Papers by Millaray Salas
This paper reports the preliminary results of the first phase of an ongoing educational intervent... more This paper reports the preliminary results of the first phase of an ongoing educational intervention conducted with students enrolled in an ELT education program at PUCV. As an EFL teacher with fossilized errors cannot be an effective language model for students, the study set out to explore the feasibility and effectiveness of a recording and self-transcription task (Lynch, 2001, 2007; Mennim, 2003, 2012) as a route to noticing the gap and defossilization. Students (N=20) transcribed the oral texts they produced during the speaking section of the diagnostic test for English 5. The tasks were: (1) transcribing three minutes of their speaking time, (2) highlighting all the errors they identified in their own speech (3) coding them (e.g. grammatical, lexical, phonological) and (4) sending the annotated transcript to the instructor by email. Drawing on the theory of questionnaire design and processing (Dörnyei, 2003), a survey was designed and posted online (GoogleForm) and emailed to ...
Boletin De Linguistica, 2011
El estudio de los géneros escritos en el ámbito de la historia ha recibido poca atención. Algunas... more El estudio de los géneros escritos en el ámbito de la historia ha recibido poca atención. Algunas investigaciones sobre el ensayo histórico han revelado que este es un género que presenta desafíos a la hora de ser definido, incluso por los propios historiadores puesto que en él se entretejen varias modalidades discursivas, situación que genera cierta ambigüedad a la hora de identificar sus características. Nuestra investigación tiene un alcance exploratorio-descriptivo y se emplea la Teoría Fundada (Glaser y Strauss 1967) para identificar algunas representaciones sociales que diversos académicos de una universidad chilena tienen acerca de la definición, propósito y organización discursiva del ensayo.
Revista signos, 2015
A partir del modelo reflexivo de metadiscurso (Ädel, 2006), el presente estudio propone una taxon... more A partir del modelo reflexivo de metadiscurso (Ädel, 2006), el presente estudio propone una taxonomía de tres tipos de marcadores metadiscursivos que emergen de un estudio de corpus en el que se analizó manualmente 238 artículos de investigación científica (AICs) provenientes de tres disciplinas (Medicina, Economía y Lingüística). El primer tipo de metadiscurso corresponde al metadiscurso personal (MP), que queda conformado por aquellas expresiones lingüísticas en las que se hace mención explícita de los participantes del acto comunicativo, a saber, escritor, lector, o ambos. En el segundo tipo, el metadiscurso impersonal (MI), los participantes se mencionan de forma oblicua, utilizando estrategias de desagentivación y despersonalización. Por último, el metatexto (MT) corresponde a aquellas expresiones lingüísticas empleadas en forma reflexiva para referirse al propio texto mientras éste se despliega. En el MP, se identificaron tres categorías funcionales (auto-menciones, marcadores relacionales y referencia a los participantes), en el MI dos (auto-menciones impersonales y directivos impersonales) y en el MT tres (referencias al código, marcadores endofóricos y reformuladores explicativos). Uno de los aspectos más relevantes de esta taxonomía es que introduce tres categorías de marcadores metadiscursivos con realizaciones a nivel léxico-gramatical que son propias del sistema de la lengua española. El artículo discute algunas implicancias pedagógicas y aplicaciones de la taxonomía propuesta para los estudios basados en corpus.
Text & Talk, 2018
In the last seven years, several corporate scandals have shaken public confidence in Chilean corp... more In the last seven years, several corporate scandals have shaken public confidence in Chilean corporations. Considering this scenario and the fact that business ethics is an under-researched area in Chile, this study set out to examine one corporate genre, namely, codes of ethics. The codes of ethics from eight Chilean companies were analyzed. This sample offers both typicality and systematic variety as the eight texts have been produced by large-sized companies, five of which have been involved in media scandals. Each sentence was analyzed in order to determine what function it serves. The functions that exhibit the highest occurrence frequency in the corpus are educational (35.8% of sentences) and regulatory (33.9%). The other functions which emerge from the data are self-promotional (8.8%), inspirational (8.5%), commissive (7.8%), and aspirational (4.9%). The predominance of educational and regulatory functions evidences a deontological, compliance-based approach, while the striki...
