A Contrastive Genre Analysis Study of Dissertation Introductions Written by Literature Postgraduates of Bejaia University and Natives.
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Date
2017
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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university Mouloud Mammeri of Tizi-Ouzou
Abstract
By way of investigating how the small cultures of discipline, genre and
discourse community (Atkinson, 2004) directly impact NNS students’ writings, the
present dissertation shows that the contrastive rhetoric hypothesis, stipulating that
NNS students’ linguistic and cultural backgrounds can be implicated as the etiology of
the differences between English L1 and NNS students’ writings (Kaplan, 1966), is not
valid in all situations and contexts. Using CARS model (Samraj, 2008), the present
genre analysis study comparatively analyzes three sets of Literature Master’s
dissertation introductions: four were composed by EFL students from Bejaia
University, another four were written in Arabic by students from the department of
Arabic of the same university and four introductions were written by English L1
students. Comparison of the generic structures of the three groups reveals that all three
groups differently organize their introductions. More specifically, comparison of the
English L2 and L1 introductions reveals differences in the move structure of the two
groups. To check if these differences are due to students’ different backgrounds,
English L2 and introductions in Arabic were compared. This comparison reveals that
the two groups very significantly differ in how they rhetorically organize their texts.
Using an interview to explain the differences between literature postgraduates of
Bejaia University and the native ones, namely absence of step 1A of the first rhetorical
move from English L2 texts and its presence in half of the native texts and
predominance of move 3-step 1using inclusive we and the passive voice as hedging
strategies in English L2 texts, and predominance of move 3-step 2B using I and the
active voice as boosting strategies in the native introductions, the study shows that the
discipline, the part-genre and the discourse community are three dynamic factors that
shape students’ generic behavior. Besides offering a practical model for explicitly
teaching the introduction part-genre to literature postgraduates of Bejaia University to
raise their awareness of the rhetorical organization of this part-genre, the study shows
the importance of the different factors that influence the EFL writing activity in the
intercultural academic communication.
Description
176p.:ill tableaux;30cm.(+cd)
Keywords
Genre analysis, introduction part-genre, CARS, rhetorical move, step, contrastive rhetoric, rhetorical awareness, intercultural academic communication.
Citation
Didactics of Literature and Civilization Texts