MA Dissertations Research Articles

Exploring Evaluation Language in the Conclusion chapter of MA Dissertations: Analyzing of Iraqi EFL Learners' Writings

One of the most important functions of language for writers is to communicate their opinions or thoughts about people or things. Thus, in academic writing, a writer must be able to use evaluative and interactive language. In this study, we focus on the use of evaluative language, appraisals, in academic writings that were conducted by Iraqi EFL writers, as captured by appraisal theory (Martin & White 2005). We are interested in how those writers express evaluative meanings in their work. This study focuses on Attitude, one of the three subsystems of the Appraisal Theory. The results showed that Iraqi writers used more Appreciation resources than Judgment and Affect. This fact informs us that those writers chose to reveal less personal feelings and avoid clear ethical or moral evaluation.

Difficulties Faced by Postgraduate Students during Writing MA Theses and PhD Dissertations in the Departments of English - Yemeni Universities from Supervisors’ Perspectives

Difficulties Faced by Postgraduate Students during Writing MA Theses and PhD Dissertations in the Departments of English - Yemeni Universities from Supervisors’ Perspectives

The use of code glosses in MA dissertations in English and in Italian: A pilot study in an EMI context

Within the English Medium of Instruction (EMI) framework adopted by many European universities, students listen to lectures, present, write, and take exams in English. Research on EMI settings mostly focused on lectures, leaving scant attention to student writing and in particular to the writing of dissertations in the Italian context. This paper addresses this gap by investigating lexico-grammatical occurrences of selected metadiscursive features adopted in the final dissertations of Italian masters’ students in business and economics courses. The dissertations are retrieved from the MoReThesisCorpus, a large digital repository of theses and dissertations at the University of Modena e Reggio Emilia. By paying close attention to reformulations and exemplifications, our findings reveal a developmental interconnection between spoken and written metadiscursive features. This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0 .

Local Grammar Approach to Investigating Advanced Chinese EFL Learners’ Development of Communicative Competence in Academic Writing: The Case of ‘Exemplification’

Abstract This study belongs to a larger project which aims to systematically explore advanced Chinese EFL learners’ developmental pattern of communicative competence in academic context, with the current investigation zooming in on their performance of exemplification in academic writing. It draws on insights from local grammar research, as local grammars have been shown to be able to reliably quantify the lexicogrammatical realisations of a given communicative or discourse act. Using L1 Chinese English-major students’ MA and PhD degree dissertations as the data, the investigation shows that, although their overall use of exemplification remained steady from MA to PhD levels of study, there are significant differences with regard to their preference of exemplifying strategies as well as their lexicogrammatical choices they used to realise exemplification. The study not only has implications for academic writing research, assessment and pedagogy, but also offers a useful methodological approach to longitudinal investigation into EFL learners’ development of communicative competence in academic context.

Analysis of errors in the writing of content in dissertations and their impact on the learning of foreign languages: A case study in Ghana

The average postgraduate student in Ghana has about 20 years exposure in English language, having been taught and instructed in English from primary to tertiary level. It is, therefore, not far-fetched to expect the postgraduate student to commit minimal to no errors in their L2 writings. The seeming consequential minimal scholarly attention on errors in postgraduate writings regardless of the many studies on students’ errors is therefore not surprising. This study is an attempt to identify, categorise and describe the errors in postgraduate dissertations in Ghana and highlight its implications for language teaching. This exploratory qualitative study carries out a content analysis of 20 randomly selected MA, MPhil and PhD dissertations published between 2020 and 2021. The data are analysed using the theory of Error Analysis. After critically assessing the dissertations, seven (7) categories of concord errors were identified and recorded. These are; subject-verb concord errors, inverted subject concord errors, concord errors associated with ‘has’ and ‘have’, determiner-noun errors, concord errors on numbers, noun-pronoun antecedent errors and compound subject concord errors. This implies that postgraduate students are prone to errors, hence, the need to introduce or intensify the teaching of English at the postgraduate level.

