Academic English Research Articles

English language learning anxiety and academic burnout in Chinese freshmen: a chain mediating approach.

The university stage is critical for cultivating and enhancing students' practical English proficiency, encompassing listening, speaking, reading, writing, and translation skills. Losing interest in English studies at this stage not only hampers the development of practical English competence but also has a negative impact on future employment and personal growth. This study aimed to explore to how English language learning anxiety (ELLA) affects academic burnout (AB) of freshman in China and explores the role of academic peer support (APS) and academic self-efficacy (ASE) in the relationship between the two. The study involved 1,355 college students who completed English Language Learning Anxiety Scale, the English Academic burnout Scale, Academic Peer Relationship Scale, the Academic Self-efficacy Scale. AB was significantly impacted by ELLA. ELLA and AB were mediated by ASE. Another factor that acted as a mediator between ELLA and AB was APS. ELLA and AB were mediated by a chain reaction involving ASE and APS. The chain mediation model validated in this study, providing valuable insights into the effects of freshmen's ELLA on AB in China, as well as practical insights into the prevention and intervention of ELLA and AB in other current college students.

Teacher Educators’ Foreign Language Anxiety in Face-To-Face and Online Modes

The internationalisation of universities and the ensuing policies mandating English as a medium of instruction made European universities impose corresponding requirements demanding a certain level of English language proficiency from their academic staff. Similarly, university-based teacher educators became subject to specific foreign language demands. This research focuses on university-based teacher educators who have been actively taking part in enhancing their academic English. The COVID-19 pandemic made for a prompt shift from face-to-face to online learning, providing for a comparison between the two learning environments. Since affective factors, including learning anxiety, may impact the success of language acquisition, the study addresses foreign language anxiety experienced by teacher educators when acquiring English for Academic Purposes in different learning modes. The research was conducted as a survey with the data obtained through administering the adapted Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale to 80 respondents from the 7 universities working in teacher education, furthered by 4 online semi-structured interviews. The findings reveal overall low levels of anxiety, with a small increase in communication apprehension. Although there is no conclusive evidence about the decrease in anxiety in remote studies, the interview results are clearly demonstrative of the possibility of combining face-to-face and online learning modes.

Perspectives of University Academics on Language Attitudes and Beliefs: A Mix Method Approach

This research aims to investigate the language attitudes and linguistic beliefs among private University academics in Lahore. It delves into the intricate interplay between Pakistan's national and its official language, investigating their influence on the perspectives of private University teachers’ language attitudes and beliefs in Lahore. Employing Spolsky's national language policy theory (2004), the study focuses on female English academics working in private Universities. Based on the observation that the majority of the faculty members of the English department are females, the research sample includes 50 female English academics working in eight private Universities in Lahore. Considering the complexity of the field of language beliefs and the linguistic diversity in Lahore, a mixed-method research (MMR) approach has been employed. The research uses an explanatory sequential approach; the quantitative data collection through an online survey was followed by short interviews of 10 randomly selected participants. A descriptive approach has been used to analyze the quantitative and the qualitative data side-by-side; the quantitative data has been analyzed using bar graphs that were obtained from Google Forms, whereas the qualitative data has been analyzed by manual thematic analysis. The findings of the study reveal slight signs of linguistic biases towards the three prevalent languages in Lahore i.e.: Urdu, English, and Punjabi. Future researchers can benefit from this research to study the language attitudes and language beliefs among either Urdu or English academics working in government Universities. Comparative analysis between the current and future research endeavors promises to enrich this field further.

Parents as Teachers in Modular Distance Learning: Relationship of Parenting Style and The English Academic Performance

The purpose of this study was to examine the pupils’ parenting style and their English academic performance during modular distance learning in select two schools in Alamada, Philippines. More so, the study even explored the relationship between socio-demographic characteristics and English academic performance and the relationship between pupils’ parenting style and English academic performance. The researchers chose one hundred twelve Grade VI pupils through stratified random sampling with proportionate allocation. An expert-validated survey questionnaire was used to identify the parenting styles utilized by the respondents, while their English-accumulated grades served as the basis of their academic performance. Based on the result, the majority of them are 10-12 years old, male, Ilonggos, and have parents with high school education. It further revealed that the parenting style experienced by the respondents is authoritative. More so, the English academic performance of the respondents was satisfactory. It also revealed that sex, age, parents’ educational attainment, and the English academic performance of the respondents have a significantly weak relationship. More importantly, the study revealed a significant yet weak relationship between the respondents’ parents’ authoritative and neglectful parenting style and the respondents' academic performance in English. The findings suggest that incorporating authoritative parenting during modular distance learning positively influences the English academic performance of the pupils, emphasizing the importance of parental involvement in shaping educational outcomes in this mode of learning. It is then recommended that parents as teachers should be careful about their parenting style since this ultimately affects their pupils’ academic performance.

