Reader-Friendliness and Feedback: German-L1 Scholars’ Perceptions of Writing for Publication in English

Abstract

Failure to publish articles in the dominant Anglophone scientific journals has implications for multilingual scholars' future careers and for the global dissemination of scientific knowledge. Despite the importance of this topic, there have been few studies of the perceptions of multilingual scholars engaged in this process. In an effort to close this gap, an online questionnaire was emailed to 153 German-L1 scholars at the ETH Zurich, Switzerland. The 46 respondents ranked 'writing readerfriendly texts' as their number one problem in writing scientific publications in English, followed by 'using correct grammar'. Reader-friendliness was defined by the majority of the respondents as 'writing in a clear and simple style'. The questionnaire also revealed some interesting differences between the views of novice and more experienced scholars regarding the role of different sources of feedback in helping them overcome these problems. The results from the questionnaire will be explored in more detail in follow-up interviews.

Successful ESL Writing for Publication: The Role of Writers’ Autonomy Linguistic Competence and L1/L2 Critical Reading Skills

“…The research findings showed similar results to the study by Armstrong (2011) and Hyland and Hyland (2006) that an ability to produce L2 reader-friendly texts is the next challenge after English language competence for NNS scholars. A particular focus should be made on developing an NNS writer ability to differentiate between L1 and L2 research discourses and be aware of general research writing standards as well as of particular disciplinary similarities/differences in research texts.…”

“…L2 professional writing researchers also fail to apply different forms of L2 feedback though it is a key prerequisite which encourages and facilitates the process of writing (Hyland & Hyland, 2006;Armstrong, 2011). Finally, the interview results reveal that the writers are not always aware of and are not able to effectively use key resources for L2 high quality writing.…”

“…According to more recent research, readerfriendliness of a paper appears to be more challenging goal for NNS writers who use English proficiently (Armstrong, 2011). However, what it takes to produce a text which is both coherent and cohesive is treated by writers differently.…”

“…demonstrate an ability to identify moves in a text, hedging, boosting, etc.). L2 professional writing researchers also should be able to apply different forms of feedback which encourage and facilitate the process of writing (Hyland & Hyland, 2006;Armstrong, 2011).…”

Genres in the forefront, languages in the background: The scope of genre analysis in language-related scenarios

“…These records draw on empirical data from surveys and interviews to investigate the researchers' personal experiences in writing journal articles and taxonomize the journal reviewers' comments on language shortcomings in manuscripts written in English by scholars with L1s other than English. It is argued that linguistic difficulties involve lack of clarity and reader-friendliness, paucity of expression in English, subsequent language reuse at both lexical and syntactic levels, and problems in handling the discourse pragmatics and in constructing an authorial identity (Armstrong, 2011;Buckingham, 2014;Chiu, 2001;Flowerdew & Li, 2007;Ouellette, 2008;Shi, 2012). Concern about language-related burdens is not unsupportive, one might further say, of arguments deployed on behalf of linguistic diversity.…”