Native and non-native English scholars publishing research internationally
A small-scale study on authorial (in)visibility
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.v4i2.217Keywords:
academic writing, interculture rhetoric, genre analysis, intercultural variation, english as a lingua francaAbstract
This paper presents a small collection of case reports which seek to explore the rhetorical resources used by native (North-American) and non-native English (Spanish) scholars when publishing research in international journals. The interview protocols enquired into the pressure on scholars to publish internationally, their adherence to rhetorical conventions in the transmission of knowledge, and their awareness of being persuasive when addressing an international readership. Complementing the interview data, textual analysis was used to quantify a sample of linguistic features and interpret them as rhetorical devices that writers use to construct new knowledge, evaluate research processes and highlight research outcomes. Although the two groups of informants made similar observations in the interviews, the textual analysis revealed several intercultural differences as regards the degree of authorial visibility/ invisibility in the texts. While advocating the maintenance of cultural diversity in academic prose, implications of whether non-native English writers should adopt Anglophone conventions or rather retain their culture-specific rhetorical styles when publishing internationally are also discussed.
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Swales, J. M. (2004) Research Genres. Explorations and Applications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Vassileva, I. (2000) Who is the Author? A Contrastive Analysis of Authorial Presence in English, German, French, Russian and Bulgarian Academic Discourse. Sankt Augustin: Asgard Verlag.
Ventola, E. and Mauranen, A. (1991) Non-native writing and native revising of scientific articles. In E. Ventola (ed.) Functional and Systemic Linguistics 457–492. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
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Álvarez, A.I. (2005) Escribir en español. Oviedo: Ediciones Nobel.
Árvay, A. and Tankó, G. (2004) A contrastive analysis of English and Hungarian theoretical research article introductions. International Review of Applied Linguistics 42: 71–100. doi:10.1515/iral.2004.003
Askehave, I. and Swales, J. M. (2001) Genre identification and communicative purpose: a problem and a possible solution. Applied Linguistics 22 (2): 195–212. doi:10.1093/ applin/22.2.195
Bazerman, C. (1990) Discourse analysis and social construction. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 11: 77–83.
Belcher, D. D. (2007) Seeking acceptance in an English-only research world. Journal of Second Language Writing 16 (1): 1–62. doi:10.1016/j.jslw.2006.12.001
Bhatia, V. (1997) The power and politics of genre. World Englishes 16 (3): 313–319. doi:10.1111/1467-971X.00066
Breivega, K. R., Dalh, T. and Fløttum, K. (2002) Traces of self and others in research articles: a comparative pilot study of English, French and Norwegian research articles in medicine, economics and linguistics. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 12 (2): 218?239. doi:10.1111/1473-4192.00032
Cassany, D. (2002) La cocina de la escritura. Barcelona: Anagrama. Connor, U. (2004) Intercultural rhetoric research: beyond texts. Journal of English for Academic Purposes 3: 291–304. doi:10.1016/j.jeap.2004.07.003
Crismore, A., Markkanen, R. and Steffenson, H. (1993) Metadiscourse in persuasive writing. A study of texts written by American and Finnish university students. Written Communication 10 (1): 39–71. doi:10.1177/0741088393010001002
Dahl, T. (2004) Textual metadiscourse in research articles: a marker of national culture or of academic discipline? Journal of Pragmatics 36 (10): 1807–1825. doi:10.1016/j. pragma.2004.05.004
Ferguson, G. (2005) Is English really a tyrannosaurus Rex? In P. Durán, G. Aguado de Cea and A. M. R. Riejos (eds) Reflections on Language Use 73–93. Madrid: DLACT.
Ferguson, G. (2007) The global spread of English, scientific communication and ESP: questions of equity, access and domain loss. Ibérica 13: 7–38.
Flowerdew, J. (2001) Attitudes of journal editors to nonnative contributions. TESOL Quarterly 35 (1): 121–150. doi:10.2307/3587862
Fløttum, K. (2005) The self and the others – polyphonic visibility in research articles. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 15 (1): 29–44. doi:10.1111/j.1473-4192.2005. 00079.x
Gotti, M. (2005) English in intercultural settings: globalising trends and local resistance. In G. Cortese and A. Duszak (eds) Identity, Community, Discourse 139–166. Bern: Peter Lang.
