A Model of Research Article Writing Sociolinguistic Competence (RAWSC): Evidence From Qualitative Meta-Synthesis and Follow-Up Interviews

Authors

Reza Khany, Ilam UniversityFollow
Saeedeh Mohammadi, Ilam UniversityFollow

Abstract

The knowledge of sociolinguistic factors can be a remarkable component of competence in research article writing for learners’ successful handling of scholarly writing tasks in English for academic purposes (EAP) programs. This study aimed to present a model of Sociolinguistics Competence (SC) in writing EAP research articles. Give this, two stages were followed. Firstly, a meta-synthesis approach was adopted to investigate the available literature on various aspects of SC and extract the latent themes and concepts in the target model. As a result, two categories emerged from the combination of five concepts and 258 codes. Secondly, an introspective stage was followed to explore the perceptions of a sampled number of EAP Iranian researchers of features of research article writing sociolinguistic competence and their difficulties relevant to the sociolinguistic aspects of writing RAs. Data for this stage came from interviews with nine Iranian EAP researchers who have published in highly prestigious journals. Conducting thematic analysis in the introspective stage resulted in 118 codes and four subcategories. The interview findings confirmed the main categories obtained from the meta-synthesis. The combination of the findings of meta-synthesis and interviews yielded a reductionist yet inclusive account of EAP research article writing sociolinguistic competence.

Keywords

Sociolinguistic Competence, English for Academic Purposes, Research Article, Research Article Writing Competence, Meta-Synthesis, Interview

Author Bio(s)

Dr. Reza Khany is an Associate Professor in Applied Linguistics in English Department of Ilam University. He is the head of English department in Ilam University. He has taught various EFL, ESP, and TEFL courses in BA, MA, and Ph.D. educational degrees. His interests include pragmatics, corpus linguistics, second language writing, sociolinguistics, and structural equation modeling approach. He had presented and published many research papers in various areas of research. Correspondence regarding this article can be addressed directly to: r.khany@ilam.ac.ir.

Dr. Saeedeh Mohammadi has Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics. She got her BA in English translation from Zanjan University and her MA in TEFL from Guilan University. She is now teaching different courses in Zanjan Farhangian University. She is also an EFL teacher in Education Office. She is interested in the areas of corpus analysis, discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, second language acquisition, academic writing and publishing, and pragmatics. She has conducted different studies in related areas. Correspondence regarding this article can also be addressed directly to: S.Mohammadi.TEFL@gmail.com.

Publication Date

3-23-2020

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2020.3848

Recommended APA Citation

Khany, R., & Mohammadi, S. (2020). A Model of Research Article Writing Sociolinguistic Competence (RAWSC): Evidence From Qualitative Meta-Synthesis and Follow-Up Interviews. The Qualitative Report, 25(3), 813-832. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2020.3848