Post on 22-Dec-2015
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
Knocking at the doors: gate keepers and authors in research writing, a study of writing practices in the journal Acta Tropica.Chris Tribble
King's College, London Universitychristopher.tribble@kcl.ac.uk / www.ctribble.co.uk
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
overview
Is the notion of a NS model useful in teaching writing?
an example an attempt to extend the study
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
some connections for the seminar
Ramesh Krishnamurthy – the issue of which model to present to learners
Paul Thompson – clusters and collocates of clusters
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
some initial questions
What are the most appropriate examplar texts to use in academic instruction?
How important is the mother tongue status of the writers of these examplars?
What criteria should be applied when selecting exemplars?
What is the best way to use these exemplars in writing instruction?
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
native speaker or lingua franca?
Is this statement true? Is it useful?
"…in spite of the majority of non-native speakers or the non-inner-circle countries, many of whom use the language actively and regularly in institutional frameworks, the native speakers of the inner-circle countries retain the hold to the yardstick of linguistic correctness." (Ammon 2000: 112)
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
expert, not native …
[in the context of genre informed language teaching]… if teachers can choose relevant exemplars on the basis of the writers' expertise rather than on the basis of the accidental criterion of mother tongue status, Ammon's concern about fairness and unfairness becomes irrelevant, and students get the educational programmes that they need. Win, win. (Tribble 2006)
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
writing in the sciences: preliminary study
small collection of published research articles in biomedical science (from one year – 2004)
additional resources: Wordsmith Tools v5 / research article collection + British National Corpus
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
Acta Tropica, 2004
Acta Tropica (Elsevier) biomedical and health sciences with particular emphasis on
topics relevant to human and animal health in the tropics and the subtropics
Editors: Swedish + Latvian (2004) Editorial board 23 - 9 from English speaking countries Eight articles in the study
• 36 authors
• 29 from "outer-circle" countries (Kachru 1989)
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
Acta Tropica, 2004: authors
Authors Country Authors Country
6 Brazil. 1 France
4 Argentina 1 Switzerland
3 Kenya 2 USA
3 Central African Republic 2 Australia
3 Cameroon 3 India
3 Venezuela
2 China
2 Germany
1 Argentina
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
the structure of expertise
specialist lexis / noun phrase structure theme / rheme structure discourse structure … and some anomolies
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
linguistic competence: low frequency lexis & noun phrase structure
Cystic echinococcosis in Argentina: evolution of metacestode and clinical expression in various Echinococcus granulosus strains Eduardo A. Guarneraa, Alberto Parrab, Laura Kamenetzkya, Gustavo Garcíac and Ariana Gutiérreza
ABSTRACTEchinococcus granulosus hydatid cysts were examined in 41 patients from Neuquén and Tucumán provinces in Argentina. Sequencing of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (CO1) revealed in 19 patients common sheep strain (G1), in 6 patients Tasmania sheep strain (G2), in 1 patient cattle strain, and in 15 patients camel strain (G6)…
175 words in the original / lexical density 1:14.5 (Halliday 1989)
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
linguistic competence: thematic structure
[S1] Echinococcus granulosus hydatid cysts were examined in 41 patients from Neuquén and Tucumán provinces in Argentina. [S2] Sequencing of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (CO1) revealed in 19 patients common sheep strain (G1), in 6 patients Tasmania sheep strain (G2), in 1 patient cattle strain (G5), and in 15 patients camel strain (G6). [S3] In Argentina the only known is the domestic cycle that affects dogs and herbivorous, including ovine, swine, cattle and goats. [S4] These strains produced a total of 58.6% of primary liver infections, 29.2% primary in lung, 2.4% primary in spleen and 9.8% were multiorgan abdominal infections.
[S5] The metacestode was classified using the evolutive stages proposed by WHO-IWGE (from CE1 to CE5). [S6] We estimated that CE1 cyst has a duration of about 22 years, CE2 of 14 years, CE3 of 10 years, CE4 of 19 years and CE5 was not determined. [S7] The active types CE1 and CE2 reached 75% of all cases from all strains.
