A Genre-analysis of the Discussion Section of Iranian and English ELT Theses: A Comparative Study

Abstract

The present research aimed to conduct a genre analysis of native (English) and non-native (Iranian) English speakers’ M.A theses of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) students to find any significant differences in their Discussion section structures according to the constitutive moves and steps. It also aimed to explore and compare the distribution of obligatory, conventional and optional moves and steps in the two corpuses. To this aim, 20 theses were randomly selected from well-known English Speaking Universities (Portland State University, University of Toledo, Ohio State University and University of Birmingham) to compare with 20 theses from Iran. The move analysis model by Yang and Allison (2003) was employed, which was specifically used in Applied Linguistics. Chi-squared test was run to make the comparison. The results revealed statistically significant differences between the genre followed in the Discussion sections of Iranian and non-Iranian TEFL M.A. theses. The most significant divergence was found in summarizing the study. English-speaking TEFL thesis writers tended to summarize the study in Discussion section significantly more than Iranian writers. Statistically significant differences were also found in the distribution of obligatory, conventional and optional moves. English-speaking writers indicated limitations in the Discussion section significantly more than Iranian writers. This shows Iranian TEFL M.A. writers are more reserved to discuss limitations. These results can be used effectively in M.A. courses of TEFL to raise students’ awareness and prevent them from overstating or understating certain constituent parts of the Discussion section in theses.