Rhetorical styles of Introduction in English language teaching (ELT) research articles

Abstract

Research articles have been considered as the primary media of knowledge production. Nevertheless, for some undergraduate students, writing a research article can be a challenging task since they need to be aware of its rhetorical styles. Even though previous studies have been conducted to reveal the rhetorical styles of scientific papers, yet tend to focus more on research articles obtained from well-established journals. Hence, this study aims to reveal the rhetorical styles and draw the rhetoric pattern from the introduction section of 73 research articles written by the undergraduate students of English Language Education (ELE) at a state university in Yogyakarta. This is a qualitative investigation whose data were collected by random sampling technique and went through Safnil’s (2013) four analysis stages. As the primary framework for analysis, the modified CARS (Create a Research Space) model (Swales Feak, 2004) was adopted. The results show that Step 2: Making topic generalization in Move 1 and Step 1B: Indicating a gap in Move 2 are the obligatory steps in writing the introduction section. Nevertheless, the results reveal that mostly undergraduate research papers lack 1 step in Move 1, 2 steps in Move 2, and 3 steps in Move 3. The omission of steps in the CARS model by these student-authors seems to happen due to two major factors, namely the scarcity of control over the writing process and linguistic resources, hence suggesting pedagogical implications for academic writing courses.

Previous studies have several limitations …: Indonesian Doctoral Students’, Indonesian Academics’, and International Authors’ Research Gap Strategies in ELT Research Article Abstracts and Introductions

“…Similar to the field of law in which authors tended to be problem-focused in their RA introductions (Feak & Swales, 2011), authors from the education field, especially in ELT, also identified problems and suggested solutions to solve the problems. This is in line with Rochma et al (2020), who found that undergraduate students in ELT also conveyed suggestions to indicate their research gaps. However, in this study, this strategy was the second lowest strategy used by the international authors.…”

“…Authors in the education field tend to reveal problems experienced in the real-world context. For instance, teachers as authors may present their real problems in classroom settings and try to solve the problems using some proposed techniques (Rochma et al, 2020). Besides the absence of the strategy of suggesting solution(s) in previous studies, the authors limited their studies to only RA introductions.…”

“…The curriculum developers have also provided several courses in which the objectives demand the students to produce RAs. Moreover, researchers, who focus on genre analysis of RAs, have also been in the limelight because their reports contribute to the advancement of knowledge, particularly in writing RAs (Ankomah & Afful, 2019;Hu & Liu, 2018;Irawati, Saukah, & Suharmanto, 2018;Kawase, 2018;Keshavarz, Atai, & Barzgar, 2007;Parnawati, Basthomi, & Ruslan, 2017;Rahman, Darus, & Amir, 2017;Rochma, Triastuti, & Ashadi, 2020;Samraj, 2005;Swales, 1990;Swales, 2004;Tanko, 2017). However, in the context of non-native English countries, such as Indonesia, understanding the rhetorical style of English RA is still lacking (Arono & Arsyad, 2019;Arsyad, Purwo, Sukamto, & Adnan, 2019, Khany, Aliakbari, & Mohammadi, 2019Su & Wood, 2012;Yonezawa, 2015).…”

Authors’ Figurative Expressions From Two Novels: A Comparative Analysis Between RTJNA Rosso and RTJNA Blu

“…Rhetorical device is a tool to convey thoughts, feelings and ideas to readers. Rochma in his research argues that the rhetoric used in a text is needed to describe the uniqueness and characteristics of various writers, from different periods and diverse genres, to reflect individual aesthetic preferences (Rochma et al, 2020). Wardle & Downs (2014) stated that rhetoric is the art of human interaction through language and other symbols, as well as the study of that interaction (Yongming Luo, 2020).…”

The authors’ research gap strategies in ELT research article introductions: Does Scopus journal quartile matter?

“…The genre investigation of RAIs in applied linguistics, specifically with an orientation to the field of ELT has received little attention so far (Rochma et al, 2020). Meanwhile, Nagy (2016) and Rahman et al, (2017) indicate that ELT is a prominent area among other diverse areas in applied linguistics that should also be investigated.…”