Applied Linguistics Articles Research Articles

Transformation of Applied Linguistics in the Global South Context of Bangladesh: Researcher Agency, Imagination, and North-South Cooperation

Abstract This article examines the transformation of applied linguistics knowledge production in the Global South taking postcolonial Bangladesh as a case. In the 1990s, one could not locate even a dozen applied linguistics articles in international journals authored by Bangladeshi researchers. However, in about two decades, Bangladeshi researchers can claim hundreds of journal articles, book chapters, monographs, and edited volumes. Drawing on bibliometric data and autoethnography, this article seeks to document a new dawn in applied linguistics research in Bangladesh complemented by researchers’ engagement in Southern epistemological thinking in a decolonial spirit. While demonstrating the role of researcher agency and imagination in this transformation, we also highlight the role of North-South interaction and collaboration. We argue that despite the hegemony of Eurocentric views underpinning language, epistemology and geopolitics of knowledge, there may be hope for Southern applied linguists to decolonize their research imagination and bring disciplinary changes in line with Southern perspectives to make the world a better place for the global community.

Correlation between end-weight principle and adjective clauses in English: Q1 SCOPUS applied linguistics articles and Thai EFL learners’ essays

The researcher in this study applied the notions of quantitative method, theoretical linguistics and applied linguistics to examine the correlation between the linguistic theory of end-weight principle and English adjective clauses in Q1-SCOPUS applied linguistics articles and Thai EFL learners’ descriptive essays. The significance of this study is that structure and use in writing should be learned simultaneously. This current study also innovatively supports Thai EFL learners to examine their linguistic competence in structuring information in their English writing. The data collection in this study was divided into two datasets. The first dataset was 20 Q1-SCOPUS applied linguistics articles published between 2022 and 2024. Approximately 200,000 words provided 117 sentences containing adjective clauses in the final position or VP-postmodifiers. On the other hand, the second dataset was 67 descriptive essays written by Thai EFL high-school learners from both public schools and private schools under the supervision of the Ministry of Education, Thailand. The original theory of the end-weight principle proposed by Quirk et al. (1972) is followed in this study. The syntactic structure of adjective clauses follows Radford (2009) who analyzed adjective clauses as complementizer phrases (CP). The inferential statistical analysis of correlation follows SPSS 29. The results showed that there was a statistically significant relationship between the datasets of applied linguistics articles and EFL learners’ descriptive essays where the p-values were reported at 0.01 and 0.02, respectively. Not only do these statistical relationships show that English is an end-weight language, but also Thai EFL learners can follow the norm accurately. This is due to the positive effect of the mother tongue interference since the Thai language is an end-weight language. The pedagogical implication of the study to EFL learners is that information structures should be contributed to grammar classes. For future studies, it is recommended to test the hypothesis of the end-weight principle with reduced adjective clauses in the medial position of sentences.

A Comparative Study of Text Formality of Applied Linguistics Papers Written in English by Iranian and Native Speaking Researchers

International scientific communication is mostly conducted in English. Consequently, writing and publishing in English is of significant importance in academic settings. Alongside many other factors, proper academic writing has an appropriate level of linguistic formality. Research has shown that linguistic features can distinguish between formal and informal texts. Different scholars have utilized different methods to define and measure formality. The present study compares the degree of formality of applied linguistics articles written in English by native English speaking and Iranian non-native English speaking researchers by calculating their F-score, a measure of formality introduced by Heylighen and Dewaele (1999). In total, 80 articles were selected from four international journals. Half of them were written by Iranian non-native researchers and the other half by native researchers. The results indicated a medium level of formality in both groups. However, articles written by Iranian non-native researchers were found to have a significantly higher degree of formality. Broadly, this research has implications for teachers of English in different areas, journal editors, materials developers and researchers who want to publish

Methodological orientations, academic citations, and scientific collaboration in applied linguistics: What do research synthesis and bibliometrics indicate?

