Linguistics and Multilingual

Studies
Literature Review and in-text Documentation

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Outline of this lecture
• What is a literature Review (LR)?
• Why do we need a LR?
• Common errors made by students.
• The four steps to writing an LR.
• In-text documentation
• The references list

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What is a ‘Literature Review’?
re-view = to go through something & examine it closely
literature = information that is already available

Therefore, ‘literature review’ =

• to thoroughly examine information that is already available on the topic.
• In academic writing this means the published work by researchers in that field.
Literature reviews
Why do we need a literature review in a report or assignment?
• LRs are important in showing that you are familiar with work done in your area.
• LRs are integral in providing authoritative support for your own work & lending
credibility.
• LRs help pave the way towards your own research (creating a research
niche/revealing gaps)
• LRs are important in establishing a framework for your own research.

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The literature review
Functions:
• Continues the process started in the background of giving your readers
information needed to understand your study.
• Assures readers that you are familiar with important research that has been
carried out in your area
• Establishes your study as one link in a chain of research that is contributing to
knowledge in your area

The LR is an organized collection of “references” or “citations”, not simply your

opinion or views.

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Writing your LR

1 2 3 4
Step 1: Find Step 2: Organize Step 3: Read & take Step 4: Write the LR
relevant readings. your readings notes. and add your own
according to time, views about the
themes/topics, ideas presented by
importance. others (critical
review).

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Steps 1 & 2: Finding & Organizing Readings

Finding information- Organizing information-

library search filter sources

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Step 3: Taking notes & recording source of
information
Use quotes sparingly and only when absolutely necessary.
• The idea expressed by an author is more important and not the way it is stated.
• Therefore, information is usually paraphrased or summarised and then cited as
part of your text.
Quotes are used when you really cannot find a way to properly paraphrase or
summarise something or when you think the wording in the original text is really
worth preserving.

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Step 3: Taking notes & recording source of
information
• When referring to other people’s work you need to document that the work
belongs to someone else.
• You should give due credit to the original author(s).

This is how you avoid plagiarism.

Remember; including other people’s work within your own work without giving
credit to the original author(s) is similar to stealing!

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Step 3: Taking notes & recording source of
information
When you take notes and you begin writing, you can either paraphrase or
summarize the information.

Paraphrase
Paraphrase involves reading a piece of work, understanding the main idea and
rephrasing it into own words.

Summarize
A summary of a text is when you reduce the length of the original text, in addition
to stating the information in your own words.

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Plagiarism
Copying is a form plagiarism, and it is a serious offence.

• The most important point to note when you are taking notes or begin writing is to
avoid copying wholesale!

• A common misconception:
• Copying and pasting as long as you cited that work correctly.
• NO! This becomes a form of quoting the author and, as. stated earlier, you cannot
do this too many times.

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Plagiarism
Another common misconception among students:

Copying and pasting from any of your previous assignments is ok if it is not too
much.

• This is not allowed!

• You need to do this sparingly and you still need to paraphrase and cite that work
correctly.

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LR Structure

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Step 4: Writing your LR - Organization of the
Literature Review
1. Overview - General info.; Link to Objective(s);
Background -
Introduction

Claim(s)

2. Review Support/Evidence -
Summary or paraphrasing of other
people’s work

Your Comment(s)

3. Concluding Your Aims / hypotheses / Research Qs

Section

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1. Overview - Background - Introduction
What is an Overview (Or Background – Introduction)?

A general statement/statement of fact leading to the rest of your discussion in this

section of your report. This will give the reader an idea of the kind of works that
will be discussed in the report/article.

Start wide and then focus on the topic of your report

This section can be one paragraph or as long as a few pages.

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1. Overview - Background - Introduction
The background contains the social, theoretical and historical aspects of the topic,
and the motivation(s) of the study

• When you provide the theory, do not produce a lengthy description that can
easily be read in textbooks. Be concise.
• When you provide the history of a problem or the history of a feature of the
current concept, do not start hundreds of years back in time. Trace the history in
terms of decades, not centuries.

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1. Overview - Background – Introduction
An example
Title: Multilingualism and multiculturalism in Singapore
Introduction
The multicultural, multi-religious, and multilingual make-up of
Singaporean society forms a fertile ground for extensive research in this
field. The interactions amongst the various languages and vernaculars
present in Singapore make for a very dynamic community where the
processes of change in language practice for the different groups in its
community are rapid, profound, disparate, and interconnected at the
same time. This report presents an up-to-date linguistic account of
modern Singapore and documents the dramatic changes in the
linguistic landscape, while assessing their impact on the three major
ethnic groups, the Malays, Indians, and Chinese.
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Criticisms of • Introduce the topic properly.
student’s • Don’t focus immediately on the topic.
Introductio • Link the intro to hypotheses or research
questions.
n sections

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2. Review: Claims
What has been done before in this area ?

