Article

Genre performances: John Swales' Genre Analysis and rhetorical-linguistic genre studies

June 2015
Journal of English for Academic Purposes 19(4)

DOI:10.1016/j.jeap.2015.05.008

Authors:

University of Kansas

Although scholars have studied some sources of variation within genres, the variation that is each individual performance of a genre requires further investigation. In Genre Analysis, John Swales combined rhetoric and linguistics to explain genre as grounded in shared communicative purposes and discoverable through text analysis. Although the disciplines differ in some of their purposes and settings, they share the difficulty of helping students advance beyond simplified understandings of genre to the complex decisions needed to address particular situations. Building from a rhetorical-linguistic genre studies and using metaphorically the linguistic concepts of competence and performance, this article proposes that genre theory and instruction should account for genre performances as well as genre competence. Genre theory can then better address such issues as identity, affect, and cognition. Genre instruction can lead students to examine not just similarity within a genre but also differences, in both communicative event and individual language-users. The uniqueness of each performance also affects assessment of genre knowledge and transfer, complicating the ability to assess genre competence through genre performance. Considering genre performances as well as competence within a rhetorical-linguistic genre studies allows genre scholars and teachers to address the fact that genre-in-use is simultaneously unique and shared.

A Genre-based Approach to Teaching Descriptive Report Writing to Japanese EFL University Students

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2022

Akiko Nagao

This mixed-methods study explored the effects of employing a genre-based approach (GBA) to descriptive report writing on the understanding of text structure and ideational, interpersonal and textual meanings among Japanese university students of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) over a 15-week course divided into three units. Applied within a systemic functional linguistics (SFL) framework, the GBA allowed micro- and macro-analyses of essays from 23 first-year university students with low/high proficiency in English and limited/extensive second-language writing experience. Quantitative analysis collected general impression scores from all students’ essays at three time points using the SFL rubric. Qualitative investigation applied clause structure annotations to identify and analyse the functional parts of the clause from three metafunctional perspectives—ideational, interpersonal and textual—on descriptive genre essays by EFL learners. Lower-proficiency and novice EFL students demonstrated an improved understanding of the content, events and background information of the essay topics (ideational), and the social and power relationships between readers and writers (interpersonal). By comparison, high-proficiency and experienced students demonstrated a better understanding of the structure and coherence of the essay. This study was limited in developing an understanding of the use of pronouns and auxiliary verbs, which should be addressed in future studies.

Contributos pragmático-linguísticos para a análise da dêixis em textos online: estudo de corpora de notícias e de anúncios de teor considerado (pseudo)científico e (pseudo)medicinal, extraídos de sites catalogados como veiculadores de notícias falsas. Dissertação de mestrado em Linguística: Sociedades e Culturas. Universidade da Madeira. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.13/3021

Thesis

Sep 2020

Alexandra José Cabral Sá Nunes

A prática discursiva, designada pelo empréstimo fake news, caracteriza-se pela disseminação intencional de informação falsa, duvidosa ou (des)informação. Além de ser uma ameaça para as democracias e para o jornalismo, pode também consistir num risco para a saúde pública. O objetivo desta investigação consiste em realizar uma análise pragmática de deíticos, em corpora de notícias, e dos respetivos anúncios publicitários, de conteúdo (pseudo)científico e (pseudo)medicinal, extraídos de dois sites . Estes sites têm sido considerados veiculadores de fake news ou notícias falsas pela imprensa diária portuguesa, nomeadamente pelo Diário de Notícias e pelo Jornal de Notícias. Recorre-se à metodologia quantitativa da Linguística de Corpus e ao programa de concordâncias WordSmith Tools, versão 7, para extrair listas de frequência, listas de palavras por ordem alfabética, clusters e linhas de concordância das ocorrências. Efetua-se uma análise discursiva de deíticos no plano enunciativo, no enquadramento teórico da proximização. Definida como uma estratégia pragmático-cognitiva de redução da distância, permite manipular ou ampliar a proximidade espacial, temporal, pessoal, emocional, epistémica ou axiológica. Ao forçar uma representação proximal de determinadas perspetivações conceptuais, persuade, consequentemente, o alocutário a aderir ou a identificar-se mais facilmente com o conteúdo veiculado (cf. Cap, 2006, 2008, 2010a-b, 2013a-b, 2014a-c, 2015, 2017; Chilton, 2004, 2005, 2010, 2014; Kopytowska, 2013, 2014a-b, 2015a- -b). Nos corpora em estudo, constata-se que se investe sobretudo nos tipos de proximização emocional, pessoal e temporal, o que pode contribuir, em combinação com outras características, para a identificação de notícias falsas. Os resultados indicam que futuras investigações podem centrar-se na análise de deíticos, tais como pronomes pessoais e possessivos, de primeira e de segunda pessoas, bem como a pessoa verbal, o Imperativo, o infinitivo, o aspeto progressivo, além de tempos verbais no Presente. Pragmática; Dêixis; Linguística de corpus; Notícias falsas; Proximização; Representações do discurso (pseudo)cientifico e (pseudo)medicinal. The discursive practice, called fake news, is characterized by the intentional dissemination of false or dubious content, or (mis)information. Besides being a threat to democracies and journalism, it can also be a risk for public health. The objective of this investigation is to undertake a pragmatic analysis of deictic items in news corpora and their corresponding advertisements of (pseudo)scientific and ites have been considered to spread fake news by the Portuguese daily press, namely Diário de Notícias and Jornal de Notícias. The quantitative methodology of Corpus Linguistics, as well as WordSmith Tools concordance, version 7, are used to extract frequency lists, alphabetical word lists, clusters, and concordance lines of the occurrences. A discursive analysis of deictic items is undertaken, in the theoretical framework of -cognitive strategy of distance reduction, it allows to manipulate or improve the spatial, temporal, personal, emotional, epistemic or axiological proximity. By forcing a proximal representation of certain construals, it consequently persuades the hearer to adhere to or identify more easily with the content conveyed (cf. Cap, 2006, 2008, 2010a-b, 2013a-b, 2014a-c, 2015, 2017; Chilton, 2004, 2005, 2010, 2014; Kopytowska, 2013, 2014a-b, 2015a-c, 2018; Kopytowska, Grabowski -b). In the corpora under study, there is an investment on emotional, personal and temporal proximization types, which can contribute, in combination with other characteristics, to the identification of fake news. The results indicate that future investigations can focus on the analysis of deictic items, such as personal and possessive pronouns of first and second person, as well as, grammatical person, the imperative, the infinitive, the progressive aspect, in addition to present verb tenses. Pragmatics; Deixis; Corpus Linguistics; Fake news; Proximization; Representations of (pseudo)scientific and (pseudo)medical discourse.

Approaches to Specialized Genre

Book

Dec 2020

Approaches to Specialized Genres provides a timely update of the field of genre studies, with 14 cutting-edge contributions split into five sections using and integrating an exceptionally wide variety of methods and perspectives (such as ESP genre research, corpus linguistics, systemic functional linguistics, ethnographic and multimodal research) to analyse genres in written, spoken, visual and auditory modes across a multiplicity of pedagogic, professional and digital settings. It highlights and illustrates the growing trend of a multiperspective and inter-theoretic approach to genre studies and demonstrates how such methodological rigour can extend our knowledge of language, in general, and genres, in particular. It also examines a rich variety of underexplored genres such as the digital genre of synchronous videoconferencing, instructional slides, video ads, engineers’ training log book entries, the narrative story genres, fundraising letters and retraction notices. It demonstrates not only the prominent value of genre research, but wide applications of genre knowledge in various educational and professional domains. The book brings together experts spreading across the world, including countries in South-East Asia, Europe, America, West Africa and South America. Accordingly, it will appeal to readers of diversified socio-cultural backgrounds working in all the aforementioned inter-related fields of applied linguistics and communication studies.

Towards a Meta-theory of Genre

Chapter

Dec 2020

Isaac Nuokyaa-Ire Mwinlaaru

After four decades of contemporary genre research, genre scholars still do not agree on what genre is and how it should be studied. This chapter shows that genre is a multidimensional variety of language in context and that a fuller conceptualisation of genre must be placed within a general meta-theory of language. The chapter uses the architecture of language provided by systemic functional meta-theory to shed light on current debates on genre and on approaches developed for genre research since the 1980s. The chapter first provides an overview of the theoretical landscape of genre studies. It then discusses genre as a variety of language in context, using insights from different schools of genre studies. In addition, it conceptualises genre as a hierarchy of meaning relations, showing that it is a social semiotic process that permeates all layers of language, comprising context, semantics, lexicogrammar and phonology. Finally, it examines genre in relation to different systemic orders of analysis, characterising it as a semiotic construct that is socially motivated, biologically activated and physically realised. The chapter reveals that whereas genre research has contributed to our knowledge of the interaction between language and social context, little attention has been given to the semantic structure of texts.

