noun-to-verb ratio across persian efl learners’ and english native speakers’ written academic corpora

This study was a corpus-based cross-sectional study consisted of two corpora named learner corpora and criterion corpora. two corpora constituted 1064 nationally and internationally published academic research papers. learner corpora included 568 nationally published research articles and criterion corpus comprised 496 research articles that were published in prestigious international journals within four disciplines. the four disciplines of the study are social sciences, basic sciences, engineering, and medical sciences. the result revealed that mean of noun-verb ratio of learner corpora (10.1673) was much higher than the mean of the noun-verb ratio of criterion corpora (6.4414). regarding the result of the study, it was concluded that persian efl learners acquired the nominal, complex, and embedded structures of the written academic discourse. the result was consistent with the previous studies of noun phrases complexity in academic writing. in effect, persian efl learners used much more noun phrases in their academic proses compare to english native speakers’ academic writings. subsequently, persian efl learners’ writings comprised significantly complex and embedded structures. one possible reason for using significant embedded noun phrases was attributed to overgeneralization. in other words, the acquisition occurred, but persian efl learners overgeneralized the use of complex and embedded noun phrases. the implication of the study discusses that, theoretically, the performance of persian efl learners in terms of nominal and complex noun phrases and noun-verb ratios within their academic writings. pedagogically, the teachers should notice how to instruct learners to balance using complex and embedded nominal phrases in their academic proses.