A PROFESSIONAL ARTICLE GENRE ANALYSIS: SAMPLE ANSWER

Year 5/6, Semester 10, Reading and Interpreting Professional Articles

Compiled by V.Yu.Parashchuk

THEME: READING ACADEMIC ARTICLES:

MAKING GENRE ANALYSIS

Task: Select an article of your interest either from English Teaching Forum Online <http://americanenglish.state.gov/english-teaching-forum

or ELT Journal (Key Concepts in ELT) <http://www.oxfordjournals.org/our_journals/eltj/keyconcepts.html> and be ready to make its genre analysis as in the sample analysis

A PROFESSIONAL ARTICLE GENRE ANALYSIS SCHEME

As you read the assigned article, please consider the following questions and answer them:

1 PURPOSE AND INTENDED AUDIENCE: What is the overall purpose of the article? (Be sure to include the intended audience in your response.)

r 2 GENRE: What would you call the genre of the text? Where could you find other texts of the same genre? What expectations do you have about texts in this genre?

r 3 MAIN PARTS OF THE TEXT: How does the author build the text in a manner that achieves the purpose? What are the main parts of the text, and what does each contain?

r 4 AUTHOR’S FORECAST: Where do you find the author’s forecast (i.e., the part that tells readers what will appear in the text) of what appears in the text? How is the forecast written?

r 5 SALIENT FEATURES: Which other elements of the text seemed salient to you as important features to have in a text with this purpose and audience?

r 6 REFERENCES: What references does the author make to other texts? Where are most of the references in the text, and why? What is the purpose of including references to other texts? What key features are shared by these texts?

A PROFESSIONAL ARTICLE GENRE ANALYSIS: SAMPLE ANSWER

As you read the assigned article, please consider the following questions and answer them:

r 1. What is the overall purpose of the article? (Be sure to include the intended audience in your response.)

This article targets at ESL/EFL teachers, and aims to describe and explain ___________________so as to help ESL/EFL teachers identify___________________________ It also provides activity ideas that teacher educators can use when incorporating ______________________________into ____________________________________

The overall purpose of the article is to present issues in _____________________and to provide possible suggestions on how to _________________________________

r 2 What would you call the genre of the text? Where could you find other texts of the same genre? What expectations do you have about texts in this genre?

SAMPLE ANSWER: It is a research article (RA) in applied linguistics/ second language acquisition (SLA). It is a secondary RA, because it deserves more attention not for research, but for pedagogic reasons. I would call it a professional article in that it suggests a new model and activities that can be used in language classroom. The same genre can be found in other academic journals such as English Teaching Forum, ELT Journal, and Language Magazine, TESOL Quarterly, Computer Assisted Language Learning, Language Learning and Technology, etc.

When I read texts in this genre, I would expect to read the purpose or aim of the study (why), methodology (how), and major findings or results and conclusion (what). In other words, I would expect an abstract, an introductionwith a specific topic or questions addressed, literature review (the current related theories or studies reviewed), an analysis of the problem and proposed solutions to the problem (with theory and practice combined), a conclusion, references and appendices if need be.

r 3 How does the author build the text in a manner that achieves the purpose? (What are the main parts of the text, and what does each contain?)

SAMPLE ANSWER: The author uses a number of strategies while building the text:

1) to establish credibility, the author employs research findings of other scholars in the field, references, citations, statistical data, various supporting arguments etc;

2) to facilitate the reader’s understanding, the author structures the text in sections with headings that conceptualize apparently the function of each section.

The paper’s structure does not draw upon the conventional ‘Introduction – Method – Results – Discussion’ (IMRD) framework, but rather includes ‘Introduction – Argumentation – Conclusion’ sections with central Argumentation section having complex internal structuring. There is also a Pedagogic Implications section.

The main parts of the paper are:

Introductionis built according to the CARS model (Create a Research Space) and includes the following moves and steps: establishing a research territory, establishing a niche and occupying the niche. This section contains a lead-in of the problem and an introduction of the purpose, thesis statement: the author/s set/s the stage and attract the readers’ attention by briefly discussing what has been going on in the field (establishing a research territory), identifying gaps and problems( establishing a niche), and declaring the purpose of the study (occupying the niche).

Argumentationsection consists of:

Research Background/Literature Review: a review of related studies and/or theories, proposing a solution to the problem; by drawing on relevant previous research and the author’s observations, they identify what needs to be urgently done in the field under review.

Describing the theoretical model/framework: by adapting an existing model/tool, the author/s suggest/s a new one that helps to identify the assumptions on…;

Offering suggestions on how to apply the theory to teaching practice: activities are presented that can be used in teaching…;

Conclusion: the author/s restate/s the major points (how the purpose is achieved) and give/s implications.

r 4 Where do you find the author’s forecast (i.e., the part that tells readers what will appear in the text) of what appears in the text? How is the forecast written?

The author’s forecast is found in the last paragraph of the general introduction. The forecast is stated clearly as a thesis statement. At the end of the introduction, the authors forecast what is going to follow in the subsequent parts of the article by summarizing the very main points. Such verbs as describe, explain, provide, help are used and the statements are written in formal language using an objective tone. E.g. “We describe the model, explain its significance, and then provide activity ideas that teacher educators can use when incorporating the …into …”. Also, different levels of subheadings play a great role in telling readers what will appear in the text as well as the relationships among the sections.

In addition, the end of the section is sometimes used to tell what will be discussed in the next part. By doing so, the author/s also make/s a smooth transition to the following topic.

Date: 2016-04-22; view: 1933