The employment of reporting verbs in tesol research articles between non native and native english writers

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY - TRAN PHUONG NHI THE EMPLOYMENT OF REPORTING VERBS IN TESOL RESEARCH ARTICLES BETWEEN NON-NATIVE AND NATIVE ENGLISH WRITERS MASTER THESIS Major: English Language Course code: 60220201 HO CHI MINH CITY, JUNE 2020 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY - THE EMPLOYMENT OF REPORTING VERBS IN TESOL RESEARCH ARTICLES BETWEEN NON-NATIVE AND NATIVE ENGLISH WRITERS Submitted to the Faculty of English Language in partial fulfillment of the Master‘s degree in English Language Course code: 60220201 By TRAN PHUONG NHI Supervised by DUONG MY THAM, Ph.D HO CHI MINH CITY, JUNE 2020 This thesis entiled: The Employment of Reporting Verbs in TESOL Research Articles between Non-Native and Native English Writers was successfully defended and approved on May 28, 2020 at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HUTECH) Academic Supervisor: Duong My Tham, Ph.D Signature: Examination Committee Nguyen Thi Kieu Thu Ph.D Chair Cao Thi Phuong Dung Ph.D Reader Nguyen Thi Nhu Ngoc Ph.D Reader Nguyen Tien Hung Ph.D Member Le Van Tuyen Ph.D Secretary Member On behalf of the Examination Committee Chair (full name, title, signature) HCMC UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY POSTGRADUATE INSTITUTE _ HCMC, December 18, 2019 MASTER’S THESIS REPORT Student name: Tran Phuong Nhi Sex: Female Date of birth: June 27, 1994 Place of birth: Ho Chi Minh City Major: English Language Student code: 1741900062 I- Thesis title: The Employment of Reporting Verbs in TESOL Research Articles between Non-native and Native English Writers II- Objectives and contents: This thesis is aimed to examine the frequency and explore the semantic dimensions of the reporting verbs that were used in TESOL research articles written by Non-native and Native English writers in a form of comparison The thesis supports and raises the awareness of the Non-native and Vietnamese students to use reporting verbs appropriately III- Starting date: IV- Completing date: December 18, 2019 V- Academic supervisor: (full name, title) Duong My Tham Ph.D SUPERVISOR DEAN OF FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE (full name, signature) (full name, signature) CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I certify my authorship of the Master‘s Thesis submitted today entitled: THE EMPLOYMENT OF REPORTING VERBS IN TESOL RESEARCH ARTICLES BETWEEN NON-NATIVE AND NATIVE ENGLISH WRITERS In terms of the statement of the requirements for Theses in Master‘s Programs issued by Higher Degree Committee of Faculty of English Language, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology Ho Chi Minh City, December 2019 Signature: TRẦN PHƯƠNG NHI i RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, TRAN PHUONG NHI, being a candidate for the degree of Master of Arts (English Language) accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master‘s Theses deposited in the Library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my Master‘s Thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Librarian for the care, loan and reproduction for theses Ho Chi Minh City, December 2019 Signature: TRẦN PHƯƠNG NHI ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to show my gratefulness to my supervisor, Dr Duong My Tham, for her insightful instruction, patience, encouragement, and constructive feedback on my entire thesis I would like to show my gratitude to all the lecturers of English at Faculty of English language – HUTECH University especially Dr Nguyen Thi Kieu Thu, who consulted and supported me to find a right way to conduct the Master thesis I would also like to thank Dr Tran Quoc Thao for his guidance on writing a standard thesis I am indebted Board of Examiners for considering my thesis and giving me precious advice that I can improve this thesis well Finally, I would like to say thank you to my family for supporting, encouraging and giving me a lot of motivation to complete the thesis iii ABSTRACT The aims of this thesis were to research the differences in using reporting verbs in terms