Agbaglo Ebenezer

PhD student (FT)

AG415
+852 2766 6095
ebenezer.agbaglo@connect.polyu.hk

Biography

Chief Supervisor:

Prof. Guangwei Hu

Education and Academic Qualifications

Master of Philosophy (MPhil) in English Language (2017-2020)
University of Cape Coast, Ghana
Thesis Title: Grammatical Metaphor in Academic Writing: Functional Diversity of Process Nominalisation in Research Article Abstracts Across Disciplines
Principal Supervisor: Prof. Joseph Benjamin Archibald Afful
Co-Supervisor: Prof. Kwabena Sarfo Sarfo-Kantankah

Bachelor of Arts (English Language and Religion & Human Values) (2012-2016)
University of Cape Coast, Ghana
Thesis Title: The Use of Politeness Strategies in the Analysis And Discussion Section of Research Articles
Supervisor: Prof. Lawrence K. Owusu-Ansah

Academic and Professional Experience

English Proficiency Tutorial Instructor (2021)
Department of English, University of Cape Coast

Demonstrator (2018-2020)
Department of English, University of Cape Coast
First Semester

ENG 101: The Use of English Language
ENG 203: The Sentence and its Parts
ENG 213: The Language of Drama
ENG 399: Research Methods

Second Semester

ENG 204: Forms and Functions of the English Clause
ENG 314: Studies in Shakespeare
ENG 402: Varieties of English and Advanced Writing Skills

Teaching and Research Assistant (On National Service, 2016-2017)
Department of English, University of Cape Coast
As a teaching assistant, I helped lecturers in teaching and conducting research. The specific courses I assisted in teaching are as follows:
First Semester

ENG 101: The Use of English Language
ENG 203: The Sentence and its Parts
ENG 213: The Language of Drama

Second Semester

ENG 204: Forms and Functions of the English Clause
ENG 314: Studies in Shakespeare
ENG 402: Varieties of English and Advanced Writing Skills

Research Interests

Research

Title of thesis:

Criticality in Academic Writing: A Study of Literature Review Chapters of Economics PhD Theses

Description of thesis research:

The literature review is an important part of the post-graduate thesis. It contributes significantly to the overall quality of the thesis whose writer dwells on the review to create a niche for his/her own research. The niche-creating potential of the literature review requires writers to critique sources in order to foreground their own research and justify it. Studies on theses examiners’ reports have revealed that many theses writers find it difficult expressing a critical stance towards the literature they review, thus, weakening the overall quality of their theses (Holbrook et al., 2007). This is further confirmed in a recent qualitative study involving interviews with theses supervisors in a Ghanaian university (Afful et al., 2022). Focusing specifically on the discipline of Economics in an English as a Second Language (ESL) context, Ghana, the present study analyses the literature review of the PhD thesis from a genre-based perspective in order to identify its structure as well as the linguistic resources used to achieve criticality in specific moves and steps. The study, thus, uses an eclectic theoretical foundation covering the genre and appraisal theories (Kwan, 2006; Martin & White, 2005). The analysis also involves interviews with theses supervisors in the selected field about their perception of criticality and how it can be achieved in thesis literature review writing. Overall, the study hopes to produce findings that can serve as a strong basis for English for Academic Purposes (EAP) instruction on literature review writing, specifically at the post-graduate level.

References

Afful, J. B. A., Ngula, R. S., Twumasi, R., Tetteh, G., & Mensah, F. (2022). Supervisors’ perceptions of postgraduate students’ thesis literature review writing in a Ghanaian university. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 9(1), 267-289. https://doi.org/10.14738/assrj.91.11120
Holbrook, A., Bourke, S., Fairbairn, H., & Lovat, T. (2007). Examiner comment on the literature review in Ph. D. theses. Studies in Higher Education, 32(3), 337-356. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075070701346899
Kwan, B. S. (2006). The schematic structure of literature reviews in doctoral theses of applied linguistics. English for Specific Purposes, 25(1), 30-55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2005.06.001
Martin, J. R. & White, P. R. R. (2005). The language of evaluation: Appraisal in English. Palgrave Macmillan.

Involvement in research groups, networks and projects:

Associate Scholar, Africa Interdisciplinary Research Institute (AfIRI) (https://afiri.institute/node/welcome)
Member, Research Centre for Professional Communication in English (RCPCE)( http://rcpce.engl.polyu.edu.hk/rcpce/)
Member, Ghana Names Society (GNS)
Member, Ghana English Studies Association (GESA)
Member, West African Systemic Functional Linguistics Interest Group (WASFLIG)

Publications

Nkansah, S. K., Mwinlaaru, I. N., & Agbaglo, E. (2022). Forms and functions of the English clause [A course module for the College of Distance Education, University of Cape Coast]

Journal Articles

Afful, J. B. A., Hesse, E. K., Agbaglo, E., & Bonsu, E. M. (2023). Move analysis of grant recommendation letters written by senior academics in a Ghanaian university. Taiwan International ESP Journal, 13(2), 1-35.
Agbaglo, E. & Afful, J. B. A. (2023). Sociolinguistics of Names of Hotels in Accra. Linguistics Initiative, 3(1), 1–16.
Agbaglo, E. & Bonsu, E. M. (2022). Functions of reporting verbs in the literature review of master’s theses in the discipline of economics. ELT Worldwide, 9(2), 347–359.
Frempong, C. O., Anani, G. E., Ayitey, H. K., & Agbaglo, E. (2022). Pre-modification of noun phrases in the writings of students in Ghanaian colleges of education. International Journal of Research Studies in Education, 11(5), 73–87.
Agbaglo, E., Agbadi, P., Tetteh, J. K., Ameyaw, E. K., Adu, C., & Nutor, J. J. (2022). Trends in total fertility rate in Ghana by different inequality dimensions from 1993 to 2014. BMC Women’s Health, 22(1), 49.
Sarfo-Kantankah, K. S., Agbaglo, E., & Mensah, F. Jnr. (2021). Metaphorical conceptualization of covid-19 in parliamentary discourse: A corpus-assisted study. Language, Discourse, and Society, 9(2), 105–122.
Agbaglo, E. & Fiadzomor, P. (2021). Genre analysis of abstracts of empirical research articles published in TESOL Quarterly. Journal of English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, 3(7), 1–13.
Agbaglo, E., Ayaawan, A. E., & Yeboah, E. O. (2021). Genre analysis of the introduction sections of Newsfile, a Ghanaian TV talk show. Indonesian Journal of English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, 6(1), 73–88.
Ansah, R. Agbaglo, E., & Mensah, R. A. T. (2021). Gender variation in the writings of Ghanaian colleges of education students: A study of syntactic complexity. Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 13(4), 140–149.
Agbaglo, E. (2017). The use of politeness strategies in the analysis and discussion sections of English research articles. Research on Humanities and Social Sciences, 7(9), 30–42.
Agbaglo, E. (2017). The types and frequencies of reporting verbs in research articles written by lecturers in a Ghanaian university. Journal of Literature, Languages and Linguistics, 34, 51–57.

Agbaglo, E. (2023). Grammatical metaphor in academic writing: Functions of process nominalization in economics research article abstracts. Paper presented at the West African Systemic Functional Linguistics Interest Group (WASFLIG) seminar, 30^th, June, 2023.

Service

Department of English, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana
As a member of the Planning Committee for Departmental Seminars, I, together with other committee members, ensured that seminars were organised weekly and publicised.

I worked together with the rest of the committee members to generate the conference theme and sub-themes, recommended other researchers to be invited as abstract reviewers, edited the book of abstracts, and served as session moderator during the conference.