The pedagogical benefits of a lexical database (SciE-Lex) to assist the production of publishable biomedical texts by EAL writers

Research has demonstrated that it is challenging for English as an Additional Language (EAL) writers to acquire phraseological competence in academic English and develop a good working knowledge of discipline-specific formulaic language. This paper aims to explore if SciE-Lex, a powerful lexical database of biomedical research articles, can be exploited by EAL writers to enhance their command of formulaic language in biomedical English published writing. Our paper reports on the challenges associated with formulaic language (namely collocations) for EAL writers, it reflects on the benefits of using a lexical database and it evaluates a pedagogical approach to helping EAL writers produce publishable texts. It specifically highlights results from two writing workshops conducted for EAL writers (medical researchers in the present study). The workshops involved medical researchers working on drafts of their writing using SciE-Lex. Our paper reports on the specific benefits of using SciE-Lex as demonstrated by revisions in the writing produced by the EAL medical researchers. This contribution aims to contribute to current discussion on English for Research Publication Purposes (ERPP) for the EAL community who now form the main contributors to research knowledge dissemination.