You need to make some claims about the research scene right now in your area of
study.

e.g. While language shift has been the focus of many studies world-wide, it
has received little attention in Singapore.

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2. Review: Claims
What has been done before in this area ?

You need to support your claims with relevant research done in this particular area
of study.
You also need to evaluate and present your own views about the works you are
referring to.

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2. Review: Support and evidence
The review part can be organized in many ways. Here are some tips:

• Divide the review into sections

• Find a focus for each section and
• Construct a working thesis statement.

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2. Review: Support and evidence
In each section:
• What themes or issues connect your sources together?
• Do your sources present one or different solutions or opinions?
• How well do your sources present the material?
• Do your sources reveal a trend in the field?
• Is there a debate on this topic?
• Did you find a gap?
Warning:
• Do not just list your sources and go into detail about each of them one at a time.

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2. Review
• Consider organization
• Most distantly related to most closely related – sort the information from the
less related ones to the most related ones.
• Chronological – sort the sources in order of year (or importance).
• Thematic – sort the material in themes or topics covered.
• Methodological– make a comparison of works according to different
methodologies, techniques or issues.

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2. Review
• Be selective: Select only the most important points in each source to highlight in
the literature review.

• Use citations to highlight what you want to focus on.

• Information prominent
• Author prominent

[You’ll find out more on this later in this presentation]

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2. Review: Presenting your own views
• This is a major weakness in student work.
• You must learn to express what you think about the work that you have
read/used. For example,

The methodology used by Wong et. al. (1999) was not well documented and
this renders some uncertainty in the interpretation of the results reported.

The main drawback of this methodology seems to be the lack of well-defined

criteria for measuring the language proficiency of the participants.

The author(s) generalized to the whole society – sample size too small, did not
account for …, too few social variables, etc.
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3. Concluding Section
• What is missing from the previous research?
• What is good about the previous research that you want to replicate?
• What does your study plan to achieve ?

• In the conclusion of the literature review, point to the gap (if any) in the research done
that needs to be addressed.
• Refer to what your study is going to investigate.
• This conclusion signals the end of the Literature Review.
• Include a section with Your Aims / hypotheses / Research Qs

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Criticisms of student’s LRs
• Use recent literature.
• Critically assess existing literature.
• Link the LR to hypotheses or research questions.
• Make sure you interpret the readings (literature) correctly, especially when you
don’t read the whole article.
• Cite enough references.
• Do not leave out important sections of the LR.

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Citing and Referencing

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In-text documentation
• There are a few conventions to do this within the text, but we suggest you use
the APA:
• Author-Date

• When writing your LR, you will make reference to other people’s work to support
your own claims. You can choose to emphasise either the information
(information prominent) or the author (author prominent).
• In the Author/Date system, the author’s surname and the year of publication are
clearly stated. When you obtain information from a specific page or pages, the
page number(s) is/are also inserted after the year. The original meaning/idea
must remain unchanged.

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When you emphasize the INFORMATION

The last fifty years or so have seen a rapid growth in the study of LM and LS and more
specifically, of the factors associated with shift or maintenance. The literature points to a
number of clear-cut factors for or against LM and some that are ambivalent. That is, they
can either lead to LS or support LM according to the circumstances of the group in
question (see Kloss, 1966; Clyne, 1982, 1991, 2003; Fishman, 1991; see also Cavallaro, in
press for a summary; and Giles, Bourhis, & Taylor, 1977 on ‘Ethnolinguistic Vitality’). Some
of the most important ambivalent factors are the numerical strength of a minority group in
relation to the majority, the status of the language in a given society, generation and the
institutional support. Tollefson (1991; and see discussion in Kamwangamalu, 2006)
suggests that the older generation’s decision to pass down a language to subsequent
generations depends, in particular, on the socio-political status of the language and the
government’s policies and community support. However, Kamwangamalu (2006) relates
the South African experience as a counterexample.

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When you emphasize the AUTHOR

The last fifty years or so have seen a rapid growth in the study of LM and LS and more
specifically, of the factors associated with shift or maintenance. The literature points to a
number of clear-cut factors for or against LM and some that are ambivalent. That is, they
can either lead to LS or support LM according to the circumstances of the group in
question (see Kloss, 1966; Clyne, 1982, 1991, 2003; Fishman, 1991; see also Cavallaro, in
press for a summary; and Giles, Bourhis, & Taylor, 1977 on ‘Ethnolinguistic Vitality’). Some
of the most important ambivalent factors are the numerical strength of a minority group in
relation to the majority, the status of the language in a given society, generation and the
institutional support. Tollefson (1991; and see discussion in Kamwangamalu, 2006)
suggests that the older generation’s decision to pass down a language to subsequent
generations depends, in particular, on the socio-political status of the language and the
government’s policies and community support. However, Kamwangamalu (2006) relates
the South African experience as a counterexample.

