Recurrent formulas and moves in writing research article conclusions among native and nonnative writers

For years, writing academic research articles (RAs) has gained abundant attention from scholars. This is obviously motivated by the fact that writing RAs is an important endeavor through which writers are able to communicate with members in their discourse community with an owned academic voice to perpetuate an identity. This voice is facilitated through the frequent and efficient use of formulaic sequences such as lexical bundles. This study aims to investigate the use of lexical bundles in two different corpora of 200 RA conclusions written by native and Iranian non-native writers. The comparison is premised on the notion that there may be linguistic differences between the two groups of writers and the comparison could serve to highlight how communicative purposes could be conveyed by the bundles in the moves and steps of the conclusions differently. Findings demonstrated that native writers relied more on the use of lexical bundles in writing conclusions. Structurally, the majority of the bundles found in the two corpora were noun or prepositional phrases. While native authors were more inclined to the use of dependent clauses, the bundles found in the L2 corpus contained more verb phrases. Further analysis of the bundles in the moves and steps of the conclusions revealed some marked variations between the two groups. Most of these expressions in the L2 corpus were used in more than one move or step, while in the native corpus, a group of lexical bundles were found to belong to only one move or step of a move

On persuasive strategies: Metadiscourse practices in political speeches

This study attempted to investigate the persuasive meaning of metadiscourse markers in political speeches to see to what extent and how persuasive discourse is constructed in this genre through metadiscourse practices. To this aim, twenty-six political speeches given by Barack Obama, a former president of the United States, were analyzed using a discourse analytic approach and following Hyland’s (2005ab) interpersonal models of metadiscourse to identify the frequency and persuasive function of interactive and interactional devices used. The findings indicated that the persuasive meaning conveyed by metadiscourse was for the most part context-dependent, which sometimes required the speaker to rely on a combination of devices to organize his discourse, persuade audiences, attract their attention and engage them in arguments. Furthermore, interactional devices were more frequently used than interactive ones, reflecting that engaging audiences in arguments and showing one’s attitude and evaluation towards propositions were more likely to contribute to constructing a persuasive political speech. Findings can be discussed in terms of raising the awareness of second language speakers toward the linguistic and pragmatic conventions of political discourse and how persuasive discourse is constructed through metadiscourse markers.

An exploration of lexical bundles in academic lectures: examples from hard and soft sciences

Recurrent word combinations that carry out specific function have long captured the attention of many linguists. Referred to as extended collocations,lexical bundles are frequently used in spoken and written discourse, helping to shape meaning and coherence in a text or speech. Frequent use of these bundles is indicative of fluency in linguistic production. In the last two decades, lexical bundles have begun to attract considerable attention in corpus-based research; however, there is still an open question of whether they are different across disciplines in spoken discourse. This study aims to explore how four-word lexical bundles are used in 24 academic lectures of hard and soft sciences taken from the British Academic Spoken English(BASE) corpus to see the possible variations in their frequency, structure and function. The present research also attempts to discover the manifestation of the identified bundles in introduction, body and closing sections of the lectures. Findings revealed some marked variations across the two divisions;in that, lecturers in each division appeared to apply different structures and functions in the use of lexical bundles in order to convey their message, so as to be as comprehensive as possible for the learners

Discourse functions of formulaic sequences in academic speech across two disciplines

Formulaic sequences play a crucial role in building academic discourse. From among the variety of formulaic expressions, lexical bundles have been shown to serve particular facilitative functions in academic discourse. Defined as strings of word forms that commonly co-occur in natural discourse, lexical bundles are characterized statistically by their frequency of occurrence and they contribute significantly to fluency in speech and writing. While previous research had focused on the use of these expressions in academic research articles across disciplines or on the difference between spoken and written registers, little research has been carried out to find out the language use of academic lectures from different disciplines in terms of the use of these bundles, orally. Taking into account this consideration, the present study aimed to investigate how lexical bundles are used by academic lecturers from different disciplinary communities. With the aim of comparing their language selection, the most frequent four-word lexical bundles in academic lectures of two disciplines, namely politics and chemistry were identified and categorized. The procedure adopts Biber et al.‟s (2004) functional categorization of lexical bundles to investigate the communicative purposes that lexical bundles convey in the lectures of the two groups and to see whether there were any disciplinary differences with regard to the bundles used. Based on the findings, there were some marked variations found across the two disciplines in terms of discourse functions of the lexical bundles. It seemed that academic lectures rely heavily on the use of specific word combinations to fulfill those functions related to their discipline

Cross-linguistic and cross-disciplinary investigation of lexical bundles in academic writing

The present paper reviews the use of lexical bundles in academic writing from two different viewpoints namely linguistic and discipline, directed at how academic writers belonging to different disciplines or linguistic backgrounds construct their discourses through lexical bundles. As cohesive devices, lexical bundles are an indispensible part of the text and play a crucial role in shaping propositions, evolving the text, guiding readers through the flow of information and gaining the writer's proffered meaning. By using lexical bundles, academic writers are able to attain naturalness in their writings and create a more reader-friendly approach to the unfolding text. Bearing the significance of lexical bundles in mind, this review paper aims to examine the effect of disciplinary variation and linguistic differences on the use of lexical bundles in academic writing. Most researchers believe that the frequency as well as the use of lexical bundles is different across disciplines and from one language to another language. Therefore, through a review of previous studies, there is a systematic investigation of evidence to support the above claims. Possible limitations of previous studies are discussed and some implications for further research are presented