Concord Errors in Postgraduate Theses in Ghana: A Descriptive Analysis

The average postgraduate student in Ghana has about 20 years exposure in English language, having been taught and instructed in English from primary to tertiary level. It is, therefore, not far-fetched to expect the postgraduate student to commit minimal to no errors in their L2 writings. The seeming consequential minimal scholarly attention on errors in postgraduate writings regardless of the many studies on students’ errors is therefore not surprising. This study is an attempt to identify, categorise and describe the errors in postgraduate dissertations in Ghana and highlight their implications for language teaching. This exploratory qualitative study carries out a content analysis of 20 randomly selected MA, MPhil and PhD dissertations published between 2020 and 2021. The data are analysed using the theory of Error Analysis. After critically assessing the dissertations, seven (7) categories of concord errors were identified and recorded. These are; subject-verb concord errors, inverted subject concord errors, concord errors associated with ‘has’ and ‘have’, determiner-noun errors, concord errors on numbers, noun-pronoun antecedent errors and compound subject concord errors. This implies that postgraduate students are prone to errors, hence, the need to introduce or intensify the teaching of English at the postgraduate level.

A Pragmatic Analysis of Metadiscoursal Markers (Hedges and Boosters) in Linguistics and Biology MA Theses: A Linguascientific Corpus –based Study

Metadiscourse or discourse reflexivity is a fundamental property by which writers project themselves into their discourse to signal their understanding of their material and their audience. The study seeks to explore how advanced second language writers employ metadiscoursal markers (particularly hedges and boosters) in two different disciplines: biology and linguistics in a corpus of (30) master theses written by Iraqi MA students with an emphasis on three challenging parts: introduction, results and discussion, and conclusion. In order to show how differences of disciplines or fields of knowledge affect the pattern of usage of metadiscourse in the academic writing produced by novice MA students, the study utilizes a discourse analysis of the written texts with contrastive analysis. Such an analysis reveals the discourse features that distinguish their genre from others and also points to the disciplinary variation with this genre. Reliability is ensured by using two types of test: Chi – square test. The statistical results reveal that metadiscourse is an effective academic phenomenon writers employ to present themselves, their positions, and their readers. It has also been shown that there are significant differences in using hedges and boosters between the two disciplines, e.g. biology and linguistics. In the light of the study findings, it has been recommended that special attention should be paid to such markers, particularly at the advanced levels of the academic writing so as to develop the students ' pragmatic competence.

Research Problem Component in the MA Theses of Kurdish Poetry (2003-2010) at Salahaddin University

This study entitled "Research Problem Component in the MA theses of Kurdish Poetry (2003-2010) at Salahaddin University" Is an attempt to make the process of research writing in the field of Kurdish poetry more academic in academic theses. In this study, one of the essential components of academic research has been highlighted; the role and effectiveness of this component in the academic studies has been demonstrated. It is obvious that this component is one of the significant poles of the academic research and the basis of other component and elements of research is built on it. From this viewpoint, this subject is taken into account and analyzed carefully on the MA Kurdish poetry theses in order to show this component in MA theses, to what extent it has been able to be used scientifically and properly. In this regard, they have been evaluated by scientific criteria for the way research are dealt; so that they will be scientifically shown and the way of dealing. For this purpose, in this study, descriptive and analytical methods have been utilized, based on the established principles of academic research. In the findings of this study, it generally seems that the academic MA theses on Kurdish poetry have not taken methodological procedures in articulating their research problems.

A genre analysis of master dissertation abstracts written by English native speakers and Tunisian EFL learners: Pedagogical considerations

Despite the growing interest in genre analysis, on the one hand, and the continuous concern with academic writing, on the other, very little has been done on the move structure of abstracts in Linguistics Master dissertations written by native speakers and non-native speakers of English (Al-Khasawneh, 2017). In the same vein, no single cross-linguistic study has investigated variations in the move structure of abstracts in dissertations written by English native speakers and Tunisian EFL learners. This paper is a response to this need. It purports to analyze the move structure of abstracts in Linguistics MA dissertations written by English native speakers and Tunisian EFL learners, within the theoretical framework of Hyland’s five-move model (2000). Twelve abstracts were selected for this study: Six abstracts were written by Tunisian EFL MA students at the Institut Supérieur des Langues à Tunis (ISLT, Tunisia) and six abstracts were written by English native speakers. The native speakers’ abstracts were randomly chosen from the Brigham Young University website for Linguistics Theses and Dissertations. The EFL learners’ abstracts were randomly chosen from the ISLT library. The findings suggest that the Purpose move, the Method use and the Product move are frequent in both corpora. However, only one English abstract in 6 contains the Conclusion move, whereas 4 EFL abstracts in 6 contain the Conclusion move. Both corpora contain the Introduction move, with equal frequency (4 in 6 for both corpora). Pedagogical considerations are highlighted for EFL teachers in order to ensure an efficient abstract teaching. It is argued that this study represents a contribution to the field of academic writing and genre analysis.