Teaching and Researching Genre Knowledge: Toward an Enhanced Theoretical Framework

Article

May 2020
WRIT COMMUN

Increased attention to genre in writing studies has brought a proliferation of new terms and concepts for capturing the complexity of writers’ knowledge about genres, including genre knowledge, genre awareness, recontextualization, conditional knowledge, and metacognition. Definitions of these concepts have at times conflicted, and their interrelationships are often unclear. Furthermore, scholarship has tended to overlook the role of multiple languages in writers’ genre knowledge. In this article, we first trace the use of related terminology and demonstrate the need for theoretical clarity. We then propose a theoretical framework that articulates key layers of genre knowledge and their interrelations, presuming a multilingual writer. Finally, we share examples of how this proposed framework may be used in teaching and researching genre knowledge. Ultimately, we aim to contribute to ongoing theoretical, empirical, and pedagogical explorations and applications of knowing and learning genres.

The challenges of writing science

Chapter

Jul 2019

Tzipora Rakedzon

A Cross-Cultural Genre Analysis of Leadership Statements in Italian and American University Sustainability Reports

Article

Mar 2023
IEEE T PROF COMMUN

Danni Yu

bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Background: Sustainability is becoming an increasingly important issue in higher education (HE). Leadership statements in university sustainability reports (LSUSR) represent a unique genre for university leaders to communicate sustainability. This study aims to demystify the genre so that future leadership statements might be crafted with a greater degree of reflexivity. Literature review : Sustainability discourse in HE has been regarded as a legitimacy tool and an opportunity for image improvement for universities. Some studies have examined university sustainability reports, whereas there is a lack of studies focusing on the section of leadership statements. Research question : Are there any cross-cultural similarities or differences in terms of rhetorical moves and communicative purposes between the Italian LSUSR genre and the American LSUSR genre? Research methodology: Using cross-cultural genre analysis, this study investigates the rhetorical moves of leadership statements produced by Italian and American universities. A move scheme is established and is used to annotate the sample texts. Results and conclusion: The findings show that although the Italian and American LSUSR genres share the communicative purpose of establishing a sustainable image, the degree of discourse force exerting on this communicative purpose varies. The image-building discourse force appears to be more noticeable in the American leadership statements, which tend to use a wider range and a larger quantity of image-improving moves. The Italian subcorpus, on the other hand, seems to pay more attention to the genre function of report-introducing, which is not explicitly linked to image improvement. This article suggests that practitioners could consider the potentials of the LSUSR genre in developing an institutional culture of sustainability.

Rhetorical move structure of soft and hard science research article introductions by novice Indonesian authors

Article

Full-text available

Aug 2021

Rhetorical move structure of soft and hard science research article introductions by novice Indonesian authorsResearch article introduction is crucial in justifying a research topic and presenting the significant contribution of a study to the advancement of knowledge. Prior studies have attempted to investigate research article introductions from various viewpoints. However, the way novice Indonesian authors rhetorically construct their introductions is still under-explored. This study aims to explore cross-disciplinary introductions with regard to rhetorical move structure and the linguistic realizations of the moves. Employing Swale’s (2004) revised CARS model, a corpus of 10 research articles from the fields of soft and hard science were analyzed. The findings revealed that the two disciplines were in agreement on the compulsory status of Move 1 Establishing a territory and Move 3 Presenting the present work and the conventional use of Move 2 Establishing a niche. However, discrepancies arose in the step level. Regarding the linguistic features, soft and hard science authors preferred using present tense and active voice in realizing the moves. In addition, a considerable number of metadiscourse such as hedges and boosters were observed in the introductions. This study concludes that novice Indonesian authors’ disciplinary expertise possibly influences the quality of their introductions.Keywords: genre, introduction, move analysis, novice, research articleStruktur pola retorika pendahuluan artikel penelitian disiplin ilmu soft dan hard science oleh penulis pemula IndonesiaPendahuluan artikel penelitian sangat penting dalam menjustifikasikan topik penelitian dan menyajikan kontribusi signifikan dari studi yang dilakukan untuk perkembangan ilmu pengetahuan. Penelitian terdahulu telah berupaya untuk menyelidiki bagian pendahuluan artikel penelitian dari beragam perspektif. Namun, cara penulis pemula Indonesia mengkonstruksi bagian pendahuluan mereka secara retoris masih kurang dieksplorasi. Studi ini bertujuan untuk mengeksplorasi bagian pendahuluan lintas disiplin berkaitan dengan struktur pola retorika pendahuluan dan realisasi linguistik dari pola tersebut. Menerapkan revisi model CARS oleh Swales (2004), sebuah korpus yang merupakan kumpulan 10 pendahuluan artikel penelitian dari disiplin ilmu soft dan hard science dianalisis. Temuan penelitian menunjukkan bahwa kedua disiplin sepakat tentang status wajib dari Move 1 Establishing a territory dan Move 3 Presenting the present work, dan penggunaan konvensional Move 2 Establishing a niche. Namun, perbedaan muncul pada tiap tingkatan. Berkaitan dengan fitur linguistik, penulis soft dan hard science lebih memilih menggunakan kalimat aktif dan bentuk waktu masa kini (present tense) dalam merealisasikan pola. Selain itu, sejumlah besar metadiscourse seperti hedges dan boosters teramati dalam bagian pendahuluan. Studi ini menyimpulkan bahwa perbedaan fokus keilmuan penulis pemula Indonesia kemungkinan mempengaruhi kualitas pendahuluan mereka. Kata kunci: genre, pendahuluan, analisis pola, pemula, artikel penelitian

Enabling student engagement in an academic English writing course

Chapter

Aug 2022

Setting the stage(s) for English for Research and Publication Purposes: Authors, audiences, and learning the craft

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2022

The stage is an apt metaphor for how the ERPP community has come to understand research-based writing: research writing is of course a textual practice, but it is also inherently social, with both cognitive and affective dimensions. The aim of our paper (based on a talk given at NFEAP in 2021) is to bring new insights to our understanding of these stages by presenting a few data examples derived from a task completed by a group of doctoral students in the sciences. The task was designed to foreground primarily social facets of writing: writing as genre performance on a specific stage, for a specific audience and as a form of situated, purposeful communication against the backdrop of the current knowledge within a field. Further, the task foregrounded writing as a form of development towards a self-directed, agentive and possibly creative adaptation of one’s authorial choices. We present three main arguments: first, we show that a straightforward disciplinary framing of research-based writing may not be reflective of the hybridised, fluid and multidisciplinary audiences that our students write for; second, we argue that students need support in recognising this complexity and in developing rhetorical adroitness in order to write effectively; and third, we call for deeper engagement with well-established theories of learning such as self-regulation and metacognition to design tasks that investigate and promote student learning, and that encompass the social, cognitive and affective dimensions of genre performance.

Rhetorical Structures and Cyclical Patterns in Forestry Research Articles

Article

Full-text available

May 2022

DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS AND PARENTS' COMMUNICATIVE ACTS: THEIR IMPLICATIONS ON MODELS OF CHILD'S USE OF LANGUAGE

Article

Full-text available

May 2022

Rafael Santos

This case study investigated Halliday's models of child's use of language involving an English-Filipino bilingual boy and how he was influenced by certain demographic factors and parents' communicative acts. Data was from nine videos that captured the child's naturally occurring interactions involving his parents and family friends between the ages 2.6 and 4.10 within a span of almost three years. The multimethod approach was used in analyzing data, namely, qualitative frequency analysis and online interview for triangulation purposes. Five of the seven functions of language in children were demonstrated and appeared to have been influenced by ethnicity, age, gender, and parents' communicative acts and attitude but not by bilingualism as earlier predicted. More importantly, four nascent models were exhibited, suggesting that there could be more than seven language functions in children as previously posited by Halliday. The esteem function, rescue function, corrective function, and asserting function, reflective of models of child's use of language in Filipino and Asian contexts, were discovered and such typologies are proposed in this study. Findings have implications on bilingualism, language teaching, and language development theories.

DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS AND PARENTS COMMUNICATIVE ACTS THEIR IMPLICATIONS ON MODELS OF CHILDS USE OF LANGUAGE

Article

May 2022

Rafael Santos

This case study investigated Halliday’s models of child’s use of language involving an English-Filipino bilingual boy and how he was influenced by certain demographic factors and parents’ communicative acts. Data was from nine videos that captured the child’s naturally occurring interactions involving his parents and family friends between the ages 2.6 and 4.10 within a span of almost three years. The multimethod approach was used in analyzing data, namely, qualitative frequency analysis and online interview for triangulation purposes. Five of the seven functions of language in children were demonstrated and appeared to have been influenced by ethnicity, age, gender, and parents’ communicative acts and attitude but not by bilingualism as earlier predicted. More importantly, four nascent models were exhibited, suggesting that there could be more than seven language functions in children as previously posited by Halliday. The esteem function, rescue function, corrective function, and asserting function, reflective of models of child’s use of language in Filipino and Asian contexts, were discovered and such typologies are proposed in this study. Findings have implications on bilingualism, language teaching, and language development theories.

Universidad Central "Marta Abreu" of Las Villas School of Humanities Department of English Language Monograph A Model Describing the Rhetorical Structure and Linguistic Elements of the Abstract Section of Cardiology Research Articles in English Atribución-NoComercial-SinDerivadas CC BY-NC-ND Editing and correction: Miriam Artiles Castro

Research

Full-text available

Feb 2022

The Abstract section is particularly important because it offers different communicative functions such as presenting, describing, stating, summarizing evaluating and sometimes, recommending. That is why, the aim of the present study is to propose a model describing the rhetorical structure and linguistic elements used in the Abstract section of Cardiology research articles in English. To accomplish this purpose, a special corpus of ninety research article abstracts from three specialized Cardiology journals was compiled and processed by AntMover 1.10 (2016) and AntConc 3.5.8 Window (2019), two corpus analysis softwares. As a result, it was designed a rhetorical model consisting in five moves in the Abstract section. The designed model will contribute to improve the academic writing of research articles abstracts in English by Cuban cardiologists. It will also help them to meet the international scientific community demands of their publications. Furthermore, the findings will make an important contribution to the field of ESP pedagogy as they offer authentic material, which could be used for the teaching and learning of English writing.

El Trabajo Final de Grado de Ingeniería Informática: organización retórico-discursiva de la sección RESULTADOS

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2021

La escritura del Trabajo Final de Grado (TFG) es una tarea difícil para la mayoría de los estudiantes de grado. Este es el caso de Ingeniería Informática, disciplina en la que la presentación adecuada de los resultados es una actividad de producción escrita compleja (Ochoa & Cueva, 2017). La sección RESULTADOS es más complicada que otras debido a su estructura, sus propósitos comunicativos y la forma de alcanzarlos (Hussin, Syamimi & Nimehchisalem, 2018). Si bien se han realizado algunas descripciones de su organización retórico-discursiva (Bret, 1994; Chen & Kuo, 2012; Hussin et al., 2018; Venegas et al., 2016), la mayoría se ha centrado en la organización prototípica de solo uno de los tipos de TFG que se producen en esta disciplina. Por lo anterior, en esta investigación mixta de alcance descriptivo, analizamos retórico-discursivamente la sección RESULTADOS de los TFG de Ingeniería Informática, considerando las particularidades de los diferentes tipos de TFG existentes en el marco de la disciplina. Con este fin, empleando el análisis de género (Swales, 1990; 2004), analizamos 117 secciones RESULTADOS de TFG de Ingeniería Informática. Entre nuestros hallazgos se observa que en la sección se emplean de forma prototípica las movidas ‘Presentar información preparatoria’, ‘Reportar los resultados’ e ‘Interpretar los resultados’. A su vez, se establecen variaciones en la organización retórico-discursiva, las que se relacionan con los 4 tipos de TFG que se producen en la disciplina. Concluimos que existen 4 tipos de TFG en Ingeniería Informática, los que inciden en la organización retórico-discursiva de la sección RESULTADOS. A su vez, sostenemos que se debe prestar atención a las particularidades del género y de cada sección, pues debido a los diferentes propósitos que se persiguen en cada uno de ellos, las unidades funcionales discursivas que se emplean difieren entre sí.

1. Introduction: Genre in the Climate Debate

Chapter

Full-text available

Dec 2021

Sune Auken

Dossier Traducción e interdisciplinariedad: sobre el diálogo entre la lingüística y la traducción

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2021

Paula Liendo

1. Introducción La idea de publicar este dossier sobre traducción e interdisciplinariedad surge de las Segundas Jornadas de Traducción del Comahue. La traducción en la convergencia disciplinar de 2019; en particular, de los intercambios con colegas sobre la necesidad de reflexionar acerca de los puntos de encuentro entre la lingüística aplicada y la traducción. La convocatoria tiene como finalidad proponer un diálogo interdisciplinario que ponga de manifiesto la centralidad de la lengua como materia prima con la que trabajan los traductores y promover un intercambio de saberes que favorezca el aprendizaje de aquellos aspectos de la lingüística que contribuyen con su formación académica y profesional. El dialogo entre disciplinas es vital para la enseñanza de una segunda lengua, y más aún en la formación de traductores, dados los múltiples roles que deben asumir. Por un lado, son lectores y escritores especializados ya que deben procesar los textos de origen (TO) que reciben y producir los textos de destino (TD) que les consignan en los encargos. Además, actúan como mediadores entre lenguas y culturas, lo que conlleva el desafío de enmarcar los distintos TO dentro de la comunidad que los utiliza y acorde a las funciones que cumplen en ella, para luego producir TD que satisfagan los requerimientos de la cultura que los recibe. Esta problemática es motivo de una preocupación compartida tanto por colegas como por estudiantes de grado, que observan que, a menudo, la enseñanza de las distintas áreas disciplinares en los traductorados ocurre en compartimentos estancos (van der Linde 2014, Mundó 2011), en desmedro de una formación integral que contemple los distintos aspectos

Rhetorical move and genre knowledge development of English and Indonesian abstracts: A comparative analysis

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2021

A plethora of research has shown that genre analysis through move analysis is a practical approach to identify the complexity of writing research articles (RAs). However, little is known about the genre knowledge development that is manifested in abstract discourse patterns. This study aims to determine whether or not there is an influence from the level of education with the development of genre knowledge, especially in the field of writing research abstracts. Using Hyland’s (2000) five-move analysis model, this study analyzed the comparison and identity of abstracts of theses and dissertations in English and Indonesian. From the analysis, it can be seen that there are some differences and similarities in the manifestation of abstract discourse patterns in English and Indonesian final paper abstracts. In terms of genre knowledge, its development could be reflected through the level of study, in this case, from master’s to doctoral degrees. As evident in the dissertation abstracts in both languages, Move 1 (Introduction) evinces richer varieties in step realizations than in master’s theses. The analysis also indicates no crucial differences in genre knowledge development across languages and fields of study. Further comparative research on this particular topic with more subject of data is suggested.

Persuasive Genres: Old and New Media

Book

Sep 2021

Sujata S. Kathpalia

English for Prospective English Teachers in Hong Kong: Classroom Language in English Lessons

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2021

Chi Wui Ng

Informed by Critical Genre Analysis (CGA), an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) lesson on classroom language is designed for prospective English teachers in Hong Kong to assist them in demystifying their discursive performance in the professional context of English language classrooms in local schools and achieving pragmatic success in their professional practice of conducting English lessons. Needs of target learners are analyzed with respect to the professional culture, professional practice, and genres relevant to English teachers in Hong Kong. On the basis of the needs analysis, a recorded English lesson language is selected as an input material for the lesson and analyzed at textual, socio-cognitive, and socio-critical levels. Pedagogical procedures of the lesson embody genre analysis, generic transfer, and free genre production. After completion of the lesson, students' genre ownership, discursive performance, and competent specialist behaviour are expected to be assessed by means of a weblog recording prospective English teachers' discursive performance during their teaching practice in a local school.

Developing a Checklist for Evaluating Research Articles in Applied Linguistics

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2021

Although researchers, postgraduate students, and university professors are under tremendous pressure to publish or perish, there exist few widely acknowledged rating scales or checklists for evaluating manuscripts submitted to journals in applied linguistics. To top it all, the existent peer-reviewing criteria are typically not publicly shared; thus, peer-reviewing is a closed, occluded genre. To fill this lacuna in applied linguistics, this research critically analyzed the evaluation scales, existing review criteria, and available documents from 18 journals, two publishing institutions, and APA guidelines in order to come up with a comprehensive checklist for evaluating research articles in applied linguistics. The analysis of the data through inductive content analysis revealed 43 categories, which were later classified under six main themes. It was found that researchers must be aware of the practicalities of research, include the essentials in their manuscript, and appeal to editors by adding elements of face validity. Having met these requirements, researchers must enjoy excellent composition skills and adhere to the fundamental principles in research ethics in order to be able to write a research paper having high overall value. The paper concludes with several implications for researchers and opens up some avenues for future research.