Colombian Applied Linguistics Journal, 2015
How to cite Complete issue More information about this article Journal's homepage in redalyc.org ... more How to cite Complete issue More information about this article Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Scientific Information System Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative
Discourse & Communication, 2013
This study examines the construction of a positive corporate image in public statements issued by... more This study examines the construction of a positive corporate image in public statements issued by 12 Chilean companies facing a crisis in the period January 2008 to July 2010. Drawing on repair image theory (Benoit, 1997), narrative theory (Labov and Waletsky, 1967), and argumentation theory (Aristotle), this article aims to investigate which discursive strategies and which linguistic structures have been instrumental in this construction. Three analytical categories were investigated in this study, namely, image repair strategies, construction of ethos, and narratives. In each of these categories, special attention is paid to lexico-grammatical features (e.g. active voice/passive voice, grammatical metaphor, etc.) and socio-pragmatic strategies (e.g. redundancy). The analysis shows that the core image repair strategy is denial, which is accomplished through a highly rhetorical language. It also demonstrates how the public statements create a secondary narrative of the companies’ go...
Logos: Revista de Lingüística, Filosofía y Literatura, 2016
Resumen: Cuando enfrentan un escándalo, las empresas deben entablar una comunicación efectiva par... more Resumen: Cuando enfrentan un escándalo, las empresas deben entablar una comunicación efectiva para intentar aminorar los efectos de la publicidad negativa sobre su imagen corporativa. Uno de los géneros empleados por las empresas como formas de discurso de reparación de la imagen es la declaración pública, que corresponde a un texto escrito corto emitido por una empresa con el propósito de comunicar su versión de la crisis que enfrenta directamente al público general, publicándola en el sitio web de la compañía, o bien pagando una inserción en un periódico (versión papel y/o online). El presente estudio, un estudio de casos múltiples, se propone determinar si la retórica empleada por las empresas chilenas cuando enfrentan un escándalo mediático, es decir, la forma en que argumentan y se defienden de las acusaciones de mala conducta, es ética y lícita desde la perspectiva de la ética empresarial. Para ello, se realizó un análisis crítico del manejo de la carga de la prueba (Whately, 1828) en un corpus de veintiséis declaraciones públicas emitidas por empresas chilenas tras una crisis que empañó su imagen corporativa. Basándonos en la regla de la carga de la prueba propuesta desde la teoría pragma-dialéctica (van Eemeren, Grootendorst & Snoeck Henkemans, 2002), y en algunos lineamientos para el diseño de códigos de ética corporativos planteados en la literatura (Hamburger,
International Journal of Applied Linguistics
In the last seven years, several corporate scandals have shaken public confidence in Chilean corp... more In the last seven years, several corporate scandals have shaken public confidence in Chilean corporations. Considering this scenario and the fact that business ethics is an under-researched area in Chile, this study set out to examine one corporate genre, namely, codes of ethics. The codes of ethics from eight Chilean companies were analyzed. This sample offers both typicality and systematic variety as the eight texts have been produced by large-sized companies, five of which have been involved in media scandals. Each sentence was analyzed in order to determine what function it serves. The functions that exhibit the highest occurrence frequency in the corpus are educational (35.8% of sentences) and regulatory (33.9%). The other functions which emerge from the data are self-promotional (8.8%), inspirational (8.5%), commissive (7.8%), and aspirational (4.9%). The predominance of educational and regulatory functions evidences a deontological, compliance-based approach, while the striking sal-ience of the self-promotional function, which ranks third, suggests the strong sense of pride which, according to some Chilean scholars, characterizes the Chilean entrepreneurial class. A critical analysis of the quantitative results and the language used in these documents points to some rhetorical flaws, which may render these texts ineffective.
Resumen: Cuando enfrentan un escándalo, las empresas deben entablar una comunicación efectiva par... more Resumen: Cuando enfrentan un escándalo, las empresas deben entablar una comunicación efectiva para intentar aminorar los efectos de la publicidad negativa sobre su imagen corporativa. Uno de los géneros empleados por las empresas como formas de discurso de reparación de la imagen es la declaración pública, que corresponde a un texto escrito corto emitido por una empresa con el propósito de comunicar su versión de la crisis que enfrenta directamente al público general, publicándola en el sitio web de la compañía, o bien pagando una inserción en un periódico (versión papel y/o online). El presente estudio, un estudio de casos múltiples, se propone determinar si la retórica empleada por las empresas chilenas cuando enfrentan un escándalo mediático, es decir, la forma en que argumentan y se defienden de las acusaciones de mala conducta, es ética y lícita desde la perspectiva de la ética empresarial. Para ello, se realizó un análisis crítico del manejo de la carga de la prueba (Whately, 1828) en un corpus de veintiséis declaraciones públicas emitidas por empresas chilenas tras una crisis que empañó su imagen corporativa. Basándonos en la regla de la carga de la prueba propuesta desde la teoría pragma-dialéctica (van Eemeren, Grootendorst & Snoeck Henkemans, 2002), y en algunos lineamientos para el diseño de códigos de ética corporativos planteados en la literatura (Hamburger,
This paper reports the preliminary results of the first phase of an ongoing educational intervent... more This paper reports the preliminary results of the first phase of an ongoing educational intervention conducted with
students enrolled in an ELT education program at PUCV. As an EFL teacher with fossilized errors cannot be an effective
language model for students, the study set out to explore the feasibility and effectiveness of a recording and self-transcription
task (Lynch, 2001, 2007; Mennim, 2003, 2012) as a route to noticing the gap and defossilization. Students (N=20) transcribed
the oral texts they produced during the speaking section of the diagnostic test for English 5. The tasks were: (1) transcribing
three minutes of their speaking time, (2) highlighting all the errors they identified in their own speech (3) coding them (e.g.
