Journal of English for Research Publication Purposes - Volume 3, Issue 2, 2022

Abstract

Research-intensive universities in the global peripheries have begun to mount English for research publication purposes (ERPP) initiatives to increase plurilingual scholars’ publishing success. Though research into pedagogical initiatives is still limited, investigations of such programs can provide researchers with a greater understanding of the broader experiences and perspectives of scholars as well as the potential impact of interventions on course participants’ scholarly writing. Answering the call for more longitudinal work in ERPP, this article outlines a small-scale, qualitative investigation of the perceived impact of an intensive ERPP course at a Mexican university on two environmental scientists’ research writing five years following course completion. Data analysis included systematic review of participant CVs, as well as semi-structured interviews with two plurilingual EAL scientists and two ERPP practitioners connected to the ERPP course. Employing a critical plurilingual lens, this article discusses findings that not only outline the perceived impact of the intervention on these scientists’ research writing at different stages of their academic trajectories, but also highlight the plurilingual nature of their evolving scholarly practices. The article culminates with data-driven suggestions for plurilingual conceptualization and enactment of scholarly writing pedagogies, policies, and research agendas.

Abstract

The phenomenon of English ‘colonising’ academic publishing had been observed globally, so that English-speaking academics rarely need to venture into non-English texts in order to build new knowledge. In the case of research in the education and language fields in Timor-Leste, academic research and writing appears predominantly in Portuguese, with English as a significant second language of research. In this case, researchers need to engage across these dominant languages in order to draw on the accumulated research and knowledge about contexts where research is carried out. Not engaging with both these languages, and other local languages, risks building incomplete knowledge of the Timorese context.

This paper presents the results of a citation analysis of academic research items written between 1999 and 2020. Findings indicate that working only within a particular language is frequent among researchers writing in either Portuguese or English, often ignoring research in the other dominant languages and in local languages. This study suggests that researchers within multilingual countries need to read widely, considering a range of languages and sources. It also suggests the ways in which technological tools might help alleviate some of the barriers to inter-language communication around research.

This article reviews Understanding Chinese Multilingual Scholars’ Experiences of Writing and Publishing in English: A Social-Cognitive Perspective978-3-030-33937-1