Background styles in systematic review articles are not related to the publication in high-impact-factor journals: A meta-epidemiological study

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2020

Objectives: To clarify the styles used in background sections of systematic reviews (SR) and to identify which styles if any were related to the publication in high-impact-factor (HIF) medical journals. Method: This was a cross-sectional study for original SR articles published in top 50 journals in MEDICINE, GENERAL & INTERNAL category in Journal Citation Reports 2018. We randomly included 90 articles from top 10 HIF journals and 90 from others, respectively. We conducted a content analysis to classify the background styles. We assessed the factors associated with the publication in HIF journals. Results: We found 6 categories. We defined 6 categories as follows: Update of prior SR, New in scope than prior SR, Higher quality than prior SR, Completely new SR, Limitations of primary studies only, and Not presenting unknown in prior SR or primary studies. All 6 categories were not related to the publication in HIF journals. Conclusions: We found 6 categories of styles in background sections of SR, none of which however were related to publication in HIF journals. SR authors may wish to use any of these categories to communicate the importance of their research questions.

Teorias de gênero e perspectivas para o ensino: breve panorama ilustrado

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2020

Benedito Gomes Bezerra

A criticism on genre-based teaching concerns its character of simulation. Genre, when transformed into a teaching subject, effectively ceases to function as genre in a real social situation. This understanding questions the validity of explicit pedagogical approaches, which their focus on genre based on structural models that usually emphasize linguistic and organizational aspects of texts linked to specific genres. The question is how to maintain the notion of genre as social action if its insertion in the classroom implies its withdrawal from the real context of production, circulation and reception. Thus, the aim of this work is to reflect on how different theoretical approaches to genre and, in particular, the perspective of Rhetorical Genre Studies, offer subsidies for teaching that do not reduce genre to a simple formal structure, but that preserve its functional, communicative and rhetorical aspects. The discussion is illustrated with references to researches that were conducted in the Professional Master's Program in Letters (PROFLETRAS) guided by a search of an approach that is meaningful in the classroom and at the same time maintains the relationship of genre and its real context of occurrence.

La organización discursiva de los informes escritos por universitarios en formación inicial

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2020

Paulina Núñez Lagos

La investigación, inscrita en la tradición metodológica del análisis del discurso, tiene como objetivo describir las clases de informes que escriben los estudiantes del área de las Ciencias Sociales y Humanas en sus primeros años de estudio. La investigación, desde un enfoque cualitativo, de alcance descriptivo, plantea la identificación de categorías con base en la unidad de análisis denominada movimiento discursivo (moves) de Swales. El corpus de naturaleza muestral estuvo constituido por 110 informes escritos. Los resultados dan cuenta de rasgos discursivos comunes y divergentes en la organización de cuatro tipos de informes identificados: informe de caso, informe bibliográfico, informe de investigación canónica e informe de diagnóstico. Los resultados del estudio constituyen una evidencia empírica valiosa acerca del aprendizaje de un género discursivo de alta recurrencia, y constituye un aporte para la construcción de aplicaciones didácticas de la escritura académica y profesional según tipos de informes.

Creating Contexts in Engineering Research Writing Using a Problem-Solution-Based Writing Model: Experience of Ph.D. Students

Article

May 2020
IEEE T PROF COMMUN

bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Background: The ability to create a context is essential in writing the introduction of a research article (RA). This study explores the experience of engineering Ph.D. students in Australia, for whom English is an Additional Language (EAL), in using a problem-solution-based writing model to develop context-creating skills in writing RA introductions. Research question: What is the experience of engineering Ph.D. students in creating contexts through explicit learning of a problem-solution-based model for writing RA introductions? Literature review: Genre-based teaching is a common approach in the second language classroom. Recently, a genre-based approach for writing the introduction of engineering RAs has been proposed. The descriptive values of the model, PSP-CaRS, have been shown in corpus studies of published engineering RAs. However, its applicability has not been explored pedagogically. Methodology: Twenty-nine Ph.D. students were asked to respond to a questionnaire nine months after learning the model and reflect on their experience using it. The findings were then corroborated with data obtained from interviews, researcher observation, and writing samples. Results: The findings showed that the participants perceived PSP-CaRS to be useful and they continued using it after nine months despite some difficulties encountered in the writing process. Participants’ responses showed that explicit teaching of PSP-CaRS formed the foundation upon which more competent skills to create contexts were developed through practice and integration of subject knowledge. Discussion: Explicit teaching using a model can impart the basics of genre awareness to students. Once students gained an in-depth understanding of the model by working through their difficulties, they developed better genre awareness, and used the model adaptively to visualize and write their RA introductions. Conclusion: The results confirm the usefulness of the proposed model and reveal how a continuing process of learning and practicing using the model helps students develop their skills to create contexts and enhance their genre awareness.

Multi-perspective research

Chapter

Jan 2020

Brian Paltridge

This chapter discusses multi-perspective research; that is, research which incorporates multiple perspectives into its study design, data collection, and analysis. Research that has examined writing for publication and the peer review of submissions to academic journals are discussed as examples of this. This includes approaches and methods which have been employed to examine authors’ experiences of writing research articles and getting published in academic journals, as well as approaches that have been drawn on to examine reviewers’ reports on submissions to academic journals and the experiences of authors dealing with the peer review process. Particular attention is given in these discussions to the data collection methods and data analysis techniques employed in the studies. Proposals are made for further studies that employ multiple perspectives in their study design and research.

Organización retórica y autorreferencia en el resumen de lingüística: Un estudio contrastivo inglés-español

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2019

Benjamín Cárcamo

La necesidad de divulgar el conocimiento académico-científico ha derivado en una mayor atención al resumen que precede al artículo de investigación científica, especialmente en cuanto a su variación disciplinaria y cultural. El presente estudio contrasta la organización retórica de resúmenes escritos en español e inglés en la disciplina de la lingüística. El corpus utilizado está compuesto por 60 resúmenes, 30 de cada idioma, extraídos de seis revistas especializadas indexadas en SciELO y SCOPUS. El análisis del corpus siguió un enfoque descendente. Los resultados muestran que los resúmenes en español son menos complejos retóricamente que los escritos en inglés. Por otra parte, se ha revelado que predomina la autorreferencia impersonal en textos de ambos idiomas excepto en la movida retórica de ‘propósito’, en la que los escritos ingleses muestran un uso más frecuente de la primera persona plural. Se concluye que la variación cultural tiene cierto impacto en la escritura de las comunidades discursivas.

Does a process-genre approach help improve students’ argumentative writing in English as a foreign language? Findings from an intervention study

Article

Jun 2020

Many researchers have acknowledged the advantages of process-genre approaches to teaching writing in various genres in a foreign/second language (L2). However, empirical studies examining L2 learners’ performance within such a framework are still underrepresented. To fill the research gap, we investigated the effects of a process-genre approach to teaching argumentative writing on L2 learners’ writing improvement. Quasi-experimental in design, this intervention was conducted in two English classes at a university in China, with an intervention group receiving L2 writing instruction through the process-genre approach and the comparison group through a commonly practiced conventional approach. Pretest, immediate posttest, and delayed posttest measures were taken for gauging L2 learners’ writing performance through an argumentative essay writing task. All the essays were evaluated against a marking rubric in content, organization, vocabulary, language use, and mechanics. Results show significant increases in the intervention group’s performance in the immediate posttest and good effects retained in the delayed posttest 6 weeks later. Little improvement in the comparison group was found in the immediate posttest or the delayed posttest. Between-group comparisons indicate that the treatment group outperformed the comparison group in the immediate post- and the delayed posttests, as shown in their overall score and scores on the four components, particularly in content and organization.