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
linguistic competence: specialist terms (extracted via WST Keywords)
mosquitoesinfectionlivercystsinfectedspleentropmortalityschistosomiasismalaria
laboratoryheightparasitefalciparumlarvaemosquitoinfectionsbruceibacillusgranulosus
quinquefasciatusteknartrypanosomaleishmaniasisdosagesmeanamphotericininstarsoocystvivax
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
linguistic competence: lexical knowledge (MI3)
WORD 1 WORD 2
diplonychus indicus
polymerase chain
chain reaction
pentavalent antimonials
peripheral branches
improve accuracy
diptera culicidae
egg rafts
polymerase reaction
triatoma infestans
WORD 1 WORD 2
branch wall
carried out
target organisms
lethal doses
received revised
oblique view
pupal recruitment
grass thatched
grass thatch
grass hut
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
linguistic competence: discourse expertise
MOVE TEXT
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
title x x x x x x x x
authors x x x x x x x x
abstract x x x x x x x x
introduction x x x x x x x x
case_studies x
subjects_and_methods x
materials_and_methods x x x x x x
results x x x x x x x x
discussion x x x x x x x x
acknowledgements x x x x x x
references x x x x x x x x
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
a contrastGuardian 2007: lexis & noun phrase structure
The The vaccinevaccine contains a weakened virus that stimulates immunity against the "wild" virus, which can cause paralysis. On rare occasions, the vaccine virus can mutate to a more dangerous form, spread from person to person and cause a paralytic infection. This phenomenon, only recognised in the past decade, has caused outbreaks in 10 countries since 2000. This year, 7% of all polio cases worldwide were caused by vaccine-derived virus. 1:4.5
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
Guardian (2007) MI3
Word 1 Word 2 Word 1 Word 2
CLIMATE CHANGE YEAR OLD
AL QAIDA ZANU PF
LOS ANGELES AT LEAST
HUMAN RIGHTS SINN FEIN
TONY BLAIR WAL MART
WILL BE GORDON BROWN
HAD BEEN SUU KYI
YEARS AGO NEW YORK
HONG KONG SUCH AS
GLOBAL WARMING RATHER THAN
SAUDI ARABIA THERE IS
MIDDLE EAST SRI LANKA
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
moving towards pedagogy: top "discourse" word in AT wordlist
1. <P><S>This study was conducted in Mbita Point, Suba District, western Kenya in 2. <P><S>This study has shown that the natural fluctuations in indoor environmental 3. <P><S>Our study suggests that using wild type parasites in a natural set up is l 4. <P><S>The results of our studies also demonstrate the possibility that some wild 5. <P><S>In conclusion, our study has shown that the development of ookinetes and o
conduct / demonstrate / detect / determine / perform / provide / report / show / suggest
Verbs co-occuring with "study"
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
expert writers in AT:
can select and control and combine the technical and subtechnical lexis essential to the construction of knowledge in the disciplinary area
can select and control the grammar of extended noun phrases (particularly noun-noun pre-modification and of phrase post-modification)
can control theme / rheme structures in order to foreground discoursally significant information.
can control macro-structure in order to meet reader expectations within a disciplinary culture
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
the NNS issue - systematic or local patterns?
4. One of the characteristics of malaria parasite extrinsic cycle is its tem …
missing article
7. The experiments were conducted under live micro habitats described as: (1 …
collocation: in preferred
13. For enumeration of ookinetes, batches of live mosquitoes per experimental …
missing article
19. For the experiments done in the natural unregulated real village houses, a …
style - conducted or carried out more likely
21. Our study suggests that using wild type parasites in a natural set up is l …
style - in natural conditions more likely
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
a conclusion?
