A move-based analysis of TESOL master’s thesis conclusion chapters by Vietnamese postgraduates

Abstract

Writing a thesis in English is challenging for non-native English speaking students, and it is not an exception for Vietnamese master’s (M.A.) students. Despite this challenge, English writing was not formally taught at their elementary, secondary and high school levels until 2008. In their postgraduate programs, these students have little or no formal instruction on how to write each part of a thesis; but are provided with the guidelines and then tailor their own theses. This paper, therefore, explores how 24 Vietnamese teachers of English wrote their thesis Conclusion chapters. By employing the revised framework for analyzing the Conclusion chapters in Applied Linguistics by Chen and Kuo (2012), the study found Deductions from the study (Move 4) is present in every chapter while the other three moves (Introducing the Conclusion chapter, Summarizing the study and Evaluating the study) are conventional. Moreover, a new move (Chapter summary) and an infrequent occurrence of Summarizing previous chapter and a cycle of next section introduction-each section summary were identified. These findings indicate not only a linear structure in composing the concluding chapters by this group of Vietnamese writers but also the rhetorical influence of Vietnamese written discourse on their English writing. The results from this study have some pedagogical implications for teaching novice Vietnamese writers on how to properly compose this genre.

Reporting Verbs and Related Syntactic Choices in Students' Theses: A Study of Two Disciplines

“…discourse-based interviews to support the qualitative approach to the analysis (Hyland, 2012;Jomaa and Bidin, 2019), nor did it make use of, e.g. a movebased analysis (Nguyen and Pramoolsook, 2014), applicable within the genre-based approach (Hyland, 2004;Petrić, 2007;Swales, 1990) to research on academic writing (Hyland 2012(Hyland , 2014. These descriptive research results are still built on sound evidence of how English is used by Master's students -non-native speakers -in their theses.…”

“…As Jomaa and Bidin (2019) argue, little information on the use of RVs in citation and students' native language interference may result in the need for more explicit instruction on the use of RV in the citation. The findings from both the hard and the soft domain thus indicate the necessity of raising students' awareness of using RVs in the citation at a postgraduate level (Jomaa and Bidin, 2019) and an undergraduate level (Manan and Noor, 2015;Nguyen and Pramoolsook, 2014Samraj, 2013).…”

The study of children’s preferences for the design elements of learning desks based on AHP-QCA

“…List in detail the elements contained in each independent factor; and 4. Arrange and combine the elements into a creative idea (Nguyen 2016).…”

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“…The analysis of the moves and steps was guided by the framework of Yang and Allison (2003). Additionally, Merle (2016), suggested that the study's major findings as well as general remarks generated from the research should be included The Conclusion suggests that each of these final chapters was written in sequential order (Results, Discussion, and Conclusions) as found by Nguyen and Pramoolsook (2016). In the case of the BERFanalyzed paper, Results and Discussion section are integrated while Conclusions and Recommendations sections appeared separately.…”