Email this article 
RHETORICAL MOVES IN THE BACKGROUND SECTIONS OF EFL INDONESIAN VOCATIONAL COLLEGE STUDENTS
Abstract
Rhetorical moves in academic writing are interesting topics and strategic issues in linguistics. Many studies have investigated the moves in all sections of research articles for example abstract, introduction, research method, findings and discussion, and conclusion. However, few studies investigated the rhetorical moves found in vocational college students’ academic writing, particularly in a background section. Therefore, this current research was aimed at revealing the rhetorical moves and patterns in the background of the study. This study analyzed 29 background sections from final project reports of vocational college students enrolled in the English study program of one of the state polytechnics in Indonesia. The reports were developed based on two major areas namely tourism and journalism. The data were analyzed by referring to the CARS model by Swales (2004). This research revealed that Move 1 and Move 3 occurred in all background sections. However, Move 2 was not used in several background sections although Step 1 in Move 2 is obligatory. Regarding the rhetorical patterns, seven patterns were found with different frequencies. The most used pattern was M1-M3S1. The current study may give implications to pedagogical settings related to the emphasis on establishing a niche in the background section.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Afrizon, E., Arsyad, S., & Zahrida, Z. (2018). A discourse analysis of rhetorical style in research article introduction in law studies written by international authors. Journal of English Education and Teaching (JEET), 2(4), 84-102. https://doi.org/10.33369/jeet.2.4.84-102
Alharbi, S. H. (2016). A discourse analysis of Arabic research articles in Islamic studies. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 4(6), 198-206. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20160406.1
Amnuai, W. (2019). Analyses of rhetorical moves and linguistic realizations in accounting research article abstracts published in international and Thai-based journals. Sage open, 9(1), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244018822384
Asari, S., Kurnia, F. D., & Suharsono, S. (2018). Ideas pattern manifested in rhetorical moves of English language teaching and learning research articles discussion written by Indonesian English academics. Elite Journal: International Journal of Education, Language, and Literature, 1(1), 83-92.
Cotos, E., Huffman, S., & Link, S. (2017). A move/step model for methods sections: Demonstrating rigour and credibility. English for Specific Purposes, 46, 90-106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2017.01.001
Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mix methods approaches, third edition. Singapore: Sage.
Doró, K. (2013). The rhetoric structure of research article abstracts in English studies journals. Prague Journal of English Studies, 2(1), 119-139. https://doi.org/10.2478/pjes-2014-0013
Ebadi, S., Salman, A. R., Nguyen, T.T.L., & Weisi, H. (2019). Rhetorical structure variations in abstracts and introductions of applied linguistics master’s theses by Iraqi and international students. Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research, 7(1), 101-117. https://doi.org/10.30466/IJLTR.2019.120635
Indrian, R. D., & Ardi, P. (2019). Rhetorical structures of English-major undergraduate thesis introduction chapters. Indonesian Journal of EFL and Lingustics, 4(2), 195-214. http://dx.doi.org/10.21462/ijefl.v4i2.166
Khany, R., & Malmir, B. (2019). A move marker list: A study of rhetorical move-lexis linguistic realizations of research article abstracts in social and behavioural sciences. RELC Journal, 51(3), 381-396. https://doi.org/10.1177/0033688219833131
Lim, J. M. (2012). How do writers establish research niches? A genre-based investigation into management researchers’ rhetorical steps and linguistic mechanisms. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 11(3), 229-245. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2012.05.002
Lu, X., Yoon, J., Kisselev, O., Casal, JE., Liu, Y., Deng, J., & Nie, R. (2021). Rhetorical and phraseological features of research article introductions: Variation among five social science disciplines. System, 100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2021.102543
Luthfiyah, L., Alex, A., & Fahriany, F. (2015). An investigation of cohesion and rhetorical moves in thesis abstracts. IJEE, 2(2), 145-159. https://doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v2i2.3086
Nodoushan, M. A. S., & Khakbaz, N. (2011). Theses 'discussion' sections: A structural move analysis. International Journal of Language Studies (IJLS), 5(3), 111-132.
Piromkij, W., & Phoocharoensil, S. (2022). A corpus-based study of move analysis and lexical bundles of chemical engineering research article introductions. Journal of Positive School Psychology, 6(6), 10656-10672.
Putri, T. D., & Kurniawan, E. (2021). Rhetorical move and genre knowledge development in local and international graduates’ thesis and dissertation abstracts. LLT Journal: A Journal on Language and Language Teaching, 24(2), 324-336. https://doi.org/10.24071/llt.v24i2.3433
Sheldon, E. (2011). Rhetorical differences in RA introductions written by English L1 and L2 and Castillian Spanish L1 writers. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 10(4), 238-251. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2011.08.004
Swales, J. M. (1990). Genre analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Swales, J. M. (2004). Research genres: Exploration and applications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Swales J. M., & Feak, C. B. (2012). Academic writing for graduate students: Essential tasks and skills (3rd Ed.). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
Tarvirdizdeh, Z., & Nimehchisalem, V. (2021). Rhetorical structure in the problem statement section of Iranian postgraduate students’ research projects. Studies in English Language and Education, 8(2), 578-595. https://doi.org/10.24815/siele.v8i2.19118
Thanajirawat, Z., & Chuea-Nongthon, C. (2022). Move and text analysis of the discussion section in humanities and social sciences research articles. EJAL, 8(1), 217-231. http://dx.doi.org/10.32601/ejal.911531
Wang, Z., & Chen, Q. (2021). Understanding challenges for Chinese vocational college students in improving writing skills. International Journal of Learning and Teaching, 7(4), 272-277. https://doi.org/10.18178/ijlt.7.4.272-277
Watson, R. (2018). I say “introduction”; You say “background”. Nurse Author & Editor, 28(1), 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1750-4910.2018.tb00010.x
Wijaya, L. E., & Ardi, P. (2022). Rhetorical moves of research article abstracts: A comparative study of national and international journals. Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, 8(1), 135-149. https://doi.org/10.18413/2313-8912-2022-8-1-0-9
Zamani, G., & Ebadi, S. (2021). Move analysis of conclusions as components of research articles in Persian and English. Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences, 11(1), 9–20. https://doi.org/10.18844/cjes.v11i1.344
Zand-Moghadam, A., & Meihami, H. (2016). A rhetorical move analysis of TEFL thesis abstracts: The case of Allameh Tabata’I University. Issues in Language Teaching, 5(1), 1-23. http://dx.doi.org/10.22054/ilt.2016.7714
Zhang, B., & Wannaruk, A. (2016). Rhetorical structure of education research article methods sections. PASAA, 51, 155-184.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/llt.v25i2.4273
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
Copyright (c) 2022 Titik Rahayu
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Indexed and abstracted in:
LLT Journal Sinta 2 Certificate (S2 = Level 2)
We would like to inform you that LLT Journal: A Journal on Language and Language Teaching has been nationally accredited Sinta 2 by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia based on the decree No. Surat Keputusan 158/E/KPT/2021. Validity for 5 years: Vol 23 No 1, 2020 till Vol 27 No 2, 2024
This work is licensed under CC BY-SA.
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
LLT Journal: A Journal on Language and Language Teaching, DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/llt, e-ISSN 2579-9533 and p-ISSN 1410-7201, is published twice a year, namely in April and October by the English Language Education Study Programme of Teacher Training and Education Faculty of Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.