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by Phuong Dzung Pho School of Languages, Cultures, and Linguistics Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

Linguistic realizations of rhetorical structure: A corpus-based study of research articles in applied linguistics and educational technology. by Phuong Dzung Pho School of Languages, Cultures, and Linguistics Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Background of the study (1).

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by Phuong Dzung Pho School of Languages, Cultures, and Linguistics Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

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  1. Linguistic realizations of rhetorical structure: A corpus-based study of research articles in applied linguistics and educational technology by Phuong Dzung Pho School of Languages, Cultures, and Linguistics Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

  2. Background of the study (1) • Most studies focus on rhetorical structure / move structure rather than linguistic realizations of rhetorical moves. • Studies of linguistic features: • Voice (Martínez, 2001) • Tenses (Malcolm, 1987) • Personal pronouns (Harwood, 2005) • Hedging (Hyland, 1996)

  3. Background of the study (2) • Previous research on linguistic features of research articles • Distribution patterns across sections rather than moves • A few studies link choices of linguistic features with rhetorical structure, but mostly on abstract moves e.g. Lores (2004)  generic structure of abstract + thematic structure

  4. The present study • Rhetorical moves of research article abstracts and introductions in applied linguistics and educational technology • Distribution patterns of various linguistic features in those moves

  5. The corpus • 40 empirical research articles • Applied linguistics: • The Modern Language Journal (MLJ) • TESOL Quarterly (TQ) • Educational technology • Computers & Education (CE) • Journal of Computer Assisted Learning (JCAL) • From January 2006 to May 2007

  6. Details of the 4 sub-corpora Table 1: Details of the four sub-corpora

  7. Problems of studies of move structures following Swales’ (1990) approach • based on both top-down and bottom-up approaches • bottom-up approach  based on certain linguistic signals • top-down approach  based on content • e.g. Anderson and Maclean (1997): the Conclusion move of medical abstracts is signaled by present tense and certain nouns and verbs + intuitive interpretations of content  circularity of the identification of rhetorical moves and linguistic realizations

  8. Analysis of linguistic realizations of moves • Linguistic features investigated: • Modal auxiliaries and semi-modal verbs • Verb tense and aspect • Attitudinal stance adjectives, adverbs and nouns • Epistemic stance adjectives, adverbs and nouns • Self-reference words • Reporting verbs • Voice • Grammatical subjects • That-complement clauses

  9. Analysis procedures • Corpus  xml coded for moves and steps • Corpus  part-of-speech tagged using CLAWS7 (Garside & Smith, 1997)  parsed for syntactic structure (Schneider, 2007) • Linguistic features semi-automatically extracted using WordSmith (Scott, 2004) and PERL scripts  obtain distribution patterns of each linguistic feature in each rhetorical move

  10. Distribution pattern of modal auxiliaries and semi-modals across moves and disciplines (1) • In the introduction: • more permission/possibility/ability modal verbs in the Establishing a territory and Establishing a niche moves • More volition/prediction modal verbs in Presenting the present work move (1) <EST> Implicit feedback can also take the form of recasts, in which … [AL_MLJ2] (2) <ESN> Many experimental studies also use hypothetical scenarios as a basis for discussion, which may not be meaningful to participants [ET_JCAL2] (3) <PPW> I will distinguish four categories of the engagement … [AL_TQ8]

  11. Distribution pattern of modal auxiliaries and semi-modals across moves and disciplines (2) • In the abstract: • no modal verbs in the Describing the methodology move • Hardly any in the Summarizing the findings move • Permission/possibility/ability modal verbs are found in the Discussing the research move in both disciplines (4) <DTR> The key conclusion of the study is that integration may be a desirable option regardless of the potential extra costs involved. [ET_CE4]

  12. Distribution pattern of tense and aspect across moves and disciplines (2) • 4 most common combinations of tense and aspect: present simple, past simple, present perfect, past perfect • In the abstract: the most common verb forms in: • the Situating the research move  present simple + present perfect • the Describing the methodology and the Summarizing the findings moves  past simple • the Discussing the research move  present simple • the Presenting the research move  present simple / past simple (5) <PTR> This article describes the investigation into the learning outcomes that … [AL_TQ5] (6) <PTR> This study investigated the relationship between the amount of computer technology used in … [ET_CE8]

