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Article published In: Corpus Linguistics and Second Language Studies
Edited by Dilin Liu, Xiaofei Lu and Isaiah WonHo Yoo
[Journal of Second Language Studies 7:2] 2024
► pp. 347–380

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Emerging engineering scholars’ stance in citations

 | University of California, Santa BarbaraSanta Barbara, United States
Published online: 24 September 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jsls.00033.zha
Abstract
This paper presents a mixed-method study that integrates genre-based corpus analysis and discourse-based interviews to examine the form- and stance-related citation patterns in the research articles of ten first- and second-year engineering doctoral students. The corpus analysis reveals strong preferences for stance-marked citations and the proclaim and entertain devices in particular, suggesting that writers use authorial stance to endorse cited propositions or provide likelihood- or evidence-based judgments in citations. Interview results indicate a discordance between writers’ intentions and their stance-related linguistic choices, as well as varied perceptions of authorial stance. Despite the frequent use of stance markers in citations, most writers claimed to be neutral reporters of knowledge. Only a few acknowledged their strategic stance choices and demonstrated a comprehensive understanding of the rhetorical roles citations play in their claim-making practices. The findings suggest that students with developing citation expertise lacked the academic and disciplinary expertise to understand the interplay among citations, authorial stance, and rhetorical move/step structures in their research writing. These writers could benefit from explicit feedback that raises their awareness of the strategic use of citations and stance, to facilitate the realization of rhetorical goals in research writing.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Methods
    • 2.1Corpus analysis
      • 2.1.1Corpus data
        • Citation analysis
      • 2.1.2Rhetorical moves analysis
    • 2.2Interviews
      • 2.2.1Interview data
      • 2.2.2Interview analysis
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Dao
    • 3.2Nema
    • 3.3Mu
  • 4.Discussion
  • 5.Conclusion
  • References
References (50)
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