Different Faces of Gatekeeping and Gatekeepers

Chapter

Sep 2022

There is no doubt that scholarly discourse cannot be imagined without the practice of refereeing and adjudicating, and, as we shall refer to it in this volume, certifying knowledge. In other words, gatekeeping is at the heart of academic discourse and an important aspect of the rules of the game of scholarly practice. Merton and Sztompka (On social structure and science, University of Chicago Press, 1996) enumerate disinterestedness, “ultimate accountability of scientists to their compeers” (p. 275), as one of the major canons or imperatives for scientific ethos. That is, scientific work needs to be filtered through a normalized (standardized) intellectual process or procedure in knowledge construction and dissemination mechanism whereby the produced cultural capital is measured and its quality is dissected based on a set of agreed-upon (hegemonic) criteria by idealistically impartial expert compeers in one’s discipline. Ultimately, this is how the academic community assures itself and the general public that the certified knowledge has been intellectually processed and is therefore reliable, noteworthy, and a part of the existent knowledge repertoire. This description provides a pretty straightforward picture of the significance and the procedural knowledge of the gatekeeping process. However, it sounds simplistic and reductionist in the sense that it glosses over the complexity, multidimensionality, contours, and nuances of the knowledge production and certification enterprise. By the same token, in what follows, we intend to have a closer look at different dimensions of the gatekeeping practice (and similarly gatekeepers) in order to understand what makes the process and its analysis both worthy and challenging. It is worth mentioning though that in spite of our separate discussion of these aspects below, they are closely interconnected and constitutive of each other.

Rhetorical Structure and Types of Comments in My Manuscript Reviews

Chapter

Sep 2022

Ling Shi

This chapter reports an analysis of my own review reports in the past ten years (2010–2019) for 82 manuscripts submitted to 14 applied linguistic journals. Following John Swales’ move analyses, it explores the rhetorical structure of the reports with two sections. The first is the Recommendation section with moves of outlining the article, acknowledging revisions for resubmission, summarizing the contributions and/or my major concerns, and recommending whether the manuscript is suitable for publication. The second section, Specific evaluative commentary, specifies the major concerns summarized in the Recommendation section to request revisions on aspects of the Literature review, Methodology, and Presentation of the paper. The requests for revisions are carefully worded with hedges and indirectness so negative comments are presented in a less face-threatening way.

The Inner World of Gatekeeping in Scholarly Publication

Book

Oct 2022

English for Research Publication Purposes; English as an academic language; gatekeeping in scholarly publication; editing and reviewing practices

The emergence of a new inclusive meta-scientific genre; ‘the Bigger Picture’

Article

Apr 2022

Kallia Katsampoxaki-Hodgetts

Parascientific genres often do not abide by the established norms and conventions of science communication in research articles (RAs) and they are not included in the RA. This work examines the linguistic and communicative exigencies of an emerging digital genre, the Bigger Picture, an obligatory post-publication section in the journal Chem which deviates considerably from RA norms, yet it is included in the RA. This work aims to examine its rhetorical functions and determine users' initial perceptions: rhetorical analysis of twenty Bigger Picture sections in Chemistry RAs in Chem, a survey and an interview were conducted to determine users' perceptions. Novice researchers/writers were also asked to write think aloud reports as part of the qualitative analysis. The analysis of the genre moves and featuring conventions showed an intentional blurring of boundaries between scientific and general discourse, technical, non-technical and inter-disciplinary communication which gives rise to a new more inclusive ‘meta-scientific’ genre. Participants agreed that the Bigger Picture's main purpose is to involve, engage and reach out to a wider audience, adapting a discipline-specific discourse and re-contextualising research outcomes from a highly specialised context to a nominally specialised one, using recontextualisation strategies which aim to include a broader pool of potential interdisciplinary users.

Bringing light to a hidden genre: the peer review report

Article

Full-text available

May 2022
High Educ Res Dev

While early career researchers (ECRs) often read and produce articles for peer reviewed journals, they are less familiar with peer review reports (PRRs). Most ECRs learn about the genre of PRRs by reading reports on their own manuscripts and through hands-on experience crafting their own, often with little guidance or exposure to exemplars. To demystify this ‘hidden’ academic genre, this article reports on a genre analysis of 62 ‘quality’ PRRs, focusing on their communicative purposes, and the structural, content, and linguistic elements that serve to support those purposes. Findings show that the central role of the PRR is to elicit various actions on the part of manuscript authors. Other functions serve to circumvent manuscript author’s potential negative emotional response to PRRs, and this is also seen in limited use of high modality verbs and emotional language. PRRs follow a fairly uniform structure, and focus on all elements of the manuscript, with most attention given to the methods section. The paper provides numerous practical examples that provide a practical guide to support writing pedagogies related to important academic practice.

Flames of Justice in a Virtual Garden: An Analysis of a Digital Campaign on Twitter Surrounding the Death of an Indian Celebrity

Chapter

Feb 2022

Social media particularly Twitter has emerged as a powerful medium for expression and discussion for a wide range of topics. Through the use of hashtags, a powerful and popular affordance of Twitter, several online campaigns aimed at raising awareness and consciousness towards various issues of civic and social justice, have emerged. Although prior scholarship has investigated forms of rhetoric and impacts of such narrative movements on Twitter, an important consideration is to understand the structural forms that such narratives take depending on context and regional culture wherein the movement originates, rendering each campaign unique in its collective identity and objective. To this end, this study embarks on a mixed-methods analysis of 27,265 tweets related to calls of action and social justice in the aftermath of the death of a popular Indian movie star. The analysis reveals a diverse spectrum of themes ranging from expressions of loss and grief to astute critiques of the major institutions of power. Parallel but powerful themes also demonstrated attempts to nurture and embolden the campaign. Temporal trends provide insights into the collective orientation and gradual development of a community focus among campaign participants. The ultimate aim of this analysis is to provide insights into how such channels of discourse should be designed to create and nurture a medium for freedom of expression and foster safe spaces for civic engagement.KeywordsSocial justiceCommunity normsCivic engagementTwitterContent analysis

Multilingual academic genre knowledge: Insights from a mixed-method study of post-graduate students in Kazakhstan

Article

Mar 2022
J SECOND LANG WRIT

In an increasing number of post-graduate programmes in Kazakhstan, students may be expected to produce academic or professional texts in up to three languages—Kazakh, Russian, and English. While previous research has shown the benefits of genre-based approaches to English academic development, this study seeks to understand students’ development of genre knowledge in multiple languages simultaneously. Using Tardy’s (2009) four-part genre knowledge framework, a survey measuring self-reported genre knowledge in three languages was developed and administered to Master’s and PhD students (n=283) at 6 Kazakhstani universities, followed by interviews of students (n=43), teachers (n=34) and administrators (n=30) on approaches to genre knowledge development. Survey data revealed students generally have higher genre knowledge in Russian, followed by Kazakh and English. Students have higher Formal knowledge than other types of genre knowledge across languages. Interview findings suggest students are primarily influenced by IELTS exam-based, Formal knowledge approaches to education in English. The results suggest a need for both explicit instruction in non-structural elements of genre knowledge in three languages, and expanded identification of the key components of genre knowledge in languages other than English.

Mediation and Genre Analysis for English Teachers

Chapter

Feb 2022

Gabrielle Smith

Mediation and Genre Analysis for English Teachers (MAGNET) is one of two required English language competence courses designed for pre-service English teachers in the Master of Education (MEd) program of the Department of English and American Studies at the University of Vienna. While its companion course, Advanced Speaking Skills for English Teachers (ASSET), is focused on developing advanced spoken English for educational contexts (see Richter, “Advanced Speaking Skills for English Teachers,” this volume), MAGNET emphasizes advanced genre analysis, writing, and mediation skills. There is no prerequisite for attendance other than admission into the MEd program. The language proficiency of students is expected to be at the upper range of C1 according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (Council of Europe, 2020).

Corpus Linguistics for English for Academic Purposes

Book

Dec 2021

Lexico-semantic relativity and versatility in translation and intercultural communication

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2021

The aim of the article is to discuss translation regularities in correlations of words that denote culture-related phenomena that exist in many cultures or that are specific to certain cultures and languages. The focus is on Russian and English culturonyms. The authors dwell on the principle of functional dualism that claims that language can equally address internal and external cultures. This principle is developed in the new linguistic discipline termed interlinguoculturology (Kabakchi 1998, Kabakchi Beloglazova 2020). Nonetheless, under the impact of the World Englishes paradigm, the article points to blurring the concept of external culture - Russian bilinguals, speaking or writing in Russian English, use this variety for expressing their own culture; the same is true for other world Englishes that have branched from the prototypical British English model. Despite the polemical relations of the two research schools, which are close and yet different in some of their tenets, there is much in common in their semantic and pragmatic research of how varieties of English adapt and domesticate culturonyms, in particular binary words belonging to two languages and often associated with each other in translation. The paper discusses examples of binary polyonyms (universal culturonyms) whose meaning depends on the context of the situation and, therefore, is differently received in diverse cultures; binary analogues whose equivalent selection is based on scrutinizing the dictionary entry and on the knowledge of the cultural background, and binary interonyms that partly help translators and partly interfere with their work, being deceptive cognates differing in their referential or connotational meanings. The article concludes that the interpretation of culture-bound words in foreign-culture-oriented texts depends on various pragmatic and semantic processes and is grounded in a word semantic flexibility and its matter-of-course adaptation in a cultural and language environment.

