Abstract
Research have reported that one of the challenges faced by non-native English writers to have their research articles (RAs) accepted by English-medium journals is to fulfill the journals’ expectations in terms of linguistic aspect. In addition, non-native English writers seem to be having the problem in expressing their authorial identity which is needed to build one’s academic arguments. Therefore, this research was conducted to 1) explore whether linguistic disadvantage exists among native English writers or Thai writers in international publication, and 2) discover how the native English and Thai writers assert their identities through different rhetorical purposes of RAs. Eight university lecturers in Applied Linguistics (AL) from a few universities in Thailand were interviewed to understand their views on the issues of writing for scholarly publication in the English language. The findings revealed two salient emerging themes: (1) the role of linguistic disadvantage and (2) variation in authorial identity between native English and Thai writers. The study has found that linguistic disadvantage exists among the Thai writers. The native English writers expressed their authorial identity overtly but the Thai writers deferred their authorial identity. It is suggested that teachers in Thailand emphasize more on the knowledge of linguistic aspect required in international publication and the effective use of linguistic realization of authorial identity in academic writing.
Highlights
English is used in every sphere of professional and scholarly communication, in higher education worldwide
The data for this study were collected through interviews with experienced writers in Applied Linguistics (AL).To carry out the contrastive analysis, eight informants or writers affiliated to different universities in Thailand were interviewed, four are native English and four are Thai writers
This study found the existence of linguistic disadvantage among Thai writers which suggest that non-native writers need to be abided by international standard in order to get their research articles (RAs) published at international level
Summary
English is used in every sphere of professional and scholarly communication, in higher education worldwide. The increasing dominance of English in the academic world has markedly contributed to the increasing number of scholars whose first language is not English, striving to build international academic recognition through publishing in English-medium journals (Hyland, 2012) This phenomenon has triggered conflicting opinions among scholars whether non-native English writers face more challenges in the publication of academic work compared to their native English counterparts. Swales (2004) argues that native and non-native English writers are equal in the reviewing process of their papers in international journals He ascribes content-based aspect (e.g., lack of clarity in presenting results) as the main rejection criteria rather than linguistic ones. This study hopes to provide insight into linguistic aspects which might impede the writers to get published in international journals
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