Addressing meta-research is contemporaneous with a nascent call in the field of applied linguistics and L2 studies for methodological awareness. Adhering to synthetic techniques and bibliometric analysis, we manually examined and coded the methodological orientations and scientific collaboration of 3992 applied linguistics articles published in 18 leading journals from 2009 to 2018 and analyzed their citation impact. The results showed that 178 (4.5%) of articles were non-empirical and the rest were empirical. Among empirical articles, the most prevalent research approach was quantitative (42.6%), followed by mixed-methods research studies (25.9%) and qualitative studies (24.9%). Systematic reviews (2.2%) were the smallest groups. Systematic reviews had a bigger citation impact than the other three research approaches. However, there was no statistically significant difference between the number of citations of the other three approaches (i.e., quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods). The rates of collaboration in general and international collaboration and interdisciplinary collaboration in particular were significantly higher in quantitative articles than the articles of other research approaches. Education and psychology were two disciplines that had the highest rate of collaboration with applied linguistics researchers.

Lexical bundles as an intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary mark: A corpus-based study of research articles from business, biology, and applied linguistics

• This study explores with a corpus-based lexical bundle approach the intradisciplinary variation between finance articles and accounting articles, and potential interdisciplinary variation between business articles and biology or applied linguistics articles. • Similar and distinctive intradisciplinary features were observed between the two business-type disciplines. • Lexical bundles can also act as an interdisciplinary mark, revealing the strong phraseological behaviour of business-type research articles. • The positive role of lexical bundles in reflecting disciplinary features has been further confirmed. This study seeks to explore with a lexical-bundle approach the intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary variations between disciplines. It investigates the structural and functional features of lexical bundles in research articles from two business-type disciplines, finance and accounting, and those from two contrastive disciplines, biology and applied linguistics. The results suggest that, between the two business disciplines, while the bundle usages reveal similar intradisciplinary features (e.g. similar distribution of NP-based bundles and research-oriented bundles which are associated with “statistics”), they also indicate distinctive intradisciplinary features (e.g. ‘accounting’ articles contain a larger number of diversified clausal bundles and “resultative” bundles). In addition, the results show that lexical bundles can also act as an interdisciplinary mark. For instance, the significantly larger proportion of bundles in ‘business’ articles, compared to those in ‘biology’ or ‘applied linguistics’ articles, reveals its strong phraseological behaviour. These findings further support the positive role of lexical bundles in the understandings of disciplinary features.

Variability and functions of lexical bundles in research articles of applied linguistics and pharmaceutical sciences

Lexical bundles perform discourse functions and present differing levels of variability, with some slots replaceable by optional words. Incorporating both function and formulaicity perspectives is a promising approach to uncover certain features of these recurrent language patterns. Based on the variability measurement and functional taxonomy proposed by Biber (2009) and Biber et al. (2004), this study compared the extent to which the lexical bundles from research articles of applied linguistics and pharmaceutical sciences are fixed. Thereafter, the lexical bundles were examined across the discourse functions to explore the possible interaction between function and variability. The results indicate that variability shows disciplinary variation, with bundles from applied linguistics articles as a whole being relatively less fixed. In addition, discourse functions are found to be closely associated with variability. These findings shed light on the question of whether lexical bundles are prefabricated patterns and may facilitate the teaching of academic writing at the graduate level.

A Corpus-Based Study on the Use of Reporting Verbs in Applied Linguistics Articles

Reporting verbs is one of the most important issues in writing academic paper because they are used to express the process and reliability of claims to support authors’ writing. Therefore, the current study aimed at investigating (1) the most frequently used category of reporting verbs in applied linguistic articles and (2) how the category used in the citation process is used. 52 articles from three applied linguistic journals were analyzed using Antconc software’s concordance function. This study focused on reporting verbs used in the literature review section since it consists of more reporting verbs than other sections in articles. The reporting verbs in the articles were analyzed into a concordance line and then were classified into Hyland’s Framework of reporting verbs (2002). The results of the study showed that the uses of reporting verbs were classified into research acts, which was the most frequent use of reporting verbs, discourse acts, and cognition acts respectively. The study also presented the frequently used of reporting verbs in different subcategories of the research, discourse, and cognition acts. Additionally, reporting verbs were examined to investigate the verb forms and voices used in applied linguistic articles. The use of reporting verbs according to Hyland’s (2002) framework, verb forms, and voices are also discussed.