of frequency and semantic dimensions between non-native and native English writers in their TESOL research articles The research sample was a corpus of 60 research articles which contains 30 articles written by non-native English writers, and 30 other articles written by native English writers, adopted in the thesis The thesis employed mixed-methods research in which both qualitative and quantitative methods used to analyze the corpus AntConc Software version 3.5.7 was used in the research to make a statistic for the frequency of each reporting verb quantitatively Then, semantic dimensions of reporting verbs were qualitatively analyzed by comparing similarities and differences in four main semantic aspects of reporting verbs, namely Affectedness, Explicitness, Speech Acts and Formality between non-native English and native English writers The results showed that there were significant differences in the frequency and semantic dimensions of reporting verbs Specifically, the native English writers used reporting verbs with their strong argument for the findings, while non-native English writers used reporting verbs with the objective attitude to contribute and support their viewpoints Reporting verbs are very important in writing research because this is a tool to integrate the previous works of the other authors, their words or their ideas; therefore, this thesis could be a reference for the further researchers to use reporting verbs proficiently in their research, and EFL teachers would instruct students to use reporting verbs appropriately iv LIST OF FIGURES No table of figures entries found v LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 Semantic dimensions of the field of reporting verbs .17 Table 3.1 Corpora description 28 Table 3.2 Data analysis procedure 31 Table 3.3 The research questions in relation to data analysis tools 32 Table 4.1 Overview of the frequencies and the semantic dimensions of the four groups of reporting verbs in the two corpora of 60 research articles 34 Table 4.2 The example of Argue Group that is used by the native and non-native English writers 35 Table 4.3 The example of Find Group that is used by the native and non-native English writers 36 Table 4.4 The example of Think Group that is used by the native and non-native English writers 37 Table 4.5 The example of Show Group that is used by the native and non-native English writers 38 Table 4.6 Frequencies and Groups of reporting verbs adopted by the native and non-native English writers in TESOL research articles 39 Table 4.7 The frequencies and percentages of reporting verbs adopted in 60 research articles from non-native and native English writers 40 Table 4.8 The semantic dimensions of the reporting verbs in TESOL research articles adopted by non-native English writers 42 Table 4.9 The semantic dimensions of the reporting verbs in TESOL research articles adopted by native English writers .47 Table 4.10 The semantic dimensions of reporting verbs in TESOL research articles adopted by non-native and native English writers 53 vi disciplinary knowledge Applied Linguistics, 20(3), 341-367 Hyland, K (1999a) Academic attribution: Citation and the construction of disciplinary knowledge Applied Linguistics, 20, 341-367 Hyland, K (1999b) Disciplinary discourses: Writer stance in research articles In C Candlin & K Hyland (Eds.), Writing: Texts, processes, and practices (pp 99-121) London: Longman Hyland, K (2000a) Disciplinary discourses: Social interactions in academic writing Harlow, England: Longman Hyland, K (2002) Authority and invisibility: authorial identity in academic writing Journal of Pragmatics, 1(1), 1-18 Hyland, K (2002a) Activity and evaluation: Reporting practices in academic writing In J Flowerdew (Ed.), Academic discourse (pp 115-130) Harlow, England: Longman Hyland, K (2005) Metadiscourse: Exploring Interaction in Writing, London: Continuum Jacob et al (2018) Teaching computational thinking to english learners Nys Tesol Journal, 5(2), 12-24 Jafarigohar, M., & Mohammadkhani, A (2015) Reporting verbs in applied linguistics research articles by native and non-native writers Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 5(12), 