Citing Others’ Works in Academic Texts: How Non-native Writers of English Across-disciplines Use Reporting Verbs and Reporting Signals in Their Research Article Introductions

Abstract

This study is aimed at investigating how Indonesian writers in multidiscipline use reporting verbs (henceforth RVs) and reporting signals (henceforth RSs) in their research article introductions in English. Fifty research articles (henceforth RAs) were chosen on purpose from the recent edition of five different English language journals in Multi-disciplines published in Indonesia (i.e., 10 from Applied Linguistics, 10 from Medicine, 10 from Animal Husbandry, 10 from Engineering and Technology, and 10 from Geography). The results reveal that the most frequent groups of RV found in the RA introductions are SHOW and ARGUE groups; while the most frequent RS is Reporting Noun. It is also found that Indonesian writers in the data of this research tend to use RVs in Present and Past Tense. These findings are similar to those of previous studies where there is no important difference between English native and non-native speakers in using RVs in their RAs. This implies that Indonesian writers of the articles used in this study have used RVs in a similar way to English native speakers. This is because the RAs used in this research were taken from reputable international journals indexed by Scopus and/or Web of Science.

A Comparative Study on Reporting Verbs in ELT Research Article Introductions by Indonesian Authors

“…Regarding the differences, the results revealed that Indonesian authors of medium-ranking journals tended to use more argue verbs, find verbs, and show verbs than low-ranking journals in research article introductions in the field of English language teaching in terms of the frequency of the verb occurrences. These findings are in contrast to the study of Arsyad, Syahrial, & Hakim (2021) Another possible reason for the use of RVs such as argue verbs, find verbs, and show verbs is higher than in low-ranking ELT journals possibly caused by the number of citations or references used by them. The data show that the use of the integral citation is higher in medium-ranking ELT journals than in low-ranking ELT journals.…”

“…This study found that three types of reporting verbs were found in terms of communication, activity, and mental verbs. Further, in academic text, Arsyad, S., Syahrial., & Hakim, H. (2021) investigated the use of reporting verbs in the research article introductions written by Indonesian writers across disciplines. This study reported that the RVs in terms of "show", and "argue" groups were the most frequently found in the research article introduction, and tensed of RVs were often used in Present and Past Tense.…”

"I Am Aware, but Who Am I to Comment.": Critical Stance in Indonesian EFL Students' Academic Essay

“…The present perfect tense in RV can be employed to highlight the current state of affairs or convey a temporary conclusion from multiple works of literature (Swales & Feak, 2012). Arsyad et al (2021) argue that the limited use of the present perfect in EFL students' writing is due to their predilection for referring to a single study and research findings. It is in stark contrast to the citation practices by native English speakers or experts who prefer to cite generally accepted knowledge in the present tense and cite information from multiple sources collectively to indicate an area of inquiry with the present perfect.…”

“…However, studies have consistently reported that novice EFL writers have struggled with reporting verbs in their academic writing. It is the case for EFL writers in Indonesia (Amrullah et al, 2017;Arsyad et al, 2021), Iran (Yeganeh & Boghayeri, 2015), Malaysia (Manan & Noor, 2014), Thailand (Jaroongkhongdach, 2015;Jogthong, 2001), Vietnam (Loan & Pramoolsook, 2015), Czech (Jarkovská & Kučírková, 2020), Spain (Luzón, 2018;Soler Monreal & Gil Salom, 2011), Ghana (Agbaglo, 2017), and China (Kwon et al, 2018;Wen & Pramoolsook, 2021). The studies have found a predilection for EFL writers to use RV in a limited manner, especially in research acts (such as find, show, analyze) and discourse factive Volume 13, Number 2, September 2022, 210-230 (such as explain, argue, affirm).…”

“…Several factors contributed to the overuse and random selection of particular RV in EFL writers' academic writing. Some of these factors, albeit intuitively stated by some scholars, include a lack of understanding or exposure to the content of the cited previous studies (Arsyad et al, 2021;Jaroongkhongdach, 2015), as well as their reluctance to evaluate and comment on the claims of the authors (Agbaglo, 2017;Jaroongkhongdach, 2015;Soler Monreal & Gil Salom, 2011). Although EFL writers may have been exposed to training on using RV in academic writing, they nonetheless fail to make decisions about and experiment with new lexical varieties of RV owing to a lack of confidence (linguistic inferiority) (Bloch, 2010;Wen & Pramoolsook, 2021).…”