grammatical, lexical, phonological) and (4) sending the annotated transcript to the instructor by email. Drawing on the theory
of questionnaire design and processing (Dörnyei, 2003), a survey was designed and posted online (GoogleForm) and
emailed to the students. The questionnaire asked students to evaluate the perceived benefits of a self-transcription task. The
study data consist of the annotated transcripts and the questionnaire responses. The results of this study were much less
positive than what has been reported in the literature (Boettinger, Park, & Timmis 2010; Burns & Joyce, 1997; Lynch, 2001,
2007; Mennim, 2003, 2012; Stillwell et al., 2010; Thornbury & Slade, 2006; Willis & Willis, 1996): students only noticed 25%
of their errors in a transcript of three minutes’ talk. As such, an attempt is made to see why this might have been the case.
Some pedagogical implications of this approach in the Chilean context are discussed.
Journal of Pragmatics, Feb 5, 2015
This corpus-driven study focuses on reflexive metadiscourse, taking the non-integrative approach ... more This corpus-driven study focuses on reflexive metadiscourse, taking the non-integrative approach to the study of this phenomenon . The aim of this research project was to compare the deployment of reflexive metadiscourse in research articles from three disciplines (Medicine, Economics and Linguistics) written in Spanish, by looking at the occurrence of certain lexico-grammatical features that signal it. In this mixed-methods study, which combines quantitative and qualitative results, the findings were derived from a close manual analysis of 238 recent empirical RAs from Spanish-medium journals indexed in Web of Science (the MEL-2011 corpus). The results indicate that scientific writers from Economics and Medicine employ significantly fewer metadiscourse markers than their counterparts in Linguistics. There are also statistically significant differences between the three corpora in terms of several functional categories: self-mentions, relational markers, directives, discourse verbs, and code glosses. This suggests that this scientific genre varies greatly in terms of the manner and the extent to which scholarly writers from different disciplines are expected to signal their authorial presence, interact with their audience and guide the reader.
This study examines the construction of a positive corporate image in public statements issued by... more This study examines the construction of a positive corporate image in public statements issued by
12 Chilean companies facing a crisis in the period January 2008 to July 2010. Drawing on repair
image theory (Benoit, 1997), narrative theory (Labov and Waletsky, 1967), and argumentation
theory (Aristotle), this article aims to investigate which discursive strategies and which linguistic
structures have been instrumental in this construction. Three analytical categories were
investigated in this study, namely, image repair strategies, construction of ethos, and narratives.
In each of these categories, special attention is paid to lexico-grammatical features (e.g. active
voice/passive voice, grammatical metaphor, etc.) and socio-pragmatic strategies (e.g. redundancy).
The analysis shows that the core image repair strategy is denial, which is accomplished through
a highly rhetorical language. It also demonstrates how the public statements create a secondary
narrative of the companies’ good sense, good moral character, and goodwill, through the use and
abuse of linguistic and pragmatic devices.
