A corpus-based approach to online materials development for writing research articles

Ching-Fen Chang & Chih-Hua Kuo

Ana Paulina López Álvarez

Introduction

- English is the de facto lingua franca in the research world.

- Academic writing poses a great challenge for non-native speakers of English.a) lexico-grammatical featuresb) rhetorical functionsc) writing skillsd) generic structures

EAP & Research Articles (RA)

- CARS Model (Create-a-Research-Space) by Swalesa) How information is organized

b) Linguistic features in RA: tense, voice, modals, hedging, metadiscourse, reporting verbs, and personal pronouns.

The role of material

- The use of authentic material is very important

- The “perfect” material would be the ones based in both corpus analysis and genre analysis.

The role of technology in understanding RA with EAP

- Computer-Assisted Language Learning: Enhanced input.

Objective: To increase students writer’s consciousness of RA’s structures.

The study

- Corpus compilation: Research articles in the field of computer science.

- Target students: Students of computer science.

- Total of 60 RA.

Purposes of analysis of corpus

Identify:- Major and optional moves in each section of the RA- Common move sequences in each section - Move structure throughout the whole RA

What’s a move? A move is a discoursal or rhetorical unit that performs a coherent

communicative function in a written or spoken discourse.Examples: Background information, justifications and reasons, comparisons,

results, etc.

Process and results of analysis

- Meetings to check inter-reliability.- Discuss results and problems.

Results:- The following moves, methods, results and discussion are mixed in a

number of sections between introduction and conclusions.

Text analysis

- Field-specific vocabulary- Lexico-grammatical features- Linguistic features related to the communicative purposes of each section.

Let’s start the online course

- Construct the website- Design the course structure- Create online materials

What the course included

- Two lesson units:1) Information structure: Discussion topics, lecture notes, etc.2) Language use: Writing skills activities, material and content- Audio instructions in users’ native language- Learning platform: Similar to Moodle.

Each section had the following: Learning tasks, discussion, homework, learning resources and online writing.

Extra features for students: Interaction with teachers and peers, check learning progress, and self evaluation.

The students evaluate the course

The students provided feedback about the following sections:

- Online materials- Online activities- Resources and tools- Learning platform

Conclusion

- A supportive writing environment using the computer can help learners to become researchers and autonomous learners.

- A target corpus can provide abundant and invaluable resources for both teachers and students.