Chinese learner writers’ niche establishment in the Literature Review chapter of theses: A diachronic perspective

Previous studies have several limitations …: Indonesian Doctoral Students’, Indonesian Academics’, and International Authors’ Research Gap Strategies in ELT Research Article Abstracts and Introductions

“…Lim (2012), who investigated the management of RA introductions, found that authors used several strategies when presenting research gaps, namely, highlighting the complete absence of research bearing a specific characteristic, stressing insufficient research in a specific aspect, revealing a limitation in previous research, and contrasting conflicting previous research findings. This insight is also supported by Chen and Li (2019) who investigated Chinese authors' research gap strategies and found that pointing out insufficient research could be considered a way to present a research gap in applied linguistics RAs. However, a missing strategy called suggesting solution(s), which was not found in either study (i.e., Chen & Li, 2019;Lim, 2012), should be considered as a potential strategy in presenting a research gap.…”

“…This insight is also supported by Chen and Li (2019) who investigated Chinese authors' research gap strategies and found that pointing out insufficient research could be considered a way to present a research gap in applied linguistics RAs. However, a missing strategy called suggesting solution(s), which was not found in either study (i.e., Chen & Li, 2019;Lim, 2012), should be considered as a potential strategy in presenting a research gap. This strategy starts with identifying some problems then proposing solution(s) to solve the problems (Kwan et al, 2012).…”

“…Considering the limitations of previous studies (e.g., Chen & Li, 2019;Lim, 2012), this study was deemed necessary to conduct. Additionally, as further development of Hylands' (2000) and Swales ' (1990, 2004) frameworks on research gaps, Figure 3 shows an updated framework that can be used to identify authors' strategies for presenting research gaps in RA abstracts and introductions.…”

“…In the introduction section, the research gaps appeared in the move of establishing a niche (Swales, 1990(Swales, , 2004. It functions to show the difference between what has been studied and what can be potentially conducted as further studies (Chen & Li, 2019;Lim, 2012). Thus, doctoral students need to learn the ways to present research gaps in both sections.…”

“…Under the previous studies, the investigation of authors' research gap strategies so far has received little attention since only limited studies has been conducted (Chen & Li, 2019;Lim, 2012;Suryani, Yacob, & Aziz, 2015). In response to a call for studies focusing on authors' research gap strategies in other disciplines (Lim, 2012) and considering what has been barely explored in the current body of knowledge, this study investigated Indonesian doctoral students' strategies for presenting research gaps in their ELT RA abstracts and introductions.…”