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Using the Web as a Research Source: Implications for L2 Academic Writing
Author(s) -
STAPLETON PAUL
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
the modern language journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.486
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1540-4781
pISSN - 0026-7902
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-4781.2005.00273.x
Subject(s) - foreign language , world wide web , academic writing , computer science , web application , resource (disambiguation) , english as a foreign language , web standards , the internet , psychology , linguistics , sociology , mathematics education , philosophy , computer network
As scholars increasingly view the World Wide Web (the Web) as a legitimate research resource in academic writing, questions remain regarding how Web sources, as new media, influence the writing of second and foreign language (L2) learners. Via a 17‐item questionnaire and an analysis of the references to 243 Web sources in the essays of 43 Japanese undergraduate English as a foreign language writers, this study examined whether (a) Web‐based research influenced the writers' topic choice; (b) their choice of Web sources was appropriate for an academic essay; and (c) using an online, electronic environment would lead writers to use new language‐related strategies. The findings suggested a possible shift towards more internationally oriented topics as a result of the predominance of English language sites on the Web. In addition, a considerable portion of the participants' references came from Web genres of questionable suitability for an academic paper. In a similar vein, working in an electronic environment was an enticement for some L2 writers to take ethically dubious shortcuts in their writing.