2022 IJRSE – Volume 11 Issue 4
Available Online: 4 March 2022
Author/s:
Afful, Joseph Benjamin Archibald*
University of Cape Coast, Ghana (jafful@ucc.edu.gh)
Twumasi, Rita Akele
University of Cape Coast, Ghana (rakeletwumasi@ucc.edu.gh)
Abstract:
Considerable interest in academic writing, in general, and the language of evaluation, in particular, has been demonstrated in the last two decades among English for Academic and Publishing Purposes (EAPP) researchers, scholars, and practitioners. The paper continues such a trajectory of research by exploring the emerging scholarship on the language of evaluation in academic writing in Ghana, which in the same period has seen an upsurge in the number of tertiary educational institutions and, unsurprisingly, the increasing attention to academic writing. To accomplish the above task, we first provide a conceptual sketch of the key terms underpinning the synthesis. The purposively selected data are then examined through a combination of the qualitative content analysis, exclusion and inclusion, and comparison approaches. The analysis indicates that attention has been paid, in varying ways, to such linguistic/rhetorical and pragmatic resources as reporting verbs, discourse markers, nominalization, the staging of moves/steps, evaluative lexis, critical speech acts, metadiscourse, hedging, and bibliographic citation. A minor finding concerns the dominant use of such research and pedagogic genres as the research article and thesis as the primary data for the synthesis, followed by assessment genres, research proposal and critical review. These findings show that Ghanaian researchers, like many other researchers worldwide, are in touch with the research agenda initiated by EAPP researchers and practitioners in the Anglo-American context. It is hoped that this paper can provide relevant information on the language of evaluation teaching and research in a regional context and motivate similar research efforts in other contexts.
Keywords: academic writing, language of evaluation, Ghana, interpersonality, synthesis
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5861/ijrse.2022.164
Cite this article:
Afful, J. B. A., & Twumasi, R. A. (2022). The language of evaluation in academic writing research in Ghana, 2000-2020: A synthesis. International Journal of Research Studies in Education, 11(4), 103-123. https://doi.org/10.5861/ijrse.2022.164
*Corresponding Author