Source misuse in applied linguistics articles: Exploring proficient and novice English writersʼ perceptions of plagiarism

The source misuse practices of non‐English speaking academic authors are a controversial but less researched topic in plagiarism studies. The present study investigated the illegitimate textual borrowing practices of proficient and novice (co)authors as well as multi‐ and single‐authored articles in Iranian scholarly journals of Applied Linguistics. The similarity check was performed by the use of the text matching software (iThenticate) along with human inspection. The results revealed no significant difference in the plagiarism levels of proficient and novice (co)authors nor in multi‐author and single‐author articles. The study further continued through interviews to explore several proficient and novice academic authors' perception and knowledge about plagiarism. The proficient writers, as faculty members, showed better understanding of textual borrowing strategies. The evidence suggested that postgraduate students still have not developed an intrinsic drive to avoid plagiarism because they think they do not receive proper training in source attribution and in plagiarism avoidance. Thus, the plagiarism debate including the practice of source use conventions and ethics of knowledge should gradually flow in all students' activities. This process can take effect as long as it is supported by the institutional measures along with appropriate use of both educational and developmental programs.

Investigating Researcher Identity in Qualitative Research Articles in Applied Linguistics Journals Through the Lens of CDA

Recently, constructing professional identity has received an increasing attention. By adopting and adapting analytical tools of critical discourse analysis (CDA), this study explored the ways through which identities of the qualitative researchers had been projected in 4 applied linguistics articles. This study intended to find out whether the authors of qualitative research articles in applied linguistics tended to prioritize particular linguistic elements in representing their identities. Detailed descriptive analyses based on 4 CDA and discourse analysis taxonomies revealed that the qualitative researchers had a particular pattern to show human and nonhuman social actors in their writings. Human social actors (teachers and learners) were preferred to nonhuman social actors (textbooks), and teachers were the focus of attention more frequently than learners. Also, human social actors were considered as individuals, rather than groups in the majority of cases. In addition, mental processes were found to be employed more than material processes in order to contribute to the subjective interpretation and greater visibility for the researchers. Although the linguistic devices which help human social actors to be seen more vividly like inclusion and activation were used more than other devices, elements like transition, self-mentions, hedges, and code glosses were also employed. Findings may be considered useful for teachers and educators and may help them become more self-conscious about identity issues embedded in research articles.

A Comparative Study of Boosters in the Discussion Section of Medical and Applied Linguistics Articles

This study tried to investigate the role of interpersonal meta-discourse markers such as boosters. In order to illuminate this relation, 15 medical and 15 applied linguistics articles were selected randomly from around 50 articles. Therefore, quantitative and qualitative methods were applied to answer the research questions to identify the frequency and percentage of booster employment in their discussion sections. Moreover, to determine the supposedly meaningful differences between booster applications in the corpus, the chi-square test was used. The findings showed that there was not any significant difference between applied and medical articles in using boosters in their discussion section. Moreover, it was found that boosters such as it is clear that, definitely, certainly, really, totally, always were the most frequent ones which were used in two groups of articles namely applied and medical articles. Since meta-discourse markers, i.e., boosters play crucial roles in mediating the relationship between what writers intend to argue and their discourse communities, the results of the present study have obvious importance in increasing students’ awareness of the way they organize their writings.

Gender Differences in the Use of Hedges And First Person Pronouns in Research Articles of Applied Linguistics and Chemistry

Differences in the way that males and females use language have been of interest in the study of discourse. This study is an attempt to examine whether men and women differ with respect to the use of hedges and first person pronouns in research articles of two disciplines of Applied Linguistics and Chemistry. Based on a corpus of sixty research articles, the overall categorical distribution of hedging devices and first person pronouns were calculated in research articles. The results indicate that hedges and first person plural pronouns are used in Applied Linguistics articles more frequently than Chemistry articles. Moreover, females use hedges more than males in both disciplines but males use first person plural pronoun more than females in both disciplines. These findings may have some implications for the teaching of academic writing to EFL students.