The critical point is that these local problems don't really matter. Editors and peer reviewers have accepted the articles for publication because they are good science, and meet the standards for clear expression and formal structure set by the journal. As we have seen, the texts are systematically remarkably harmonious. Local instances of infelicity, concord error, and the like remain that local. Critically, they are not treated as reason for disallowing these texts as contributions to a specific genre. They might be less acceptable if the texts were being submitted to a literary publisher but this is precisely the point. They are research articles not elegant belles-lettres essays. Teachers wanting to present consistent models of how the language works at clause or phrase level will still need to refer to the grammars and lexicons which are either required in national education systems, or which they find most useful for their students in their own professional judgement…
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
extending the study
larger text collection (1,101,749 words)
ethnographic study but hereby hangs a tale …
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
some simple differences
more articles, more words 1989/1991 (162 articles / 572,751 words) 2007 (102 articles / 528,998 words)
and some curious contrasts…
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
keywords: past forms
Key word 1989-91 Key word 2007
INFECTION MALARIA
WERE INFECTION
INFECTED WERE
TRYPANOSOMES CRUZI
CONGOLENSE INFECTED
PARASITES PARASITE
MALARIA PARASITES
MICE SAMPLES
PARASITE TREATMENT
INFECTIONS MICE
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
clusters and key-clusters
Clusters are words which are found repeatedly together in each others' company, in sequence. They represent a tighter relationship than collocates, more like multi-word units or groups or phrases. (I call them clusters because groups and phrases already have uses in grammar and because simply being found together in software doesn't guarantee they are true multi-word units.) Biber (2000) calls them "lexical bundles". (Scott, 2004)
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
clusters in AT (set 2): frequency
Cluster func. freq. texts
IN THE PRESENT STUDY text 208 127
RECEIVED IN REVISED FORM admin 188 188
IN THE PRESENCE OF text 177 82
ON THE OTHER HAND text 159 121
INFECTED WITH T CONGOLENSE content 118 24
AN GAMBIAE S L content 116 11
FOR THE PRESENCE OF text 112 67
FOR THE DIAGNOSIS OF text 110 61
THE END OF THE text 101 54
WERE FOUND TO BE text 95 61
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
in the present study
azar risk (Bern et al., 2005). In the present study, however, higher litinguishes species B, C and E. In the present study, the differences inat VDIV (Ohashi et al., 1992). In the present study, the ISS1 and ISS2 ome of respective populations. In the present study we demonstrate thatevels have a circadian rhythm. In the present study, they were measuredscussion 4.1. Thyroid function In the present study, signs and symptomsde (Dissanayake et al., 1992). In the present study we assayed a recomb 1997; Ferragut et al., 1998). In the present study, we monitored IgG-TZ and (3-d-glucan demonstrated in the present study seems to be in a go; Lu´zna-Lyskov et al., 2000). In the present study, we showed that trebinant fusion protein was used in the present study. Briefly, DNA seque 1997; Hr^ckova et al., 2007). In the present study, the effect of combmost important exposure factor in the present study. In conclusion, ou nd IgG4 isotypes were observed in the present study. Indeed, high levelntense mosquito bite exposure. In the present study, no direct estimateical conditions. 4. Discussion In the present study, we detected IgE ann more than 9% of mature eggs. In the present study, COPT was the serolong the retinoids investigated in the present study, it seems that 9cisl.,1999a,b, 2000, 2003, 2005). In the present study too, at least four equently induce growth arrest. In the present study we demonstrated thaween the rural and urban areas in the present study. In conclusion, CE
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
Acta Tropica clusters - detail
PAST_adv (1) In the present study with Trypanosoma b. gambiense isolates, a few modifications were introduced.
PAST_adv (1) In the present study we demonstrated that cis-DDP induced a stage dependent cell cycle arrest being the promastigotes and axenic amastigotes blocked at the S and G2 phase, respectively.
PAST_adv (2) However, it should be noted that the dosages of SP and chloroquine reported in the present study were based on self-report by the respondents…
PAST_pm (2) Temperatures in the mosquito cages in the present study were maintained at a mean minimum of 24^C …
PRES_adv (2) Thus, among the retinoids investigated in the present study, it seems that 9cisRA is the best JH-mimic tested.
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
BNC clusters (detail)
PRES_adv (1) In the present study we go beyond this result by making controlled B I -B II transitions involving most of the dinucleotide junctions of the dodecamer and discussing both the energetic and conformational aspects of such transitions
PRES_adv (2) Extrapolating these results to human diets, the lowest calcium concentration used in the present study (25 µmol/g) reflects a daily intake of calcium of about 12.5 mmol (500 mg)
PRES_adv (2) There would, however, have been at least two problems with using this method in the present study.
PRES_pm (2) The percentages of children in the present study who had detectable neutralising antibody against poliovirus types 1, 2, and 3 after three doses of OPV are similar to percentages reported from other developing countries…
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
Acta Tropica: typology
TEXT Time %
PAST_adv Count 74 63.79
PAST_pm Count 5 4.31
PAST_total 79 68.1
PRES_adv Count 28 24.14
PRES_pm Count 8 6.90
PRES_total 36 31.04
NF_Count 1 0.86
Grand Count 116
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
BNC academic articles (mainly Lancet): typology
TEXT Time %
PRES_adv Count 18 22.58
PRES_pm Count 4 58.06
PRES_total 22 80.64
PAST_adv Count 7 6.45
PAST_pm Count 2 12.90
PAST_total 9 19.35
Grand Count 31
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
an ELF model?
