Mapping the status and functions of english for research publication purposes in the biomedical field. Text-linguistic, ethnomethodological and ethnographic perspectives

• Autores: Arantxa Ventura Rubio
• Directores de la Tesis: Carmen Pérez-Llantada Auría (dir. tes.)
• Lectura: En la Universidad de Zaragoza ( España ) en 2018
• Idioma: español
• Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Ana Bocanegra-Valle (presid.), Mercedes Querol Julián (secret.), María José Luzón Marco (voc.)
• Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado en Estudios Ingleses por la Universidad de Zaragoza
• Materias:
  • Lingüística
    • Lingüística aplicada
      • Lengua y literatura
      • Enseñanza de lenguas
• Enlaces
  • Tesis en acceso abierto en: Zaguán
• Resumen

  • The main aim of this PhD was to contribute to the examination of the role and functions of English as an international scientific language in Spain, and as the world language of scientific communication. It draws on three interrelated methodological approaches: a textual analysis (both at a rhetorical level and at a phraseological level) of texts aiming at disseminating new knowledge; an ethnomethodological analysis of scientists’ perceptions and attitudes towards English and towards writing in English as an additional language; and an ethnographic analysis of spaces, materials, and texts deployed by a small community of scientists in order to access, share and disseminate scientific knowledge. It was initially hypothesised that the triangulation of the three datasets would contribute with a multi-perspective view of English for research communication purposes in the biomedical field.

    Results support previous EAP work in the field of biomedicine and in other disciplinary domains. The analysis of a specialized corpus compiled for the present study showed that research writing draws of standardized conventions for information organization. Broadly, all the texts analysed adhered to the prototypical macrostructural organization for empirical research articles described by Swales (1990, 2004), although minor variations were also observed with regards the original IMRD Swalesian structure. Turning to writing practices, the interview data provided further evidence, added to those of others, of the spread of English as an international research language and the ensuing the language challenges that writing in English as an additional language poses to researchers from non-Anglophone linguacultural backgrounds. Ethnographic observation of the workspaces confirmed that both professional and research-oriented genres are the main means researchers draw upon to access, exchange and disseminate scientific knowledge. I finally conclude with some critical reflections deriving from the triangulation of the three datasets (texts, perceptions of writing practices and contexts in which such practices are carried out) and assess the role and status of English and the multiple factors affecting research writing with a view to providing both pedagogical and lifelong learning orientations.