Epistemic positioning by science students and experts: a divide by applied and pure disciplines
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Youneng Dong
Youneng Dong is an associate Professor at Hubei University, China. He is interested in English for Academic Purposes, and students writing in English.
Jingjing Wang is professor of applied linguistics at Hubei University, China. She has been researching and publishing in English for Academic Purposes, disciplinary discourse and L2 academics and students writing in English.
Feng Kevin Jiang corresponding author is Kuang Yaming Distinguished Professor in applied linguistics in the School of Foreign Language Education at Jilin University, China and gained his PhD under the supervision of Professor Ken Hyland at the Center for Applied English Studies at the University of Hong Kong. His research interests include disciplinary discourse, corpus studies and academic writing, and his publications have appeared in most major applied linguistics journals.
Abstract
It is one of the concerns of EAP to bridge the disparity of discursive practice between novice and expert writers, but the comparison is largely made across a broad knowledge field and little is known about the likely divergence within a disciplinary divide. In this study, we explore the epistemic positioning in research writing by PhD students and expert writers across applied and pure science disciplines. By focusing on hedges and boosters as its main devices, we examine their forms and functions in the academic texts. Results show that PhD students in applied disciplines use significantly fewer epistemic devices than experts but no significant difference was found in pure sciences. Apart from the differences in linguistic choices, student writers show a preference for authorial positioning at the outset of academic texts while professionals tend to comment on research findings and establish a persuasive interpretation of their value. Additionally, novice writers are inclined to hedge on numerical information (about) but expert writers hedge on claims (likely). We discuss the results from the perspectives of disciplinary epistemology and writer identity. Pedagogical implications are raised on the teaching of epistemic positioning and the enculturation of disciplinary stance in academic writing classrooms.
Funding source: Research Project of Innovation in Chinese Modernisation and Mankind Civilisation granted by Jilin University
Award Identifier / Grant number: 2022CXTD18
Funding source: Project of Postgraduate Education Reform by Jilin University
Award Identifier / Grant number: 2021JGZ09
Funding source: Project of Humanities and Social Sciences by Jilin Office of Education
Award Identifier / Grant number: JJKH20211252SK
Funding source: Project of Social Science Research of Jilin Province
Award Identifier / Grant number: 2019B163
About the authors
Youneng Dong is an associate Professor at Hubei University, China. He is interested in English for Academic Purposes, and students writing in English.
Jingjing Wang is professor of applied linguistics at Hubei University, China. She has been researching and publishing in English for Academic Purposes, disciplinary discourse and L2 academics and students writing in English.
Feng Kevin Jiang corresponding author is Kuang Yaming Distinguished Professor in applied linguistics in the School of Foreign Language Education at Jilin University, China and gained his PhD under the supervision of Professor Ken Hyland at the Center for Applied English Studies at the University of Hong Kong. His research interests include disciplinary discourse, corpus studies and academic writing, and his publications have appeared in most major applied linguistics journals.
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Research funding: Thia study was funded by Research Project of Innovation in Chinese Modernisation and Mankind Civilisation granted by Jilin University (2022CXTD18), Project of Postgraduate Education Reform by Jilin University (2021JGZ09), Project of Humanities and Social Sciences by Jilin Office of Education (JJKH20211252SK), and Project of Social Science Research of Jilin Province (2019B163).
Appendix: Epistemic potential markers
(1) Hedges
| about | largely | typically |
| almost | Likely | uncertain |
| apparent | mainly | uncertainly |
| apparently | May | Unclear |
| appear | maybe | unclearly |
| appeared | Might | Unlikely |
| appears | mostly | Usually |
| approximately | Often | Would |
| around | on the whole | Broadly |
| assume | Ought | tended to |
| assumed | perhaps | presumably |
| certain | plausible | suggests |
| claim | plausibly | from this perspective |
| claimed | possible | from my perspective |
| could | possibly | in my view |
| doubt | postulate | in this view |
| doubtful | postulated | in our opinion |
| essentially | presumable | in my opinion |
| estimate | probable | to my knowledge |
| estimated | probably | Fairly |
| feel | relatively | Quite |
| felt | roughly | rather x |
| frequently | seems | Argue |
| from our perspective | sometimes | Claims |
| generally | somewhat | Feels |
| guess | suggest | indicates |
| in general | suggested | supposed |
| in most cases | suppose | supposes |
| in most instances | suspect | suspects |
| in our view | tend to | postulates |
| indicate | tends to | |
| indicated | typical |
(2) Boosters
| actually | Find | Realise |
| always | Finds | Realises |
| believe | Found | Realised |
| believed | in fact | Really |
| believes | incontestable | Show |
| beyond doubt | incontestably | Shows |
| certain | incontrovertible | Showed |
| certainly | incontrovertibly | Shown |
| clear | Indeed | Sure |
| clearly | Indisputable | Surely |
| conclusively | Indisputably | Truly |
| decidedly | Know | True |
| definite | Known | Think |
| definitely | Must | Thinks |
| demonstrate | Never | Thought |
| demonstrates | no doubt | Undeniable |
| demonstrated | Obvious | Undeniably |
| doubtless | Obviously | undisputedly |
| establish | of course | undoubtedly |
| established | Prove | without doubt |
| evident | Proves | |
| evidently | Proved |
(3) Self-mentions
we, our
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Exploring open consonantal environments for at-home testing of vowel perception in advanced L2 speakers
- “Writing-to-learn”: the influence of task repetition on CSL writers’ attention to form
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- The early the better? Or, the more the merrier? The relative effects of onset age and exposure hours on EFL learners’ implicit and explicit grammatical attainment
- Stylistic alignment in natural conversation involving second language speakers
- Learner-internal and learner-external factors for boredom amongst Chinese university EFL students
- Epistemic positioning by science students and experts: a divide by applied and pure disciplines
- Sociocultural influence on engineering students’ collaborative design project: an Activity Theory perspective
- Interplay between language and identity: Chinese returnee scholars in the internationalisation of higher education
- The pedagogical remit of test preparation: the case of writing acquisition on an IELTS course
- Contributions of morphological awareness and lexical inferencing ability to L2 vocabulary knowledge among Chinese EFL learners: a structural equation modeling analysis
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- Review Article
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Exploring open consonantal environments for at-home testing of vowel perception in advanced L2 speakers
- “Writing-to-learn”: the influence of task repetition on CSL writers’ attention to form
- Tourism, commodification of Dongba script and perceptions of the Naxi minority in the linguistic landscape of Lijiang: a diachronic perspective
- The early the better? Or, the more the merrier? The relative effects of onset age and exposure hours on EFL learners’ implicit and explicit grammatical attainment
- Stylistic alignment in natural conversation involving second language speakers
- Learner-internal and learner-external factors for boredom amongst Chinese university EFL students
- Epistemic positioning by science students and experts: a divide by applied and pure disciplines
- Sociocultural influence on engineering students’ collaborative design project: an Activity Theory perspective
- Interplay between language and identity: Chinese returnee scholars in the internationalisation of higher education
- The pedagogical remit of test preparation: the case of writing acquisition on an IELTS course
- Contributions of morphological awareness and lexical inferencing ability to L2 vocabulary knowledge among Chinese EFL learners: a structural equation modeling analysis
- Syntactic variation and Pan-Hispanic awareness in teachers of Spanish as a second language
- Strategic competence, task complexity, and foreign language learners’ speaking performance: a hierarchical linear modelling approach
- Effects of working memory capacity and distance-based complexity on agreement processing: a crosslinguistic competition account
- Review Article
- Oral corrective feedback on lexical errors: a systematic review