Este artículo explora un género corporativo en español que nace de necesidades comunicacionales e... more Este artículo explora un género corporativo en español que nace de necesidades comunicacionales en tiempos de crisis empresariales. Los datos consisten en un corpus de 14 declaraciones de prensa realizadas por empresas chilenas durante el período enero 2008-abril 2012 que aparecieron en forma de inserciones pagadas en periódicos de circulación nacional o en medios electrónicos. Todas estas declaraciones públicas tienen en común haber sido emitidas por compañías chilenas tras un escándalo mediático que dañó su imagen corporativa. El objetivo de esta investigación es describir la organización retórica (Swales, 1990) de estas declaraciones públicas a partir de la teoría de la reparación de la imagen (Benoit, 1997), la construcción del ethos (Aristóteles) y la teoría narrativa aplicada a los géneros corporativos (Gilpin, 2008; Griffin, 2008). Las tendencias que emergen de los datos sugieren que existe una estructura más o menos convencionalizada de declaración de prensa con dos movidas que casi siempre están presentes: narrativa primaria y narrativa secundaria. Además, se relevaron las movidas compromiso de acción correctiva y disculpas. La movida narrativa secundaria tiende a realizarse a través de la negación, la estrategia de reparación de imagen más empleada en nuestro corpus, ya sea en su versión negación simple o a través de la transferencia de culpa. En todas las declaraciones estudiadas se emplea la argumentación basada en el ethos, resaltando la buena voluntad, buen juicio y buen carácter moral de la empresa antes y durante la crisis. Uno de los hallazgos más interesantes del estudio es que la movida disculpas está presente en solo cuatro declaraciones.
Book Reviews by Millaray Salas
This book presents a collection of sixteen papers that illustrate how the elusive notion of conte... more This book presents a collection of sixteen papers that illustrate how the elusive notion of context is being treated in discourse analysis in the 2010s. According to the editor, John Flowerdew, this book is unique in that all of the chapters focus on ‘context from a specifically discourse analytic perspective’. With that goal in mind, he asked the contributors, a group of well-known discourse analysts that represent different theories and methodologies, to explicitly state how context is understood in their study and to discuss the role of context in light of their findings.
The book is a vital source for scholarship as it provides comprehensive accounts of theory and methodology in discourse analysis, and will appeal to students and researchers of discourse analysis, as well as conversation analysis, pragmatics, linguistics, and other related fields.
In Introducing Business English, Catherine Nickerson and Brigitte Planken, two leading researcher... more In Introducing Business English, Catherine Nickerson and Brigitte Planken, two leading researchers and practitioners in the field, seek to provide a comprehensive introduction to Business English by drawing on different research traditions. Overall, the book focuses on the spoken and written modes of business communication, while briefly addressing some genres which fall into the sphere of computer-mediated discourse. Apart from discussing the latest research on these areas, the volume dedicates a special section to Business English pedagogy. The authors stress the complex and context-driven nature of Business English, which must be considered by both researchers and practitioners when examining and teaching international business communication.
Despite some weaknesses, the book is a welcome addition to the growing literature in this area as it provides an in-depth analysis of the many dimensions involved in the processes of understanding and producing business genres. This raises awareness of the complexity of Business English and warns practitioners against teaching decontextualized templates and linguistic features. The book’s extensive overview of both seminal works and recent literature on the topic from a variety of perspectives makes it a must-read for graduate students and researchers in the area. Moreover, the review of different pedagogical approaches and the listing of resources for teachers of Business English turn it into a useful toolkit for more seasoned practitioners in the field. The book also may be of interest to scholars in corporate discourse, ESP, genre analysis, discourse analysis, and translation studies.
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Papers by Millaray Salas
students enrolled in an ELT education program at PUCV. As an EFL teacher with fossilized errors cannot be an effective
language model for students, the study set out to explore the feasibility and effectiveness of a recording and self-transcription
task (Lynch, 2001, 2007; Mennim, 2003, 2012) as a route to noticing the gap and defossilization. Students (N=20) transcribed
the oral texts they produced during the speaking section of the diagnostic test for English 5. The tasks were: (1) transcribing
three minutes of their speaking time, (2) highlighting all the errors they identified in their own speech (3) coding them (e.g.
grammatical, lexical, phonological) and (4) sending the annotated transcript to the instructor by email. Drawing on the theory
of questionnaire design and processing (Dörnyei, 2003), a survey was designed and posted online (GoogleForm) and
emailed to the students. The questionnaire asked students to evaluate the perceived benefits of a self-transcription task. The
study data consist of the annotated transcripts and the questionnaire responses. The results of this study were much less
positive than what has been reported in the literature (Boettinger, Park, & Timmis 2010; Burns & Joyce, 1997; Lynch, 2001,
2007; Mennim, 2003, 2012; Stillwell et al., 2010; Thornbury & Slade, 2006; Willis & Willis, 1996): students only noticed 25%
of their errors in a transcript of three minutes’ talk. As such, an attempt is made to see why this might have been the case.
Some pedagogical implications of this approach in the Chilean context are discussed.
12 Chilean companies facing a crisis in the period January 2008 to July 2010. Drawing on repair
image theory (Benoit, 1997), narrative theory (Labov and Waletsky, 1967), and argumentation
theory (Aristotle), this article aims to investigate which discursive strategies and which linguistic
structures have been instrumental in this construction. Three analytical categories were
investigated in this study, namely, image repair strategies, construction of ethos, and narratives.
