Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings / John M. Swales
01 Jan 1991-Vol. 1991, Iss: 1991, pp 1-99
About: The article was published on 1991-01-01 and is currently open access. It has received 5640 citations till now.
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TL;DR: The authors conducted a multi-level discourse analysis on a corpus of 30 medical/dental school application letters, using both a hand-tagged move analysis and a computerized analysis of lexical features of texts.
144 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focused on supervising professors' and master's degree students' understanding and experiences of supervision practices in a Norwegian university, with focus on differences in text cultures and text norms between and within three academic disciplines.
Abstract: This article focuses on supervising professors’ and master’s degree students’ understanding and experiences of supervision practices in a Norwegian university, with focus on differences in text cultures and text norms between and within three academic disciplines. The interview study shows that each discipline is a heterogeneous discourse community with largely unarticulated differences. The findings suggest three supervision models, described as teaching, partnership, and apprenticeship. Dominant trends in supervisory relationships and textual practices are distinguished, and characteristics of each are outlined. Connections are shown between the models supervisors adhere to, the kind of texts they expect from their students, and how they provide feedback. As an example, conflicting attitudes toward exploratory student texts are discussed. The study shows that supervision models and textual expectations are influenced by the disciplinary text cultures in which supervisors and students take part. Finally,...
142 citations
Journal Article•
TL;DR: This article studied what happens when language students participate in online discussion groups with native speakers and found that successful participation on Internet fora depends on awareness of such cultural and generic mores and an ability to work within and/or with them.
Abstract: Amongst the opportunities for cross-cultural contact created by the burgeoning use of the Internet are those provided by electronic discussion lists. This study looks at what happens when language students venture out of the classroom (virtual or otherwise) to participate in on-line discussion groups with native speakers. Responses to messages and commentary by moderators and other participants on the (in)appropriateness of contributions allow us to determine what constitutes successful participation and to make suggestions regarding effective teaching strategies for this medium. A case study examines the threads started by four anglophone students of French when they post messages to a forum on the Web site of the French newspaper Le Monde. Investigation of these examples points to the ways in which electronic discussion inflects and is inflected by cultural and generic expectations. We suggest that successful participation on Internet fora depends on awareness of such cultural and generic mores and an ability to work within and/or with them. Teachers therefore need to find ways in which students can be sensitized to such issues so that their participation in such electronic discussion is no longer seen as linguistic training, but as engagement with a cultural practice. A TALE (with apologies to Beatrix Potter) Once upon a time there were four letter-writers and their names were Fleurie, Laura, Eleanor, and David. They hopped onto the Net from Britain and the USA and clicked their way across Le Monde (or more precisely, its on-line discussion pages). Fleurie and Eleanor, who were good little students, looked for pen-pals in order to improve their French, whereas Laura and David were much more concerned by vigorous debates about racism and cultural imperialism. In fact, David didn't even manage to write in French. Yet it was Laura and David who were warmly welcomed to stay and contribute, while Fleurie and Eleanor left, apparently discouraged. As teachers of French, concerned to encourage use of that language by our students, this looks at first glance to be the kind of tale we would not want them to be reading. Our recalcitrant hero is not reprimanded -- hardly an edifying moral conclusion -- and dutifulness goes unrewarded. Why does the story end this way and what can be learnt from it? In this article, we situate our case study in the wider context of task design of on-line activities. We then analyze the strategies and practices of the four message writers in order to derive lessons about the use of electronic discussion in language learning, lessons that underscore the crucial role of genre in intercultural communication. THE BORDERLESS WORLD? Language learning provides fertile ground for the co-existence of two contradictory views of Internet use. On the one hand, there is the idea of the borderless world where the Internet flattens out cultural
142 citations
TL;DR: This paper studied the evolution of intertextuality in primary-grade classrooms, focusing on read-alouds of an integrated science-literacy unit, and found that intertextual content is both an act of discourse and a state of mind.
Abstract: The nature and evolution of intertextuality was studied in 2 urban primary-grade classrooms, focusing on read-alouds of an integrated science-literacy unit. The study provides evidence that both debunks deficit theories for urban children by highlighting funds of knowledge that these children bring to the classroom and the sense they make of them and demonstrates how intertextuality in classroom discourse creates learning opportunities as teachers and students interact with texts broadly defined. Changes over time of the various forms of intertextuality emerged in the 2 classes, thereby showing how intertextuality is both an act of discourse and an act of mind. A particular type of intertextuality-event intertextuality-dominated throughout the read-alouds and revealed how hybrid classroom discourse, incorporating both narrative and scientific genre features, allowed the emergence of classroom discourse that shared characteristics with scientific language.
141 citations
TL;DR: This paper explores the nature and role of rhetorical knowledge in advanced academic literacy through the writing of two multilingual writers, as their rhetorical knowledge of disciplinary writing becomes more explicit and more sophisticated, influenced by mentoring, disciplinary participation, identity, and task exigency.
141 citations