Learning the language of dentistry : disciplinary corpora in the teaching of English for specific academic purposes

238 Pages·2019·14.891 MB·English

by  Cheung, Lisa Mei Ling, Crosthwaite, Peter

Learning the Language
of Dentistry
Disciplinary corpora in
the teaching of English
for Specific Academic Purposes
Peter Crosthwaite and Lisa Cheung
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93
JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY
Learning the Language of Dentistry
Studies in Corpus Linguistics (SCL)
issn 1388-0373
SCL focuses on the use of corpora throughout language study, the development
of a quantitative approach to linguistics, the design and use of new tools for
processing language texts, and the theoretical implications of a data-rich discipline.
For an overview of all books published in this series, please see
http://benjamins.com/catalog/scl
General Editor Founding Editor
Ute Römer Elena Tognini-Bonelli
Georgia State University The Tuscan Word Centre/University of Siena
Advisory Board
Laurence Anthony Susan Hunston
Waseda University University of Birmingham
Antti Arppe Michaela Mahlberg
University of Alberta University of Birmingham
Michael Barlow Anna Mauranen
University of Auckland University of Helsinki
Monika Bednarek Andrea Sand
University of Sydney University of Trier
Tony Berber Sardinha Benedikt Szmrecsanyi
Catholic University of São Paulo Catholic University of Leuven
Douglas Biber Elena Tognini-Bonelli
Northern Arizona University The Tuscan Word Centre/University of Siena
Marina Bondi Yukio Tono
University of Modena and Reggio Emilia Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
Jonathan Culpeper Martin Warren
Lancaster University The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Sylviane Granger Stefanie Wulff
University of Louvain University of Florida
Stefan Th. Gries
University of California, Santa Barbara
Volume 93
Learning the Language of Dentistry
Disciplinary corpora in the teaching of English for Specific Academic Purposes
by Peter Crosthwaite and Lisa Cheung
Learning the Language
of Dentistry
Disciplinary corpora in the teaching of English
for Specific Academic Purposes
Peter Crosthwaite
University of Queensland
Lisa Cheung
The University of Hong Kong
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Amsterdam / Philadelphia
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
8
the American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.
Cover design: Françoise Berserik
Cover illustration from original painting Random Order
by Lorenzo Pezzatini, Florence, 1996.
doi 10.1075/scl.93
Cataloging-in-Publication Data available from Library of Congress:
isbn 978 90 272 0427 1 (Hb)
isbn 978 90 272 6198 4 (e-book)
© 2019 – John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Company · https://benjamins.com
Table of contents
Acknowledgements ix
Foreword xi
Chapter 1
Getting to the ‘root’ of the problem: Introduction to the volume 1
1.1 EAP, EGAP, ESAP, and the ESAP conundrum
for non-specialist disciplinary language tutors 1
1.2 Introduction to Section 1 5
1.2.1 Definitions of register/genre 6
1.2.2 Analysing register 6
1.2.3 Genres for analysis 10
1.3 Chapter 2 – ‘Extracting’ the linguistic dimensions of dentistry
experimental research articles 11
1.4 Chapter 3 – Persuasive stories?: Professional and novice research
reports for Dental Public Health 13
1.5 Chapter 4 – Understanding disciplinary vs. non-disciplinary
terminology: Insights from the dentistry case report genre 15
1.6 Introduction to Section 2 18
1.7 Chapter 5 – Data-driven dentistry: Corpora, ESAP, and writing to learn 19
1.8 Chapter 6 – Putting it into (dental) practice: User engagement
with dentistry corpora and DDL 22
1.9 Chapter 7 – Reflections on practice, future directions 23
Section I. The language of dentistry – A corpus-based exploration
of language features across the dentistry register
Chapter 2
‘Extracting’ the linguistic dimensions of dentistry experimental
research articles 27
2.1 Introduction 27
2.2 Corpus construction 28
2.3 MDA Version 1: Comparison with Biber’s (1988) dimensions 30
2.4 MAT analyses across Biber’s (1988) dimensions 32
vi Learning the Language of Dentistry
2.5 MDA Version 2: The functional dimensions
of dentistry research articles 36
2.5.1 Function 1 – Confirming findings as facts 39
2.5.2 Function 2 – Categorising patient types 40
2.5.3 Dimension 1 – Narrative vs. non-narrative concerns 41
2.5.4 Dimension 2 – Active vs. passive 44
2.5.5 Dimension 3 – Involved vs. informational discourse 46
2.5.6 Dentistry vs. General medical research reports 48
2.6 Discipline-specific lexis and phraseology 49
2.7 Chapter summary 53
Chapter 3
Persuasive stories? Professional and novice research reports
for Dental Public Health 55
3.1 Introduction 55
3.2 Corpora for investigation 56
3.2.1 Professional Dentistry Corpus – Community Dental Health 56
3.2.2 Learner Corpus of Dentistry Reports 57
3.3 Analysis 1: Multidimensional analysis 58
3.3.1 Dimension 1 – Narrative vs. Informative 62
