Congratulations Dr. Jadoulle!

Pauline Jadoulle defended her PhD dissertation on Tuesday 11 June 2024!

Her thesis entitled 'Investigating noviceness and non-nativeness in academic writing: A cross-linguistic approach to stance' was supervised by Magali Paquot (UCLouvain).

Other members of the jury included Prof. Dr. Anne Catherine SIMON (UCLouvain), Prof. Dr. Sylviane GRANGER (UCLouvain), Prof. Dr. Ute RÖMER (Georgia State University), and Prof. Dr. María Luisa CARRIÓ PASTOR (Universitat Politècnica de València).

Abstract:

The overarching aim of the thesis is to tease apart stance features of noviceness vs non‐nativeness in academic writing via the study of metadiscursive markers like interestingly, bien sûr (‘of course’), and important/hypothesis/think + complement clause. It starts from the premise that, since academic writing is no one’s mother tongue, native and non‐native novices might share common characteristics. The thesis is divided into three main parts. The first part examines L1 French and L1 English novice writing by comparing them to their respective expert counterparts, so as to determine to what extent stance features are shared across L1 novice groups writing in different languages. It then focuses on L2 English novice writing by comparing the latter to L1 English novice writing and English expert writing on the one hand, and L1 French novice writing on the other hand. The aim in this part is to better disentangle the stance features related to L2 novices’ status as non‐native writers, the stance features shared across novice groups regardless of their language of production or L1/L2 status, and the stance features associated to specific university/cultural contexts (e.g. French‐speaking university settings). The last part of the thesis focuses on the relationship between stance use in L1 and L2 writing by the same French‐speaking student writers. This part aims to study the extent to which novice writers’ use of stance is similar in their L1 vs. in their L2, thereby highlighting possible instances of cross‐linguistic influence. It also reveals interesting findings on individual variation.