Analyses of Introduction and Discussion Sections in Organizational Behavior Academic Articles through a Genre-Based Approach

• Main Authors: Wen-Ching Lee, 李文卿
• Other Authors: Chaochang Wang
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/84020957601720515407

碩士 === 銘傳大學 === 應用英語學系碩士班 === 101 === For the last decade, applied linguists and language teachers, especially those in the field of EAP (English for Academic Purposes) have shown great interest in adopting a genre-based approach to the analysis of written and spoken discourse in academic and research settings. Researchers in EAP examined the structural organization of different generic sections of research articles (RAs) including Abstract (e.g. Gillets & Velde, 2010), Introduction (e.g. Loi, 2010), Literature Review (e.g. Dovey, 2010; Pecorari, 2006),Method (e.g. Lim, 2006), Results (e.g. Basturkmen, 2009), Discussion (e.g. Amirian & Kassaian & Tavakoli, 2008) and Conclusion (e.g. Ruiying and Allison, 2003) sections, but there have been very few studies attempting to analyze two sections, such as the patterns in Introduction and Discussion. Thus, this study aims to analyze communicative moves on both Introduction and Discussion sections of RAs. Twenty articles published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior (OB) were analyzed in terms of Swales’ model (2004) in Introduction and as the model proposed by Dudley-Evans (1994) in Discussion. The findings show that even though all researchers in OB research establish the territory in the beginning and end their RA Introductions by occupying the niche, there exists a mixed move structure in between. The sequence in Discussion varies. All researchers in OB research make claims, and provide limitations, but none of them write statements of results. Findings of this study may have implications for EAP teachers in pedagogy and materials development.