A Study on the Correlation between Senior High School Students’ English Academic Self-efficacy and Learning Engagement

A Study on the Correlation between Senior High School Students’ English Academic Self-efficacy and Learning Engagement

A Self-Study Action Research Approach to English for Academic Purposes

This study examines the effectiveness of a course for international Master’s students integrating second language acquisition (SLA) content with English for Academic Purposes (EAP) development, using a two-layered action research approach. The students in the course created self-study action research plans to achieve their EAP goals, and designed instruments to assess their progress resulting from the implementation of their plans (the first layer). The instructor also used an action research lens through which to investigate this pedagogical approach and make adjustments to the course (the second layer). The research aimed to investigate the EAP developments that students achieved through their action research plans, and the aspects of the course that contributed to those improvements. Four focal student participants' electronic portfolios were analyzed using Scarcella's (2003) academic English framework. Findings suggest that the action research model benefited students by helping them develop their linguistic, cognitive and sociocultural/psychological dimensions of academic English, and encouraging learner autonomy. Furthermore, this model benefited the instructor and her future students in terms of insights gained which allowed for improvements to the course curriculum and delivery. Implications for supporting graduate students’ EAP development and cultivating their research skills through action research are discussed.

Japanese EFL undergraduate students’ use of the epistemic modal verbs may, might, and could in academic writing

Abstract Modifying and hedging one’s claims appropriately is an important characteristic of academic writing. This study focuses on the three main English modal verbs used to express “epistemic possibility” to avoid making strong statements, viz., may, might, and could. The purpose of this corpus-based study is to explore modal verb usage by Japanese EFL undergraduate students and consider pedagogical implications of our findings. Our analysis suggests that the Japanese students’ use of these modal verbs, especially could, has a tendency to be informal and insufficiently academic. While the Japanese students use could very frequently, they do not use it sufficiently in the sense of “epistemic possibility”, and some of their use is inappropriate not just in academic English but in English more generally. The observed high frequency of could may be related to topics and may also be due to the influence of L1. We discuss different factors that may explain the findings, based mainly on the overview of factors impacting on EFL learners’ use of academic English offered by Gilquin and Paquot (2008). Too chatty: Learner academic writing and register variation. English Text Construction 1(1). 41–61), suggest several additions to this overview, and discuss implications for the instruction of these modal verbs in academic writing and in order to improve relevant teaching materials.

A Genre Theory Contextualization for Academic Writing in Chinese Higher Education

This paper explores new possibilities for teaching English for Academic Purposes (EAP) writing in the context of higher education in China. Using John Swales’ Create A Research Space (CARS) model, the paper demonstrates how genre theory can be integrated into undergraduate writing courses in China’s EFL settings. This method emphasizes teaching students to structure academic papers effectively, thereby improving their understanding and application of the genre-specific conventions of academic English. The paper illustrates how the CARS model aids students by delineating their research territory, identifying gaps, and positioning their studies within ongoing academic dialogues. Additionally, the teaching cycle guides students from modeling the text, to joint construction, and finally to independent writing. Furthermore, the paper highlights the comprehensive implications of this model, including enhancing intercultural communication skills and developing critical genre awareness among students. It addresses the challenges of adapting this model to the Chinese EFL context, such as linguistic and cultural barriers, and underscores the need for contextualized teaching strategies that meet Chinese learners’ needs. To conclude, it is recommended for further research to validate the practical usage of this genre-based EAP instruction in higher education and facilitate future curriculum development.