The Use of Hedging in Discussion Sections of Applied Linguistics Research Articles with Varied Research Methods

The discourse of the discussion in research articles is regarded to be of considerable significance—as in this section the findings are interpreted in light of previous research and the authors’ argumentations are put forward as a major contribution (see Hyland, 1999). For this reason, the content and structure of the discussion section have been explored in several studies; however, little attention has been focused on a comparative analysis of how hedges are used in the discussion sections of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods studies. To address this gap, the present study explored the use of hedges in 150 applied linguistics articles (50 qualitative, 50 quantitative, and 50 mixed methods studies). To this end, the study investigated forms and pragmatic functions of the hedges in the discussion sections, utilizing Varttala’s (2001) and Hyland’s (1998) models. The data were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively through use of rigorous coding and memoing strategies. The results of the study indicated that hedging forms in the discussion sections of quantitative applied linguistics articles had the highest frequency, followed by mixed methods studies and qualitative articles, respectively. Also, full verbs, auxiliaries, and adverbs were the most frequent categories of hedging; moreover, the results of Chi square test proved the significance of observed differences. The findings demonstrated that mixed methods studies tended to show similarities with quantitative articles regarding the use of hedging strategies. The results are interpreted in relation to the nature of each research method.

Peripheral Themes in Applied Linguistics Articles

There is considerable agreement among linguists that thematic analysis offers writers insights into manuscripts that may be rejected by international journals due to thematic organization problems. Whereas many comparative studies have provided valuable information about thematic progression (TP), the role of peripheral themes (PTs) has almost been neglected. Using the revised model of the TP proposed by McCabe (1999), this study incorporated a corpus of 32 experimental RAs, aiming to find out the possible similarities/differences in exploiting the PTs between the ELT RAs of local and international journals. Analysis revealed that different types of PTs were exploited in both samples, and their frequencies were fairly similar. These similarities were justified by the fact that the sample papers represented the shared genre. Results also suggested that PTs should not be considered as marginal themes, but as crucial ones that introduce, organize, and summarize topics.

Rhetorical Moves in Applied Linguistics Articles and their Corresponding Iranian Writer Identity

Emerging from Kaplan's (1966) pioneering work on contrastive rhetoric, rhetorical organization is today practiced with current critical views in language teaching and is regarded as a major pedagogical tool in writing various articles. The present study aimed to investigate the possible relationship between generic organizations of research articles in applied linguistics Iranian journals and negotiation of researchers’ identities. Overall, 30 published research-based articles were selected randomly from four journals. After applying Pho's (2008b) model of move analysis, the obtained results were associated with the instances of writer identity using Hyland's framework (2002). The findings demonstrated different percentages of writer identity categories across different moves of articles. Results suggested that rhetorical moves performing various functions in articles need to be carried out by specific categories of authorial identity to better satisfy the expectations of their respective applied linguistics communities.

The Impact of Lexical Bundles on How Applied Linguistics Articles are Evaluated

This study aims to explore the extent to which evaluating a research article by Iranian university instructors and article reviewers in the discipline of applied linguistics is influenced by the writer's overuse, underuse, or moderate use of lexical bundles. To this end, fifteen Iranian university instructors and article reviewers were asked evaluate three research papers that were identical except for the frequency of the use of lexical bundles. Then they completed a questionnaire designed to elicit their views regarding the use of lexical bundles in research papers. The analysis of the data showed that the use of lexical bundles has a significant effect on Iranian instructors and article reviewers’ evaluation of research articles in the field of applied linguistics. The results imply that instructors of writing courses and students who wish to write and publish research articles should give special attention to lexical bundles.

