A Cross-cultural Study of Master Conclusions in English, Arabic and EFL Contexts: A Genre-based Approach
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Date
2017
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University Mouloud Mammeri of Tizi-Ouzou
Abstract
The study of academic genres and part-genres across cultures and languages is
gaining momentum among genre analysts and contrastive rhetoricians in many parts
of the world. However, in the case of Algeria, this type of inquiry, despite having a
vital pedagogical value for the EFL writing classroom, has been neglected. The
present dissertation is an attempt to analyze cross-culturally the generic organization
of the part-genre accompanying Master dissertations in literature, written by three
distinct, yet overlapping, categories of students: native students of English, Algerian
students of Arabic literature, and Algerian EFL students. For that end, I adopted
Connor’s and Moreno’s (2005) model for cross-cultural studies of academic
discourse and Bunton’s (2005) generic model for humanities and social sciences
conclusions. The results of the analysis showed interesting insights regarding the
rhetorical strategies that each group had employed in order to organize this partgenre
of their dissertations. The English students’ organization was found largely
congruent with Bunton’s model. This congruity includes both the status of the moves
used and their rhetorical function in the text. Contrary to this, the Arabic conclusions
were found practically inapplicable to the model, having demonstrated a striking
divergence in terms of move status and move function to the extent that an
alternative model was proposed to help explain and account for these differences. As
regard the Algerian EFL conclusions, conforming to what the literature tells us on
EFL writings, their schematic structure was found to follow what appears to be a
‘hybrid’ organization, borrowing rhetorical strategies from both native groups.
Overall, it is believed that the factors influencing the organization of literature
conclusions by English and Algerian students might be varied from the writing
instructions and learning materials that each group receives and uses in the writing
classroom to the different cultural attitudes towards what academic discourse implies
in reality.
Description
189p.:ill. appendices;30cm.(+cd)
Keywords
Contrastive rhetoric, English, Arabic, English as a foreign language, cross-cultural, conclusion
Citation
Didactics of Literary Texts and Civilisations