  13. Distribution pattern of tense and aspect across moves and disciplines (3) • In the introduction: the most common verb forms in: • the Establishing a territory move  present simple + past simple • the Establishing a niche move  present simple + present perfect • the Presenting the present work move  present simple / past simple (7) <EST> Recasts are generally less effective than other forms of feedback …[AL_MLJ2] (8) <EST> Herring (1993) found that women were more likely than men to react negatively … [ET_JCAL2] (9) <ESN> Little research has been done to investigate the usability of the mouse, … [ET_CE6]

  14. Distribution pattern of self-reference words (1)

  15. Distribution pattern of self-reference words across moves and disciplines (2) • Self-reference words examined: I, me, my, mine, myself, we, us, our, ours, ourselves, the author(s), the researcher(s) (10) <PPW> We predicted that Powerpoint would make the courses more entertaining and interesting … [ET_CE3] (11) <PPW> I will distinguish four categories of the engagement … [AL_TQ8] (12) <DTM> We examined the validity of 2 types of assessments … [AL_MLJ10]

  16. Distribution pattern of attitudinal and epistemic stance words across moves and disciplines (3) Examples: (13) <STF> The learners’ level of listening proficiency had a significant interaction effect … [AL_TQ6] (14) <DTR> It is possible that computerised assessment does not detect the established gender effect … [ET_JCAL7] (15) <PPW> This study tested the following hypothesis: In the primary L2 reading task … [AL_TQ3]

  17. Distribution pattern of reporting verbs across moves and disciplines (2) Examples: (16) <STF> The findings revealed that learners made significant improvements … [AL_MLJ9] (17) <STF> The findings suggest that teachers have positive attitudes toward ICT in education … [ET_CE10] (18) <DTR> We suggest that using the keyword method […] leads to better vocabulary learning … [AL_MLJ3]

  18. Distribution pattern of reporting verbs across moves and disciplines (3) Examples: (19) <ESN> Although authors argue that prelistening activities have positive effects, little research exists … [AL_TQ6] (20) <EST> Garrison and Anderson argue that there is a dual purpose to the educational experience. [AL_TQ6] (21) <EST> Koike also found that the learners were able to identify SAs request, … [AL_MLJ1] (22) <ESN> This review of the research shows that limited evidence has been found in assessing … [AL_TQ6] (23) <ESN> If gender is a social construct one cannot presume that it will be expressed in the same way everywhere. [ET_CE5]

  19. Conclusion • The distribution patterns of linguistic features in the same move are quite similar across the disciplines. • There is more variation across moves than disciplines. • The identification of moves should be based on a cluster of features rather than on any single linguistic feature. • Move identification based on content or function only is supported by the analysis of linguistic realizations.

  20. Thank you for your attention. Email address: phuong.pho@arts.monash.edu.au

  21. References Anderson, K., & Maclean, J. (1997). A genre analysis study of 80 medical abstracts. Edinburgh Working Papers in Applied Linguistics, 8, 1-23. Garside, R., & Smith, N. (1997). A hybrid grammatical tagger: CLAWS4. In R. Garside, G. Leech & A. McEnery (Eds.), Corpus Annotation: Linguistic Information from Computer Text Corpora (pp. 102-121). London: Longman. Harwood, N. (2005). 'Nowhere has anyone attempted ... In this article I aim to do just that': A corpus-based study of self-promotional I and we in academic writing across four disciplines. Journal of Pragmatics, 37(8), 1207-1231. Hyland, K. (1996). Talking to the academy: forms of hedging in science research articles. Written Communication, 13(2), 251-281. Lores, R. (2004). On RA abstracts: From rhetorical structure to thematic organisation. English for Specific Purposes, 23(3), 280-302. Malcolm, L. (1987). What rules govern tense usage in scientific articles? English for Specific Purposes, 6(1), 31-43. Martínez, I. A. (2001). Impersonality in the research article as revealed by analysis of the transitivity structure. English for Specific Purposes, 20(3), 227-247. Schneider, G. (2007). Hybrid Long-Distance Functional Dependency Parsing. Unpublished PhD thesis, Institute of Computational Linguistics, University of Zurich Scott, M. (2004). WordSmith Tools (Version 4). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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