beyond esp: english for research publication purposes ... · margaret cargill, school of...

Margaret Cargill, School of Agriculture, Food & Wine

Life Impact | The University of Adelaide

Beyond ESP: English for Research

Publication Purposes (ERPP) and

Chinese science in the 21st century

Margaret CARGILL

China English for Academic Purposes Association

Fudan University1 July 2016

Margaret Cargill, School of Agriculture, Food and Wine


Book details• Writing scientific research articles: Strategy and

steps (2009, 2013), Margaret Cargill & Patrick

O’Connor, Wiley-Blackwell

• Available in China – contact Johnson Zhang -

Shanghai [email protected] for details

• For a free abridged version (3 chapters) of the first

(2009) edition with Chinese gloss for complex terms,

see http://t.cn/zjuC06S

• For a blog post on writing Introductions, written by

me and Patrick, see

http://exchanges.wiley.com/blog/2015/03/05/article-

introductions-more-important-than-you-thought/ Slide 1

mailto:[email protected]

http://t.cn/zjuC06S

http://exchanges.wiley.com/blog/2015/03/05/article-introductions-more-important-than-you-thought/



Background and context

• Practical and political pressure to publish research

‘internationally’ is especially intense in science and

technology (S&T) fields worldwide

• My location: an applied linguist within the working

context of academic scientists for 25 years

• 15 years working on practical, research-based

methods to develop publication skills for novice

scientist authors of research article (RA) manuscripts

• Much of this work in China (2001-2016), encouraged

by introduction of PhD publication requirement post

2006Slide 2



Programs taught in China 2001-2016• Workshops (2-5d) for research students (30-100)

and early-career researchers in S&T fields

• In research institutes (especially Chinese Academy

of Sciences, with scientist collaborator Patrick

O’Connor) and some university contexts (alone)

• Professional development for academic staff and

research administrators

• Based on a novel collaborative approach to English

for Research Publication Purposes (ERPP) – CIPSE

(Cargill, 2011)

– Collaborative Interdisciplinary Publication Skills Education -

more on this later! Slide 3



Workshop evaluation for comparisons

• Outcome measure is self-reported change in

confidence to write a paper and to deal with

the publishing process in English

• This choice reflects the pre-eminent role in

article acceptance of the novelty and

significance of the science in the article

• Participant confidence increased significantly

or highly significantly in all CAS workshops

Slide 4



Potential broader relevance to ELT

• University league tables are now potent

drivers of policy and funding decisions

• Key metrics are number and level of

publications by students and staff and citation

numbers – S&T areas are major players

• Recognised contributions to this agenda by EL

professionals have potential to improve the

standing of our field at institutional level

Slide 5



Challenges include …

• Developing effective communication tools to

bridge gap between language-based

expertise and S&T staff understandings in

time-pressured environments

• Adapting CIPSE approach to constraints

presented by various university contexts

– 2 courses trialled in 2016, at Northwest

Agricultural & Forestry University, Shaanxi; and

SJTU, Shanghai (in train)

Slide 6



Outline of the talk

• CIPSE – features and rationale

• Addressing the S&T community: a case

study on Discussions in science papers

• Adapting CIPSE to university contexts

• Conclusions and future directions

Slide 7



Collaborative: concept, design, materials and

teaching

Interdisciplinary: EAP/ genre pedagogy / science

and technology

Publication: in ‘international’ refereed journals

Skills: integrated strategy from planning through

writing to submission

Education: research-based, practical pedagogy



CIPSE features

• A collaborative teaching intervention to help scientists

write papers more likely to get a ‘respectful reading’ from

journal referees

• Integrates content (science), language, strategy and

pedagogy

• Teaching text: Writing scientific research articles:

Strategy and steps (Cargill & O’Connor, 2009, 2013,

Wiley-Blackwell, www.writeresearch.com.au )

– Usable by both ELT professionals and scientists working alone

or together (Cargill & Smernik, 2016)

Slide 9*M.E.Kerans, in Shashok (2011).

http://www.writeresearch.com.au/



Distinguishing features of CIPSE

• Ordering of content

– Results as ‘driver’; constructing the ‘take-home’

message; matching it to the target journal

– Article structures and referee criteria

– Drafting order: data presentation; results text;

methods; introduction; discussion/conclusion

– Structured approach to responding to referee

reports

– Most language work integrated into relevant

sections (EAL-specific in separate chapter)



Distinguishing features (cont.)

