A corpus-based study in comparing the use of shell nouns between Arabic L1 student writing and English L1 student writing in the BAWE corpus

Abstract

Many abstract nouns in English have an important function in their sentences, yet lack meaning when taken out of the context. The term ‘shell nouns’ refers to abstract nouns that have specific cohesive properties. Their meanings are derived from context within the clause or across clauses. It has often been noted that non-native speakers’ writing, even at an advanced level, is different from that of native English speakers. The reason for this could be due to the impact of the first language on the use of the second language. This research project is a corpus-based research interested in looking at the use of shell nouns in students' academic writings. In particular as an Arabic L1 researcher, I am interested in investigating whether there are differences between Arabic L1 students' writings and English L1 students' writings. To discover this, this project studies both groups’ contributions in the BAWE corpus by using sketch engine as a tool for analyzing the data. Seven of Hinkel's (2004) shell noun list appeared most frequently in the Arabic L1 writer corpora, and both qualitative and quantitative analysis methods have been conducted on the concordancing technique to reach the study's aim. The study has found that writer disciplines and assignment topics, shell nouns’ meanings and use, as well as the writer’s first language and the implicit and explicit writing strategies might affect writers' choices regarding the use of specific patterns or shell nouns. In addition, some shell nouns seem to function in an anaphoric way, others seem to combine between anaphoric and cataphoric functions. However, there are some shell nouns that function in the context in both ways.