009). Commenting on results in published research articles and masters dissertations in language teaching. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 8(4), 241- 251. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2009.07.001
  • Beason, L. & Lester, M. (2012). A commonsense guide to grammar and usage (6th ed.). Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s.
  • Biber, D. (2006). University language: A corpus-based study of spoken and written registers (Vol. 23). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing.
  • Biber, D., Conrad, S., & Cortes, V. (2004). If you look at ...: Lexical bundles in university teaching and textbooks. Applied Linguistics, 25(3), 371–405. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/25.3.371
  • Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S., & Finegan, E. (1999). Longman grammar of spoken and written English. Harlow: Longman.
  • Byrd, P., & Coxhead, A. (2010). On the other hand: Lexical bundles in academic writing and in the teaching of EAP. University of Sydney Papers in TESOL, 5(5), 31-64. Retrieved from http://faculty.edfac.usyd.edu.au/projects/usp_in_tesol/pdf/volume05/Article02.pdf
  • Cargill, M., & O’Connor, P. (2006). Developing Chinese scientists’ skills for publishing in English: Evaluating collaborating-colleague workshops based on genre analysis. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 5(3), 207-221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2006.07.002
  • Charles, M. (2006). Revealing and obscuring the writer’s identity: Evidence from a corpus of theses. In R. Kiely, P. Rea-Dickins, H. Woodfield & G. Clibbon (Eds.), Language, culture and identity in applied linguistics (pp. 147-161). London: BAAL/Equinox.
  • Charles, M., Hunston, S., & Pecorari, D. (2009). Academic writing: At the interface of corpus and discourse. London: Continuum International Publishing.
  • Collins, P. (1994). Extraposition in English. Functions of Language, 1(1), 7–24. https://doi.org/10.1075/fol.1.1.03col
  • Cortes, V. (2013). The purpose of this study is to: Connecting lexical bundles and moves in research article introductions. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 12(1), 33-43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2012.11.002
  • Francis, G., Hunston, S., & Manning, E. (1998). Grammar Patterns 2: Nouns and adjectives. London: HarperCollins.
  • Gilquin, G. (2006). Highly polysemous words in foreign language teaching: How to give learners a flying start. In Proceedings of the 7th Conference on Teaching and Language Corpora, Université Paris 7 – Denis Diderot, 1-4 July 2006 (pp. 58-60). Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/75870
  • Granger, S. (2002). A birds-eye view of learner corpus research. In S. Granger, J. Hung, & S. Petch-Tyson (Eds.), Computer learner corpora, second language acquisition, and foreign language teaching (pp. 3-33). Amsterdam: John Benjamins
  • Groom, N. (2005). Pattern and meaning across genres and disciplines: An exploratory study. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 4(3), 257-277. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2005.03.002
  • Güngör (2016). Crosslinguistic analysis of lexical bundles in L1 English, L2 English, and L1 Turkish research articles (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Graduate School of Education, Gazi University, Ankara.
  • Güngör, F., & Uysal, H. H. (2016). A comparative analysis of lexical bundles used by native and non-native scholars. English Language Teaching, 9(6), 176-188. http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/elt.v9n6p176
  • Hacker, D. (2003). A writer’s reference (5th ed.). Boston: Bedford/St Martin’s.
  • Halliday, M. A. K. (1994). An introduction to functional grammar (2nd ed.). London: Foreign Language Teaching & Research Press.
  • Halliday, M. A. K., & Matthiessen, C. (2004). An introduction to functional grammar (3rd ed.). London: Arnold.
  • Herriman, J. (2000). The functions of extraposition in English texts. Functions of Language, 7, 203-230. https://doi.org/10.1075/fol.7.2.03her
  • Herriman, J. (2013). The extraposition of clausal subjects in English and Swedish. In K. Aijmer & B. Altenberg (Eds.), Advances in corpus-based contrastive linguistics: Studies in honor of Stig Johansson (pp. 233-260). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing.