The Comparison of the Method Section of Applied Linguistics Articles Written by Native and Iranian Writers in Terms of Grammatical Complexity and Clause Types

Academic texts are characterized by the use of longer minimal terminal units (t-units) containing complex grammatical structures and various clause types. The purpose of this study was to compare grammatical complexity and clause types used in the methodology section of the applied linguistics articles written by English and Iranian writers. To this purpose, the researchers selected twenty articles. Grammatical complexity was calculated as the ratio of the number of dependent clauses per t-unit to the number of independent clauses used. The t-test analysis revealed no significant difference as far as grammatical complexity was concerned. However native writers used more adjective clauses and the difference reached significance level. The findings might have important pedagogical implications.

A Contrastive Study of the Passive Voice in Journal Articles in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics

Abstract The passive voice is an important construction for packaging information. Many textbooks, style manuals or academic papers, however, offer different or even contradictory advice on the use of passives. Previous findings show that passives exhibit disciplinary variation, thus special treatment should be given to different disciplines. However, even within the same discipline, such as linguistics, there are different types of academic writing, namely theoretical articles versus empirical ones. To test whether a difference in the use of passives exists between these two sub-disciplines, the passives in articles sampled from Language and Applied Linguistics are counted and compared. The results show that applied linguistics articles demonstrate a significantly higher (Sig. = .000, p < .001) occurrence of passives than theoretical ones.

A Comparative Analysis of the Frequency and Function of If-clauses in Applied Linguistics and Chemistry Articles

This study investigated the differences and similarities between form and function of if-clauses as one type of conditional clauses within the applied linguistics and chemistry published academic Articles. These articles were examined and after determining the frequency of if-clauses, they were analyzed based on the model proposed by Sweetser (1990). According to the findings, if-clauses were more frequent in applied linguistics than chemistry articles. Results of function analysis indicated that, content is the major function in both applied and chemistry articles and comparing two genres, it is more frequent in applied linguistics articles. Next function in the line is epistemic, and it is again more frequent in applied linguistics articles and speech act was the last function that was more frequent in applied linguistics articles too. In addition, the verb forms of if-clauses were analyzed. Findings indicated that present + present pattern was the most predominant pattern across these two disciplines and it was more frequent in applied linguistics articles, therefore, there can be a relationship between verb pattern and function.

A Comparative Study of Intensity Markers in Engineering and Applied Linguistics

Writers use intensity markers as one of strategies in order to negotiate their claims and to make their writings persuasive and credible. This study is an attempt to examine the type, frequency, and functions of intensity markers in research articles of two disciplines of Applied Linguistics and Electrical Engineering by analyzing surface linguistic features. Based on a corpus of forty research articles, the overall rhetorical and categorical distribution of intensity markers were calculated across two rhetorical sections of Abstract and Conclusion of research articles. The results indicates that the overall distribution of intensity markers in Applied Linguistics articles is higher than Electrical Engineering ones. These findings may have some implications for the teaching of academic writing to EFL students.

Reader Engagement in English and Persian Applied Linguistics Articles

There is an increasing interest in the way academic writers establish the presence of their readers over the past few years. Establishing the presence of readers or what Kroll (1984, P.181) calls imagining “a second voice” is accomplished when a writer refers explicitly to their readers using explicit linguistic resources (reader engagement markers). Although there are some cross-disciplinary studies and only one cross-cultural study (Hinkel, 2002) which has investigated how writers in different disciplines/cultures acknowledge the presence of their readers, no contrastive study has ever been reported to have examined how academic writers from Persian and English writing cultures address their readers in their texts.Drawing on 60 applied linguistics articles (20 English articles written by native English applied linguists, 20 English articles written by native Persian applied linguists and 20 Persian articles written by native Persian applied linguists), this study aimed at seeing how native Persian and English writers engage their readers in their articles. Hyland’s (2005a) interactional model of stance and engagement was used as an analytical framework to identify the type and frequency of reader engagement markers in these three groups of articles. The result of the analysis showed significant differences in the way native Persian and English represent their readers. Also, considerable differences were observed in categorical distribution of reader engagement markers.