In each of these categories, special attention is paid to lexico-grammatical features (e.g. active
voice/passive voice, grammatical metaphor, etc.) and socio-pragmatic strategies (e.g. redundancy).
The analysis shows that the core image repair strategy is denial, which is accomplished through
a highly rhetorical language. It also demonstrates how the public statements create a secondary
narrative of the companies’ good sense, good moral character, and goodwill, through the use and
abuse of linguistic and pragmatic devices.
Book Reviews by Millaray Salas
The book is a vital source for scholarship as it provides comprehensive accounts of theory and methodology in discourse analysis, and will appeal to students and researchers of discourse analysis, as well as conversation analysis, pragmatics, linguistics, and other related fields.
Despite some weaknesses, the book is a welcome addition to the growing literature in this area as it provides an in-depth analysis of the many dimensions involved in the processes of understanding and producing business genres. This raises awareness of the complexity of Business English and warns practitioners against teaching decontextualized templates and linguistic features. The book’s extensive overview of both seminal works and recent literature on the topic from a variety of perspectives makes it a must-read for graduate students and researchers in the area. Moreover, the review of different pedagogical approaches and the listing of resources for teachers of Business English turn it into a useful toolkit for more seasoned practitioners in the field. The book also may be of interest to scholars in corporate discourse, ESP, genre analysis, discourse analysis, and translation studies.
students enrolled in an ELT education program at PUCV. As an EFL teacher with fossilized errors cannot be an effective
language model for students, the study set out to explore the feasibility and effectiveness of a recording and self-transcription
task (Lynch, 2001, 2007; Mennim, 2003, 2012) as a route to noticing the gap and defossilization. Students (N=20) transcribed
the oral texts they produced during the speaking section of the diagnostic test for English 5. The tasks were: (1) transcribing
three minutes of their speaking time, (2) highlighting all the errors they identified in their own speech (3) coding them (e.g.
grammatical, lexical, phonological) and (4) sending the annotated transcript to the instructor by email. Drawing on the theory
of questionnaire design and processing (Dörnyei, 2003), a survey was designed and posted online (GoogleForm) and
emailed to the students. The questionnaire asked students to evaluate the perceived benefits of a self-transcription task. The
study data consist of the annotated transcripts and the questionnaire responses. The results of this study were much less
positive than what has been reported in the literature (Boettinger, Park, & Timmis 2010; Burns & Joyce, 1997; Lynch, 2001,
2007; Mennim, 2003, 2012; Stillwell et al., 2010; Thornbury & Slade, 2006; Willis & Willis, 1996): students only noticed 25%
of their errors in a transcript of three minutes’ talk. As such, an attempt is made to see why this might have been the case.
Some pedagogical implications of this approach in the Chilean context are discussed.
12 Chilean companies facing a crisis in the period January 2008 to July 2010. Drawing on repair
image theory (Benoit, 1997), narrative theory (Labov and Waletsky, 1967), and argumentation
theory (Aristotle), this article aims to investigate which discursive strategies and which linguistic
structures have been instrumental in this construction. Three analytical categories were
investigated in this study, namely, image repair strategies, construction of ethos, and narratives.
In each of these categories, special attention is paid to lexico-grammatical features (e.g. active
voice/passive voice, grammatical metaphor, etc.) and socio-pragmatic strategies (e.g. redundancy).
The analysis shows that the core image repair strategy is denial, which is accomplished through
a highly rhetorical language. It also demonstrates how the public statements create a secondary
narrative of the companies’ good sense, good moral character, and goodwill, through the use and
abuse of linguistic and pragmatic devices.
The book is a vital source for scholarship as it provides comprehensive accounts of theory and methodology in discourse analysis, and will appeal to students and researchers of discourse analysis, as well as conversation analysis, pragmatics, linguistics, and other related fields.
Despite some weaknesses, the book is a welcome addition to the growing literature in this area as it provides an in-depth analysis of the many dimensions involved in the processes of understanding and producing business genres. This raises awareness of the complexity of Business English and warns practitioners against teaching decontextualized templates and linguistic features. The book’s extensive overview of both seminal works and recent literature on the topic from a variety of perspectives makes it a must-read for graduate students and researchers in the area. Moreover, the review of different pedagogical approaches and the listing of resources for teachers of Business English turn it into a useful toolkit for more seasoned practitioners in the field. The book also may be of interest to scholars in corporate discourse, ESP, genre analysis, discourse analysis, and translation studies.