Referential Coherence of Academic Texts: A Corpus-Based Analysis of L2 Research Papers in Management

Abstract

This paper focuses on referential coherence, which is seen as a crucial attribute of effective academic writing. Findings are reported from a corpus study of Russian students’ research proposals. The learners’ use of anaphoric expressions is compared with a reference corpus, which comprises research articles published in peer-reviewed journals. It was hypothesised that learners use anaphora less frequently than professional writers and face some difficulties when using anaphoric expressions. The results of the analysis partly confirmed the hypothesis and allowed the identification of particular problems connected with the students’ use of anaphoric expressions, which were then classified into several groups. Examples of exercises aimed at dealing with the identified problems are also provided. It is hoped that the reported findings, as well as the author’s suggested reasons for the problems and possible ways of dealing with them, will be useful for EAP practitioners, researchers, and students writing their research papers in English.

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“…It should be noted that a research proposal is the closest type of writing in English the student writers will do during their studies, because they go on to undertake and write up the research they proposed in their native language. Besides, the practice of comparing learner academic texts with professional writing is well established in EAP literature (see, for example, Aull et al, 2017;Lee & Chen, 2009;Smirnova, 2019). So, we believe that the corpora are comparable and can be used for our purposes.…”

Facebook Social Media: How does it Affect First-Year Students' Description Writing Skills?

“…Writing is widely recognized as a language skill that is very important in effective communication (Flower & Hayes, 1981;Hyland, 2010;Wahid & Marni, 2018;Wahid, Suyitno, Suyono, & Martutik, 2020). However, this skill is very difficult and complex to master for any language user (Chetia, 2013;Flower & Hayes, 1981;Freedman, Hull, Higgs, & Booten, 2016;Karadeniz, 2017;Pham, 2021;Smirnova, 2019;Syahrin, Dawud, Suwignyo, & Priyatni, 2019;Wahid et al, 2020;Wijana, 2006), both native and non-native speakers (Adeyemi, 2017). Writing is a problem-solving activity because it involves high-level cognitive abilities (Flower & Hayes, 1981;Gustafson, 2011;Qadir, Bensen Bostanci, & Kurt, 2021), and the ability to utilize various linguistic features in written form, such as the use of cohesion and coherence devices (Ahmed, 2010;Bahaziq, 2016;Briesmaster & Etchegaray, 2017;Flowerdew & Mahlberg, 2009;Ghufron, 2012;Guthire, 2008;Halliday & Hasan, 1976, 1985Jabeen, Mehmood, & Iqbal, 2013;Plakans & Gebril, 2017;Setiawan & Taiman, 2021;Shabani & Goljani, 2015).…”