Dynamicity of interaction in academic discourse: Evidence from a corpus-based study

Metadiscourse features are the rhetorical devices that serve to maintain the writer-reader and speaker-audience interaction. The way metadiscourse features are utilized in spoken and written modes may differ given the nature of these two modes of communication. For this reason, the present study set to unpack the distributional pattern of metadiscourse features as well as investigate the construction and maintenance of writer-reader and speaker-audience interaction in academic written and spoken English. To achieve this goal, two corpora of The British Academic Written English Corpus and British Academic Spoken English Corpus were utilized as the data gathering resources. To categorize the metadiscourse features, Hyland's taxonomy was selected. The quantitative analysis of the data showcased that the written corpus was more interactive oriented despite the fact that the spoken corpus showed a propensity towards the interactional category of metadiscourse features. On the other hand, the analysis of the concordance lines illustrated that academic conventions differed significantly in spoken and written academic English which resulted in a dynamic interaction between writer-reader as well as speaker-audience. The results of the study at hand may have implications in such lines of research as corpus linguistics, contrastive analysis and genre studies.

Examining Performance on an Integrated Writing Task from a Canadian English Language Proficiency Test

Many English language proficiency (ELP) tests used for university admissions and placement now include integrated writing tasks that require examinees to use external sources when writing. Integrated writing tasks improve test authenticity and impact, but they raise several validity questions, such as what academic language skills they engage and whether performance on these tasks varies with examinee ELP level. This study addresses these questions with reference to an integrated writing task from the Canadian Academic English Language (CAEL) Test that involves reading, listening, and writing in academic contexts. Responses by 59 students to one of the CAEL integrated writing tasks are analyzed in terms of various grammatical, discourse, sociolinguistic, strategic, content, and source use aspects and compared across ELP levels (high and low) and score levels. The findings indicate that both ELP level and score level had significant effects on most writing features examined in the study, except for syntactic complexity. Additionally, except for syntactic complexity, all writing dimensions examined in the study were significantly associated with writing scores. The findings and their implications for the validity argument of source-based writing tasks are discussed.

Reviewing the Usage of ChatGPT on L2 students' English Academic Writing Learning

This paper reviews previous literature to explore the usage of ChatGPT in helping L2 students with English academic writing. There are several types of views on the usage of ChatGPT in assisting writing. Generally, researchers regard ChatGPT as beneficial for it can maximize the efficiency and accuracy of writing, which can facilitate students’ learning. There are also previous empirical studies showing that ChatGPT is a useful tool in English academic learning, especially in the writing area. This paper concludes that 1) Proofreading is one of the most crucial functions to support English writing. It can help with spelling, grammar, word precision, and sentence cohesion. 2) Brainstorming is another application of ChatGPT which is useful for coming up with ideas for writing topics, suggesting an outline, and searching appropriate literature evidence. 3) Translating is one of the most widely used functions of ChatGPT, because it can automatically translate and paraphrase with a high standard of accuracy. The significance of this paper is that it can be adopted in the students' independent writing process, and in the classroom to help students better complete the writing task under teachers’ guidance.

Unpacking changing emotions in multiple contexts: idiodynamic study of college students’ academic emotions

Abstract Under the guidance of complex dynamic systems theory, the present study explored four college students’ academic emotions when learning academic English in a blended language class, consisting of face-to-face classroom instruction, and asynchronous and synchronous online instructions. An idiodynamic approach was used to capture the participants’ emotional fluctuations on a per-second timescale. With reference to the bitmap exported, follow-up interviews were conducted to probe into the potential factors triggering their emotional fluctuations. The findings revealed that, although the four students’ academic emotions demonstrated distinctive fluctuations across three teaching modes, they all experienced more arousal emotions during the face-to-face class, while their emotional experiences during the online classes, especially during the synchronous online class, tended to be deactivating. And during asynchronous online class, their academic emotions oscillated between positive and negative most frequently. Three broad groups of factors related to learner agency, learning environment and teaching practice have been found to exert varied degrees of influence on their academic emotional fluctuations in different teaching modes.

Developing a multimodal corpus of L2 academic English from an English medium of instruction university in China

This paper describes the rationale for and design of a new multimodal corpus of L2 academic English from a Sino-British university in China: the Corpus of Chinese Academic Written and Spoken English (cawse). The unique context for this corpus provides language samples from Chinese students who use English as a second language (L2) in a preliminary-year programme, which prepares students for academic studies at university level, at a campus where English is used as the Medium of Instruction (emi). Data were collected from a variety of settings, including written (i.e., exam scripts and essays) and spoken assessments (i.e., interviews and presentations), covering the full range of grades awarded to those language samples, as well as from student group interactions during teaching and learning activities. The multimodal nature of the corpus is realised through the availability of selected audio/video recordings accompanied by the orthographically transcribed text. This open-access corpus is designed to help shed light on Chinese students' academic L2 English language use in a variety of written, spoken and multimodal discourses.