3.3.2 Dimension 2 – Persuasive vs. Objective 62
3.3.3 Dimension 3 – Tentative vs. Authoritative 63
3.3.4 Dimension 4 – Active vs. Passive 64
3.3.5 Dimension 5 – Animate vs. Inanimate 65
3.4 Analysis 2: Making claims personal: Hedging, boosting
and self-mention 66
3.4.1 Hedging 69
3.4.2 Boosting 71
3.4.3 Self-mentions 72
3.5 Narrative features of novice Dental Public Health writing:
An NLP approach 73
3.6 Chapter summary 77
Chapter 4
Understanding disciplinary vs. non-disciplinary terminology:
Insights from the dentistry case report genre 81
4.1 Introduction 81
4.2 Natural language processing and ESAP 83
4.3 Constructing a corpus of case reports 85
Table of contents vii
4.4 “Fear and disgust”: A sentiment analysis of dental case reports 86
4.4.1 Procedure 87
4.4.2 Negative adjectives 88
4.4.3 Fear and disgust 89
4.4.4 Well-being 90
4.4.5 Positive nouns and verbs 91
4.5 Arts, crafts and dentistry? The semantic domains
of dentistry case reports 92
4.5.1 Procedure 93
4.5.2 General and abstract terms 96
4.5.3 The body and the individual 100
4.5.4 Numbers and measurement 101
4.5.5 Substances, objects and materials 102
4.5.6 Movement, location, travel and transport 104
4.5.7 Psychological actions, states and processes 104
4.5.8 Time 106
4.5.9 Social actions, states and processes 106
4.5.10 Combined semantic subdomains specific to dentistry
case reports 107
4.6 Scattertext and semantic domains 109
4.7 Chapter summary 111
Section II. Applying corpus insights for ESAP pedagogy
Chapter 5
Data-driven dentistry: Corpora, ESAP, and writing-to-learn 115
5.1 Introduction 115
5.2 The problem with ‘learning-to-write’ 115
5.3 Corpora and ‘writing-to-learn’ 117
5.4 Trial and error: First integration of corpora into ED provision 118
5.5 Trying again: A new corpus platform 127
5.6 Corpus tasks 130
5.6.1 Supplementary Moodle tasks 144
5.6.2 Additional activities 146
5.7 Chapter summary 149
viii Learning the Language of Dentistry
Chapter 6
Putting it into (dental) practice: User engagement
with dentistry corpora and DDL 151
6.1 Introduction 151
6.2 Students’ previous language reference habits 152
6.3 Learner behaviour tracking parameters and analysis 154
6.4 Total user engagement 155
6.5 Queries by section (Learner corpus) 156
6.6 Queries by function 157
6.7 Query logs: Learner corpus 158
6.8 Query logs: Professional corpus 162
6.9 Corpus query habits: Top 10 users 163
6.10 Corpus usage history: Activity logs 166
6.10.1 Case 1: The abstract thinker 167
6.10.2 Case 2: The switcher 168
6.10.3 Case 3: The quitter 169
6.10.4 Case 4: The perfectionist 170
6.11 Chapter summary 170
Chapter 7
Reflections on practice, and future directions 175
7.1 What did we do, and what did we learn? 175
7.2 Did it work? 178
7.2.1 Student evaluation of DDL 178
7.2.2 ESAP tutors’ perceptions of DDL 182
7.2.3 Disciplinary tutor’s perceptions of DDL 184
7.3 What is left to do? 186
7.4 Closing comments 188
References 189
Appendices 205
Index 219
Acknowledgements
This book could not have been possible without the assistance of a great number
of colleagues, support staff and family. We would first and foremost like to thank
Prof. Ken Hyland for spearheading the English-in-the-Discipline movement at
the University of Hong Kong, creating the context in which this entire study was
conceived and created, as well as for providing the foreword to this volume. Next,
we would like to thank Prof. Ricky Kwok, Victor Y. L. Wong and Tyrone Kwok of
the HKU Technology-Enhanced Learning Initiative (TELI) at HKU, who assisted
us in creating the innovative corpus platform involved in this study, as well as
Dr. Lillian Wong, who was the leader of the Teacher Development Grant project
on a HKU Graduate Corpus that helped bring the Centre for Applied English
Studies and TELI together on corpus-related projects. We would also like to thank
Joyce Oiwun Cheung for assisting greatly with analysis of the learner analytic data
that formed the findings of Chapter 6, and wish her well in her Ph.D. studies.
We extend our thanks to Prof. Thomas Flemming and Prof. Colman McGrath of
the HKU Dentistry Faculty for their continued support and assistance through-
out this project, as well the two ESAP teachers who provided interview data for
Chapter 7. We are very grateful for the support and assistance of Jason Kessler,
who provided detailed instructions and advice on his wonderful Scattertext tool,
as well as Kristopher Kyle, who gratefully provided the wordlists used for his
SEANCE tool, Laurence Anthony for AntConc, Andrea Nini for the MAT tagger,
Gero Kunter for Coquery, Paul Rayson for Wmatrix, and other researchers whose
corpus applications have made this type of research much easier than it used to
be! We also thank Mia Yunmi Cho, and Erin and William Crosthwaite for their
help and support during the writing process. Finally, thanks to God’s faithful and
unfailing love during this long research journey, and the late Peter Cheung for his
enduring love and trust.