• Genre pedagogy cycle

– Teaching taken from genre analysis research

– Student analyses article provided in the book

(answers provided in back of book)

– Additional example articles analysed on book’s

support website to broaden coverage

(www.writeresearch.com.au)

– Student analyses article from own sub-field

– Student ready to draft using own data if appropriate

http://www.writeresearch.com.au/



Concordancer ‘tool’

• AdTAT – Adelaide Text Analysis Tool http://www.adelaide.edu.au/carst/resources-tools/adtat/

• Plus self-constructed corpus of articles from

own sub-field, EL1 authors, good journals

– Must be in plain text format (download as html and

save as .txt)

• Students use their research skills to research

their own language usage questions

– Training in search construction an advantage

http://www.adelaide.edu.au/carst/resources-tools/adtat/

http://www.adelaide.edu.au/carst/resources-tools/adtat/



Addressing the S&T community: Learning

from my China experience

• Science academics have the major role in their students’

article writing (process, product and quality control)

• HDR coursework components often come too early in

candidature for effective CIPSE training

– Students need their own data to write about for full

implementation of CIPSE

• Structures lacking for involving English academics in just-

in-time training when students need to write manuscripts

• Short-term, training S&T academics to use genre and

corpus linguistics approaches seems promisingSlide 13



A case study: Chinese science

publication outputs

• A way to address the peripheral position of

ELT in the development agenda of

universities

• By demonstrating a potential contribution to a

need recognised by the mainstream

Slide 14



Scopus data March 2014 for China

Discipline/Field* Rank Total

Documents

Rank Cites per

Document

All Disciplines 2 12

Environmental Sciences 2 9

Chemistry 1 9

Physics & Astronomy 2 10

Agriculture & Biological Science 2 10

Slide 15*comparison with high volume countries



Potential reasons for this discrepancy?

• Many can be suggested (fruitful research

field?)

• One strong possibility may relate to issues with

how authors create citable text, especially in

their Discussion sections

• Following slides reflect our experience over 15

years of working with student drafts

Slide 16

Information elements to include in Discussion (Weissberg & Buker 1990, Cargill & O’Connor 2013)

1. Reference to the main hypothesis, aims (purpose) or

research questions of the study

2. Review of the most important findings, whether they

support the original hypothesis or how they help meet the

objectives, and/or whether they agree with the findings of

others

3. Possible explanations or speculations about the results

4. Limitations that restrict the generalisability of the findings

5. Implications of the study

6. Recommendations for further research or practical

applications17University of Adelaide



Issues: Reference to the main activity, hypothesis

or purpose of the study, or summary of main activity

of the study

• Failure to ‘shape’ the objective/ purpose/ aim/ hypothesis to the results shown (in the Introduction)

• Poor linking of Discussion to the end of the Introduction

• Too much ‘repetition’ of results rather than ‘extraction of meaning’ and highlighting

• Wasted space re-justifying from the literature (which should be done in the Introduction)



Issues: Restatement of the most important

findings, generally in order of significance

• Failure to relate the results to the original hypothesis (see before)

• Failure to show ‘how’ results support the hypothesis

• Too many lists of what others found – ‘diluting’ the results from the current study

• Use of ‘author prominent’ style which makes development of logical and compelling argument less fluent

• Risk of work appearing ‘incremental’ rather than advance in the field

• Failure to group results and organise thinking to facilitate clear development of Take Home Messages



Issues: Possible explanations or speculations about the results

• Little experience or understanding of how others have made explanation & speculation

• Vocabulary limitations to compelling style

• Negotiation of strength through appropriate

– Tense use

– choice of ‘strength’ verbs

– choice of modal verbs (e.g. may, could)



Issues: Limitations that restrict the generalisability of the findings

• Poor understanding of how to control limitations

• How to use ‘although’, ‘nevertheless’ etc.