The Impact of Data-Driven Learning on Medical Students' English Academic Writing

Introduction: Data-driven learning has emerged as a powerful method in language teaching and has drastically changed the traditional methods of teaching and learning, especially in academic writing. So, the present study was conducted to investigate the effect of data-driven learning on the English academic writing of medical students.
 Method: In this quasi-experimental intervention study, 29 MSc students of different fields of medical sciences participated in a training intervention program using a data-driven learning approach focusing on self-generated corpora of academic articles related to their fields of study. Students were asked to write an academic text related to their fields at the beginning and end of the course. Written texts were graded based on the Hemp-Lyons academic writing rubric, and the data collected from the pre-and post-test assessments were analyzed using the paired-sample t-test.
 Results: Comparison of pre-test scores with a mean of 59 (SD = 2.26) and post-test scores with a mean of 78.53 (SD = 2.33) indicated a significant improvement in the writing of the participants of this study (p < 0.05).
 Conclusion: In light of confirming the educational suitability of the data-driven approach and recognizing the need for students to engage in English article writing and publication, these findings serve as a valuable aid to MSc students studying medical sciences, facilitating their academic writing in English.

Teaching Summary Writing as a Transferable Academic Skill in Ukrainian University Context

Teaching and assessing summary writing remains in the focus of research into academic literacy, the issue revisited by every new generation of researchers in the light of the emerging affordances and plurilingual reality. In higher Ukrainian education, where teaching academic skills has gained momentum only in the past 15–20 years, summary writing pertains mostly to teaching Ukrainian to international students, teaching English for professional communication and training post-graduates. A 15-year practice of teaching academic English to students of linguistics has provided the author with extensive empirical data which, upon analysis conducted within action research, have enabled maximized effect on teaching summary writing. Along with the teaching methodology, the assessment technique was also optimized, based on rating scales with the criteria accepted by the students and detailed feedback provided to them via the Google Classroom platform. The comparison of pre-and post-tests of writing summaries of Ukrainian research articles verifies the hypothesis about the transferability of summarization skills built in English to academic L1. The author formulates the limitations of the action research project, implications and prospects of further research.

The Relationship Between Chinese High School English Learners’ Classroom Engagement and English Academic Achievement: A Case Study of English Learners in a High School in Henan China

Classroom engagement is often referred to as a crucial factor for students’ academic achievement. However, within the realm of second language acquisition, only a limited number of scholars made empirical investigations into the association between engagement in the English classroom and English academic achievement. In particular, research on second language learners at the basic education stage is lacking. Therefore, this study examines the current state of English classroom engagement among high school students and its relationship with English academic achievement through a case study of students in Henan China. This study found that high school students’ overall English classroom engagement was high, but individual-based agentic behavior engagement was low. Furthermore, male students exhibited significantly lower levels of various dimensions of English classroom engagement compared to female students. Moreover, interaction-based emotional engagement, individual-based cognitive engagement, individual-based behavioral engagement, and interaction-based conventional behavioral engagement were found to significantly predict students’ English academic achievement. Furthermore, gender is found to exert a significant moderating influence on the association between individual-based cognitive engagement and English academic achievement among students. Implications of these findings for English instruction are discussed.

Advancing Graduate Academic English Teaching: Analyzing Lexical Bundles in Photonics Research Article Abstracts

This study presents a streamlined approach to assembling a list of commonly used English phrases from abstracts in top photonics journals, aimed at enhancing academic English writing courses for graduate students. The process involved compiling a corpus of 400 recently published abstracts from leading journals in the field. Subsequently, a corpus analysis tool was employed to identify and assess lexical bundles, which are a type of formulaic language, for their educational significance and communication functions. The result is a refined list of lexical bundles, each correlated with its primary function in academic discourse. This research offers a straightforward and efficient method for developing a discipline-specific vocabulary for academic English writing instruction at the graduate level.

