Exploring English for Research Publication and Grant Writing Purposes

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships 2016:
This project examines the increasingly urgent problem that is the barrier for non-native English academics to publish their research in English and write successful research grant proposals in English. In our increasingly globalised academic communities and the growth of English as the “academic lingua franca” (representing more than 95% of academic publications), led in large part by developments in Europe, finding solutions for non-native academics to participate actively in these communities is of utmost importance. As the most significant language in the academy is English, non-native academics, regardless of their plurilingual or translingual proficiencies, are disadvantaged, as their work may be judged on linguistic, rather than scientific merit. In contrast, native English speaking academics enjoy what has been referred to as a ‘free ride’. The methods of the proposed study are comprised of 1) a preliminary systematic textual discourse analysis of the “guide for authors” from 270 leading journals, and 20 funding bodies to survey current grant and journal language guidelines and to document the current context within which researchers work; 2) multiple case studies (n=12) of non-native English scholars in various stages of the process of publishing their research and writing research grant proposals; and 3) written discourse analysis of academic papers and grant proposals, with on-going stimulated recall interviews to explore L2 scholars’ choices in writing. If this research is not done, there is potential for the further disadvantaging of the growing number of non-native English speaking scholars. This study therefore is of direct relevance to EU policy as it regards the pressures of a loss of multilingualism in academic publishing for scholars in the EU.