Academic Discourse: English's Role for Students and Academics

This essay critically examines the dominance of English in academic discourse, particularly its impact on students and academics in a global context. The paper begins by defining academic discourse, referencing Hyland's work, and then explores the various modes of discourse including written, spoken, and multi-modal forms. It highlights the privileged position of English as the academic lingua franca, analyzing its effects on both native and non-native English speakers, and discusses the challenges faced by students from diverse linguistic backgrounds. The essay also investigates contextual features, such as disciplinary variations and shared goals, and textual features like conventions and specialized language. It draws on examples from the Singapore context, considering how English can be both an empowering resource and an obstacle for different groups of students and academics. The conclusion emphasizes the need for a pragmatic pedagogy that enables students to critically evaluate the construction and organization of knowledge within their disciplines, ultimately bridging the gap between English and other languages.

Running head: ACADEMIC DISCOURSE: ENGLISH IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT
ACADEMIC DISCOURSE: ENGLISH IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Authors note

1ACADEMIC DISCOURSE: ENGLISH IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT
Academic discourse is meant to be utilized as a source for building information in
academic fields, such as colleges and schools, and upholds an identity within those domains.
Academic discourse has been referred by Hyland (2009) as, “to the ways of thinking and using
language which exist in the academy” (Hyland, 2009 p.1). It helps in decoding the ideological
and political dimensions of academic life. It highlights the disciplines of authority and power
which impacts the accessibility of resources in terms of forming knowledge that shows
discipline approved realities. Academic discourse also delivers information regarding the
insights of the link between the economy and the academy. On a global basis the language
English delivers students with a critical knowledge of academic discourse as a form of discourse
characterisation in it idealized form by detached reasoning and rational thinking. This paper
examines the critical notion of academic discourse which is not only the matter of concern for
circulation of understanding but also the maintenance and construction of social role regarding
students and academics and their interconnection to their global academic community in
exploring the privileged position of English as the academic lingua franca and its influence on
the English as aforeign and English as a second language learners (Goh 2017, pp. 57-67).
The scope of academic discourse includes written, spoken, and multi-modal modes of
discourse. English language has taken over and superseded all other languages of the world in
academic field. Firstly, the written mode of academic discourse ranges from abstracts; research
articles; theses and dissertations; textbooks; lab reports; journals; publications; student essays
and many more. The central concern is that it has taken over each and every stream of academic
world. Based on references of English journal publications, ninety-five percent of the publication
of science citation index are in English, including eighty-five of the French journals are
published in English, the influence of English journals has become self-perpetuating along with

2ACADEMIC DISCOURSE: ENGLISH IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT
the increasing rate if the online journal downloads. “Perhaps not surprisingly, the pedagogic
orientation is present in many linguistically-oriented studies of written academic discourse
undertaken from a cross-cultural perspective, because such a focus may help to justify the
practical motivation of much of the research: findings about different cultural traditions –
translated into the notions of interference, transfer, etc. – are used to increase the competence of
students” (cf. Hyland 2008, p. 60). Another matter of concern is regarding the writers, as in the
field of writing only the English writers are getting the maximum footage and appreciation in
comparison to the other language writers, online and offline journals and books selling category,
English has far overweighed the other language journals and books, which causes a danger for
the L2 writers category that they can be excluded any time from the global scholarship web.
Spoken discourse includes seminars; lectures; student presentations and conference
presentations. “The played by talk in the academy and its significance, in education and research
has recently begun to receive considerable research attention”(Hyland, 2009 p.3). This specific
trend of English language learning trend have been seen among non-native speakers in a much
higher rating and projected speed than in comparison to the number of native speakers (Hyland,
2006, pp. 24-31). In the field of academic life the outcomes and causes of English language at
globalization is a complex issue, which is why it can be considered that this language has
scrapped away all other academic languages and made it difficult for the non-native English
speakers to survive in this academic world fully dominated by English (Shohamy, 2018, pp. 271-
285).
The multi modal practices of communication includes, aural, textual, linguistic spatial
and visual resources or modes, which are used in order to compose messages. The specific kind

