A Structural Move Analysis of Discussion Sub-Genre in Applied Linguistics (original) (raw)
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Research Article is one of the most important genres that received extensive attention in genre analysis. Research abstracts have received extreme importance due to the valuable academic information in the world. The present study aims to explore the rhetorical structure of the Iranian and international abstracts published in leading English and Persian journals. The researcher randomly selected 40 research articles from six Iranian journals of applied linguistics and international journals of applied linguistics. The study used two types of instruments. The Ant Mover software is a freeware text structure analysis program (developed by Anthony Laurence, 2003). According to Hyland's model, five moves are involved, including Introduction (M1) purposes (M2) Method (M3) product (M4) and conclusion (M5). The corpus, then, was analyzed based on the Ant Mover software and Hyland's (2000) five move frameworks to identify the rhetorical structure of the selected corpus. As a result, the frequency of each move in each abstract was calculated after the moves were analyzed. A frequency and percentage were counted and a chi-square analysis was run to answer the research hypothesis. The finding also showed that despite the differences in frequency of moves in two corpora, these differences were not statistically significant.
English Language Teaching, 2012
This study investigates the rhetorical move structure of English applied linguistic research article Discussions published in Thai and international journals. Two corpora comprising of 30 Thai Discussions and 30 international Discussions were analyzed using Yang & Allison's (2003) move model. Based on the analysis, both similarities and differences regarding the move occurrence, move-ordering patterns, and move cyclicity were found. The marked differences of the two corpora were in the step employment. The findings obtained in the current study are useful particularly for novice non-native writers by facilitating them to better understand the rhetorical structure of research article Discussions in the different publication contexts. In addition, they may provide L2 teachers with insight into effective instructional strategies to help EFL/ESL learners acquire pragmatic knowledge of the rhetorical structure of research article Discussions.
A Genre Analysis of Research Article Discussions in Applied Linguistics
2013
This study adopts Peacock's (2002) revised model of move analysis to address questions related to the rhetorical structure of research article discussions and intra-disciplinary variations within the field of applied linguistics. Data were compiled from a corpus of 50 research articles published in five major peer-reviewed journals in applied linguistics. The results indicated that Moves 2 (Finding) and 4 (Reference to previous research) were obligatory; Moves 1 (Information move), 5 (Explanation for expected or unexpected results), 6 (Claim) and 8 (Recommendation) were conventional whereas Moves 3 (Expected or expected outcome) and 7 (Limitation) were optional. The four most common moves included Moves 1, 2, 4, and 5 whereas the least common move was Move 7. The results also suggest some intra-disciplinary differences in terms of the number and type of moves and move cycles in Studies in Second Language Acquisition. This study's findings will benefit teachers, graduate students, and less-experienced research writers in teaching and writing RA discussions that meet the expectation of their research discourse community.
Phraseologies in the Discussion Section of Applied Linguistics Research Articles
The Discussion section, one of the main parts of a research article, plays a crucial role in revealing how research findings are interpreted and how they contribute to studied disciplines. Feak and Swales (2012), however, observe that writing the Discussion section is challenging for both native and non-native speakers. Based on a corpus of Discussion texts from130 applied linguistics research articles that use quantitative data, the present study aims at identifying salient phraseologies, and exploring how they are distributed in the rhetorical structure of the Discussion section. To achieve this aim, the study adopts the corpus linguistics approach of Sinclair (1987, 1991) as the method of identifying phraseologies. It also analyses these phraseologies to explore their discourse functions. The study then maps these phraseologies onto the rhetorical structure, by drawing on an analytical framework for the Discussion section of applied linguistics empirical research articles. This framework is built from two sources: the Move-Step framework outlined by Yang and Allison (2003), and Basturkmen’s (2009) “fine-grained” descriptions of the Explaining theresult Step in Yang and Allison’s framework, and is referred to as the YAB framework. The study demonstrates in detail how the salient phraseologies are distributed in specific Moves and Steps described in the YAB framework. Furthermore, the present study refines and extends the YAB framework, by providing detailed descriptions of linguistic features, the internal structures(Move cycles and embeddings),and communicative functions of several Moves and Steps in the Discussion section of applied linguistics research articles using quantitative data. The findings also suggest that the use of phraseologies strongly manifests, and is conditioned by the research article genre. The study hasseveral pedagogical implications for academic writing courses for students, especially for those from non-English language backgrounds.
