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Advances in Corpus-based Research on Academic Writing: Effects of discipline, register, and writer expertise
Edited by Ute Römer-Barron, Viviana Cortes and Eric Friginal
[Studies in Corpus Linguistics 95] 2020
► pp. 9–32

A corpus-based study of academic word use in EFL student writing

| San Diego State University
Many corpus-based studies focus on the use of academic vocabulary in journal articles and textbooks while creating vocabulary lists and argue for the teaching of such lists, but few examine how students employ those words in their writing. The present study investigates English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ use of academic vocabulary in their writing assignments as they attend a dual-degree program in STEM fields in Tbilisi, Georgia. Over a thousand student papers from their General Education courses are examined for their use of academic vocabulary, using Gardner and Davies’ (2014) Academic Vocabulary List. Results show variation in students’ academic vocabulary use and quantity while progressing in their studies and as they produce the different text-types in their coursework.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1Linguistic variation in university registers
    • 2.2Academic vocabulary
      • 2.2.1The AVL
    • 2.3The English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1The corpus
    • 3.2Analytical procedures
      • 3.2.1Calculations
      • 3.2.2Statistical tests
  • 4.Findings
    • 4.1Courses
    • 4.2Assignments
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion, implications and limitations
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 20 February 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.95.01cso
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