• How to make a virtue of the limitation – the ‘pitch’

• How to turn the limitation into recommendations for future research



Issues: Implications of the study (generalisations that can be made from the results – what the study means)

• Lack of ‘world view’ about the meaning of their results in the ‘big picture’



Issues: Recommendations for further research or practical applications

• Narrow awareness of current research

• Uncertainty about how science informs practice



Addressing the issues: students must

• Read, read, read

• Analyse what they read –

– For language as well as science content

– For argument development as well as vocabulary

– Applied Linguistics provides the necessary

analysis frameworks

– CIPSE adapts them for use by novice authors of

S&T research articles

24



Recent developments in Chinese ELT

• My most recent teaching visits to Chinese

S&T contexts have attracted strong interest

from some English teaching professionals

• Connecting with new interest in areas such

as EAP, ESP and corpus linguistics

• Today’s opportunity most welcome to provide

details of CIPSE and its potential for use in

Chinese contexts

Slide 25



Addressing impacts on doctoral supervisors

• Additional pressure to support candidates to

publish their work “internationally” as well as

complete theses

• Structures to support supervisors in this task vary

but systematic support for students is often

lacking

• English teachers have much to contribute in

whatever context they encounter the needs

– Beyond translation/editing of text! (but see

http://www.metmeetings.org/)Slide 26

http://www.metmeetings.org/



What is needed for scientists to write for

publication in English?

• Knowledge of the literature to understand what has

been discovered to date and justify the present study

• Good research training, equipment and facilities

• Understanding of criteria applied by journals for

acceptance

• Skills for writing English text and documents of the kind

expected by the journal reviewers and editors

• Support for the writing process (time, mentoring by

experienced authors)Slide 27



In which aspects can English teachers

play a role?

• √Knowledge of the literature to understand what has

been discovered to date and justify the present study

• Good training, equipment and facilities

• √ Understanding of criteria applied by journals for

acceptance

• √ Skills for writing English text and documents of the

kind expected by the journal reviewers and editors

• Support for the writing process (time, mentoring by

experienced authors)

Slide 28



ELT resources for these roles

• Needs analysis

• Teaching for learner autonomy and life-long language

learning

• Task-based curriculum design

• Authentic material development

• Collaboration with content academics (e.g. CLIL)

• Genre analysis

• Corpus linguistics

Slide 29



One size does not fit all …

• Diversity is likely in

– Education systems and values

– Individual university curricula

– Timing and duration of courses we may teach

– Discipline mix of post- or under-graduate students we may

teach

– Level and consistency of our students’ proficiency and prior

experience in writing

– Our own confidence to work with scientific texts and language

features

Slide 30



BUT – if we teach students of science we

can …

• Use the resources provided by our training

• To devise language learning tasks as close as

possible to the authentic one of reading and ultimately

writing research articles in their own disciplines

Slide 31



ELT input opportunities

• Teach students basic concordancing skills using

AdTAT or AntConc (antlab.sci.waseda.ac.jp/software.html)

• Teach principles of genre analysis using range of

examples

• Articles (research and review types), journal websites,

rebuttals to reviewers, lit. reviews

• Collaborate with science academics to demonstrate

strengths of this approach

• Seek opportunities to influence structures with support

of science collaboratorsSlide 32



Adapting CIPSE for university contexts

• Program initially used with working scientists

(including PhD students near completion), not

students in a university context

• Funding later made available to teach this

Western skill development program at

GUCAS, Beijing as well as in CAS institutes

throughout China

– Funder: BHP-Billiton, an Australian- based mining

company

•Slide 33



(G)UCAS: (Graduate) University of the Chinese

Academy of Sciences (CAS)

• 5 centres serving 100+ CAS institutes

• Admissions and thesis QA done centrally

• Main centre Beijing: 5k Masters, 3k PhD students

annually

• PhD graduation requires 1-2 first-authored papers in

English in SCI journals (also required for some Masters)

• BUT: students in centre for initial 1 yr of coursework pre

return to institutes for research component

Slide 34



Original course content

• Article structures and referee criteria: what editors want to

publish

• Presenting/writing about your own data effectively to tell a

convincing ‘story’

