The linguistic disadvantage of scholars who write in English as an additional language : Myth or reality

Flowerdew, John (2019) The linguistic disadvantage of scholars who write in English as an additional language : Myth or reality. Language Teaching, 52 (2). pp. 249-260. ISSN 0261-4448

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Abstract

Academics are coming under increasing pressure to publish internationally. Given the global dominance of English, this very likely means publishing in English-medium journals and with publishers which publish in English. This raises the important question of the possible disadvantage of those scholars whose first language is not English and who therefore have the additional burden of having to develop adequate proficiency in an additional language, English. As a student of modern languages to university level and of other languages to rather lower levels of proficiency and as a teacher of English for academic purposes (EAP) and of English for research and publication purposes (ERPP), since I became aware of this issue, I have always believed this extra burden on the English as an additional language (EAL) academic writer to be a self-evident truth. Ken Hyland, however, in a recent book (Hyland, 2015) and an article titled 'Academic publishing and the myth of linguistic injustice' (Hyland, 2016a), has taken it upon himself to argue that such an assumption is ill-founded. Hyland argues that native-speakers (NSs) of English encounter the same difficulties as non-native speakers (NNSs) when it comes to academic writing, that 'academic English is no one's first language', and that it requires 'deliberate learning' by both NSs and NSs (p. 57). Native and non-native writers, Hyland implies, are on a level playing field when it comes to writing for publication, both groups having to jump the same hurdles.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Language Teaching
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3310
Subjects:
?? linguistics and languagelanguage and linguistics ??
ID Code:
134881
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
31 Jan 2020 14:50
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
15 Jul 2024 19:33