2490-2496 Jaroongkhongdach, W (2015) Idea sharing: reporting verbs in research writing: Lessons from experts PASAA 50 143-154 10.14456/pasaa.2015.6 Lambert, C., & Oliver, R (2010) Using Tasks in Diverse contexts, New York: Multilingual Matters Le Van Tuyen (2015) An investigation of teaching effectiveness in tertiary English classes International Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature (IJSELL), 3(4), 43-57 Le Van Tuyen (2015) An investigation into the effectiveness of learning assessment for non English major students at the tertiary level International Journal 67 on Studies in English Language and Literature (IJSELL), 3(5), 14-31 Lenci, A et al (2000) Linguistic Specifications, Waltham, Massachusetts: Brandeis University Levin, B (2009) Role-Centered Approaches to Lexical Semantic Representation, New York: UC Berkeley Lewin, B.A (2005) Hedging: An exploratory study of authors‘ and readers‘ identification of ‗toning down‘ in scientific texts Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 4, 163-178 Lin, L., & Cheng, C (2007) Research trends in selected M.A TESOL programs in taiwan: A preliminary content analysis of master‘s theses from 2003-2007 Asian EFL Journal, 12(4), 1-13 Lin, M., & Lee, J (2015) Data-driven learning: Changing the teaching of grammar in EFL classes ELT Journal Advance, 1(1), 1-11 Liu, J (2001) Confessions of a non-native english-speaking professional The CATESOL Journal, 13(1), 53-67 Macalister, J (2010) Today‘s teaching, tomorrow‘s text: Exploring the teaching of reading ELT Journal, 65(2), 161-170 Maide, Y., & Zeynep, E (2017) A contrastive corpus-based analysis of the use of reporting verbs Research on Youth and Language, 11(2), 112-127 Nguyen Thi Thuy Loan (2017) Reporting verbs in TESOL master‘s theses written by Vietnamese postgraduate students The Asian ESP journal, 1(1), 35-60 Nguyen Thi Thuy Loan (2017) Reporting verbs in TESOL master's theses written by Vietnamese postgraduate students, Plueai, Thailand: Kalasin University Parisse, C., & Rossi, C (2017) Semantic discrimination of Noun/Verb categories Lexical Polycategoriality Crosslinguistic, 1(1), 413-44 Pickard, V (1995) Citing previous writers: What can we say instead of ‗say‘? Hong Kong Papers in Linguistics and Language Teaching, 18(1), 68 89-102 Renandya, W., & Farrell, T (2010) ‗Teacher, the tape is too fast!‘ Extensive listening in ELT ELT Journal, 1(1), 1-8 RMIT University Study and Learning Center (2012) Degree of strength in use of reporting verbs Retrieved from: https://www.lib.rmit.edu.au/assignment/files/Reporting_verbs.pdf Stapleton, P., & Radia, P (2009) Tech-era L2 writing: Towards a new kind of process ELT Journal, 64(2), 175-185 Swales, J M., & Feak, C B (2004) Academic writing for graduate students: Essential tasks and skills (2 ed.), Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press Thomas, S and Hawes, T P (1994) Reporting verbs in medical journal articles English for Specific Purposes, 13, 129-86 Thompson, G., & Ye, Y (1991) Evaluation in the reporting verbs used in academic papers Applied Linguistcs, 4(1), 365-382 University of Adelaide Writing Centre (2009) Common reporting verbs for academic writing Retrieved from: http://www.adelaide.edu.au/writingcentre/learning_guides/learningGuide _reportingVerbs.pdf Vermette, S (2015) Strategies for Academic Language Development, New York: Hampton Bays Weissberg, R., & Bucker, S (2007) Writing up Research: Experimental Research Report Writing for Students of English (2 ed.) Malaysia: Pearson Malaysia Whitaker, A (2009) A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing Academic Papers, Bratislava, Slovakia: City University of Seattle Whitehead , G., Ramos, I., & Coates, A (2019) Developing effective teacher talk: A critical self-examination of an esp course designed for korean in-service teachers The Journal of Asia TEFL, 16(1), 178-199 69 Winnie, L & Sarah, N (2010) Reducing student reticence through teacher interaction strategy ELT Journal, 64(3), 302-311 Witzlack-Makarevich, A & Seržant, I., (2010) Differential Argument Marking: Patterns of Variation, New York: Language Science Press Yang, H & Clarke, M (2018) Spaces of agency within contextual