• Developing discipline-specific English for writing each

section of the article

• Selecting an appropriate journal and responding to

editors’ letters/ referee comments

• Improving your own draft using the teaching received

Slide 35



4-year action research project

• 2006: CIPSE taught unadapted

– 2 Aust. teams of AL’st + scientist, + GUCAS TAs n=111

• 2007: Tried to fix everything at once – Chinese and

Australian teams, students conducted survey to provide

data for group manuscripts n=79

• 2008: Back to basics n=140

• 2009: Aimed for sustainability – teachable by

GUCAS staff n=120

Slide 36



Evaluation methods

• Same as for working scientists, to allow comparisons

• Likert scale w. evaluative statements, and open-ended qn’s

• Right amount/too much/too little time on 5 components

• Self-assessed confidence to write and to deal with publishing, pre- and post-workshop

Slide 37



Evaluation outcomes

• Students evaluated course very positively in all years

• 2007 scores were lowest but still +ve

• Student confidence to write and publish a paper increased significantly (p<0.05) in all years except 2007

• Problem areas:

– Students not yet doing research – no data

– Mixed discipline classes

– Collaboration across disciplines/departments

– Ability to manage complex scientific English

Slide 38



Most useful aspects (2006)

Slide 39www.wordle.net/advanced



Could be improved (2006)

Slide 40www.wordle.net/advanced



Using the learning: 4 focuses in the 2009

course1. International publishing, article structures, referee

criteria, communicating with editors

2. Constructing effective data display and results analysis text based on a provided dataset

3. Writing effective article Introductions

4. Discipline-specific (DS) language development: using sentence templates and concordancing software with DS article collections

Slide 41



Preparing to write an international science

article (PWISA)

• Designed for early-candidature science research students in mixed groups

• Students asked to bring published research articles from good journals in their own field

– Used for Focuses 1, 3 and 4

• We provide a dataset for all to use for Focus 2

– Based on results of student survey conducted in 2007 based

on Burrough-Boenisch (1999)

Slide 42



Evaluation of PWISA• Students: similarly positive, more so for in-class

activities and homework

– More time requested, including as a semester-length course

• Staff: The 3 GUCAS TAs agreed this course more suitable for their students

• Cautious optimism that PWISA could be taught by Chinese English teachers

• Areas identified for future efforts:

– Professional development for both English teachers and

collaborating scientists

– Encouragement of collaboration from top

Slide 43



2016 developments

• PWISA taught as 16h course at Northwest

Agriculture and Forestry University, Shaanxi (April)

• Extended course (Writing a Life-sciences Research

Article for International Submission) taught as 32h

summer-school course at SJTU (June/July) –

• Students with own data!

• Train-the-trainer component, including guests

• Research project on this iteration, jointly with

Yongyan Li (HKU)Slide 44



Conclusions• Some room for optimism that CIPSE approach

may be applicable in Chinese S&T contexts and

thus exemplify benefits of ERPP (Cargill & Burgess 2008)

• Much room for further development by next

generation of Chinese English professionals

– e.g. students consistently identify ongoing need for

work at sentence level once genre contribution under-

stood and motivation enhanced by clear relevance

– Avenues open for research in several directions

– I look forward to these developments!Slide 45



Questions

and

discussion

are most welcome!

Slide 46

References

Burrough-Boenisch, J. (1999). International reading strategies for IMRD articles. Written

Communication, 16(3), 296-317.

Cargill, M. (2011). Collaborative interdisciplinary publication skills education:

Implementation and implications in international science research contexts. Doctor of

Education thesis, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia.

http://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/handle/2440/72719

Cargill, M., & Burgess, S. (2008). Introduction to the Special Issue: English for Research

Publication Purposes. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 7(2), 75-76.

Cargill, M., & O'Connor, P. (2009, 2013). Writing Scientific Research Articles: Strategy and

steps. Oxford UK: Wiley-Blackwell.

Cargill, M., & Smernik, R. (2016). Embedding publication skills in science research training:

a writing group program based on applied linguistics frameworks and facilitated by a

scientist Higher Education Research and Development, 35(2), 229-24

Shashok, K. (2001). Authors' editors: facilitators of science information transfer. Learned

Publishing, 14(2), 113-121

Weissberg, R., & Buker, S. (1990). Writing Up Research: Experimental research report

writing for students of English. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, USA: Prentice Hall

Regents.

http://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/handle/2440/72719