A Genre-analysis of the Discussion Section of Iranian and English ELT Theses: A Comparative Study
Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2019
The present research aimed to conduct a genre analysis of native (English) and non-native (Iranian) English speakers’ M.A theses of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) students to find any significant differences in their Discussion section structures according to the constitutive moves and steps. It also aimed to explore and compare the distribution of obligatory, conventional and optional moves and steps in the two corpuses. To this aim, 20 theses were randomly selected from well-known English Speaking Universities (Portland State University, University of Toledo, Ohio State University and University of Birmingham) to compare with 20 theses from Iran. The move analysis model by Yang and Allison (2003) was employed, which was specifically used in Applied Linguistics. Chi-squared test was run to make the comparison. The results revealed statistically significant differences between the genre followed in the Discussion sections of Iranian and non-Iranian TEFL M.A. theses. T...
Journal of Language and Education, 2022
Background. Recent years have seen tremendous research efforts in the development of English for academic and research publication purposes, utilising an established approach to comparative genre analysis. This growing interest is primarily driven by the global dominance of Anglophone writing conventions, which necessitates raising awareness among researchers, particularly in non-Anglophone contexts. Purpose. This study explored and analysed the communicative intents of the discussion sections in research articles in two different contexts to investigate the effect of nativeness on the structural organisation in this genre. The focus of the study was on the rhetorical structure and employment of Moves in the applied linguistics research article Discussions, written in English by Iranian and native English-speaking researchers. Methods. A mixed-methods research study was conducted on two corpora, comprising 40 Discussions written by Iranian scholars and 40 Discussions written by native English-speaking scholars, selected from research articles published in international peer-reviewed journals. Results. The comparison of the two corpora revealed similarities and differences in the frequency, type, structure, sequence, and cyclicity of Moves. While there were significant differences in the frequency and sequence of Moves and Steps, both corpora employed the same types. They featured cyclical structures with no evidence of linear patterns across the Discussions. Both groups of researchers found it essential to provide background information and report and comment on the results in the research article Discussions, however, with notable differences in commenting strategies, i.e., Steps. The results indicated that socio-cultural conventions might have influenced the scholars' under-and over-employment of certain Moves and Steps in the research article Discussions. Implications. The findings of this study provide research-based evidence to practically and pedagogically assist in the context of English for academic and specific purposes, particularly in teaching English for research publication purposes to non-native English-speaking scholars.
2013
Following Swales’s (1981) works on genre analysis, studies on different sections of research articles in different languages and fields abound. This paper compares Applied Linguistics research article abstracts published in Oxford University and Islamic Azad University of Tabriz in English using Swales’s (1981-1990) move structure model and Halliday’s (1994) description of transitivity processes. One hundred and forty eight English research article abstracts were analyzed at macro and micro level based on the Swales’s model (IMRD) and transitivity system. The results demonstrated that the four structural moves of Swales and transitivity processes of Halliday were evident in both abstract sets but were differently distributed. The research suggests pedagogical implications for TEFL practitioners, especially for the writing skill and for the preparing research article abstracts (RAAs).
Analysis of Move and Linguistic Features in Indonesian and English Humanities Dissertation Abstracts
2020
Move analysis investigates the rhetorical patterns of texts, mostly in academic writing. This approach focuses on the communicative purposes and rhetorical strategies referred to as moves and steps. The present study aims to disclose whether the authors' backgrounds affect the rhetorical organization of dissertation abstracts. Embracing the corpusbased approach, this study analyzed 120 humanities abstracts from a total of four universities in England and Indonesia. Hyland’s (2000) model was adopted as the analysis guideline. The present study revealed that Introduction – Purpose – Method – Product are the most common patterns in both data groups. Further comparative research on this particular topic with different subjects of data is suggested.
Journal of Applied Languages and Linguistics, 2018
The abstract is an important part of any research articles. In recent years, many pedagogical approaches have realized that lack of proper writing support in writing research article abstract can frustrate the writers and make their research paper less-effective. The present study present rhetorical move analysis of the research article abstracts by employing Hyland's 2010 model of move analysis. The data was collected from the two volumes of the National University of Modern Languages' Journal of Critical Inquiry. The results show that the purpose move is the most frequent move, while the conclusion move is the most lest frequent in the abstract published in the Journal of Critical Inquiry. The present study suggests that the researchers use the purpose move in their abstracts with the highest frequency and are less inclined to use conclusion move.