3ACADEMIC DISCOURSE: ENGLISH IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT
of literacy practices in which the native and non-native students are served with the same type of
course without even realising that the students who belong to the non-native regions can face
issues in terms of competing with the native students. This treatments of roles in academic
institutions resulted in undermining the students and occur troublr for the students who speak
English as a second language.
Contextual features, such as, highly specialised, that is by discipline in terms of
humanities, scientific and engineering and many more; sub- disciplines; shared goals in terms of
knowledge advancement and education makes the field of academic discourse different from
other discourses. As there are other fields where other languages are being used but in terms of
academic world, it is totally understand grasp of the language English. However, there is a point
that strongly highlighting the direction towards the opposite side, like the science citation index
has faces criticism for biasness towards the journals of language English and specially which are
published by United States Swales, states that the large English country journals and researches
are always under focus whereas countries like China and India who holds a strong research
tradition often gets unnoticed. More often then not the writers are facing issues regarding the
language they prefer for writing (Yao, Garcia and Collins, 2016, pp. 209-225). Another major
problem that, it is evident that in this field, English can have some extremely negative
consequences in terms of the students as they are new to this conflicting situation and it might
get harder for them to cop up with the English world and bridge domains of language English in
the classroom and use their traditional language at home in their everyday lives.
Textual features agreed ways of speaking, conventions, and writing to attain goals;
distinct that is scientific ways of organizing text; usage of focussed technical language. This

4ACADEMIC DISCOURSE: ENGLISH IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT
addresses the primary paths of academic discourse, which are often typically analysed and
studied. This consider research discourses and in-depth working on the article of research and
presentation of conference and includes small researches such as reviewing electronic journals,
scientific journals, and different such kind of books (Foley, 2016, pp. 146-153). A rapid
evolution have been traced in recent times in the area of English speaking individuals and
communities, across the world with an unparalleled growth in the amount of learners and users
of English. As per scholarly debates have surfaced there are several political factors involving
the past distinction amongst non-native and native speakers, from where English has been taken
as an intercultural and international communication, which is also termed as “lingua franca”
(Hyland, 2006, pp. 24-31).
Along with this, in the year 1999, Canagarajah, for instance, presents the difficulties and
tensions faced by the Tamil students in Sri Lankan University in an EAP class when Miller and
Flowerdew in the year 1992 catalogue the struggles experienced by the Cantonese speakers of L1
in English medium Hong Kong Universities. Similarly in the year 2004 Tardy found that post
graduate students of L2 science were frustrated with the time that they have spent on mastering a
second language in order to communicate in English (Mueller, 2018, pp. 359). The prime
objective of this approach is to therefore boost the learners by initiating them towards the path of
making meaning which are further valued in their targeted disciplines and courses, in order to
help both non native and native people to understand and develop their academic communication
capability (Chen, et al. 2016, pp. 296 ).
The emerging nature of English in this condition of globalization requires a revaluation
of an amount of major key dimensions in the field of applied linguistic English studies (Lee,

5ACADEMIC DISCOURSE: ENGLISH IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT
2018, pg. 553-568). These English users and learners in majority of the cases are those people
who are traditionally has categorised as non-native speakers. In terms of the outside world
academy, the influence and impact of academic discourse has been addressed by Hyland as a
potential issues with the supremacy of the language as the preferred one in this field. In addition,
as per Hyland’s central argument the academic discourses are seemed to be influential and
powerful at the same time, as they affects the cultural ideologies and policy making.
Majority of the time the learners lacks the understanding of the of the genres that holds
cultural capital in the field of academy and therefore it is the role of the teachers to provide the
learners the required knowledge and to commit equality in terms of distribution of this
information to assist students towards professional and academic achievement. The learners and
the academic are judged by the control of the notions of their disciplines. Also as per my
experience, the valued discourses determines educational chances regulate entry into valued
professions that restrict path through the ways of career. In other sense this knowledge of
disciplinary genre signifies the ability of their learners and users to their field. Teachers
recognize the risks that are present in this approach, prestigious areas are often linked with the
precedent and proper procedure which means that they shows an superior power and expertise.
The wider level of interest and impact of English in the academy is developed not only by
challenging the existing structures, although by learning texts in a questioning and comparative
manner, which digs the connection between the institutional contexts, disciplinary practices and
rhetorical preferences.
Hence, in conclusion academic discourse helps in unpacking the assumptions that it carry
about knowledge, connection and the way these are negotiated and structured. Although there is

6ACADEMIC DISCOURSE: ENGLISH IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT
always an emerging fear of demolishing of other native languages, however, a pragmatic
pedagogy has the potentiality of helping the learners to criticise and reflect on the manners in
which information and knowledge are constructed and organised in their disciplines. The role of
the teachers is to link these two worlds for their students, which are the English world and the
non-English world, not by distancing them from the English language but by helping them in
seeing the discourse of engagement in the academic world as a primary method of their study of
the academic discipline.

7ACADEMIC DISCOURSE: ENGLISH IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT
References:
Chen, Y. S., Rau, D. H. V., & Rau, G. (Eds.). (2016). Email Discourse Among Chinese Using
English as a Lingua Franca (pp. v+-296). Singapore: Springer.
Foley, J. A., & Deocampo, M. F. (2016). The use of English as a lingua franca in
translation. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 5(2), 146-153.
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