Cross-cultural Genre Analysis: Investigating Chinese, Italian and English CSR Reports

Book

Oct 2021

Danni Yu

The Challenges of Designing a Textual Corpus to Develop Translation Students' Academic Literacy

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2021

This work discusses the progress of Research Project J031, Alfabetización Académica y Tipologías Textuales en la Enseñanza del Inglés para la Traducción (2018-2021), whose aims are the compilation of an English-language authentic-text corpus for the design of didactic materials to advance translation students' academic competences in English. The theoretical-methodological framework of this work, like that of the Project J031, is anchored in Academic Literacy (AL) studies (largely Bazerman's Writing Across the Curriculum movement), Genre Theory, and the conception of teaching English in translator training as English for Specific Purposes. A discussion of the findings so far accounts for the benefits of the elaboration of a corpus of authentic texts for the development of learners' AL and translation competence; and presents two elements for the analysis of the corpus: a classification tool and a taxonomy for text annotation. As preliminary conclusions, it is hoped this work contributes to the enhancement of students' translation strategies and to the strengthening of links between theory, practice and research in AL and translator training. Purposes 1 Paula Liendo, Stella M. Maluenda and Norma Maure are teachers at the Certified Translator Program at Universidad Nacional del Comahue, General Roca, Río Negro. Silvia Vallejos is an advanced student at the same program. They are all part of the research team currently working on Project PIN J031, Alfabetización Académica y Tipologías Textuales en la Enseñanza del Inglés para la Traducción (2018-2021). Bridging Cultures-Nro. 4-Año 2019-Departamento de Lenguas, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad Católica Argentina 7 Resumen Este trabajo presenta el avance del proyecto de investigación Alfabetización Académica y Tipologías Textuales en la Enseñanza del Inglés para la Traducción (2018-2021), cuyos objetivos son elaborar un corpus con textos auténticos en lengua inglesa y proponer materiales didácticos que favorezcan la alfabetización académica (AA) de los estudiantes en la L2. Tanto el proyecto J031 como el presente trabajo se encuadran en el marco teórico-metodológico de la alfabetización académica (principalmente en los aportes del movimiento Writing Across the Curriculum), la Teoría de Género y el enfoque del inglés con propósitos específicos para la enseñanza de inglés en el traductorado. En cuanto a los resultados obtenidos hasta el momento, la discusión se centra en los beneficios que ofrece la utilización de un corpus de textos auténticos para el desarrollo de las competencias académica y traductora de los estudiantes, así como en la presentación de dos elementos para el análisis del corpus: una herramienta de clasificación y una taxonomía para la anotación de los textos. Como conclusiones preliminares, se espera que este trabajo contribuya a incrementar las estrategias traductoras de los estudiantes y a consolidar los vínculos entre la teoría, la práctica, la investigación en AA y la formación de traductores. Palabras clave: Alfabetización académica-diseño de corpus-Teoría de Género-formación de traductores-Inglés con propósitos específicos

Feedback and doctoral student writing

Chapter

Jun 2021

Brian Paltridge

Feedback is an important way through which doctoral students learn the expectations of writing at their particular level of study. It is also through feedback that students are inducted into the community of practice of their discipline (Hyatt, 2005; Kumar & Stracke, 2007; Lave & Wenger, 1991). This feedback is provided by the student’s supervisor/s during their period of study as well as by examiners on completion of the degree. While a number of studies have examined supervisor feedback (see e.g. Basturkman et al., 2014; Bitchener et al., 2010; Kumar & Stracke, 2007; Morton et al., 2014; Starfield, 2019; Wang & Li, 2011) and examiner feedback (see e.g. Holbrook, et al., 2004, 2014; Starfield, et al., 2015, 2017; Stracke & Kumar, 2010), a matter that is still underexplored is how supervisors and examiners ask students to make changes to their work and the language they use do this. This chapter examines the feedback that doctoral students get on their work from both supervisors and examiners. In particular, it examines features of this feedback that students might find difficult to interpret and, as a result, respond to.

Promoting Multilingual Students’ Disciplinary and Language Learning Through the WIDA Framework for Equitable Instruction

Article

Jun 2021

This article explores the development of a guidance document titled the “Framework for Equitable Instruction” (Framework), which aims to support multilingual students’ content-area learning and language development. The Framework was developed by WIDA, a national consortium of states, as part of its system of language standards, assessments, and professional learning. The article discusses the Framework using a protocol originally created for the alignment of content-area and language standards. The protocol highlights the rigorous theoretical foundations of the Framework, the research-based rationale behind its conceptualization of language trajectories, and the tight linkages between the Framework, content-area standards, and classroom instruction. The systematic exploration of the Framework’s features in this article can inform the future design of language standards and related documents and serve as a foundation for the constructive critique of existing ones.

Rhetorical Structure in the Problem Statement Section of Iranian Postgraduate Students' Research Projects

Article

Full-text available

May 2021

This paper reports the results of a study that investigated the structure of the Problem Statement (PS) section, following Swales' (1990) Create-A-Research-Space (CARS) model as the first objective. Move analysis was used to analyze the rhetorical moves of the PS sections of the research projects. The second objective was the identification of the specific types of linguistic features associated with each move and step based on Pho's (2013) classification. Following Pho (2013), the linguistic features as important signals of moves were identified. For this purpose, 30 research projects written by Iranian master's students were purposively selected. The findings showed that the obligatory moves were Moves 1 'Establishing a Territory' and 2 'Establishing a Niche'. All moves and steps were identified linguistically although their sequence and arrangement were not the same as what was anticipated by the model. Although the cyclic and embedded moves were defined in the rhetorical structure of the PSs, most of them were anomalous or ill-structured. The study has theoretical contributions, the most significant one of which is that the CARS model is applicable to define and analyze the rhetorical structure of the PS section. Citation in APA style: Tarvirdizdeh, Z., & Nimehchisalem, V. (2021). Rhetorical structure in the problem statement section of Iranian postgraduate students' research projects. Studies in English Language and Education, 8(2), 578-595.

Metapragmatics and Genre. Connecting the Strands

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2021

Genre analysis involves at least a foray into the social/contextual dimension framing genre-exemplars. One way to explore this dimension is drawing on the concept of metapragmatics, which is primarily associated with (American) linguistic anthropology. However, with a few exceptions, genre studies have not consistently operationalized metapragmatics, either theoretically or practically. The purpose of this article is, therefore, to explore one possible angle of such operationalization by means of studying discourse fragments reflecting on fragments of (these very or other) discourses (so-called metapragmatic discourses) vis--vis any generic properties of the reflected discourse. Specifically, we analyzed comments sections for a number of YouTube videos exemplifying several lifestyle genres. The results indicate that generic references can range from simply using a generic label to refer to the discourse in question (as a token of a certain type/genre) to actually discussing the generic characteristics of the genre it instantiates, as well as projecting certain (generic) metapragmatic stances. Another observation is that different wordings used by the discourse community to refer to generic models can be, as it were, proper generic labels, but they can also be words and phrases that would hardly qualify as proper names of genres from an analysts point of view. Both these proper and other - genre-like - labels are also often used in conjunction with or are replaced by other ways of metapragmatically referring to what the speaker does or even what they are in/by dint of using the discourse in question. This suggests that any generic labels or cues are just part of a large pool of other possible metapragmatic meanings, knowledge, and ideologies circulating in discourse communities. More broadly, the results may indicate that genre studies should see genre as an even less stabilized entity because what a genre is depends on what people who actually use it make of it, as well as augment their standard toolkits with methods aimed at exploring metapragmatic discourse.

Needs Analysis in ESP Context: A Project in English for Specific Purpose: English Writing Course for Diploma Students in Management

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2020

This study aims to analyse the needs of Management students for English for Specific Purpose (ESP) course as well as to design an ESP course for the Management students. In addition, this research is carried out to answer the research questions; 1. What is the importance of the use of English in management program? 2. What are the most important language skills used in Management program? 3. What is the frequency of the language skills used in management program? 4. What is the level of students' performance based on the academic task? The findings of the study indicated that the use of English is very important as it is used in every task related to management. The students revealed that they have to give presentations in English and have discussions with peer in English. The listening skills are known to be least used in management program. Furthermore, the findings revealed that the students mostly have some difficulty in completing speaking tasks in their program.

