The article titled “EFL writers’ social networks: Impact on advanced academic literacy development” by Orna Ferenz, a lecturer at the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Unit of Bar-Ilan University in Israel, is published through 4th volume of Journal of English for Academic Purposes in 2005. The article studied the role of writers’ social network in academic literacy acquisition for non-native English speakers in an EFL setting. It contains much valuable information and comprehensive discussion despite several issues found throughout the paper that will be disclosed below.
In her research, Ferenz stated that the study aimed to identify the type of relationships that EFL students made with their social network and its effect on the acquisition and development of a second language (L2) higher academic literacy. Ferenz argued that the role of the social environment is crucial because it will affect the academic literacy acquisition process, which will be required in producing high-quality academic writings.
Ferenz started the article in a clear and comprehensible way; the abstract included vital information, and the introduction was concise yet helpful in determining the direction of the paper. However, the conciseness left room for a sudden emergence of a yet unexplained important concept later in the article. The role of the students’ identity and goals in developing the social network and advanced academic literacy was not proposed until the theoretical background though it was included as an observed variable. When they were hypothesized to be an essential predisposition to two variables of the study, it would be better for them to be introduced earlier.
Although it is not explicitly stated in the report, Ferenz implied using a phenomenology method. She collected the data from the interviews with six EFL students about their thoughts on their academic literacy practices and post-interview questionnaires. The result is grouped into categories that are identical to the key points of the research: academic environment, social environment, identity and goals, and academic literary practices. Ferenz then concluded that the identity and goals of the participants affected their social network, which then made an impact on the process of acquiring L2 advanced academic literacy.
The methodology part explained the rationale behind the decision of using interviews to measure the variables while involving only such a small sample size. It also laid out the entire steps of data collection. It would enable replication of this research in other settings if only more detailed information of the research instruments (interview questions and questionnaires) were disclosed. It would also be helpful to explain a theoretical background behind the data categorization. Thus, when any additional information emerged in the interviews that did not go into any of the established categories, it could become valuable insights and findings for further research.
Regarding the technical aspects, the article is appropriately arranged and it provides sufficient facts that supported the final discussion. However, ironically, the theoretical background part has plenty of weak claims due to the reoccurring word “may” and “often”. Some sentences also have excessive and cluttered sources; the first sentence of the second paragraph in the theoretical background has 14 sources in total. While sources are useful in supporting facts, the author should consider using one comprehensive source rather than multiple sources whose concepts may or may not be aligned.
In this article, more information needs to be adequately disclosed, like the topic of social and self-identity of the students—that was not prominent at first despite their huge role in the research—and the instruments to ensure the replicability of the research. Despite several concerns in the technical aspect, the article had an informative result discussion and a definitive purpose that offer insights for practitioners in understanding L2 advanced academic literacy, which might help them guiding their EFL students better.
Works Cited
Ferenz, Orna. “EFL Writers’ Social Networks: Impact On Advanced Academic Literacy Development”. Journal Of English For Academic Purposes, vol 4, no. 4, 2005, pp. 339-351. Elsevier BV, doi:10.1016/j.jeap.2005.07.002. Accessed 18 Apr 2020.
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