Peasant and popular feminism and postmodernism

The purpose of this paper is to situate peasant feminism within the current debate in feminist research strands on the importance, or the fallacy, of postmodernism for gender studies. We draw, among other sources, on academic work produced by activists of the Peasant Women's Movement who have chosen to pursue graduate studies, producing MA dissertations and Ph.D theses and moving on to become university professors. Our contention is that, despite the force of arguments against the influence of postmodern thought and its derivatives in favor of these women, there is room for a dialogue which, if we look at the field without assuming an a priori stance, has been taking place, albeit not explicitly.

Stance expressions in academic writing: A corpus-based comparison of Chinese students’ MA dissertations and PhD theses

One of the approaches to exploring the interactional and persuasive nature of academic writing is through the use of stance features in texts. Adopting a corpus-based analysis, this study compared how MA and PhD applied linguistics dissertations/theses in the Chinese mainland differed in terms of stance making in their texts. Two corpora were built for the study, an MA dissertation corpus and a PhD thesis corpus. The MA dissertations and PhD theses in each case were written by the same writers. The use of stance markers was examined using Hyland's framework for analysis. It was found that compared to their MA dissertations, student writers with doctoral training demonstrated some progress in stance making in their PhD theses. They employed fewer boosters, mastered a wider set of attitude markers, and displayed an increased ability to assert positions and involve readers in their texts. These findings reveal a developmental progression in the use of stance for these students which can hopefully inform academic writing training at the graduate level for Chinese students writing in English.

Undergraduate student academic writing in English-medium higher education: Explorations through the ROAD-MAPPING lens

Since the turn of the millennium, the internationalisation process that higher education institutions have engaged in worldwide has resulted in an unprecedented expansion of English-medium study programmes. In this regard, the academic writing produced in such contexts reveals that an increasing amount of student work, from classroom assignments to MA dissertations and PhD theses, is written in English. Against this background, this paper introduces the ROAD-MAPPING framework (Dafouz & Smit, 2016, 2020) as a comprehensive analytical tool which can help (re)frame student academic writing in multifaceted and holistic ways. Drawing on sociolinguistic and ecolinguistic theories of language (Blommaert, 2010; Fill, 2018), student academic writing will be discussed as a social practice intersecting with other relevant dimensions at the core of English-medium education (EME). Using the School of Economics and Business Studies in a large Spanish university as a case study, questions regarding the type of writing assignments students are developing, as well as how English is conceptualised by the faculty involved and how internationalisation impacts on certain writing practices will be raised and discussed using the ROAD-MAPPING framework. The article closes with reflections and implications for the development of specific EAP pedagogies in these EME programmes.

Spelling Errors in MA Theses by Non-Native English Speakers in Kurdistan Region of Iraq: A Corpus-Based Study

Spelling Errors in MA Theses by Non-Native English Speakers in Kurdistan Region of Iraq: A Corpus-Based Study

Alan Kaiser. Archaeology, Sexism and Scandal. The long-suppressed story of one woman’s discoveries and the man who stole credit for them. pp. 272 with ills. 2015. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-4422-7524-9, paperback $28.

This well-researched and very readable book tells the story of a young woman who started her professional career in Classics and Classical archaeology in the late 1920s when she enrolled as an undergraduate student in the Department of Classics at the University of Alberta, where I currently teach. It charts how, after obtaining her BA, Mary Ellingson (née Ross), was admitted as a graduate student in archaeology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1931. There, she wrote an MA and PhD dissertations on the terracotta industry in Olynthus, based on the excavations in which she participated in 1931 under the guidance of the famous and distinguished David Moore Robinson, professor of archaeology and director of the Olynthus project. The author of this book, Alan Kaiser, professor in archaeology at the University of Evansville where Mary Ross-Ellingson taught for many years, became inspired to tell her story by leafing through her bequest to the university after her death. It consisted of a scrapbook, which had been sitting on a shelf in his department and in which she reports her experiences during the 1931 season at Olynthus in text and images. Based on this treasure trove of photographs and letters to family, Kaiser discovered a long known but inconvenient truth: that Mary Ross-Ellingson’s MA thesis and part of her PhD were published under Robinson’s name as volumes VII and XIV in the Olynthus series without giving credit to the real author.