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The Author-Date system for in-text documentation: Direct quote

if you feel the actual words by the author(s) are essential in developing an idea,
illustrating a point, or expressing the original point-of-view better,
Using the Author-Date system:
Similarly, Bokhorst-Heng (1998) views English proficiency as a prerequisite to perform well
academically and professionally in Singapore. As she pointed out, mastery of English “is directly
associated with social mobility and socioeconomic status” (p. 300).

Do NOT forget the page number!

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The Author-Date system for in-text documentation : Direct quote

Novak (1971) posited that this is because:

[Ethnic memory] is not a set of events remembered, but
rather a set of instincts, feelings, intimacies, expectations,
patterns of emotion and behavior; a sense of reality; a set of
stories for individuals—and for the peoples as a whole—to
live out. (p. 56)
Other researchers have posited that this is because:
[Ethnic memory] is not a set of events remembered, but
rather a set of instincts, feelings, intimacies, expectations,
patterns of emotion and behavior; a sense of reality; a set of
stories for individuals—and for the peoples as a whole—to
live out. (Novak, 1971 p. 56)

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Recording source of information: End-of-text reference list

• Once you have completed writing your report, you need to include a list of references at the end
of the report.
• This list will give the complete details about the references you have used in your whole report.
There are many ways to write this list and a general guideline for writing a reference list is that
some or all of the following elements should be present:

• Authors’ names in full – Family name first

• Year of publication
• Title of journal article
• Title of book/name of journal in italics
• Place of publication/Publisher
• Volume number/pages
• If it is a chapter in a book: you must include the editors’ names and page numbers

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Reference List Using the APA (American Psychological Association) Convention

• Alphabetize the list of works cited by the first word in each entry
(author's last name or name of organization),
• Make the first line of each entry in your list flush left with the margin.
Subsequent lines in each entry should be indented about three
centimeters.
• You should select italics for the title; be consistent throughout your
list.

Note: No numbering! And where do you place the date?

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Sample references
Abdullah, Kamsiah and Bibi Jan Ayyub (1998). Malay language issues and trends. In S. Gopinathan, Anne Pakir,
Ho Wah Kam and Vanithamani Saravanan (Eds.), Language, society and education in Singapore (pp. 179-
190). Singapore: Federal Publications.
Alsagoff, Lubna (2008). The commodification of Malay: Trading in futures. In Peter K.W. Tan and Rani Rubdy
(Eds.), Language as commodity: Global structures, local marketplaces (pp. 44-56). London, UK: Continuum.
Aye, Daw Khin Khin (2005). Bazaar Malay: History, grammar and contact. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation,
National University of Singapore.
Baetens Beardsmore, Hugo (1993). An overview of European models of bilingual education. Language, Culture
and Curriculum 6(3), 197-208.
Bokhorst-Heng, Wendy 1(998). Language planning and management in Singapore. In Joseph A. Foley, Thiru
Kandiah, Lionel Wee, Bao Zhiming and Anthea Fraster-Gupta (Eds.), English in new cultural contexts:
Reflections from Singapore (pp. 287-309). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Bourdieu, Pierre (1991). Language and symbolic power. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

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Sample references
Cameron, Deborah and Kulick, Don (2003). Language and sexuality. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press
Cavallaro, Francesco (2005). Language maintenance revisited: An Australian perspective. Bilingual Research
Journal 29(3), 509-530.
Clyne, Michael (2005). Australia's language potential. Sydney, Australia: University of New South Wales Press.
David, Maya Khemlani, Cavallaro, Francesco and Paolo Coluzzi (2009). Language policies – impact on language
maintenance and teaching: focus on Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and the Philippines. In Cavallaro, Francesco,
Milde, Andrea and Peter Sercombe (eds.) Language, culture and identify in Asia. A special edition of The
Linguistics Journal (pp. 155-191). September 2009.
Department of Statistics (2001a). Census of Population 2000 Statistical release 2: Education, language and
religion. Singapore: Department of Statistics, Ministry of Trade and Industry.
Department of Statistics (2001b). Census of Population 2000 Statistical release 5: Households and housing.
Singapore: Department of Statistics, Ministry of Trade and Industry

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 Use EndNote!!
It’s free from the NTU library!

