Reporting Verbs Used in In-Text Citations of EFL Undergraduate Students’ Theses: Focus on Surface Forms, Tenses, and Writer Stances

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Published: Jan 31, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.70730/TFBM1597
Keywords:
citation form, corpus study, in-text citation, reporting verb, writer stance

Main Article Content

Titik Rahayu
Department of English, Faculty of Letters Universitas Negeri Malang, Indonesia
Yuni Astuti
Department of English, Faculty of Letters Universitas Negeri Malang, Indonesia
Zakiyah
Department of English, Faculty of Letters Universitas Negeri Malang, Indonesia
Bambang Yudi Cahyono
Department of English, Faculty of Letters, Universitas Negeri Malang, Indonesia

Abstract

As an important practice for researchers, citing sources is a challenging task for undergraduate students as they deal with the types of citation forms, the variety of reporting verbs and their tenses, and the writer stances through reporting verbs. Therefore, the current research is aimed at investigating the surface forms, reporting verb tenses, and writer stances from the uses of reporting verbs. In total, the data sources included 30 theses written by undergraduate students of the English and Literature Program in one of the Indonesian state universities. The theses were taken randomly from the year of 2020 till 2022 by considering the data availability and accessibility. All sections of the thesis were analyzed by utilizing AntConc. The results indicated that an integral citation was preferable and most reporting verbs were shown in the present tense. In accordance with the reporting verbs, the students tended to endorse a source by using the words “state,” “mention,” and “explain” in the present tense. These results are different from those commonly shown by experts in their in-text citations. This implies that it is necessary to teach or advise undergraduate students to use various reporting verbs, tenses, and writer stances in in-text citation practices.

Article Details

How to Cite
Rahayu, T., Astuti, Y., Zakiyah, & Cahyono, B. Y. (2025). Reporting Verbs Used in In-Text Citations of EFL Undergraduate Students’ Theses: Focus on Surface Forms, Tenses, and Writer Stances. LEARN Journal: Language Education and Acquisition Research Network, 18(1), 135–157. https://doi.org/10.70730/TFBM1597
Issue
Vol. 18 No. 1 (2025): LEARN Journal (January - June)
Section
Research Articles
Author Biographies

Titik Rahayu, Department of English, Faculty of Letters Universitas Negeri Malang, Indonesia

A faculty member of Politeknik Negeri Madiun, East Java, Indonesia. Currently, she is pursuing a doctoral degree in English Language Education Program of Universitas Negeri Malang, East Java, Indonesia. Her research interest includes Second Language Writing and Discourse Analysis

Yuni Astuti, Department of English, Faculty of Letters Universitas Negeri Malang, Indonesia

A faculty member of Universitas Brawijaya, East Java, Indonesia. She is currently a PhD student at Universitas Negeri Malang. She is interested in Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics.

Zakiyah, Department of English, Faculty of Letters Universitas Negeri Malang, Indonesia

A doctoral student of English Education at Universitas Negeri Malang, East Java, Indonesia. Her research interests are Language Testing and Discourse Analysis.

Bambang Yudi Cahyono, Department of English, Faculty of Letters, Universitas Negeri Malang, Indonesia

A Professor in Applied Linguistics at Universitas Negeri Malang, East Java, Indonesia. He earned his M.A. from Concordia University, Montreal, Canada and Ph.D. from the University of Melbourne, Australia. His research interest includes Second Language Writing, English Teacher Professional Development, and ICT in ELT.

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