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Formality in the Academic Writing of Thai EFL English-Major Students

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Title: Formality in the Academic Writing of Thai EFL English-Major Students
Language: English
Authors: Pong-ampai Kongcharoen, Jiraporn Dhanarattigannon, Intira Bumrungsalee
Source: rEFLections. 2025 32(1):395-414.
Availability: King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi School of Liberal Arts. 126 Pracha Uthit Road, Bang Mod, Thung Khru, Bangkok, Thailand 10140. Tel: +66-2470-8756; Fax: +66-2428-3375; Web site: https://so05.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/reflections/index
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 20
Publication Date: 2025
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education
Postsecondary Education
Descriptors: Academic Language, Essays, Majors (Students), English (Second Language), Second Language Learning, Second Language Instruction, Computational Linguistics, Writing Assignments, Grammar, Speech Acts, Foreign Countries, Computer Software, Undergraduate Students, Language Styles, Word Frequency, Scores, Writing (Composition), Teaching Methods, Writing Evaluation, Writing Instruction
Geographic Terms: Thailand
ISSN: 1513-5934
2651-1479
Abstract: In recent years, there has been a growing trend of using informal styles in academic writing, including research articles. To examine the degree of formality in students' writing, this corpus-based study aimed to analyze the formal linguistic features in the academic writing assignments of English-major students at a Thai university. The learner corpus consisted of 552 assignments, totaling 190,506 words, and was organized into five different writing patterns. TagAnt was used to identify the part of speech for each word, while the Google Colab program was utilized for frequency counting. To assess the level of formality of the corpus, the F-score method proposed by Heylighen and Dewaele (1999) was applied. The results revealed that nouns were the most frequently used formal linguistic feature in student's essays. Despite this, the formality score of the learner corpus ranged from 51 to 53 across five years, indicating a relatively low level of formality. This score suggests that the students' writing was only slightly more formal, signaling the need for further development in grammatical complexity to achieve higher formality in their work. The results highlight the ongoing need for EFL teachers to instruct learners on formal linguistic features in academic writing.
Abstractor: As Provided
Entry Date: 2025
Accession Number: EJ1470935
Database: ERIC
FullText Text:
  Availability: 0
CustomLinks:
  – Url: https://eric.ed.gov/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=EJ1470935
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  Data: Formality in the Academic Writing of Thai EFL English-Major Students
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Pong-ampai+Kongcharoen%22">Pong-ampai Kongcharoen</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Jiraporn+Dhanarattigannon%22">Jiraporn Dhanarattigannon</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Intira+Bumrungsalee%22">Intira Bumrungsalee</searchLink>
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  Data: King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi School of Liberal Arts. 126 Pracha Uthit Road, Bang Mod, Thung Khru, Bangkok, Thailand 10140. Tel: +66-2470-8756; Fax: +66-2428-3375; Web site: https://so05.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/reflections/index
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  Data: 20
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  Label: Geographic Terms
  Group: Su
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Thailand%22">Thailand</searchLink>
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  Data: 1513-5934<br />2651-1479
– Name: Abstract
  Label: Abstract
  Group: Ab
  Data: In recent years, there has been a growing trend of using informal styles in academic writing, including research articles. To examine the degree of formality in students' writing, this corpus-based study aimed to analyze the formal linguistic features in the academic writing assignments of English-major students at a Thai university. The learner corpus consisted of 552 assignments, totaling 190,506 words, and was organized into five different writing patterns. TagAnt was used to identify the part of speech for each word, while the Google Colab program was utilized for frequency counting. To assess the level of formality of the corpus, the F-score method proposed by Heylighen and Dewaele (1999) was applied. The results revealed that nouns were the most frequently used formal linguistic feature in student's essays. Despite this, the formality score of the learner corpus ranged from 51 to 53 across five years, indicating a relatively low level of formality. This score suggests that the students' writing was only slightly more formal, signaling the need for further development in grammatical complexity to achieve higher formality in their work. The results highlight the ongoing need for EFL teachers to instruct learners on formal linguistic features in academic writing.
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  Data: 2025
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  Data: EJ1470935
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    Languages:
      – Text: English
    PhysicalDescription:
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        PageCount: 20
        StartPage: 395
    Subjects:
      – SubjectFull: Academic Language
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Essays
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Majors (Students)
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: English (Second Language)
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Second Language Learning
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Second Language Instruction
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      – SubjectFull: Computational Linguistics
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Writing Assignments
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Grammar
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Speech Acts
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Foreign Countries
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Computer Software
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Undergraduate Students
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Language Styles
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Word Frequency
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Scores
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Writing (Composition)
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Teaching Methods
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Writing Evaluation
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Writing Instruction
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Thailand
        Type: general
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      – TitleFull: Formality in the Academic Writing of Thai EFL English-Major Students
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              Type: published
              Y: 2025
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