Academic Writing: Critics of the Traditional EAP Approach

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2020

Svetlana Sheypak

Through the analysis of the positions taken in the discussion on Academic Writing, the article shows that the experience of Academic Writing adopted from Anglo-Saxon educational practices in many Russian universities is based on the traditional EAP (English for Academic Purposes) methods which have been systematically criticized for text-centricity and cultural universalism. The critical revision of the traditional EAP methods requires implementing a discourse analytical approach and cultural relativism in Academic Writing course. A review of critical studies on Academic Writing concludes that the criticism of the traditional EAP methods is developed on the basis of concepts worked in the Russian rhetoric tradition by researchers of the Bakhtin circle. The article points out that in the Russian educational context the EAP experience is to be implemented through a discourse analytical approach that has been adopted in the EAP practices in response to criticism. The concepts developed in the Russian rhetorical tradition are required to apply a discourse analytical approach in the Academic Writing course in Russian universities.

Formality as a Style-Forming Property of Academic English: Synchronic Analysis of Medical Research Texts

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2019

The paper discusses academic formality as a basic linguistic and stylistic property which indicates academic discourse. The objective of the research is to identify specific features and means of formality representation in medical discourse. The material of the research includes a corpus comprised of fifteen authentic open – access research articles published in European Journal of Epidemiology in 2019. The texts of the articles were processed within the framework of descriptive linguistic analysis. The quantitative analysis and statistic processing was performed with Compleat Lexical Tutor v.8.3. The results of the research have revealed lexical, syntactical, grammatical and stylistic means of formality representation in medical research texts. The lexical diversity coefficient ranges from 0.22 to 2.27, which demonstrates a high level of vocabulary complexity and a relatively low level of vocabulary diversity. The high level of lexical density is acquired by a frequent use of noun groups, nominalization and medical terminology including abbreviations and acronyms. Stylistic repetitions of vocabulary and syntactic structures are registered on all texts of the research corpus. Along with a widespread use of passive and impersonal structures the texts of the research have demonstrated a tendency to use subjective language (we / our pronouns) for an author stance. The authors have made a conclusion that this might be an indication of a shift towards simplicity and ersonification in academic formality representation.

Transfer and transformation in multilingual student writing

Article

Nov 2019

While transfer research in English-for-academic-purposes (EAP), first-year-composition (FYC) and second language (L2) writing contexts has theorized how novice multilingual writers might adapt prior knowledge across languages, we still have little empirical evidence to suggest how L2 writers make decisions concerning how and what to transfer in such writing courses. Grounded in the theory of adaptive transfer, this article examines how six multilingual students transform both genre tasks and their own processes of writing by drawing from a range of discursive and generic resources. We also propose a dynamic methodological approach for empirically examining adaptive transfer that includes both linguistic and rhetorical emphases. Findings of the study reveal that instances of transfer were influenced by the particular audiences to whom students chose to target their essays, as well as students' perceptions of a genre task's value in preparing them for writing in aspirational disciplines.

Tracking Students' Developing Conceptions of Voice and Style in Writing

Chapter

Sep 2019

Zak Lancaster

This chapter (from Developing Writers in Higher Education) draws on over 130 interviews with undergraduate writers, raising questions about trajectories of development in their underlying views of style and voice in writing.

Revisiting the role of ‘discipline’ in writing for publication in two social sciences

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2019

The role of discipline in shaping writing for publication has been widely acknowledged in EAP research, and a wealth of studies that seek to characterise and differentiate disciplinary writing have been published. However, a conceptualisation of disciplines as clearly demarcated territories may be outdated given the “constantly changing and dynamic […] contemporary university” (Manathunga & Brew, 2014, p.45). In light of these changes, our article interrogates the centrality of discipline in research-based writing, from the academics' perspective. To do so, we adopt Trowler’s (2014a) reconceptualization of discipline as an analytical framework. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven scholars in two social sciences. Interview data was supplemented by an analysis of the participants’ research-based outputs. The results highlight the contested nature of disciplinary affiliation and reveal the range of factors that participants perceive to be “shapers” of writing for publication, beyond discipline: epistemological/methodological, structural and individual. Based on the results, we argue that Trowler’s new metaphor of discipline enables us to account for our findings, and conclude with recommendations for EAP writing for publication interventions. Keywords: discipline; writing for publication; ethnography; variation

The Troublesome Dichotomy (Argument over Chomsky’s competence and performance)

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2002

Anna Żurek

The competence – performance dichotomy has become useful in many fields of science to the extent that it is used in attempts to explain many difficulties. It is usually associated with Noam Chomsky, the creator of generative-transformational grammar, who had departed from Ferdinand de Saussure’s distinction into langue and parole, due to the specific understanding of langue as “merely a systematic inventory of items” and substituted it with the said dichotomy, accepting Humboldtian conception of underlying competence as a system of generative processes. Thus, he devoted his attention to mind faculty in the character of intuitive and subconscious knowledge inherent to all native speakers, and not – as suggested by de Saussure – non-human-dependent arrangement of tightly interlaced language signs.

Awareness Versus Production: Probing Students’ Antecedent Genre Knowledge

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2010
J BUS TECH COMMUN

This article explores the role of students’ prior, or antecedent, genre knowledge in relation to their developing disciplinary genre competence by drawing on an illustrative example of an engineering genre-competence assessment. The initial outcomes of this diagnostic assessment suggest that students’ ability to successfully identify and characterize rhetorical and textual features of a genre does not guarantee their successful writing performance in the genre. Although previous active participation in genre production (writing) seems to have a defining influence on students’ ability to write in the genre, such participation appears to be a necessary but insufficient precondition for genre-competence development. The authors discuss the usefulness of probing student antecedent genre knowledge early in communication courses as a potential source for macrolevel curriculum decisions and microlevel pedagogical adjustments in course design, and they propose directions for future research.

Genre as Social Action

Article

Full-text available

May 1984
Q J SPEECH

Carolyn R. Miller

This essay proposes a conception of genre based on conventionalized social motives which are found in recurrent situation‐types. The thesis is that genre must be conceived in terms of rhetorical action rather than substance or form.

Teaching Critical Genre Awareness

Chapter

Aug 2009

Amy J Devitt

Introduction: How a genre approach to literacy can transform the way writing is taught

Article

Jan 1993

Destabilizing and enriching novice students' genre theories

Article

Jan 2002

Ann M. Johns

Mediating materiality and discursivity: Critical ethnography as metageneric learning

Article

Jan 2004

M.J. Reiff

In his well-known overview of methodological communities comprising the field of rhetoric-composition, The Making of Knowledge in Composition, Stephen North contends that "Ethnographic studies can hardly be said to have taken Composition by storm" (272). Fifteen years later, the field's interest in ethnography has evolved, challenging North's critique of ethnography's methodological integrity and his prediction that "the future of the embattled Ethnographic community cannot be all that bright" (313). Responding to challenges to the authority of ethnography as a research method, several ethnographic studies have been published in the field over the past decade, and books on research methods and methodologies in the field of rhetoriccomposition regularly include sections on ethnographic methods, with a few whole texts devoted to the subject, such as Wendy Bishop's Ethnographic Writing Research, among others.1.

Analysing genre: Functional parameters., Genre and institutions: Social processes in the workplace and school

Article

J. Martin

Show and Tell? The Role of Explicit Teaching in the Learning of New Genres

Article

Jan 1993
RES TEACH ENGL

A. Freedman

The abstract for this document is available on CSA Illumina.To view the Abstract, click the Abstract button above the document title.

The Myth of Linguistic Homogeneity in U.S. College Composition

Article

Jul 2006
Coll Engl

Paul Kei Matsuda

In "English Only and U.S. College Composition," Bruce Horner and John Trimbur identify the tacit policy of unidirectional English monolingualism, which makes moving students toward the dominant variety of English the only conceivable way of dealing with language issues in composition instruction. This policy of unidirectional monolingualism is an important concept to critique because it accounts for the relative lack of attention to multilingualism in the composition scholarship. Yet it does not seem to explain why second language issues have not become a central concern in composition studies. After all, if U.S. comp osit ion had ac cepted t he policy of unidirectional monolingualism, all composition teachers would have been expected to learn how to teach the dominant variety of English to students who come from different language backgrounds. This has not been the case. While Geneva Smitherman and Victor Villanueva argue that coursework on language issues should be part of every English teachers' professional preparation (4), relatively few graduate programs in composition studies offer courses on those issues, and even fewer require such courses. As a result, the vast majority of U.S. college composition programs remain unprepared for second language writers who enroll in the mainstream composition courses. To account for this situation, I want to take Horner and Trimbur's argument a step further and suggest that the dominant discourse of U.S. college composition not only has accepted "English Only" as an ideal but already assumes the state of English Only, in which students are native English speakers by default. Copyright © 2010 by the Board of Trustees, Southern Illinois University. All rights reserved.

