Stance-taking: reporting verbs in citations in EFL undergraduate theses

Pamela Olmos-Lopez

doi:10.1590/1678-460x202153318

Abstract

ABSTRACT L2 writers tend to have difficulties in using reporting verbs (Bloch, 2010) because the choosing of reporting verb needs some considerations: the stance of the author whose claims are being reported, the stance of the writer, and the interpretation of the writer (Thompson and Ye, 1991). This article explores stance-taking in reporting verbs in the context of citations in undergraduate theses written by Mexican students in English as a Foreign Language. The corpus consists of thirty undergraduate theses written by non-native speakers of English in the field of English Language Teaching. I use corpus linguistics tools, i.e., concordances for the analysis of stance-taking which makes the expressions observable in their context. The findings show that undergraduates use reporting verbs to express their stance in their theses and that this varies depending on the chapter. This paper suggests a category of reporting verbs that is commonly used in EFL academic writing within the ELT discipline. I propose some educational implications, stressing the need to make students and their instructors aware that the choice of reporting verbs is not just a matter of stylistic choice, but it can be an expression of authorial identity.

Highlights

The undergraduate thesis is usually the first formal piece of academic writing research that a student faces because that might determine the obtainment of their degree
Academic writing practices still demand that writers express their voice in their academic disciplinary community and show their position towards their topic, i.e. take a stance
The methodological tools are CL, concordances and plots, and the discourse analysis was done by looking at their context, i.e. the use of concordances allowed me to look at the context, so I extracted the co-text and analyzed the function of the reporting verbs in context and how stance was taken or not

Summary

Introduction

The undergraduate thesis is usually the first formal piece of academic writing research that a student faces because that might determine the obtainment of their degree. Writers are expected to show knowledge of the domain of academic discourse, genre, their field, and research skills (Read, et al 2001; Bartholomae, 1985). Academic writing practices still demand that writers express their voice in their academic disciplinary community and show their position towards their topic, i.e. take a stance. In academic writing, where the writer has to express their stance in relation to theory, reporting verbs are the key to analyse how they engage and express their stance in their field. Writers use citing to position themselves in their disciplinary community. The linguistic choices they make regarding the verbs they choose to report citations carry evaluative elements and, within these, the expression of their stance. The writer’s stance is reflected in the selection of the reporting verb

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