Erdem Akbas

Erciyes Üniversitesi · Department of English Language Education

Taking metadiscourse as their starting point, the contributions to this edited volume focus both on the interactive and cross-cultural aspects of written texts from varying genres. Using rich and innovative data collection and analysis methods, comparing and contrasting patterns in frequently studied (English, Japanese) with understudied (Turkish,...

The writers of any scientific community are inherently expected to fulfil some agreed-upon discourse conventions of the academic discourse community (Molino, 2010) in the sense of creating a successful dialogic interaction through their texts. In line with this, Akbas (2014b) raised the question of “how and to what to extent writers foreground thei...

From a cross-linguistic and cross-cultural perspective, this paper reports on the findings of an exploratory study examining the features of the academic texts produced by three groups of postgraduates: native speakers of Turkish (TL1), English (EL1) and Turkish speakers of English (EL2). To this end, the study involves a microdiscourse analysis of...

Our study examines interpersonal functions enacted through a stance marker in spoken ELF academic discourse. We specifically focus on investigating the functions of I don't know in an academic speech event by embracing an interpersonal pragmatics and sociolinguistics perspective to figure out how it contributes to the act of stancetaking as an inte...

The present study empirically scrutinizes the fixed natural order of grammatical morphemes relying on a manual analysis of an EFL learner corpus. Specifically, we test whether the accuracy order of L2 grammatical morphemes in the case of L1 Turkish speakers of English deviates from Krashen's (1977) natural order and whether proficiency levels play...

The mastery of formulaic sequences by language learners is considered to be crucial since it enables them to accomplish the basic communicative requirements (Wray, 2002) of target language use. Of all the formulaic sequences, the mastery of collocations is known to have an enormous impact on learners’ ability to move beyond the intermediate level....

In this paper, we examine how referees establish interpersonal relationships by mitigating criticism and expressing compliments as a realization of politeness strategies through the analysis of a specific corpus of transparent peer review reports (TPRs) with 220 reports totaling approximately 200,000 words. For the analysis, employing a framework d...

With the technological tools being developed and the wide availability of user-friendly programs and software, using corpora has become part of language teaching in and outside the classroom. The use and application of corpora could pave the way for discovery-based learning, learner autonomy and mediated learning by teachers and peers (O'Keeffe, 20...

Recently several studies have targeted the phenomenon of feedback-giving practices and reported that providing concise, accurate, and unintuitive feedback plays an important role in improving students’ writing. Giving feedback however can be challenging for language teachers, and they might need to consult strategies to provide students with accura...

The use of contrast markers (CMs), one important type of connective creating semantic links both within and beyond the sentence (Robertson, 1968), is an explicit way of text cohesion (Halliday & Hasan, 1976) which develops gradually in childhood as logical reasoning advances (Piaget, 1928). This paper investigates the developmental trajectory of CM...

The authenticity and familiarity of the reading materials used in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classes have received a great deal of attention for some time. The aim of the present study is to report on the qualitative analyses of secondary school EFL teachers' perceptions about the influence of cultural familiarity on reading skills develop...

Although academic writing has been seen as an objective form of writing, recent studies have shown that it is a form of social interaction and not totally impersonal. In line with this view, Hyland (2002) stated that academic writing is also strongly linked with the manifestation of authorial presence across the text. Included in the interactional...

The discourse marker okay has multi-functions within classroom discourse paving the way for interpersonal communication and creating dialogic space. Considering the importance of teaching through English-medium instruction (EMI) in the Turkish context, the purpose of this study is to explore the use and functions of okay by a lecturer at an EMI uni...

Since human communication cannot be discussed apart from social context with reference to where, when, how and to whom it is uttered, Discourse Analysis of language can be called as the language in use. Hence, a complete understanding of any written or oral utterance can only be possible by interpreting those utterances depending on their contexts....

With a growing interest in integrating conversation analysis (CA) into exploring and understanding socialinteraction in Turkish context, the CA methodology has recently been employed in the educational research as well as the research in social sciences. Nevertheless, the number of studies in Turkish literature dealing with the methodology thorough...

With its distinct characteristics, the research article (hereafter RA) abstract has been a major area of interest within the field of metadiscourse. Investigating authorial presence displayed in RA abstracts can play an important role in illuminating the nature of the interaction among the writer, the text, and the reader. This study aimed to shed...

This cross-disciplinary paper explores the ways in which writers promote their research articles in the highlights section of journals available online as a digital academic genre. A corpus of highlights from 300 research articles was randomly selected from journals in two major domains of knowledge, hard sciences and soft sciences. The corpus...

This chapter basically deals with the aspects of L2 pragmatics we could assess and how we could do it. In order to discuss the L2 pragmatics assessment, we first zoom in on pragmatics as part of semiotic trichotomy and emphasize its relation with syntax and semantics to a greater extent. Following this, we mainly focus on aspects of pragmatics that...

This study is a corpus-based investigation of how epistemic stance is signaled in medical discourse. In particular, we compiled a discipline-specific corpus of research articles from different fields of medicine ranging from anatomy to endocrinology to explore how particular resources are employed by authors to index their level of (un)certainty to...