Comparative Analysis of Lexical Bundles in Dissertation Abstracts: Insights for Teaching Academic English to Chinese Students

Lexical bundle research in academic abstracts has predominantly focused on research articles, with less attention given to dissertation abstracts. This is particularly relevant for Chinese graduate students who are required to provide English abstracts in their dissertations. Addressing this gap, the study compared the structural and functional distribution of lexical bundles in dissertation abstracts by linguistics students from China and the United States to inform academic instruction. Two corpora, the Chinese University Student Collection and the American University Student Collection, each with 700 abstracts, were compiled and analyzed. The findings showed that Chinese students proportionally used more noun phrase (NP) and prepositional phrase (PP)-based lexical bundles, but fewer verb phrase (VP)-based ones, compared to their American counterparts. Additionally, they used a higher proportion of research- and participant-oriented bundles, but fewer text-oriented bundles. These differences highlight distinct structural and functional preferences in lexical bundle usage between the two student groups. This study underscores the importance of adapting instructional strategies to address these differences, enhancing English academic writing skills of Chinese graduate students by acknowledging the diverse linguistic approaches of international student populations.

Medical Research Genres in the English Academic Discourse

Introduction. The research article in English has recently been under scrutiny by theoretical and applied linguists. The understanding of research article is heterogeneous: it can be defined as a scientific manuscript, an independent text type or a separate genre. In Russian academic discourse the concept of the research article usually implies a scientific publication with the definite word count which is less than a monograph. However, this broad definition comprises a variety of heterogeneous genres. The English academic discourse, on the contrary, specifies research genres manifested in Research, Review, Editorial, Commentary, Clinical Case Report and other text names. Additionally, these research genres can vary according to the scientific discipline. The objective of this paper is to identify and classify academic research genres in medical discourse.Methodology and sources. The research corpus was collected from the original highimpact open-access medical journals, i.e., Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, British Medical Journal, Clinical Infectious Diseases, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Brain, Pediatrics, Diabetes, Heart, Journal of Neuroscience. The research procedure involved contextual, semantic and comparative analysis of the journal requirements on the article type and content presented in typical sections About the Journal, Authors Guidelines and Table of Contents.Results and discussion. The analysis has led to the development of differential parameters for further research genres classification. The findings have shown that a variety of research papers under different names can be classified as a system of research genres in the academic discourse represented by medical research publications. We have also found distinct correlations between medical journal requirements and linguistic characteristics of medical research genres.Conclusion. The academic medical discourse functions in a wide spectrum of article types, which can be classified as medical research genres according to discourse parameters.

The Influence of Absenteeism on Academic Performance in English at PLE using Ibaare Sub County-Bushenyi District

The purpose of the study was to find out the effect of absenteeism on academic performance in English at PLE using the Ibaare-Bushenyi district. It followed the order of the research objectives, which were to examine how absenteeism has contributed to poor academic performance in English at PLE in the Ibaare-Bushenyi district, to establish the causes of absenteeism and how it has contributed to poor academic performance in English at PLE in Ibaare-Bushenyi district, and to suggest a possible solution to address problems of poor academic performance in English at PLE in Ibaare-Bushenyi district. The study was undertaken using a cross-sectional research design, which helped in collecting data from a wide section of the study respondents. This kind of study design was preferred as it generated quick results. These helped the researcher save time during data collection because the researcher did not follow up with the respondents. The research design was suitable in the sense that the information collected involved analyzing how absenteeism has influenced the performance of English pupils at PLE. In addition, the study mainly used qualitative data, though some aspects of the study were presented as quantitative data. The study concluded that absenteeism is a well-known phenomenon that takes place in many schools, leading to poor academic performance, and should be handled with care. The study concludes that there are some ways in which absenteeism can be addressed. These include affirmative action, empowerment of women and physically handicapped people, and enforcement of labor laws. This study was applied research intended to find solutions for absenteeism and its impact on pupils' academic English performance in the Ibaare sub-county, Bushenyi District. Then, the researcher suggested the following recommendations addressed to politicians, policymakers, education planners, Ibaare Sub County, Bushenyi District administrators, and the respondents: the Ministry of Education and Sports should organize seminars on corrective measures that are regularly supervised by specialists in education. During holidays, head teachers' conferences should also be organized so that pupils are allowed to share ideas and experiences on the matter; this should be supervised by the Ibaare sub-county, Bushenyi District. Keywords: Absenteeism, Teachers, Academic performance, English pupils.