Scott et Zelda Fitzgerald

Scott et Zelda Fitzgerald

The Study of Reporting Clauses in MA Theses

Citation plays a key role in academic writing. It enables writers to establish his or her own academic authority based on the current research state of the field. However, citation has challenged many novice writers, especially the L2 learners due to the complexity. The paper studies reporting clauses with that- clause complement and draws upon to MA theses in applied linguistics. The findings show that MA students use integral citations with a human subject most frequently. Compared with journal articles, they use too much Think verbs.

Stance Markers in Results and Discussion Chapters: A Comparative Study of MA Theses in Applied Linguistics by Chinese and American Students

This study investigates stance markers in the results and discussion chapters of Applied Linguistic Master’s theses written by Chinese and American students. Based on Hyland’s[1] stance system, the results and discussion chapters were compared to examine the characteristics of students’ employment of stance markers. This study suggests that American students place greater emphasis on their position toward results by balancing degrees of commitment and attitude toward claims while Chinese students stress the objectivity and the significance of the research itself. The paper concludes with some pedagogical implications for L2 writing instruction.

Graduate Students’ Needs for a Mentoring Program in a Saudi Context

Mentoring programmes are very common in many educational environments, especially for MA students. This study focuses on MA students' needs for a mentoring programme in the ELI of king Abdul-Aziz University (KAU), Saudi Arabia. It examines the type of services that graduate students might need in the mentoring programme. The sample of participants were 30 MA students in TESOL at KAU. The data was collected through distributing a questionnaire consisting of 21 questions in which 19 items were open-ended questions and 2 items were closed-ended questions. The study followed a mixed method approach. The closed-ended questions were analysed quantitatively while the open-ended questions were analysed thematically. The findings showed that MA students are in urgent need of a mentoring programme that offers academic support, library services, and other support services like psychological counselling and guidance with MA dissertations. This study is a thorough literary work since it focuses on the needs of MA students in the Saudi context before the actual implementation of the mentoring programme. It also suggests that after a period of initiating the mentoring programme, a survey can be sent to MA students via email to ask about their opinions of it and any further recommendations to enhance it. Finally, it suggests that further research can be tackled from the male perspective through investigating their needs.

THE AFFECTIVE SIDE OF WRITING MA THESES IN APPLIED LINGUISTICS

Academic writing, which necessitates a coordination of multiple higherlevel cognitive skills, poses a challenge to graduate students. The heightened cognitive demands often cause negative emotions, such as stress, frustration, discouragement, but can also evoke positive ones, such as pride, satisfaction, and a feeling of accomplishment. This article reports the findings of a longitudinal qualitative study which aimed at exploring the emotions experienced by the participants, eleven students in an MA seminar, in the process of working on their theses, and the affective strategies they used. The data were collected through diaries kept by the participants over one academic year in which they recorded the emotions that accompanied them during the writing task. The data revealed a fluctuating and dynamic nature of the negative and positive emotions, out of which frustration and satisfaction were the most frequently experienced by the participants. Moreover, a range of affective strategies to control emotions and persist in writing were identified in the diary excerpts. The study illuminates the need to cater to the emotional side of graduate students’ thesis writing by providing them with support and appropriate training in self-regulation.

Exploring Reviewer Reactions to MA Theses of Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics

MA theses are the most important and the last step for them to attain their degree; however, their graduation dissertations must get the approval from the outside expert reviewers. Based on the analysis of 64 outside expert reviewers’ reactions to the MA theses of students majoring in foreign linguistics and applied linguistics, this paper is designed to classify the expert reviewers’ comments and find out the core factors that expert reviewers mostly pay attention to. Through the classifications and analysis of all the remarks, it can be seen that research background, language and research methodology are the frequently assessed part. At the end of the paper, the author gives some suggestions for both graduate students and tutors on how to efficiently avoid the common problems in the writing of the MA theses.