Download Full PDF

Anna Poghosyan

Eliza Safaryan

Irshat Madyarov

American University of Armenia, Armenia

 

Abstract

In higher education, where written assignments often serve as the cornerstone of the learning experience and assessment, academic writing skills emerge as a critical aspect of student success. This study explores the progress of freshman students at an Englishmedium university in Armenia, examining how their academic writing develops during their first year of study. This research employs a corpus-based analysis of 590 pre- and post-year essays to track trends in the use of academic vocabulary, discourse markers, and reporting verbs. The findings reveal a statistically significant increase in the use of academic vocabulary, indicating students’ growing familiarity with academic lexis. No significant changes were observed in the use of discourse markers. However, reporting verbs in the argue and show categories have increased in frequency, while think verbs have declined, suggesting a shift from subjective toward more objective and evidencebased writing. These trends provide insights into the developmental potential of academic writing among first-year students in English-medium universities in nonEnglish speaking countries and highlight areas that could be further examined to understand the specific challenges students face in academic writing.

 

Keywords

Academic writing, corpus-based approach, discourse markers, reporting verbs, academic vocabulary