In this chapter of the book, we will introduce Corpus Linguistics as a methodology to explore written or spoken texts. To do this, we first describe Corpus Linguistics and how it could be integrated into language teaching by touching upon advantages and ways of doing this. Following this, we will zoom in on the types of corpora by giving examples a...

The aim of this chapter is to introduce the field of Discourse Analysis, its scope and basic concepts in order to discuss how the emphasis on the context is useful for understanding the language in use. Not only does it aim to provide a comprehensive overview of the field but also it presents how it is linked to the language teaching by bringing a...

In this chapter of the book, I shall introduce how text producers (speaker/writer) organize the focus and flow of information in order that there could be a successful communication between themselves and the intended audience. To do this, I shall first describe what thematic development in discourse means and how this influences our communication....

The powerful magic of life might be based on one essential tool which is language. Perhaps the most important event in a child's life is the realization that everything has a name. Everything that has to do with language is excessive and mysterious, it is both transcendental and routine. Language with its complexity, effectiveness, its wonderful lo...

Abstract: Considering the language learning process as a whole, for an effective communication, foreign language learners are supposed to master writing skill in the target language as well. Nevertheless, writing skill has been one of the most neglected skills in language education since it is likely to be accepted as hard by both language teachers...

The aim of this chapter is to shed light on how reflective practitioners, to be more specific- pre-service language teachers, could integrate exploratory research writing practices into their reflective practices. With this in mind, we believe that they can support their learning potential and inform their practices for their future-self.

It is now commonly accepted that academic discourses tend to provide venues for participants to interact where the producer needs to display an awareness of the audience, and metadiscourse (MD) is the set of tools enabling the involved parties to establish relationships. MD strategies allow writers to project themselves into their work, signal thei...

A learner corpus research on the diagnosis of accuracy in grammatical morphemes by interlanguage users: A case of prospective English teachers in Turkey

Practices, issues and challenges in scholarly writing in various contexts have received a great deal of attention in recent years. However, the tension and conflictcaused by thecenter-oriented academic practicesand policies in many semiperipheral contexts put the local academic literacies & conventions at risk. In line with this, this edited book p...

This paper compares the attitudes and perceptions of researchers from the Middle East Technical University (METU) with those of Turkish researchers resident in the United Kingdom towards English as a language of education and publication. At this point, it is clear that the research focuses on the relationship between Turkish academics and their us...

PRISEAL 2015 Conference (Publishing and Presenting Research Internationally: Issues for Speakers of English as an Additional Language) FB Page:https://www.facebook.com/PRISEAL3 FB Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1541490319440597/ Official Site: http://ppriseal.webs.ull.es/index.html Aiming at a better understanding of the complex situa...

A number of linguistic devices are used by writers to reify interaction between themselves and their intended audiences. This obviously includes explicit use of particular stance and engagement markers in different contexts depending on the language or the cultural background of writers. For instance, a great deal of research reveals that the custo...

This thesis reports an exploratory and contrastive corpus study examining two phenomena in postgraduate academic writing: expressing commitment/detachment and signalling authorial presence in dissertations. More specifically, the overall purpose of the study is to investigate how postgraduate academic writers from particular contexts build their ac...

This book presents a collection of thematically focused articles addressing culture-specific features of academic communication, with a particular focus on communication conducted in English as an Additional Language and directed at multicultural audiences. It comprises papers arranged in four sections: Expert writers, Novice writers and readers, C...

Farklı akademik konular üzerinde çalışan akademik yazarların ilgili söylemsel topluluğa yönelik bilimsel bir metni nasıl üreteceği konusunda farkındalığı olması gerekir. Okuyucuların metin içinde karşılaştıkları ifadeler, gerçekte yazarın konu ile ilgili kendi çıkarımlarının yazar tarafından değerlendirilip sunulmasından oluşmaktadır. Yazar tarafın...

This study explores interactional metadiscourse resources in master’s dissertations (introductions and conclusions) of Turkish students written in Turkish and English. Interactional resources were identified according to Hyland and Tse’s (2004) framework by using WordSmith Tools (5.0). A statistically significant difference between two groups of wr...

Abstract This study investigates metadiscourse in the dissertation abstracts written by Native Speakers of Turkish (NST), Turkish Speakers of English (TSE) and Native Speakers of English (NSE) in the Social Sciences to determine how they make use of metadiscourse devices. It attempts to determine whether student writers from a shared cultural backg...

This study investigates metadiscourse in the dissertation abstracts written by Native Speakers of Turkish (NST), Turkish Speakers of English (TSE) and Native Speakers of English (NSE) in the Social Sciences to determine how they make use of metadiscourse devices. It attempts to determine whether student writers from a shared cultural background (Tu...

University websites provide information and also promote their facilities in English to attract potential international students and academics worldwide. Indeed, the information Universities provide igood, positive andfavorablè and does not include negative evaluations. This preliminary cross-cultural study aims to investigate differences in the us...