constraints: a case study of teacher‘s response to EFL reform in a Chinese university Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 1(1), 1-16 Yilmaz, M., & Erturk, Z (2017) A contrastive corpus-based analysis of the use of reporting verbs by native Novitas-ROYAL, 11(2), 112-127 70 and non-native ELT researchers APPENDIX A THE LIST OF SAMPLE JOURNALS IN THESIS No 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Journals ISSN English Language Teaching International Journal of English Research International Journal of English Language Teaching International Journal of Language Academy 1916-4742 2455-2186 2055-0820 International Journal of Indonesian Education and Teaching The Journal of Asia TEFL International Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature Cross-Cultural Communication Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences Asia Pacific Journal of Education 2548-8422 Canadian Journal of Education Electronic Journal of Foreign Language Teaching Asian EFL Journal Journal of Effective Teaching Journal of English as an International Language Journal of Online Learning and Teaching The English Teacher CELT: A Journal of Culture, English Language Teaching & Literature SAGE Open TESOL Quarterly 1918-5979 0219-9874 71 2342-0251 2466-1511 2347-3126 1712-8358 1877-0428 0218-8791 1738-1460 1935-7869 1718-2298 1558-9528 0128-7729 2502-4914 2158-2440 APPENDIX B SAMPLES OF THE TESOL RESEARCH ARTICLES AND INTERFACE OF ANTCONC SOFTWARE 3.5.7  TESOL RESEARCH ARTICLES Sample of Research Article from Non-Native English Writer 72 Sample of Research Article from Native English Writer 73  INTERFACE OF ANTCONC SOFTWARE 3.5.7 AntConc Software 3.5.7 74 APPENDIX C LIST OF REPORTING VERBS AND THEIR POSITIONS IN ACADEMIC WRITING Weaker position Neutral position Addition adds Advice advises Agreement admits, concedes Stronger position accepts, applauds, acknowledges, congratulates, extols, agrees, concurs, praises, supports confirms, recognises Argument/ apologises assures, encourages, alerts, argues, boasts, interprets, persuasion justifies, contends, convinces, reasons emphasises, exhorts, forbids, insists, proves, promises, persuades, threatens, warns Believing believing guesses, imagines believes, hopes, declares, claims, asserts, expresses, insists, upholds feels, holds, knows, maintains, professes, subscribes to, thinks Conclusion concludes, discovers, finds, infers, realize 75 guarantees, Weaker position Neutral position Stronger position Disagreement/ doubts, questions challenges, debates, accuses, questioning disagrees, questions, complains, requests, wonders attacks, contradicts, criticises, denies, discards, disclaims, discounts, dismisses, disputes, disregards, negates, objects to, opposes, refutes, rejects Discussion Comments discusses, explores reasons accentuates, Emphasis emphasizes, highlights, stresses, underscores, warns Evaluation/ analyses, appraises, blames, examination assesses, compares ignores, scrutinizes, considers, contrasts, warns critiques, evaluates, examines, investigates, understands 76 complains, Weaker position Neutral position Stronger position articulates, clarifies, Explanation explains Presentation confuses comments, defines, announces, promises describes, estimates, forgets, illustrates, informs, identifies, implies, instructs, lists, mentions, notes, observes, outlines, points out, presents, remarks, reminds, reports, restates, reveals, shows, states, studies, tells, uses Suggestion alleges, advises, advocates, asserts, recommends, intimates, hypothesizes, posits, urges speculates postulates, proposes, suggests, theorises Source: University of Adelaide - Writing Center (2009) 77 APPENDIX D LIST OF SURVEYED ARTICLES 30 research articles were written by Non-native English writers Learner‘ listening comprehension difficulties in English language learning: a literature review The non-native speaker teacher ICT in education: A critical literature review and its implications Confessions of a Non-Native English-Speaking Professional Native and non-native english language teachers: student perceptions in Vietnam and Japan TESOL teachers‘ engagement with the native speaker model: how does teacher