  • Hewings, M., & Hewings, A. (2002). “It is interesting to note that…”: a comparative study of anticipatory ‘it’ in student and published writing. English for Specific Purposes, 21(4), 367- 383. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0889-4906(01)00016-3
  • Hewings, M. & Hewings, A. (2004). Impersonalizing stance: A study of anticipatory ‘it’ in student and published academic writing. In C. Coffin, A. Hewings & K. O’Halloran (Eds.), Applying English grammar: Functional and corpus approaches (pp. 101–116). London: Arnold.
  • Hinkel, E. (1997). Indirectness in L1 and L2 academic writing. Journal of Pragmatics, 27(3), 361-386. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-2166(96)00040-9
  • Hinkel, E. (2004). Tense, aspect and the passive voice in L1 and L2 academic texts. Language Teaching Research, 8(1), 5-29. https://doi.org/10.1191/1362168804lr132oa
  • Hinkel, E. (2005). Hedging, inflating, and persuading in L2 academic writing. Applied Language Learning, 15(1/2), 29-53. Retrieved from http://www.dliflc.edu/wpcontent/uploads/2014/04/ALL15-1.pdf
  • Hunston, S. (2002). Pattern grammar, language teaching, and linguistic variation: Applications of a corpus-driven grammar. In R. Reppen, S. M. Fitzmaurice & D. Biber (Eds.), Using corpora to explore linguistic variation (pp. 167-183). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
  • Hu, G., & Cao, F. (2011). Hedging and boosting in abstracts of applied linguistics articles: A comparative study of English-and Chinese-medium journals. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(11), 2795-2809. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2011.04.007
  • Hyland, K. (1994). Hedging in academic writing and EAP textbooks. English for Specific Purposes, 13(3), 239–256. https://doi.org/10.1016/0889-4906(94)90004-3
  • Hyland, K. (2000). Disciplinary discourses: Social interaction in academic writing. London: Longman Pearson Education.
  • Hyland, K. (2002). Activity and evaluation: Reporting practices in academic writing. In J. Flowerdew (Ed.), Academic discourse (pp. 115-130). London: Routledge.
  • Hyland, K. (2004). Disciplinary discourses: Social interactions in academic writing. USA: University of Michigan Press.
  • Hyland, K. (2005). Stance and engagement: A model of interaction in academic discourse. Discourse studies, 7(2), 173-192. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445605050365
  • Hyland, K. (2008a). Academic clusters: Text patterning in published and postgraduate writing. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 18(1), 41-62. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1473- 4192.2008.00178.x
  • Hyland, K. (2008b). Persuasion, interaction and the construction of knowledge: representing self and others in research writing. International Journal of English Studies, 8, 1-23. Retrieved from https://revistas.um.es/ijes/article/view/49151
  • Hyland, K. (2009). Academic discourse: English in a global context. London: Continuum.
  • Hyland, K (2011). Academic discourse. In K. Hyland & B. Paltridge (Eds.), The continuum companion to discourse analysis (pp. 171-184). London: Continuum.
  • Hyland, K., & Tse, P. (2005). Hooking the reader: A corpus study of evaluative that in abstracts. English for Specific Purposes, 24(2), 123-139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2004.02.002
  • Ingvarsdóttir, H., & Arnbjörnsdóttir, B. (2013). ELF and academic writing: A perspective from the expanding circle. Journal of English as a Lingua Franca, 2(1), 123–145. https://doi.org/10.1515/jelf-2013-0006
  • Işık-Taş, E. E. (2018). Authorial identity in Turkish language and English language research articles in Sociology: The role of publication context in academic writers' discourse choices. English for Specific Purposes, 49, 26-38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2017.10.003
  • Jacobs, R. A. (1995). English syntax: A grammar for English language professionals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Jalali, H., Rasekh, A. E., & Rizi, M. T. (2009). Anticipatory 'it' lexical bundles: A comparative study of student and published writing in applied linguistics. Iranian Journal of Language Studies, 3(2), 177-194. Retrieved from http://www.ijls.net/pages/volume/vol3no2.html
  • Jenkins, J. (2006). Current perspectives on teaching World Englishes and English as a Lingua Franca. TESOL Quarterly, 40, 157-181. https://doi.org/10.2307/40264515
  • Kaltenböck, G. (2003). On the syntactic and semantic status of anticipatory it. English Language & Linguistics, 7(2), 235-255. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1360674303001096
  • Kaltenböck, G. (2005). It-extraposition in English: A functional view. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 10(2), 119-159. https://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.10.2.02kal
  • Kennedy, G. (1998). An introduction to corpus linguistics. London: Longman.
