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Review of 'Introducing English for Research Publication Purposes' (John Flowerdew & Pejman Habibie, Routledge, 2022)
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Despite sporadic reports on the publishing experiences in English of Chinese
academics in Hong Kong and in Mainland China (mainly doctoral students), little research has been conducted on a large scale to reveal how Mainland Chinese academics perceive international publishing in English and what challenges they face. This study intends to fill this research gap. The findings we report come from a large-scale research project involving an online survey of 118 academics at eighteen universities in Shanghai, China. By analysing participant responses to the survey and interviews with eight academics, we show how the motivations of these academics contribute to their language choice for academic publishing. We discuss the implications of these findings for the wider academic community with regard to writing and publishing research articles in English as an international language.
Keywords: English as a second language, international journals, Mainland China
Academic Writing in a Global Context addresses the issue of the pressure on academics worldwide to produce their work in English in scholarly publishing, and why the growth of the use of academic English matters. Drawing on an eight year ‘text-ethnographic’ study of the experiences of fifty scholars working in Europe, this book discusses these questions at both a macro and micro level- through discussions of knowledge evaluation systems on all levels, and analysis of the progress of a text towards publication. In addition to this, case studies of individual scholars in their local institutions and countries are used to illustrate experiences of using English in the academic world. Academic Writing in a Global Context examines the impact of the growing dominance of English on academic writing for publication globally. The authors explore the ways in which the global status attributed to English is impacting on the lives and practices of multilingual scholars working in contexts where English is not the official language of communication and throws into relief the politics surrounding academic publishing. This book will be of interest to postgraduates and professionals in the fields of World Englishes, language and globalization and English Language Teaching.
This paper presents a proposal for the future development of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) as a global academic field that involves pedagogy, theory, and research. The paper considers the future development of EAP in three areas: its knowledge base, EAP practitioner formation, and EAP communities. It calls for a broadening of understandings of how EAP is conceptualized and consideration of the different areas of knowledge that should contribute to the field. Particular theoretical and research lacunae are identified as potential areas for future study. It is hoped that the ideas presented here may stimulate discussions and motivate scholarship and research in new areas that meet the needs of students in the diverse contexts in which EAP is taught.
As it becomes increasingly important for graduate students worldwide to write about their research in English for international publication, interest is growing in designing preparatory and support courses that effectively introduce the challenges and provide scaffolded practice, while fitting within context-specific constraints, including stage of candidature, level of student motivation, discipline/major mix and course length. Here we present a workshop approach shown to be successful with advanced graduate students actually writing papers, and a series of adaptations designed to make it suitable for graduate students still undertaking preparatory coursework prior to commencing their research projects. A 16 h adapted version was trialled in central China in 2016. Responding to recommendations in the literature, half the course hours were devoted to demystifying the task of article writing, including identifying take-home messages from data, selecting target journals, and writing to meet the criteria of editors and referees. Our decision to devote the remaining course hours to strategies for developing discipline-specific English skills proved congruent with students' pre-course perceptions of their major challenges. Outcomes included strong student engagement with course tasks, enhanced awareness of the links between English learning and the design, conduct and reporting of scientific research, and increased student confidence to write a paper for international submission. The context-specific adaptation process discussed provides an approach that could be useful in other contexts where instruction in writing for publication is needed.
The teaching of writing in English as a second/foreign language (ESL/EFL) has been a challenging task for many teachers due to its multifaceted nature. This paper is a reflection on ESL/EFL writing teaching in three countries, namely China, Singapore, and New Zealand, with particular reference to professionalizing ESL/EFL writing and ESL/EFL writing-teacher education. It first addresses issues facing EFL writing and writing-teacher education that relate to the offering of English at various levels in China. It then moves on to elaborate on how western pedagogical practices have been implemented in Singapore, especially that of a genre-based pedagogy. Nestled in the context of globalization, I focus on New Zealand, positing that globalization has exacerbated the challenge in teaching ESL writing because of large numbers of students who are seeking higher education in western countries in English as the medium of instruction, and yet their first language is not English. I conclude the paper with recommendations that professionalizing L2 writing (even in school settings) is a mission for all those who are in this enterprise. Proper teacher preparation programs for training L2 writing teachers should be in place in order for this to happen. China needs to critically appraise, and learn from, successful experiences such as Singapore and many institutions in the USA and Canada. New Zealand is yet to formalize ESOL writing teacher preparation programs, where English-as-an-L2 writing-teacher education for primary and secondary schools is still not a priority in most teacher-education institutions.
This paper discusses a key aspect of Chinese scholars writing for publication in English: the role played by local English teachers as literacy brokers or “text mediators”. Increasingly, academics in China are required to publish their research in prestigious international journals to progress their careers, and are turning to local English teaching colleagues for assistance. The expense, uncertain competence and sometimes dubious ethical practices of professional editing services, combined with the co-present contact and personal relationships formed with local colleagues, mean that Chinese English teachers are rapidly becoming a valuable resource for turning the massive number of Chinese submissions into publishable papers. This relationship, however, is complicated by the lack of institutional funding for language mediation of this kind and by the uncertainties of appropriate reward for this work. This paper examines the kinds of cooperation and difficulties experienced between local English teachers and scientists in some Chinese universities.
