THE USE OF REPORTING VERBS IN L2 WRITING BY IRAQI POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS AT TIKRIT UNIVERSITY

Year 2022, Volume: 4 Issue: 1, 107 - 127, 30.06.2022

Sarmad Alahmed , Zainab Jabbar

Abstract

The current study describes the use of RVs in essays written by Iraqi MA students at Tikrit University (in Tikrit province, Iraq). The main aim of the present study is to discover how participants use RVs in essay writing to provide a detailed analysis that will assist them in improving their writing. 15 Iraqi MA students participated in this study. The participants wrote 30 essays; each participant wrote two essays on a different topic that was chosen. The theories from Biber, et al. (2002) equipped by Quirk (1985) are applied to analyze RVs. RVs used by the participants were classified into three categories: communication, activity, and mental verbs. The results of the current study show that the participants used Activity Verbs (55%) followed by Communication Verbs (27%) and Mental Verbs (18%). It was concluded that the students had overused the Activity Verbs, such as ‘point’, ‘show’, ‘find’, ‘give’, and ‘focus’. The present study also concluded that students’ ability in using RVs must be developed to reach the proper academic level in their writing.

Keywords

Reporting Verbs, Essay writing, Qualitative

References

• Biber, D., Conrad, S., & Leech, G. (2002). Longman student grammar of spoken and written English. Harlow: Longman
• Bonelli, E. T & Camiciottoli, G. D. (2005). Strategies in academic discourse. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
• Charles, M. (2006). Phraseological patterns in reporting clauses used in citation: A corpus-based study of theses in two disciplines. English for Specific Purposes, 25(3), 310-331. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2005.05.003
• Charles, M. (2006). Phraseological patterns in reporting clauses used in citation: A corpus-based study of theses in two disciplines. English for Specific Purposes, 25(1), 310 – 331.
• Chin, P. & Reid, S. & Wray, S. & Yamazaki, Y. (2013). Academic writing skills. UK: Cambridge University Press. Clugston, M. F. (2008). An analysis of citation forms in health science journals. Journal of Academic Language and Learning, 2(1), 11–22.
• Geeslin, K. L., & Long, A. Y. (2014). Sociolinguistics and second language acquisition: Learning to use language in context. New York: Routledge.
• Hyland, K. (1999). Academic attribution: Citation and the construction of disciplinary knowledge. Applied linguistics, 20(3), 341-367.
• Hyland, K. (2002). Activity and evaluation: Reporting Practices in academic writing. In J. Flowerdew(ed.), Academic discourse (pp.115-130). Longman.
• Jarkovská, M., & Kučírková, L. (2020). Citation practices in EFL academic writing: The use of reporting verbs in Master’s thesis literature reviews. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 10(2), 571–579. https://ejournal.upi.edu/index.php/IJAL/article/view/29033
• Jaroongkhongdach, W. (2015). Idea sharing: reporting verbs in research writing: lessons from experts. Journal of Language Teaching and Learning in Thailand, 50(1),143-154.
• Jomaa, N. & Bidin, S. (2019). Exploring process ‘verbs’ in EFL postgraduates’ citations: a systemic functional linguistics approach. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 9(1), 188–201
• Jomaa, N. J. (2019). Multiple approaches for analysing academic discourses: similarities and differences. Eurasian Journal of English Language and Literature, 1(1), 1-14
• Junnak, C., & Veerachaisantikul, A. (2016). Reporting verb in research projects of EFL English major students. Journal of Advanced Research in Social Sciences and Humanities, 1(1), 41–46. https://doi.org/10.26500/jarssh-01-2016-0105
• Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., & Svartvik, J. (1985). A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (General Grammar) (2nd Revised ed.). New York: Longman.
• Scollon, R., Tsang, W. K., Li, D., Yung, V., & Jones, R. (1997). Voice, appropriation and discourse representation in a student writing task. Linguistics and Education, 9(3), 227–250. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0898-5898(97)90001-2
• Stevenson, R. (2010). Advanced Grammar: For Academic Writing. Academic English Publications.
• Uba, S. (2020). Semantic categories of reporting verbs across four disciplines in research articles. English Language Teaching, 13(1), 89–98. https://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/elt/article/view/0/41607
• Wai Ho, M. & Brooke, M. (2017). Practical Guide To Project-based Learning. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing.
• Zhang, X. (2008). A Contrastive Study of Reporting in Master’s Theses in Native Chinese and in Native English. Master dissertation. School of Philosophy, Psychology, and Language Sciences, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland.