A Contrastive Genre Analysis of Research Article Abstracts Written by Native and Non-native Speakers of English
Subject Areas : Journal of Studies in Learning and Teaching English
1 - Department of English Language, Maragheh Branch
Keywords: Research article abstract, applied linguistics, genre, genre analysis, move,
Abstract :
Recently many studies have been done on research article (RA) abstracts, each analyzing them from a different perspective; however, few contrastive studies exist in this regard. The organization of written texts is culture-specific and the same reality is organized by speakers of different languages differently. Thus, this research aims to contrastively analyze the rhetorical structure of two sets of RA abstracts, one written by English native speakers and the other by Persian native speakers. The aim is to discover whether or not the same generic organization is imposed on these abstracts. All RA abstracts analyzed in this study came from applied linguistics. The functional unit of analysis was rhetorical move. Also, the basis of analysis was Samraj’s (2005) generic model of RA abstracts. The results showed that five moves in both sets of RA abstracts were obligatory. The results have implications for material developers, teachers, and students, especially those involved in English for Academic Purposes writing courses.