Reporting research in applied linguistics: The role of nativeness and expertise

Abstract

Abstract This study aimed to investigate the role of nativeness and expertise on reporting practices in writing with regards to patterns of use and construction of stance. The study compared four corpora of research articles and papers in the field of applied linguistics written by expert native English writers, Turkish non-native expert English writers, novice native English writers, and Turkish novice non-native English writers. A corpus-based analysis explored the features of these other-sourced research reports, that is, verb controlling that clauses focusing on subject type, reference type, and reporting verbs. Findings show that expertise level is an important factor in disciplinary writing as native and non-native expert writers show little variation in their reporting practices whereas remarkable variation is found between non-native novice writers and the other groups. Furthermore, findings support the view that non-native writing is discursively hybrid, a phenomenon that is more evident in novice writing.