A Contrastive Analysis of Rhetorical Structures of English and Vietnamese Linguistic Research Articles

Hong Bich Nguyen, Hien Pham

Abstract


This paper reports a contrastive genre analysis of rhetorical structures of linguistic research articles written in English and Vietnamese. The quantitative method was employed with data from a corpus of 35 English and 35 Vietnamese research articles randomly selected from internationally and Vietnamese reputable journals of linguistics published in the five-year period from 2015 to 2019. The rhetorical model of research articles in Applied Linguistics, as suggested by Pho (2008), was applied as a framework to analyse the corpus of this study. Findings reveal some similarities and differences in the structure of English and Vietnamese research articles. Generally, the macro-structure of Vietnamese articles is basically similar to that of English articles. However, in English articles, there are often more parts than in Vietnamese ones, and the discussion tends to be separated into a single section. The findings of this study can shed some light on the path of graduate students and novice scholars, especially Vietnamese researchers, who strive to publish their scientific achievements in reputable journals so that they will be accepted as new dwellers of the linguistic community.

 

Keywords: research articles; rhetorical structure; move; genre; contrastive analysis


Full Text:

PDF

References


Ahmadi, L. (2022). Rhetorical Structure of Applied Linguistics Research Article Discussions: A Comparative Cross-Cultural Analysis, Journal of Language & Education, 8(3), 2022, 11–22.

Al-Khasawneh, F. M. (2017). A Genre Analysis of Research Article Abstracts Written by Native and Non-Native Speakers of English, Journal of Applied Linguistics and Language Research, 1(1), 1-13.

Amnuai, W. (2019). Analyses of Rhetorical Moves and Linguistic Realisations in Accounting Research Article Abstracts Published in International and Thai-Based Journals. SAGE Open, January-March, 1–9.

Ard, J. (1983). The role of the author in scientific discourse. Paper given at the annual American Applied Linguistics meeting. Minneapolis, Minn.

Bazerman, C. (1983). Reporting the experiment: the changing account of scientific doings in the Philosophical transactions of the royal society, 1665-1800 (mimeo).

Bazerman, C. (1988). Shaping written knowledge: The genre and activity of the experimental article in science. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.

Bhatia, V. K. (1993). Analysing genre: Language use in professional settings. London: Longman.

Brett, P. (1994). A genre analysis of the results section of sociology articles. English for Specific Purposes, 13(1), 47-59.

Bruce, I. (2014). Expressing criticality in the literature review in research article introductions in applied linguistics and psychology. English for Specific Purposes, 36, 85–96.

Cheng, S. W., Kuo, C., & Kuo, C. (2012). Research article titles in applied linguistics. Journal of Academic Language and Learning, 6(1), 2012, A1-A14.

Dahl, T. (2009). Author identity in economics and linguistics abstracts. In Suomela-Salmi, E., Dervin, F. (Eds.). Cross-linguistic and Cross-cultural perspectives on academic discourse (pp. 123–133). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Doró, K. (2013). The Rhetoric Structure of Research Article Abstracts in English Studies Journals. Prague Journal of English Studies, 2(1).

Dressen, D. (2003). Geologists' implicit persuasive strategies and the construction of evaluative evidence. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 2(4), 273–290.

Evrim Eveyik-Aydin. (2015). Moves in discussions: A corpus-based genre analysis of the discussion sections in applied linguistics research articles written in English. Dissertation of Doctor of Philosophy in English language teaching. Yeditepe University, Iran.

Fazilatfar, A. M., & Naseri, Z. S. (2016). The study of rhetorical moves in applied linguistics research-based articles written by Iranian researchers. International Journal of Linguistics, 8(6), 154-173.

Giannoni, D. (2002). Worlds of gratitude: A contrastive study of acknowledgement texts in English and Italian research articles. Applied linguistics, 23(1), 1–31.

Gledhill, C. (2000). The discourse functions of collocation in research article introductions. English for Specific Purposes, 19, 115–135.

Hopkins, A., & Dudley-Evans, T. (1988). A genre-based investigation of the discussion sections in articles and dissertations. English for Specific Purposes, 7(2), 113-122.

Hu, G., & Cao, F. (2011). Hedging and boosting in abstracts of applied linguistic articles: a comparative study of English and Chinese-medium journals. Journal of Pragmatics, 3, 2795-2809.

Lâm Quang Đông. (2017). Evaluation of language used in Vietnamese academic papers: Preliminary results. Language & Life, 261 7), 3–14.

Nguyen, T. T. L. (2018). Rhetorical Structures and Linguistic Features of English Abstracts in Thai Rajabhat University Journals. 3L: Language, Linguistics, Literature®️ The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, 24(4).

Pham, H. (2022). English Compound Meaning Predictability: An Exploratory Cross-Linguistic Study. 3L: Language, Linguistics, Literature®️ The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, 28(3).

Pham, H., Tucker, B. V., & Baayen, R. H. (2019). Constructing two Vietnamese corpora and building a lexical database. Lang Resources & Evaluation, 53, 465–498 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10579-019-09451-x.

Pho, P. D. (2008). How can learning about the structure of research articles help international students? Paper presented at The 19th International ISANA International Education Conference, Auckland, New Zealand.

Posteguillo, S. (1999). The schematic structure of computer science research articles. English for specific purposes, 18(2), 139-158.

Rabie, H., & Boraie, D. (2021). The Rhetorical Structure of Literature Reviews in Egyptian-Authored English Research Articles in Linguistics, Asian Social Science and Humanities Research Journal, 3(1), March 2021, 55-72.

Salager-Meyer, F. (1992). A text-type and move analysis study of verb tense and modality distribution in medical English abstracts. English for specific purposes, 11, 93-113.

Storesbury, H. (2003). Evaluation in research article abstracts in the narrative and hard sciences. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 2(4), 327–341.

Swales, J. (1990). Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Swales, J. (2004). Research genre: Explorations and application. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Swales, J. M., & Feak, C. B. (2000). English in today’s research world: A writing guide. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Tarone, E., Dwyer, S., Gillette, S., & Icke, V. (1998). On the use of the passive and active voice in astrophysics journal papers: with extensions to other languages and other fields. English for Specific Purposes, 17, 113–132.

Toulmin, S. (1972). Human understanding: The collective use and evolution of concepts. Princeton University Press.

Yang, R., & Allison, D. (2004). Research articles in applied linguistics: Structures from a functional perspective. English for Specific Purposes, 23(3), 264–279.

Zanina, E. (2017). Move Structure of Research Article Abstracts on Management: Contrastive Study (the Case of English and Russian). Journal of Language and Education, 3(2), 63–72. doi:10.17323/2411-7390-2017-3-2-63-72

Zappen, J. P. (1983). A rhetoric for research in sciences and technologies. In Anderson, Brockman & Miller (Eds.). New essays in technical and scientific communication (pp. 123–38). Farmingdale, New York: Baywood.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17576/3L-2024-3001-14

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


 

 

 

eISSN : 2550-2247

ISSN : 0128-5157