Review journal

Journal of Linguistics and Language Teaching

Volume 6 (2016) Issue 1

Structural Patterns and Linguistic Features

of Research Articles on Applied Linguistics:

Evidence from Introduction Sections to Methods Sections

AttapolKhamkhien (Bangkok, Thailand)

Writing and publishing research articles (RAs) in English is crucial because an RA is considered as one of the channels to communicate among researchers and scholars worldwide. This paper centres on the rhetorical structures and linguistic features commonly used in the Introduction and Methods sections of the RA genre. Inspired by Swales’ analytical framework (1990; 2004)and the contributions of Connor, Upton and Kanoksilapatham (2007) who suggest steps of conducting a move-based genre analysis, this study examined 50 RA Introduction and Methods sections in the field of applied linguistics. These RAs were analysed by genre analysis into ‘moves’ and ‘steps’. Through a comprehensive analysis of 50 systematically selected RAs published in journals listed in the Thai Citation Index (TCI) database, the results revealed that each section displayed a generic pattern, comprising a series of moves and steps. Lexico-grammatical features associated with a communicative function were also identified. The structural patterns and linguistic features found to functionally interact with one another may facilitate the understanding of novice writers and graduates of published RAs in these sections. Pedagogically, the findings generated by this study could be useful for teaching students how to write scholarly publications in EAP classrooms. The structural patterns identified might also be meaningful for teachers in designing relevant reading and writing materials for advanced learners to improve their writing skills to effectively disseminate discoveries in their fields.

Writing for scholarly publications in peer-reviewed journals is crucial. Scholars and researchers from various academic disciplines have been under tremendous pressure to not only get access to information, but also share and disseminate their research findings through English in prestigious journals. Consequently, since RAs represent the preferred medium of exchanging knowledge among members of the academic community (Flowerdew 1999: 123-124), researchers and scholars are pushed to successfully involve and meet the standard criteria and conventions of writing practices for academic and professional reasons.

However, Thai authors and graduate students still often face serious problems when attempting to publish their RAs in English in refereed journals, particularly international journals. Specifically, Thai graduate students in the field of social sciences seem to have some difficulties in publishing in English for a number of reasons. First, they need to understand how to conform to the overall organisation, and how to use certain expressions and vocabulary commonly employed in their respective discourse communities and academic disciplines. Second, the trend towards publishing in English, including venues for publication with a huge number of academic journals, is more pronounced in the hard sciences (Cargill & O’Connor 2006, Flowerdew& Li 2007) than in the humanities and social sciences. Hence, it is inevitable that the ability to read and write an RA in English is pivotal for novice authors in general, and for Thai graduate students in particular, and for handling academic writing tasks encountered in a higher education setting.

With respect to the importance of publishing RAs in refereed journals, the generic schemata and conventions associated with these are taken into account. The objective of the present study is to describe how the Introduction-and-Methods sections in RAs on applied linguistics are rhetorically constructed. We also attempt to present detailed rhetorical and lexico-grammatical realisations prevalently found in applied linguistics RAs. It is hoped that the rhetorical descriptions will shed light on their RA genre to sharpen a better understanding in writing RAs for publication to disseminate scientific discoveries. In addition, awareness of rhetorical patterns and linguistic features used is valuable to novice writers in general and graduate students in particular who encounter difficulties in reading, preparing and writing RAs for publication.

Discussion and Conclusion

The results obtained from 50 RAs reveal that four distinct move types and five rhetorical move types were found in the Introduction and Methods sections, respectively. Each move identified has its own communicative function, recognised by a set of lexico-grammatical features. The description from a linguistic perspective provided by this study can help to highlight the characteristics of the rhetorical moves and provide more explicit functions of moves and steps found in these two particular sections.

. Teachers can make full use of how to teach the linguistic features found in this study, providing students with authentic materials and knowledge about how to effectively understand and use these sets of linguistic features in reading and writing classes or in writing for publications

Author:

AttapolKhamkhien

Assistant Professor

Kasetsart University

Faculty of Liberal Arts and Science

Department of English

Thailand