Research Titles in Applied Linguistics Journals: The Information Trends

The significance of the research titles is rooted in a twofold function they have in attracting potential readers’ attention and providing information about the research. Given that, this study aims to investigate different types of information provided by the research titles published in the journals of applied linguistics from 1975 to 2015. Moreover, the study examined the research titles published in the applied linguistics journals to draw their similarities and differences in providing information during different time intervals. To this end, 428 research titles published in 63 issues of three applied linguistics journals, namely, Modern Language Journal, Language Learning, and Foreign Language Annals were extracted. The research titles were analyzed for the information they contained based on a categorical framework which indicated the information of the research titles in terms of topic, method/design, dataset, result, and conclusion. The results revealed that from 1975 to 2015, the research titles of the three applied linguistics journals tended to provide the most information on method/design of the studies. In addition, research titles containing information on topic, result, and dataset showed fluctuating rates in the different time intervals. However, research titles containing information on conclusion had a falling rate in the three journals. On the whole, the diachronic trends of the information provided by the research titles in the three journals indicated similarities and differences accounted by factors discussed in the current study

Research Titles in Applied Linguistics Journals: The Information Trends Keywords:

applied linguistics , categorical framework , diachronic study , research titles