How Syntactically Complex is L2 Academic Research Writing by Filipino Researchers across Disciplines?

Abstract

Syntactic complexity has received much attention in English for academic purposes (EAP) research. However, it remains an ignored area of EAP research in the Philippines. This study crossexamined syntactic complexity in research articles (RAs) authored by Filipino researchers (FRs) in Communication, Curriculum and Instruction, and Psychology. Major findings revealed that attributive adjectives, nominal prepositional phrases, and noun premodifiers most dominantly co-occurred across disciplinary RAs. A significant difference exists between the three nominal pre-and postmodifiers and other compressed and implicit and elaborated and explicit syntactic features. As such, Filipinoauthored disciplinary RAs are characterized by a compressed and implicit discourse style. Therefore, L2 academic research writing by FRs regardless of the disciplines is syntactically complex with the use of the three compressed and implicit phrasal features. It is likewise filled with very dense packaging of information by the three nominal phrases. The study has practical implications for academic research writing instruction, academic research journals, and professional development training.

Finite Complement Clauses in Disciplinary Research Articles Authored by Filipino Academic Writers

“…While these figures show that English is the common language used in research publications, there is no evidence that all of them were authored by L1 English users only. Crystal (2008), Flowerdew and Habibie (2022), Galloway (2017), Jenkins (2015), and Rose and Galloway (2019) opine that L2 English users have greatly outnumbered L1 English users across the world-suggesting that more L2 English academic writers participate in academic writing scholarship (Hernandez, 2022;Hernandez & Genuino, 2022). L2 English academic writers include Filipino academic writers (FAWs) who commonly use English in writing research papers in their respective disciplinary communities.…”

“…English is required for writing disciplinary research papers in countries where English is used as an L2 (Hernandez, 2023). As an L2 English nation and a multilingual country, the Philippines recognizes it as a legitimate language in academic research or scholarly publications, as elucidated by Dayag (2012Dayag ( , 2014.…”

“…As an L2 English nation and a multilingual country, the Philippines recognizes it as a legitimate language in academic research or scholarly publications, as elucidated by Dayag (2012Dayag ( , 2014. Hernandez (2023) avers that Philippine academic journals require researchers or professionals across education science, social science, and humanities disciplines to use English in writing and submitting research papers, so their studies may reach wider audience; moreover, Philippine higher education institutions demand students in senior high school, undergraduate, and graduate levels to use English in research writing, so they could obtain their academic degrees. This propensity towards using English in research writing is supported by Article XIV, Section 7 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution-stating that English is one of the official languages for communication, among others, in the Philippines.…”

“…It covers different academic writing discourses such as research articles, theses, dissertations, laboratory reports, and so on. There has been a general impression that language variation is present across academic discourses (Hernandez, 2023). More specifically, Gray (2015) and Hyland (2006) claim that language use in academic research writing differs from one discipline to another, and disciplinary communities utilize language resources in various ways.…”

“…In fact, only a few studies of these clauses were conducted by English for academic purposes (EAP) researchers in the Philippines. For instance, Gustilo (2010) and Hernandez (2023) examined finite adverbial clauses across disciplinary research articles. However, their studies did not concentrate on FCCs.…”