education impact on their beliefs? English language teaching in public school in brazil: an experience of a student teacher in a state school EFL State school teachers‘ perceptions on in-service teacher development programs in the Turkish educational system Impact on remedial teaching on ESL/EFL low achievers: An Arabian gulf experience 10 The Effects of blended learning on the intrinsic motivation of Thai EFL students 11 ESL learners‘ awareness of teacher recasts in classroom interaction 12 Learners‘ perceptions of teacher written feedback commentary in an ESL writing classroom 13 Cultural background for ESLEFL teachers 14 Second language acquisition applied to English language Teaching 15 From Ideology to inquiry: Mediating Asian and Western values in ELT practice 16 Out-of-class communication and awareness of English as a Lingua Franca 17 An investigation into the effectiveness of learning assessment for Non-English major students at the Tertiary level 18 Native speakers versus Non-native speaker teachers in TESOL 19 An investigation of teaching effectiveness in Tertiary English class 20 Language skills: questions for teaching and learning 21 The effect on focused corrective feedback on ESL learners‘ writing accuracy 78 22 Teachers‘ perceptions on the use of the communicative language teaching approach in the English classrooms 23 Developing effective teacher talk‘: A critical self-examination of an ESP course designed for Korean In-Service teachers 24 Research trends in selected M.A TESOL programs in Taiwan: A Preliminary content analysis of Master‘s Theses from 2003-2007 25 Data driven learning: Changing the teaching of grammar in EFL classes 26 Reducing student reticence through teacher interaction strategy 27 Nonnative-English-Speaking Professional in TESOL 28 Action oriented approach in foreign language teaching 29 A case study of metacognitive L2 listening: Instruction withing an EFL context 30 Error analysis and correction in oral communication in the EFL context of Bangladesh 79 Research articles were written by Native English writers A Critical approach to critical thinking in TESOL English-as-a-second-language reading instruction in the Unted States: a research review Towards the pedagogy of empowerment: The case of ―Impostor syndrome‖ among pre-service non-native speaker teachers in TESOL Using tasks in diverse contexts Cases in TESOL Teacher Education: Creating a forum for reflection Native-speakerism A potted history of PPP with the help of ELT Journal A pilot English for academic purposes course for professors and researchers Developing English language teaching metaphorical associative cards (ELTMAC): Complete report 10 A study of foreign expatriate TESOL teachers teaching in Thai schools 11 Notetaking in English language teaching: Highlighting contrasts 12 Revisiting what SLA research offers practicing ESL/EFL Teachers 13 Teach-era L2 writing: towards a new kind of process 14 Today‘s teaching, tomorrow‘s text: Exploring the teaching of reading 15 Using vocabulary notebooks for vocabulary acquisition and teaching 16 ―Teacher, the tape is too fast!‖ Extensive listening in ELT 17 Examining conceptions of writing in TESOL and English education journals: Toward a more integrated framework for research addressing multilingual classrooms 18 Exploring the effectiveness of structured language learning experiences for bilingual in a language acquisition course 19 Like driving from ―the Back Seat‖: Teaching English as a second language in commodified curricular terrains 20 Drama education and second language learning 21 Foreign language teachers‘ attitudes toward written recall protocol as a practice of reading comprehension assessment 22 Investigating the influences of transcribing, reporting and task repetition on in-class spoken task performances 80 23 TESOL and culture 24 Introduction: Critical approaches to TESOL 25 Whole language in TESOL 26 The practicum in TESOL 27 Emergent bilinguals and TESOL: What‘s in a Name?‖ 28 Multimodality in the TESOL classroom: Exploring visual-verbal synergy 29 Oral communication in TESOL: Integrating speaking, listening and pronunciation 30 Integrating grammar in adult TESOL classrooms 81