Thematization Strategies in the Generic Moves of Research Article Introductions

Journal of English Language Pedagogy and Practice

مقاله 4، دوره 1، شماره 3، بهمن 2008، صفحه 62-90   

نوع مقاله: Research Paper

نویسنده

Assef Khalili^*

Tabriz University of Medical Sciences

چکیده

Despite the heterogeneity of ideas regarding the definitions of genre, there are also common instances shared among scholars interested in particular aspects of the notion. Swales (1990) and Bhatia (1993) are primarily interested in the sociological and psychological aspects of genre's functioning and construction, respectively.. Swales analyzes the genre of 'article introduction', into four generic moves on the basis of the communicative intentions they serve, and Bhatia investigates the tactical aspects of their construction. The present paper, is an attempt to study the patterns of thematic development-based on Daneš(1974) proposed patterns-  in such generic moves. For this purpose, 12 academic papers were analyzed for their constituent generic move structures, with respect to the thematic choices and progression inside these moves. The results indicated that each move has characteristic patterns of thematic selection and progression, which must be motivated by the global discourse topic and the communicative intention of these moves, as moves of dissimilar communicative intentions had characteristic patterns of thematic selections. In the light of the result of the experiment conducted on the teachability of generic moves, it is believed that the present study can have insightful implications for writing and reading pedagogy.
 
 
 
 

کلیدواژه‌ها

genre؛ Generic Move؛ Thematic Selection؛ Thematic Progression؛ Discourse Topic

مراجع

Baker, M. (1992). In other words: A textbook of translation. London: Routledge

Bhatia, V.K. (1993). Analyzing genre. London: Longman.

Daneš, F. (1974). Functional sentence Pperspective and the organization of the text, in Frantisek Daneš(ed.), Papers on functional sentence perspective. The Hague: Mouton.

Daneš, F. (1978). Sentence patterns and predicate clauses, in P. Steele &  T. Threadgold  (Eds.) Vol 2. Benjamin Publishing Co. 455-546.

Downing, A. (2001). Thematic progression as a functional resource in analyzing texts. http://www.ucm.es/info/circulo/no5/downing.htm.

Firbas, J. (1974). On defining the theme in functional sentence analysis Traveaux linguistiques de Prague, I: 267-80.

Firbus, J. (1995). A contribution on a panel discussion on theme, in M. Ghadessy (Ed.), Thematic development in English texts. Pinter: 213-222.

Flowerdew, J. (1993). An approach to the teaching of professional genres, ELT Journal, 47: 305-316.

Guijarro A. J. M. & Hernandez J. A. (2001). Points of departure in news items and tourist brochures: Choice of theme and topic, Text 21 (3): 347-371.

Halliday, M.A.K. (1985). An introduction to functional grammar. London: Edward Arnold.

Halliday, M.A.K. (1994). An introduction to functional grammar. (2^nd ed.). London: Edward Arnold.

Hopkins, A., & Dudley-Evans, T. (1988). A genre-based investigation of the discussion sections in article dissertations. English for Specific Purposes, 7, 113-122.

Martin, J.R. (1995). More than what the message is about: English theme. In M. Ghadessy (Ed.), Thematic development in English texts. Pinter. pp. 223-258.

Matthiessen, C. & Halliday, M.A.K. (1997). Systemic functional grammar: A first step to functional analysis of texts. The html,version of the file:  http:// minerva.ling.mq.edu.au./

Resources/virtualclassroom/ling318/99-outline.html

Maynard, K.S. (1986). Interactional aspects of thematic progression in English casual conversation. Texts, Vol. 6, No., 73-105.

Swales, J. (1981). Definitions in science and law-evidence for subject- specific  course components, Fachsprache, 81(3),106-12.

Swales, J. (1990). Genre analysis, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.