Gunnarsson, B.-L. (2000) Swedish tomorrow – a product of the linguistic dominance of English? Current Issues in Language and Society 7 (1): 51–69.
Harwood, N. (2005) ‘Nowhere has anyone attempted ... In this article I aim to do just that’ – A corpus-based study of self-promotional ‘I’ and ‘we’ in academic writing across four disciplines. Journal of Pragmatics 37 (8): 1207–1231. doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2005.01.012
Hewings, M. (ed.) (2001) Academic Writing in Context. Implications and Applications. Birmingham: University of Birmingham Press.
Hewings, A. and Hewings, M. (2001) Anticipatory ‘it’ in academic writing: an indicator of disciplinary difference and developing disciplinary knowledge. In M. Hewings (ed.) Academic Writing in Context. Implications and Applications 199–214. Birmingham: University of Birmingham Press.
Hyland, K. (2001) Bringing in the reader: Addressee features in academic writing. Written Communication 18 (4): 549–574. doi:10.1177/0741088301018004005
Hyland, K. (2002) Academic argument: induction or interaction. Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses 44: 29–45.
Hyland, K. and Tse, P. (2005) Hooking the reader: a corpus study of evaluative ‘that’ in abstracts. English for Specific Purposes 24: 123–139. doi:10.1016/j.esp.2004.02.002
Markkanen, R. and Schröder, H. (eds) (1997) Hedging and Discourse: Approaches to the Analysis of a Pragmatic Phenomenon in Academic Texts. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Mauranen, A. (1993) Cultural Differences in Academic Rhetoric. A Textlinguistic Study. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
Mauranen, A. (1997) Hedging in language revisers’ hands. In R. Markkanen and H. Schröder (eds), Hedging and Discourse: Approaches to the Analysis of a Pragmatic Phenomenon in Academic Texts 115–34. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Montolío, E. (1999) Manual de escritura académica. Barcelona: Ariel.
Mur, P. (2007) ‘I/we focus on …’: A cross-cultural analysis of self-mentions in business management research articles. Journal of English for Academic Purposes 6 (2): 143–162. doi:10.1016/j.jeap.2007.05.002
Pérez-Llantada, C. (2008). Stance and academic promotionalism: a cross-disciplinary comparison in the soft sciences. Atlantis 30 (1): 129–145.
Pérez-Llantada, C. and Neumann, C. P. (2006) A Genre-based Study of Authorial Presence in Research Articles and University Lectures. Paper presented at the Conference in Honour of J. M. Swales, Ann Arbor, MI.
Scott, M. (1999) Wordsmith Tools 4.0. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Shaw, P. (2003) Evaluation and promotion across languages. Journal of English for Academic Purposes 2 (4): 343–357. doi:10.1016/S1475-1585(03)00050-X
Stotesbury, H. (2003) Evaluation in research article abstracts in the narrative and hard sciences. Journal of English for Academic Purposes 2 (4): 327–341. doi:10.1016/S1475- 1585(03)00049-3
Swales, J. M. (1990) Genre Analysis. English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Swales, J. M. (1998) Globalisation and Academic English: ESP Trends and Prospects. Plenary talk at Catamarca Conference, Argentina.
Swales, J. M. (2004) Research Genres. Explorations and Applications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Vassileva, I. (2000) Who is the Author? A Contrastive Analysis of Authorial Presence in English, German, French, Russian and Bulgarian Academic Discourse. Sankt Augustin: Asgard Verlag.
Ventola, E. and Mauranen, A. (1991) Non-native writing and native revising of scientific articles. In E. Ventola (ed.) Functional and Systemic Linguistics 457–492. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Vold E. T. (2006) Epistemic modality markers in research articles: a cross-linguistic and cross-disciplinary study. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 16 (1): 61–87. doi: 10.1111/j.1473-4192.2006.00106.x
Published
2015-09-14
Issue
Section
Articles
License
Equinox Publishing Ltd.
How to Cite
Pérez-Llantada, C. (2015). Native and non-native English scholars publishing research internationally: A small-scale study on authorial (in)visibility. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice, 4(2), 217-238. https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.v4i2.217
