Expression of Stance and Engagement in Spoken Academic Discourse in the Institutional Context

Abstract

The use of English as a medium of instruction in universities to work with international and domestic students in Latvia is a current trend and deserves considerable attention. The present article shows the results of a study of the academic lectures in the institutional context. Theoretical findings include definitions of genre and discourse; a description of a lecture as a separate academic genre and of the peculiarities of spoken academic discourse, including lecturer's self-mention, expression of opinion (stance) and audience engagement. The article presents a study of the examples of extracts from the corpus of academic discourse and their descriptive analysis, as well as provides tables of lexico-grammatical features used to express stance and engagement.

Cuvinte-cheie: context instituţional, educaţie terțiară, engleza ca mijloc de instruire, genul citire academică, caracteristicele discursului academic oral, implicarea publicului 

REZUMAT

Utilizarea limbii engleze ca mijloc de instruire în universități a studenților străini şi autohtoni letoni este o tendință actuală și merită o atenție considerabilă. Articolul dat prezintă rezultatele studiului prelegerilor academice în context instituțional, efectuate în limba menţionată. Constatările teoretice poartă asupra (1) definițiilor genului și discursului academic, (2) descrierii prelegerii ca gen academic separat și (3) particularităților discursului academic oral, inclusiv auto-mențiunea verbală a lectorului, exprimarea opiniei (poziției) și implicarea publicului în discuţie. Articolul se bazează pe un amplu corpus de discursuri academice, supuse unei analize descriptive, precum și pe tabele, înglobând unităţi lexico-gramaticale ale limbii engleze, utilizate pentru a exprima poziția și implicarea cuiva.

LANGUAGE OF PUBLICATION

English (main text and corpus)

UDC: 81`42 

REFERENCES

Bakhtin, M. (1981). The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. University of Texas Press.

Bakhtin, M. (1986). The Problem of Speech Genres. In Speech Genres and other Late Essays, C. Emerson and M. Holquist (eds.), 60-102. The University of Texas Press.

Barton, Ellen. (1993). Evidentials, Argumentation, and Epistemological Stance. College English, 55, 745-769.

Bawarshi, A. S., Reiff, M.J. (2010). Genre: An Introduction to History, Theory, Research, and Pedagogy. Parlor Press.

Bazerman, C. (1994). Systems of Genres and the Enactment of Social Intentions. In: A. Freedman and P. Medway (eds.) Genre and the New Rhetoric. Taylor and Francis, 79-101.    

Beach, R., Anson, C.M.. (1992). Stance and Intertextuality in Written Discourse. Linguistics and Education, 4, 335–357.

Bellés, B., Fortanet I. (2004). Handouts in Conference Presentations. In I. Fortanet, J. Palmer, and S. Posteguillo (eds.) Linguistic Studies in Academic and Professional English. Publicacions de la Universitat Jaume I., 211-235.

Berkenkotter, C., Huckin, T. N. (1995). Genre Knowledge in Disciplinary Communication: Cognition, Culture, Power. Lawrence Erlbaum.

*Biber, D.  (1996).  Investigating Language Use through Corpus-Based Analyses of Association Patterns. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 1, 171-197. 

Biber, D. (2006). University Language: a Corpus – Based Study of Spoken and Written Registers. John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Biber, D., & Finegan, E. (1988). Adverbial Stance Types in English. Discourse Processes, 11, 1-34.

Biber, D., & Finegan, E. (1989). Styles of Stance in English: Lexical and Grammatical Marking of Evidentiality and Affect. Text, 9, 93-124. http://dx. doi.org/10.1515/text.1.1989.9.1.93.

Brown, J. D. (2004). Research Methods for Applied Linguistics: Scope, Characteristics, and Standards. In: A. Davies. The Handbook of Applied Linguistics. Blackwell Publishing.

Cameron, B. (2001). Working with Spoken Discourse. Sage Publications.

Chafe, W. (1982). Integration and Involvement in Speaking, Writing, and Oral Literature.  In D. Tannen (eds.) Spoken and Written Language: Exploring Orality and Literacy. Ablex.

Connor, R.T. (2008). Participant Positioning and the Positioning of Participatory Pronouns in the Academic Lecture. Doctoral dissertation. http://digitalcommons. lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4263&context=gradschool_dissertations.

Davies, A., Elder, C. (2007). The Handbook of Applied Linguistics. Blackwell Publishing.

Dearden, J. (2015). English as a Medium of Instruction – a Growing Global Phenomenon. https://www.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/e484_emi_- cover_option_3_final_web.pdf.  

Drozdova, V. (2021). Communicative English Language Competency Framework for the Academic Personnel, University of Latvia, Doctoral dissertation. https://dspace.lu.lv/dspace/handle/7/54242.

Fairclough, N. (1992). Discourse and Social Change. Polity Press.

Halliday, M. A. K. (1978) Language as Social Semiotic. Edward Arnold.

Hunston, S., Thompson, G. (eds.). 2000. Evaluation in Text: Authorial Stance and the Construction of Discourse. Oxford University Press.

Hyatt, D. (2005). Time for a Change: A Critical Discoursal Analysis of Synchronic Context with Diachronic Relevance. Discourse and Society, 16(4), 515–534.

Hyland, K. (2005). Stance and Engagement: a Model of Interaction in Academic Discourse. http://dis.sagepub.com/content/7/2/173.short.   

Hyland, K. (2009). Academic Discourse. Continuum.

Johnson, K., Johnson, H. (1999). Encyclopedic Dictionary of Applied Linguistics: a Handbook for Language Teaching. Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Kristeva J. (1986). Word, Dialogue, and the Novel. In T. Moi (Ed.) The Kristeva Reader. Columbia University Press.

O’regan, J.P. (2014). English as Lingua Franca. Applied Linguistics, 35(5). Oxford University Press.

Swales, J. M. (2004). Research Genres: Explorations and Application. Cambridge University Press.

Sites

https://nra.lv/latvija/303325-gada-laika-arvalstu-studentu-skaits-audzis-par-20-visrazenakie-ir-indiesi-un-uzbeki.htm

Received: February 4, 2022 | Reviewed: February 20, 2022 | Accepted for publication: April 10, 2022

Google Scholar cited by