Tracing Discursive Resources: How Students Use Prior Genre Knowledge to Negotiate New Writing Contexts in First-Year Composition

Article

Jul 2011
WRIT COMMUN

While longitudinal research within the field of writing studies has contributed to our understanding of postsecondary students’ writing development, there has been less attention given to the discursive resources students bring with them into writing classrooms and how they make use of these resources in first-year composition courses. This article reports findings from a cross-institutional research study that examines how students access and make use of prior genre knowledge when they encounter new writing tasks in first-year composition courses. Findings reveal a range of ways student make use of prior genre knowledge, with some students breaking down their genre knowledge into useful strategies and repurposing it, and with others maintaining known genres regardless of task.

Toward a theory of adaptive transfer: Expanding disciplinary discussions of “transfer” in second-language writing and composition studies

Article

Jun 2011
J SECOND LANG WRIT

In this paper, we argue that discussions of transfer in L2 writing and composition studies have focused primarily on the reuse of past learning and thus have not adequately accounted for the adaptation of learned writing knowledge in unfamiliar situations. In an effort to expand disciplinary discussions of transfer in L2 writing and composition studies, this study theorizes a construct forged from collective insights on transfer of learning in the fields of educational psychology, education, and human resource development—namely, adaptive transfer. We define adaptive transfer as the conscious or intuitive process of applying or reshaping learned writing knowledge in new and potentially unfamiliar writing situations. Because adaptive transfer acknowledges both the reuse and the reshaping of prior writing knowledge to fit new contexts, this framework could have important implications for L2 and L1 writing pedagogies and research in the areas of contrastive rhetoric, English for academic purposes, and writing across the curriculum.

Language features as the pathways to genre: Students’ attention to non-prototypical features and its implications

Article

Mar 2011
J SECOND LANG WRIT

An Cheng

The ESP School of genre study has been noted as increasingly bridging the linguistic and the rhetorical traditions in genre studies. However, some genre theorists have characterized the ESP genre approaches as treating rhetorical contexts as mainly, if not merely, the background for explicating texts. This paper explores this issue through examining how some students made sense of the relationship between context and text in two L2 writing courses that adopted the ESP genre-based framework of learning academic writing. Four examples are presented to show that the students seemed to approach such a relationship in complex, individuated ways that seemingly resist the above portrayal of ESP-oriented genre analysis. Although a sense of rhetorical context seemed to provide some background for the students to single out certain textual features as noteworthy, text was hardly the end goal of these students’ analyses. Instead, the students’ highlighted language features seemed to function more as the pathways to their enhanced and extended understanding of such complex contextual dimensions of genre as authorial intentions, intertextuality, presupposition and rhetoricity, and disciplinarity in academic writing. These findings help raise several questions for future L2 writing research and practice.

Community and Individuality: Performing Identity in Applied Linguistics

Article

Mar 2010
WRIT COMMUN

Ken Hyland

Recent research has emphasized the close connections between writing and the construction of an author’s identity. While academic contexts privilege certain ways of making meanings and so restrict what resources participants can bring from their past experiences, we can also see these writing conventions as a repertoire of options that allow writers to actively and publicly accomplish an identity through discourse choices. This article takes a somewhat novel approach to the issue of authorial identity by using the tools of corpus analysis to examine the published works of two leading figures in applied linguistics: John Swales and Debbie Cameron. By comparing high frequency keywords and clusters in their writing with a larger applied linguistics reference corpus, I attempt to show how corpus techniques might inform our study of identity construction and something of the ways identity can be seen as independent creativity shaped by an accountability to shared practices.

The discourse-based interview: a procedure for exploring the tacit knowledge of writers in nonacademic settings

Article

Jan 1983

Understanding 'Transfer' from FYC: Preliminary Results of a Longitudinal Study

Article

Jan 2007

Elizabeth Wardle

Sociocultural Differences in Children’s Genre Knowledge

Chapter

Dec 2005

Texts are an integral part of people’s everyday lives in current literate societies. People deal with texts in a variety of social settings: at home, at work, at school and on the streets. Indeed, children may learn a lot about texts by observing adults using them, by looking at print materials, by being read to or by reading books, newspapers, letters and so on themselves. But are these textual experiences the same for all children? How do different social contexts shape children’s experiences with texts and written language in general? This chapter addresses these questions and provides answers on the basis of data drawn from a specific cultural context, the Brazilian context. It is expected that some groups of Brazilian children (such as middle-class children) would have frequent encounters with a broad range of text genres and, as a result, their generic textual knowledge would be quite rich. In Brazil, however, we find a special group of children — the street children — who do not live with their families, and do not attend school. What do street children know about texts? Where does their knowledge come from? To explore these issues, we devised a study in which Brazilian middle-class and street children were asked to produce and identify different text genres: a story, a letter and a newspaper article. We also talked informally with the children about their exposure to these genres in contexts created at home, at school and on the streets. The results show that streets can be regarded as an important literacy environment to street children just as home and school is to middle-class children, and that children’s generic knowledge is mediated by the social practices around certain types of texts children from different social backgrounds engage with.

Prior Knowledge and the (RE)Production of School Written Genres

Chapter

Debra A. Myhill

This chapter draws on recent research on genre literacy to investigate aspects of British children’s school writing, as revealed in the texts produced by children at different age levels and sociocultural groups. Specifically, this chapter explores the way developing writers’ prior knowledge shapes their learning about how to produce written texts in school and become confident writers. The discussion singles out different constituents of the notion of prior knowledge; this is conceptualized in terms of both sociocultural conventions for organizing meanings (or formal schemata) and register choices, as well as knowledge of visual design and text layout. The discussion builds upon the premise that detailed textual analysis of written texts can reveal important information on the types of prior knowledge with which children approach genre writing in the school context, and illustrates some of the difficulties children face in the production of genres which constitute advanced school literacy tasks. Evidence is discussed of how some children use the semiotic meaning-making resources from their out-of-school literacy experiences in ways that can be effective (or ineffective) according to school standards. Furthermore, the discussion takes into account the extent to which this prior knowledge is acknowledged in the British school context, especially in its examination and assessment processes. Finally, the chapter highlights the role curriculum requirements and pedagogical practices play in establishing school writing as little more than sociocultural reproduction of culturally valued genres.

Exploring multiple profiles of highly rated learner composition

Article

Dec 2003
J SECOND LANG WRIT

Recent research has come a long way in describing the linguistic features of large samples of written texts, although a satisfactory description of L2 writing remains problematic. Even when variables such as proficiency, language background, topic, and audience have been controlled, straightforward predictive relationships between linguistic variables and quality ratings have remained elusive, and perhaps they always will. We propose a different approach. Rather than assuming a linear relationship between linguistic features and quality ratings, we explore multiple profiles of highly rated timed compositions and describe how they compare in terms of their lexical, grammatical, and discourse features. To this end, we performed a cluster analysis on two sets of timed compositions to examine their patterns of use of several linguistic features. The purpose of the analysis was to investigate whether multiple profiles (or clusters) would emerge among the highly rated compositions in each data set. This did indeed occur. Within each data set, the profiles of highly rated texts differed significantly. Some profiles exhibited above-average levels for several linguistic features, whereas others showed below-average levels. We interpret the results as confirming that highly rated texts are not at all isometric, even though there do appear to be some identifiable constraints on the ways in which highly rated timed compositions may vary.

Researching first and second language genre learning: A comparative review and a look ahead

Article

Jun 2006
J SECOND LANG WRIT

Christine M. Tardy

With genre now viewed as a fundamental element of writing, both second language writing and mainstream composition studies have seen an increased focus on the question of how writers learn genres. The purpose of this paper is to review key findings from 60 empirical studies that have investigated this question. To this point, research has typically studied genre learning as it occurs either through professional or disciplinary practice or through classroom instruction; almost no studies have looked at the same writers as they traverse these multiple domains. I therefore categorize studies as taking place in either “practice-based” or “instructional” settings and identify trends in the research findings from each setting. After examining one study which takes place in multiple settings, I tease out some of the commonalities and distinctions between learning in practice-based and instructional contexts and between first language and second language genre learning. On the basis of this comparative review of research, I suggest future directions for the interdisciplinary study of genre learning.

Some ideas for teaching new genres from old genres

Jan 2015

Devitt

Analysing genre: functional parameters

Jan 1997
3

Martin

Genre as language standard

Jan 1997
45

Devitt

Genre performances: John Swales' Genre Analysis and rhetorical-linguistic genre studies

Abstract

No full-text available

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