The Use of Person Deixis as Shifts in Authority in Academic Writing: The Case of Students’ Acknowledgements in the Department of English Language and Literature, University of Maroua (Published)
This paper examines person deixis as shifts of authority in academic writing with focus on students’ acknowledgements in the Department of English Language and Literature, University of Maroua. It also looks at the role it plays in academic writing. This work stems from the fact that indexical expression of person plays an important role in the dissemination of information. It extends and gives further explanation where nonverbal communication is limited; thus becomes more effective. This work is of great value in language use in the sense that it shows how students use person deixis as shifts in authority in academic writing in their acknowledgements to show that they are the authors of these projects. This research uses a qualitative research design. This is because the researcher culled some messages from the acknowledgements of students of the Department of English Language and Literature from 2021-2023 academic year. Insight was drawn from Levinson’s (1983) theory of deixis. The findings indicated that one type of indexical expression; person was used for these reasons. First, to demonstrate that they are the authors of their dissertations. Second, to show gratitude to those who helped them in any way to complete their school projects.
Keywords: Academic Writing, Students, acknowledgements, department of English language and Literature, person deixis, shifts in authority
Academic Writing Difficulties Encountered by University EFL Learners (Published)
The present study was conducted with the aim to discover the major difficulties encountered by some university students in academic writing. It also aimed to find out the factors that hinder their academic writing skills. 36 students majoring in English at the Faculty of Education, University of Benghazi took part in this study. A questionnaire with 25 items was utilized to answer the stated research questions. The data analysis revealed that both graduate and undergraduate students have some problems in academic writing such as choosing the appropriate academic words, difficulty in developing a thesis statement, organizing ideas, and writing coherent paragraphs. These challenges were influenced by a lack of resources followed by a low English language proficiency and a lack of writing practice opportunities. It is hoped that the findings of this research would provide great benefits to the instructors of the English language and curriculum designers to address the writing difficulties that might be encountered by learners of English.
Citation: Shaban Aldabbus and EnNaji Almansouri (2022) Academic Writing Difficulties Encountered by University EFL Learners, British Journal of English Linguistics , Vol. 10, Issue 3, pp.1-11
Keywords: Academic Writing, University students, writing difficulties
The Language of Science: A Lexical Study of Academic Writing in Computer Science (Published)
Language is a veritable tool for conveying knowledge and information. In the field of science and technology, it is indispensable in disseminating, concepts and facts. Ideas and novel thoughts cannot be formulated without the use of languages in the sciences. Thus, language is the means of understanding science and technology. In fact, language and science are so inextricably linked that learning science is analogous to studying language. However, some second language learners of English fail to realize the relevance of language in the study of science and technology. Also scientific language expressing technical facts pose a lot of problems to second language learners in the field of computer science because the texts introduce the learners to many unfamiliar words. Therefore, this study examines and interprets some technical words in the field of computer science and shows its peculiar usage in the academic context. Excerpts culled from academic journals and texts in computer science are analyzed to explore some ordinary and technical words with specialized meanings. It is discovered that there is a significant number of technical jargons in computer science texts. A major implication of this study is that the second language learners of computer science need to understand and interpret the technical words for their studies and skills in professional communication.
Keywords: Academic Writing, Computer Science, Language, Lexical Study