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Summary of lesson
A Literature Review is an important section in your
study/research/report.
It should answer the following questions :

1. What is this section about ?

2. What has been done before in this area ?
3. What is missing from the previous research ?
4. What does this research plan to achieve ?

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Student Examples
Identify the problem(s)

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Interpreting the readings incorrectly

Spolsky identified in his study the importance of other domains beside

state level, and the important domain identified was the home domain.
In a domain such as home, the participants differ from the state domain
and interlocutors from multiple generations interact.

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Title: LS in the Cantonese Community in Singapore
The next article also touched on similar topic but instead of the Cantonese
community, the paper presented language shift in the Teochew Chinese community
in Singapore. Published in 1997, the study looked into the relationships between the
process of society changing, language policies, language attitude and language
use. The Teochew community is the second largest sub-group within the Chinese
community in Singapore. This article aimed to examine the changes in the language
behaviour of different generations of speakers within the Teochew community here
and demonstrate how these changes are linked to the socio-cultural changes
happening then.

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Title: Perceptions of patronising communication among Singaporean youth
When people adopt an advisement mode, “the speaker attempts to impose his or
her experience on the other by guiding the other’s behaviour” (Stilles, 1978, p. 696).
Advisement is expressed through the use of imperatives (‘Go to sleep’), or
expressions indicating permission, prohibition or obligation in second person (“You
must take your medicine”). The use of imperatives was similarly observed in
Sachweh’s (1998) study at a German nursing home. According to Sachweh, this
form of speech puts the older recipient in a state of helplessness while placing the
speaker in a position of power over the former. Ryan et al.’s (1986) use the term
“over-accommodation” interchangeably to include a more directive style and a
nurturing style. However, Giles et al. (1991) point out that controlling styles such as
those described in Caporael and Culbertson (1986) and Sachweh (1998) may be
more suitably considered as under-accommodative, rather than over-
accommodative. Hence the term ‘over-accommodation’ may not be accurate.

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Title: Gender as a variable in LMLS
Although the variable/factor gender does not show consistent trends in
terms of language uses as compared to other factors such as the factor
of age, as talked about above, there were some trends that were
discovered amongst research. It was noticed from some large scale
surveys that women had a higher usage of heritage language in
migrant settings. Though that pattern is not applicable for every
migrant / immigrant community, it still provides certain insights /
reflection of their language uses/choices.

[The paragraph continued for another 250 words in the same way]

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Title: The /ɹ/ and /l/ as social variables in SgE
There has been an increase in studies focusing on the pronunciation of
SgE. These papers have researched how different demographic groups
in Singapore pronounce English (Deterding, 2007; Poedjosoedarmo,
2000). Scholars have also investigated the general or specific features
in SgE such as the vowels, the /ɹ/ consonant and the /l/ consonant
(Brown & Deterding, 2005; Deterding, 2007; Hashim & Brown, 2000;
Tan, 2005; Tan, 2012; Wee, 2008).

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• Rubdy and McKay (2013) in their study on how migrant construction
workers and foreign domestic workers use language in Singapore to
negotiate identity, and McKay (2013) investigating language attitudes
in the context of MCWs localising themselves in Singapore, both
adopted semi-structured interviews with evidence drawn directly from
the interview dialogues.

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• Past research articles and commentaries about being a true
Singaporean have concluded that what constitutes a true
Singaporean still remains elusive and inconclusive.

• The budding confidence and pride with which many English speaking
Singaporeans are donning when they use SCE is undeniable and
definitely contributes to shaping the nation’s identity.

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In 1987, all of the Malay-medium schools, as well as the Chinese and Tamil-medium
schools were closed down due to the insufficient students that were enrolled every
year (Tan, 2007).

Moreover, when vernacular schools were shut down in 1987, the National System
of Education was implemented by the Ministry of education to teach a standardised
form education to students (Mohamed, 2005).

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Bokhorst-Heng, W., & Silver, R. E., (2017) first introduced the linguistic
landscape in Singapore and how the profiles have changed over time
with reference to the Speak Mandarin Campaign, the keystone of
continuing government efforts to influence the habitus within the
linguistic field. The shift from a majority to “minority languages” in
Singapore’s context back in the 1960s through a process of hegemonic
multilingualism. However, language management does not occur
exclusively at the state level.

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In her paper, Tan (2017) illustrates that “Singlish is not a variety of
Malay, Hokkien, English or any other single language in the
(Singaporeans language) ecology.” (pg.99) Thus, this paper argues that
the above property of Singlish enables it to be a homogenizing agent
without greatly discriminating or disadvantaging any social group,
noting that Singlish may very well be an unrecognized, falsely
stigmatized and falsely regulated shared national language that can
provide a basic foundation to build a Singaporean national identity.

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