  • Larsson, T. (2017). A functional classification of the introductory it pattern: Investigating academic writing by non-native-speaker and native-speaker students. English for Specific Purposes, 48, 57-70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2017.06.001
  • Lorenz, G. (1998). Overstatement in advanced learners’ writing: stylistic aspects of adjective intensification. In S. Granger & G. Leech, Learner English on computer (pp. 53-66). New York: Taylor & Francis.
  • Master, P. (1991). Active verbs with inanimate subjects in scientific prose. English for Specific Purposes, 10(1), 15-33. https://doi.org/10.1016/0889-4906(91)90013-M
  • McKinley, J., & Rose, H. (2018). Conceptualizations of language errors, standards, norms and nativeness in English for research publication purposes: An analysis of journal submission guidelines. Journal of Second Language Writing, 42, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2018.07.003
  • Montgomery, S. (1996). The scientific voice. New York: The Guildford Press.
  • Oakey, D. (2002). Formulaic language in English academic writing. In R. Reppen, S. M. Fitzmaurice, & D. Biber (Eds.), Using corpora to explore linguistic variation (pp. 111-130). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
  • Öztürk, Y. (2014). Lexical bundle use of Turkish and native English writers: A corpus- based study (Unpublished MA dissertation). Anadolu University, Eskişehir, Turkey.
  • Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., & Svartvik, J. (1985). A comprehensive grammar of the English language. New York, NY: Longman.
  • Paquot, M. (2013). Lexical bundles and L1 transfer effects. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 18(3), 391-417. https://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.18.3.06paq
  • Paquot, M. (2014). Cross-linguistic influence and formulaic language: Recurrent word sequences in French learner writing. EUROSLA Yearbook, 14(1), 240-261. https://doi.org/10.1075/eurosla.14.10paq
  • Pérez-Llantada, C. (2014). Formulaic language in L1 and L2 expert academic writing: Convergent and divergent usage. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 14, 84-94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2014.01.002
  • Rodman, L. (1991). Anticipatory it in scientific discourse. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 21(1), 17-27. https://doi.org/10.2190/PWJ6-AG95-MCQD-RG1W
  • Römer, U. (2009). The inseparability of lexis and grammar. Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 7, 141–163. https://doi.org/10.1075/arcl.7.06rom
  • Salazar, D. (2010). Lexical bundles in Philippine and British scientific English. Philippine Journal of Linguistics, 41, 94–109. Retrieved from http://116.50.242.171/PSSC/index.php/pjl01/article/view/2561
  • Salazar, D. (2014). Lexical bundles in native and non-native scientific writing: Applying a corpus-based study to language teaching (Vol. 65). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
  • Scott, M. (2016). WordSmith Tools version 6. Stroud: Lexical Analysis Software.
  • Staples, S., Egbert, J., Biber, D., & McClair, A. (2013). Formulaic sequences and EAP writing development: Lexical bundles in the TOEFL iBT writing section. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 12(3), 214-225. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2013.05.002
  • Swales, J. (1990). Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cambridge University Press.
  • Swales, J. & Feak, C. (2000). English in today’s research world. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.
  • Thompson, P. (2009). Shared disciplinary norms and individual traits in the writing of British undergraduates. In M. Gotti (Ed.), Commonality and individuality in academic discourse (pp. 53-82). Bern: Peter Lang.
  • Wang, Y. (2018). As Hill seems to suggest: Variability in formulaic sequences with interpersonal functions in L1 novice and expert academic writing. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 33, 12-23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2018.01.003
  • Williams, I. A. (1999). Results sections of medical research articles: Analysis of rhetorical categories for pedagogical purposes. English for Specific Purposes, 18(4), 347-366. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0889-4906(98)00003-9
  • Wray, A. (2002). Formulaic language and the lexicon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Zhang, G. (2015). It is suggested that… or it is better to…? Forms and meanings of subject itextraposition in academic and popular writing. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 20, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2015.02.004