Variations in the Citation Use and Perceptions in Writing the Literature Review by EFL Postgraduates

Abstract

Academically, citation is pivotal since it presents justifications for the arguments and a demonstration of the writer's position. Despite the increasing number of studies on citations, little knowledge has been reported regarding the citation use and practices of EFL students within the ESL context. Hence, the present study aimed at investigating the extent of variation in the citation practices in the literature review of PhD theses in Applied Linguistics and Information Technology. The study analysed the citations qualitatively focusing mainly on several aspects, including using types of citations, the variety of the citations based on the type of the clauses in each citation, and the perspectives of EFL Arab postgraduates on using citations. A purposeful sampling was adopted in selecting the literature review of 20 PhD theses and nine EFL Arab candidates of Applied Linguistics and Information Technology. The results show the dominance of the integral citation in the literature review of Applied Linguistics and Information technology. The inter-disciplinary comparison also reported similarity in terms of the high frequency of using citations with clauses complexes. The discourse-based interviews revealed that EFL Arab postgraduates depended on the integral citation to highlight ideas, attract the reader's attention, affirm the credibility of the cited information, and refer to the type of the information. The little available information on using citations and the possible effect of their native language may lead EFL Arab postgraduates to have their own strategies regarding citations use. Consequently, EFL postgraduate students probably need explicit instructions on the use of citations.

Reporting and Quoting: Functional Analyses of Logico-Semantic Relations of Clause Complex Citations

“…Consequently, citing information cannot be neglected as it helps establish one's study on a solid basis (Hyland 2009, Petric' & Harwood 2013, Samraj 2013. However, using citations varies significantly (Dontcheva-Navratilova 2016) according to genres, culture, experience, and disciplines (Lillis et al 2010), and is therefore challenging for novice writers, particularly EFL writers (Hyland 2006, Jomaa 2017, Jomaa & Bidin 2017. Few studies have focused on analysing citations based on the Systemic Functional Linguistics.…”

Reporting Verbs and Related Syntactic Choices in Students' Theses: A Study of Two Disciplines

“…We agree with Pramoolsook (2015, 2016), who suggest that a clear focus on the lexical, grammatical aspects of citation in terms of accurate structures and appropriately used RVs should be introduced into the academic writing classroom. As Jomaa and Bidin (2019) suggest, involving the information on citation and different RVs in academic writing textbooks and authentic materials from students and experts' writings would benefit novice writers. We believe in line with Jomaa and Bidin (2019) that combining students' academic practices with understanding academic texts in context is essential for applying the findings into academic writing courses at undergraduate or postgraduate levels.…”

“…As Jomaa and Bidin (2019) suggest, involving the information on citation and different RVs in academic writing textbooks and authentic materials from students and experts' writings would benefit novice writers. We believe in line with Jomaa and Bidin (2019) that combining students' academic practices with understanding academic texts in context is essential for applying the findings into academic writing courses at undergraduate or postgraduate levels. This research did not aim to change university course syllabi but to establish a proper approach to teaching methodology of RVs in the citation in academic writing courses.…”

“…The study did not employ, e.g. discourse-based interviews to support the qualitative approach to the analysis (Hyland, 2012;Jomaa and Bidin, 2019), nor did it make use of, e.g. a movebased analysis (Nguyen and Pramoolsook, 2014), applicable within the genre-based approach (Hyland, 2004;Petrić, 2007;Swales, 1990) to research on academic writing (Hyland 2012(Hyland , 2014.…”

“…According to Jomaa and Bidin (2016, 2017, who explored postgraduate students' theses, students depend on RVs to highlight ideas, attract readers' attention, affirm credibility to the cited information, or refer to the information. As Jomaa and Bidin (2019) argue, little information on the use of RVs in citation and students' native language interference may result in the need for more explicit instruction on the use of RV in the citation. The findings from both the hard and the soft domain thus indicate the necessity of raising students' awareness of using RVs in the citation at a postgraduate level (Jomaa and Bidin, 2019) and an undergraduate level (Manan and Noor, 2015;Nguyen and Pramoolsook, 2014Samraj, 2013).…”