Applied Linguistics: A Genre Analysis Of: Research Articles Results and Discussion Sections in Journals Published in Applied Linguistics

By Veronica M. Mutinda

How can I fit in my discourse community; that is, Applied Linguistics? To achieve this goal, this book provides the basic understanding of the concept of genre as now used in Applied Linguistics, English for specific purpose, and varied ways in which the need to communicate shapes or influences and determine both surface forms and deeper rhetorical structures which are necessary. Due to the rise of English to the status of an International language, especially in the field of the Academics, Science and Technology; Research Articles in English have become a main channel for advancing research knowledge among scholars World-Wide. Therefore, with globalization taking root very fast especially with the aid of telecommunication and electronic communities, the need for ability to read and write Research Articles in English has drastically increased for success both academically and professionally. To enable researchers, both native and non-native English speakers to read and write Research Articles, there is need for them to be informed about the conventional rhetorical structure used in their fields of study or their discourse communities. This book is purposely written to fill that gap; Therefore, a must read.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Dec 15, 2017
• ISBN: 9781546219989

Veronica M. Mutinda

The author of this book, Veronica Munanie Mutinda is an educator who has taught English Language and Literature at High School level for over 14 years. She holds a B.Ed. Arts Degree in English and Secretarial Studies, MA in English and Linguistics with special interest in Applied Linguistics in the area of Genre Analysis. She is a PhD candidate in Applied Linguistics. She has special interests in the study of languages, especially English Language. She holds that providing necessary knowledge in the area of Genre Analysis would help academicians to fit in their specific discourse community and assist in the teaching of research article writing, as well as help learners to understand the process of effective communication and organization of ideas in writing a given Genre.

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© 2018 Veronica M. Mutinda. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 12/15/2017

ISBN: 978-1-5462-1999-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-1998-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017918643

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Contents

List of Tables

List of Figures

Operational Definition of Terms

List of Acronyms

Dedication

Preface

CHAPTER ONE

Introduction

CHAPTER TWO

Reviewing Related Literature and Theoretical Framework

CHAPTER THREE

Research Design and Methodology In Applied Liguistics

CHAPTER FOUR

Results and Discussion

CHAPTER FIVE

Summarizing Findings, Conclusion and Recommendations

References

Appendices

List of Tables

Table: Moves in Applied Linguistics RA Results Sections

Table: Moves in Applied Linguistics RA Discussion sections

Table: Rhetorical Structure of Results and Discussion Sections

List of Figures

Swales’ CARS model of Research Article Introduction

Yang & Allison’s (2003) Move Structure of RA Results section

Yang & Allison’s (2003) Move Structure of RA Discussion section

Operational Definition of Terms

Communicative purposes: The function(s) of a section of the Research Articles i.e. what the author is doing in each section.

Discourse community: A local and temporary constraining system, defined by a body of texts (or more generally practices) that are unified by a common focus. It is a textual system with stated and unstated conventions. In our study the area of writing research articles in journals of Applied Linguistics makes up a discourse community.

Genre: A class of recognizable communicative events and that shares communication purposes and modes.

Genre analysis: the study of how language is used to organize genre into patterns. It helps us understand how language is used within a discourse community i.e. the rules and conventions governing a discourse community.

Move: the rhetorical division/unit of a text that has different and unique communicative purpose(s) that reflect the writer’s purpose and the conventions laid down by the discourse community.

Obligatory Move: a move that occurs at a high frequency and found in all the research article studied.

Optional Move: a move that occurs at a very low frequency and does not occur in all the research article sections studied.

Rhetorical structure: the order of the moves in a text or a segment of a text such as the Results and Conclusion sections of a Research Article in this study.

Step: A rhetorical division of the move that carries a communicative purpose. Also called the ‘element.’

V + ing phrases: Verb phrases used by the author to reflect the intended communicative purpose such as reporting results, commenting on results, summarizing results etc.

List of Acronyms

Dedication

For Jay, Frida, Felicia and Fabian

For your prayers, love, support, understanding and patience.

Preface

In this book, I have dealt with genre analysis of research article (RA) Results and Discussion sections in journals published in Applied Linguistics. The research articles are related to English language education. To come up with the book, I investigated the Rhetorical Structure and described the rhetorical functions of the aforementioned research article sections. I also investigated if there are any differences and/or similarities between the rhetorical structures of the results and discussion sections of research articles in journals published in Applied Linguistics. To do this I was guided by Swales’ (1990, 2004), Yang & Allison (2003) and Kanoksilapatham (2007) move structure models to study the results section. As for the discussion section I was guided by Swales’ (1990), Yang & Allison (2003) and Rasmeenin (2006) move models. I employed situated qualitative research design to purposively select ten (10) research articles each from ten journals selected through non-probability sampling methods. These were journals published in Applied Linguistics in the year 2013. I used Genre Theory to guide the exercise of analyzing the data. My aim is to provide insight in the field of Applied Linguistics and particularly in genre analysis of academic texts. As illustrated in the book, I found that the rhetorical structure of both Results and Discussions sections were similar in terms of the number of moves found but noted difference in terms of the focus of each section. Both sections have six moves and the focus of the results section is to report results whereas the discussion section in a RA serves to explain the results. My goal for this book is to provide knowledge to my audience or readers that not only assists upcoming academicians to fit in their specific discourse communities, but also help in teaching of research article writing. The importance and place of this book as a great resource to help learners understand the process of effective communication and organization of ideas in writing the genre I have discussed here can never be over- emphasized.

CHAPTER ONE

Introduction

This chapter includes the background information of the subject of this book. Traditionally, describing the rules of English usage; that is, grammar, is one of the aims of linguistics. Widdowson (1978), however, notes that recent studies have moved their focus and attention from merely giving a definition of the standard features of language usage to exploring the ways in which language is actually used in day to day communication. He also reports that the language we speak and write varies in different ways from one context to another due to the conventions of each context also known as discourse community. This makes it possible to establish the features of particular situations and contexts then use these features to teach learners how to function in these situations.

Situation refers to discourse community. Widdowson (1978) and Duszak (1997) argue that the English required by a particular discourse community could be identified by studying the linguistic characteristics noted in their area of work or study. Berkenkotter and Huckin (1993), Miller (1984) and Connor (1994) say that genre is