When the unconventional becomes convention: epistemic stance in English as a lingua franca research articles

Irina Shchemeleva

doi:10.1515/jelf-2022-2075

Article

When the unconventional becomes convention: epistemic stance in English as a lingua franca research articles

Irina Shchemeleva is Associate Professor and Dean of the School of Arts and Humanities at HSE University, Russia. Her current research interests are in the field of academic ELF and ERPP. She has published on topics related to L2 scholars’ research writing practices and teaching academic skills at the tertiary level.

Published/Copyright: June 13, 2022

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From the journal Journal of English as a Lingua Franca Volume 11 Issue 1

Abstract

In the last decade numerous studies have been published in the field of English as an academic lingua franca (academic ELF). The majority of them, however, are devoted to the speaking mode. The present paper investigates written academic ELF texts – research articles in the social sciences and humanities. It explores the ways in which L2 speakers express epistemic stance in their texts and analyzes ELF-specific non-conventional forms of epistemic stance expressions. I use data from the SciELF corpus (https://www2.helsinki.fi/en/researchgroups/english-as-a-lingua-franca-in-academic-settings/research/wrelfa-corpus/scielf-corpus), which is unique in that it allows the study of academic texts written by L2 speakers in their unedited form. To uncover whether non-conventional expressions are also used in published academic texts, and to gain a deeper understanding of the extent to which variability in language use is accepted in published texts, I use the Google Scholar database as a reference corpus. My analysis shows that L2 authors creatively exploit linguistic resources to express epistemic stance, demonstrating considerable variability in language use. Findings also indicate that some non-conventional expressions are found in published texts.

Аннотация

В последние десятилетия изучение английского языка как языка международного общения в научной среде привлекает многих исследователей. Однако большинство работ посвящено изучению устного общения. Данная статья рассматривает письменные тексты, написанные авторами, для которых английский не является родным. В работе рассматриваются способы выражения эпистемической позиции в текстах научных статей по социальным и гуманитарным наукам и анализируются нестандартные формы выражения эпистемической позиции, специфичные для английского языка как языка международного общения. Работа выполнена на материале корпуса SciELF, уникальность которого заключается в том, что он позволяет изучать тексты, написанные не-носителями языка в исходном, неотредактированном виде. Для того, чтобы выявить, встречаются ли нестандартные формы в опубликованных текстах и сделать выводы о том, насколько допускается вариативность в языковом употреблении в письменных научных текстах, используется корпус Google Scholar. Результаты анализа показывают, что не-носителя английского языка используют вариативные формы для выражения эпистемической позиции в научных текстах. При этом некоторые нестандартные формы встречаются в опубликованных текстах.

Keywords: academic writing; approximation; English as an academic lingua franca; epistemic stance; non-conventional expressions

Ключевые слова: английский язык как язык международного общения в академической среде; научный текст; эпистемическая позиция; нестандартные выражения

Corresponding author: Irina Shchemeleva, HSE University, St. Petersburg, Russia; and University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland, E-mail: ishemeliova@hse.ru

About the author

Irina Shchemeleva

Irina Shchemeleva is Associate Professor and Dean of the School of Arts and Humanities at HSE University, Russia. Her current research interests are in the field of academic ELF and ERPP. She has published on topics related to L2 scholars’ research writing practices and teaching academic skills at the tertiary level.

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Published Online: 2022-06-13

Published in Print: 2022-03-28

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/jelf-2022-2075

Keywords for this article

academic writing; approximation; English as an academic lingua franca; epistemic stance; non-conventional expressions