The Effect of Chamomile Oil on Pain and Anxiety Intensity of IUD Insertion in Women Referring to Karaj Health Centers: Ridit Analysis

Introduction: Intrauterine device (IUD) is a safe, effective and reversible method of family planning. Unfortunately, IUD insertion causes anxiety and pain. The aim of study was to compare ridit analysis and Kruskal-wallis test in pain and anxiety intensity of IUD insertion in women referring to health centers of Karaj (Iran).Materials and Methods: In this randomized clinical trial study, 150 eligible women candidate intrauterine device insertion entered the study and were randomly divided into three groups: chamomile, placebo and control groups. Data was collected from women who came to health centers in Karaj (Iran) in 2017. Data collection tools included demographic information, Spiel-Berger questionnaire and pain visual analogue scale. The intensity of pain and anxiety were measured afterwards. Finally, ridit analysis and Kruskal-wallis test were used to rank the intensity of pain and anxiety in patients. The R-3.4.3 and Microsoft's Excel software were used for statistical analysis.Results: The results showed that the mean±SD of age in three groups was 29.7±7.01, 28.68±8.15 and 31.6±7.71, respectively. Ridit analysis and Kruskal-wallis test showed considerable decrease of the anxiety and pain intensity, induced by IUD insertion in Chamomile, Placebo and Control groups respectively. Ridit analysis and Kruskal-wallis test statistics are significant. The value of the ridit statistic was 15د‡2=20.23, P<0.001">  and the value of Kruskal-wallis test is 15د‡2=18.67, P<0.005">  in pain intensity. Moreover, the value of the ridit statistic is 15د‡2=3.92, P<0.001">  and the value of Kruskal-wallis test is 15د‡2=21.37, P<0.005">  in anxiety intensity.Conclusions: The results of this study suggested that, there is less significant difference in ridit analysis than Kruskal-wallis test among the three groups in decreasing pain and anxiety intensity. 

Using multi-word units to take a stance in academic lectures

For years, word sequences which tend to co-occur have been studied under different terms, such as phraseology, chunks, n-grams and lexical bundles. Lexical bundles in the main are referred to as extended collocations which are used more frequently that we expect by chance. They are building blocks of discourse which have three main functions. Among them, stance expressions appear to be frequently used in academic discourse to reflect the speaker or writers’ attitudes towards different propositions. With this idea in mind, the present study aims to portray the use of stance expressions in academic lectures to find out the discourse functions that the stance bundles serve. To this aim, the most frequent stance expressions in six English lectures taken from the British Academic Spoken English (BASE) corpus were studied and analyzed in order to see to what extent stance expressions are used and how English lecturers use them. Results revealed that lecturers deployed 62 different word combinations to carry out stance functions. Among the functions, attitudinal/modality stance bundles were found to be more used – about twice as many as the epistemic stance bundles which was next in the hierarchy. Most of the stance expressions found in the corpus of the study were of personal rather than impersonal. The study of stance expressions in lectures delivered in English could provide insights into the significance of lexical bundles as building blocks of academic discourse in the context of their communicative functions

Investigation into the semantic density and semantic gravity wave profile of teachers when discussing electrophilic aromatic substitution (SEAr)

Language in chemistry is highly specialized and, for students, transitions in language complexity from high school to university can be extremely challenging. With an increasingly diverse cohort of students enrolled upon UK chemistry degree programmes, better understanding the linguistic challenges students face is becoming a greater pedagogical priority. Spoken language plays a central role when learning chemistry, and any misunderstandings can lead to misconceptions that can impede students’ success in this demanding subject. This small-scale study sought to compare the complexity of spoken-language explanations of the same chemical process within UK secondary (high school) and university contexts. The study involved seven organic chemistry educators/teachers, four based in a UK University and three in a UK high school, discussing electrophilic aromatic substitution (SEAr) via a lecture or screencast. The participants’ spoken discourse was transcribed and coded according to the concepts of semantic gravity (the degree to which meaning relates to context) and semantic density (the degree to which meaning is condensed within symbols) drawn from Legitimation Code Theory, and then analyzed for semantic waves. When considering semantic gravity, there were some similarities and some differences. In all cases, semantic gravity was weaker, but participants based in a university environment generally tended to exhibit slightly weaker semantic gravity than their school-based counterparts. The school-based participants usually added further explanations to clarify what was meant during an explanation and exhibited semantic waves by unpacking and re-packing a concept, whereas the university-based participants tended to show a flatter semantic profile. Findings showed that across the levels of study investigated, semantic density was stronger: a similar complexity of chemistry-specific vocabulary used by all seven participants, regardless of the audience. Findings have pedagogical implications and suggest that a larger-scale study of semantic waves in oral chemistry discourse could usefully inform specific-purposes language teaching