There is a strong past tense association with an important discourse organising cluster such as "in the present paper".
The past form were is a keyword in the AT corpus. Is there an emerging ELF norm which accepts this
variant as a predominant form? If this is the case, which instances of language in use
should constitute acceptable models for use in English language instruction?
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
choosing the right exemplar
In the present study, none of the samples from healthy controls was found to be positive for anti-hydatid antibody response.
The presence of microfilariae in blood was independent of subject age in the present study.
In the present study, we monitored IgG-TES immuno-complexes, levels of which increased rapidly within 14 days p.i. and persisted in the similar concentrations in the sera of control mice.
Temperatures in the mosquito cages in the present study were maintained at a mean minimum of 24^C and a mean maximum of 28^C
In the present study too, at least four species of human protozoan parasites: E. histolytica/dispar, E. coli, G. lamblia, Cryptosporidium sp. were detected in various fly species collected.
Such analysis was not feasible in the present study
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
and a way forward?
Writing pedagogy then becomes a process which shifts from teacher-led to student-led analysis and description of expert performances, to student production of texts based on their work as disciplinary apprentices, and finally to their informed critiquing of these apprentice texts. At each stage in this process, with the teacher's support, students are forming hypotheses about the nature of the texts they are engaging with and the texts they are producing, and working towards the acquisition of the linguistic expertise that will be necessary if they are to establish full professional expertise within their profession.
(Tribble, 2006)
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
A hanging tale…
The following suggestion was made to the editors of Acta Tropica:
to clarify emerging models for lingua franca writing in the sciences, by: assessing the extent to which English language use in Acta
Tropica has changed over time describing and accounting for the impact of linguistic input
in the peer reviewing and editorial processes (guidelines / peer review feedback / author response)
profiling the extent to which language use in Acta Tropica varies in comparison with other large populations of edited text in English
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
a hanging tale #1
Dear Dr Tribble,I am the publisher responsible for Acta Tropica and other Parasitology journals within the Life Sciences division at Elsevier.
Your request to use Acta Tropica as a basis for your study into language usage in scientific communication has been passed onto me from Prof. XXX.
I have discussed this with the Director of Publishing within my area, but I am sorry to say that we will not be able to approve your request.I do apologise for the inconvenience that this may cause.With best regards,
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
a hanging tale #2
Dear Dr. Tribble,
Thank you for your interest in our journal Acta Tropica with regard to developments in English language use. As my colleague Mr. XX has informed you, unfortunately the journal will not participate in the research that you will be doing in this area due to the privacy and time constraints of their editors and reviewers. I would be more than happy to put you in touch with other colleagues at Elsevier who have experience working with the increasing influx of non-native English scientific article submissions and some initiatives that Elsevier has developed to adapt to these changes. Also, you can find quite a bit of information and guidelines on our website www.elsevier.com, for example here you can find the guidelines for authors:
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorsview.authors/howtosubmitpaper
for submitting a paper to an Elsevier journal.
If you would be interested in speaking with my colleagues, please do not hestitate to contact me. I hope that we can support you in your research in a relevant and meaningful way.
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
So what next?
studies of emerging micro genres
Cluster freq. text
THIS WORK WAS SUPPORTED 83 83
WORK WAS SUPPORTED BY 80 80
WE ARE GRATEFUL TO 75 75
WAS SUPPORTED BY THE 72 72
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
and further studies…
a bigger collection (now over 2 million words and rising)
and (somehow) an account of literacy practices in a narrow discourse community?
Chris Tribble, King's College, London University
References
Ammon, U., (2000) "Towards more fairness in international English: linguistic rights of non-native speakers?" in Phillipson, R. (ed.) Rights in language. London: Lawrence and Erlbaum : 111-116
Biber, D., S. Johansson, G. Leech, S. Conrad and E. Finegan, (2000) Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English, Harlow: Addison Wesley Longman
Halliday, M.A.K., (1989) Spoken and written language, Oxford: Oxford University Press
Scott, Mike. 1999. Wordsmith Tools version 4. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Scott, M. and C.Tribble (2006) Textual Patterns: Key words and corpus analysis in language education, Amsterdam/Philadelphia John Benjamins
Tribble, C. (2006) "Written in, written out: who sets the standards for academic writing?" in Usó-Juan, E., and A. Martínez-Flor (eds) Current trends in learning and teaching the four skills within a communicative approach, Berlin : Mouton de Gruyter pps: 447-471