The Research has further demonstrated in applied linguistics

Abstract

Research has further demonstrated that there is variation not only across different disciplines but also between related disciplines, a somewhat discouraging finding for academic writing pedagogy. Samraj (2002), for example, has found variation in the structure of RA introductions in Wildlife Behaviour and Conservation Biology, two related fields. Her findings illustrate that the moves, and the steps used to realise these moves, vary across the two disciplines. Such variation across different disciplines and related disciplines does not seem to be limited to the structure of RA introductions only; a number of studies reveal that there is variation in the organisation of RA abstracts, as well.

Description

This paper explores the degree of variability in the structure of research article introductions within a single discipline. It is an exploratory study based on the analysis of 20 research articles. Some subdisciplinary variation was identified. The two subdisciplines seemed to employ different and almost unrelated move structures. In the second language acquisition corpus one type of move structure was predominant while in the second language writing corpus two different types of move structure were almost equally frequent. It is suggested that these differences can be explained in terms of the concepts of “established” field and “emerging” field. In recent years there has been a growing interest in the study of academic writing. One line of research has concentrated on the study of grammatical and stylistic aspects of written academic discourse. If the findings reported above are interpreted in terms of the CARS model, in particular, the existence of a ‘background’ section after Move 3, which is generally titled (i.e. indicated by subheadings), it may be suggested that RA introductions in the social sciences deviate markedly from the CARS model. Research has further demonstrated that there is variation not only across different disciplines but also between related disciplines, a somewhat discouraging finding for academic writing pedagogy. Samraj (2002), for example, has found variation in the structure of RA introductions in Wildlife Behaviour and Conservation Biology, two related fields. Her findings illustrate that the moves, and the steps used to realise these moves, vary across the two disciplines. Such variation across different disciplines and related disciplines does not seem to be limited to the structure of RA introductions only; a number of studies reveal that there is variation in the organisation of RA abstracts, as well.

Applied Linguistics and Psychology

In order to shed further light on the writing of literature reviews in research-reporting texts and, in particular, writer stance in this type of text, this study examines the expression of criticality in the literature review that occurs in the Introduction sections of academic journal articles in two social science disciplines: applied linguistics and psychology. Using the social genre/cognitive genre model of the author to frame the investigation (Bruce, 2008a), the literature reviews that occur in the Introduction sections of 15 academic journal articles from each discipline are examined for ways in which they communicate a critical viewpoint. The findings show systematic use of three generic elements to establish this type of stance: recursive use of content-structuring moves, the metadiscourse device of attitude markers and a concessive contrast relation between propositions. There are differences between the two samples in the frequency of occurrence of the latter two elements. Overall, what emerges is that the expression of criticality through the literature reviews of these texts appears to draw upon the discourse competence and specifically the genre knowledge of expert writers. This article asks what applied linguistics can learn from related disciplines with regard to the collection, analysis and representation of qualitative interviews. It assesses the contributions of qualitative sociology, anthropology, discursive psychology and outlines four ‘discourse dilemmas’ which might provide the basis for a more critical and reflective dimension to the use of qualitative interviews in applied linguistics. Summarizing important contributions that have already been made in applied linguistics, the article also highlights the contribution of the other articles in this special issue. Furthermore, the article also outlines a number of ‘parameters of sensitivity’ that might help researchers develop a more reflective approach to the carrying out, analysing, and reporting on qualitative interviews.

Accentuation on the Nature of Learning and Academic Relationship

Utilizing an applied structure in view of crafted by Jan Blommaert (2005), a substance investigation was directed on an example of 81 articles connected with famous music and music training as indicated by the factors of diary and identity. Though non-American-put together creators centered with respect to issues of utility and adequacy, with an accentuation on the nature of learning and academic relationship. The present study aimed to investigate the generic organization of research article introductions in local Iranian and international journals in English for Specific Purposes, English for General Purposes, and Discourse Analysis. Overall, 120 published articles were selected from the established journals representing the above sub disciplines. Each sub discipline was represented by 20 local and 20 international articles. Following Swales’ (2004) new Create a Research Space (CARS) model, the researcher analyzed the articles for their specific generic patterns. Findings demonstrated that despite some consistency in the international corpus, there emerged marked differences in utilizing second and third moves in international articles. Also, intra-subdisciplinary analysis revealed divergent generic organization in EGP and DA in local and international data. Results suggested insufficient awareness of some Iranian RA writers regarding the generic structure of introduction. The findings of the study have implications for RA writers to improve their RA introductions [4]. In an exemplary analysis of letters to shareholders, the article demonstrates how these techniques can be applied to compare letters to shareholders from two different years. The article concludes with a discussion of the strengths and limitations of corpus linguistics for management and organization studies. The concept of EL emanated from extensive reading, an approach that aims to improve a variety of reading.