Abstract
Although a plethora of papers have proved a seminal role of move-based genre analysis in cross-linguistic research of academic communication and EAP/ESP teaching and learning, there is a lack of respective linguistic or pedagogically motivated studies of research articles (RAs) and their parts aimed at comparing English and Russian. Using Hyland’s (2000) 5-move model, the current research seeks to determine the most obvious cross-linguistic differences in the move structure of abstracts of research articles on management for these languages. Based on a move analysis of the English- and Russian-language corpora each comprising 20 unstructured RA abstracts, the research revealed conformity of most English-language abstracts to Hyland’s model, while the Russian abstracts principally displayed a three-move structure containing ‘purpose’, ‘method’ and ‘product’, and included the ‘introduction’ and ‘conclusion’ moves only occasionally. Other significant discrepancies comprised the English-language authors’ tendency to provide precise or detailed indication of research methods and results, in contrast to their brief indication or over-generalized mentioning by Russian writers, as well as greater length of the English-language abstracts and their stricter concordance to standard move sequence than those of the Russian abstracts. Though the research was conducted on relatively small corpora and was descriptive in nature, its findings might be of interest to genre analysts as well as to L2 theorists and practitioners.
Highlights
With compatible frequencies of using the conventional ‘product’ move by the English and the Russian authors (100% and 90%, respectively), the former provided a more or less detailed or precise description of the research product (7) in 90% of the articles, while the latter gave it in 60% of all the abstracts only, and 20% of the Russian authors preferred to formally mention the fact that some research results were obtained without describing the product even briefly (12): (12) Through analyzing the business models of companies funded by the charitable foundation ‘Meeting the change’ in 2012, data
The analysis demonstrated that the RA abstracts in the English corpus mostly followed Hyland’s (2000) 5-move model while the Russian-language abstracts tended to use a 3-move structure comprising ‘purpose’, ‘method’ and ‘product’ moves with the same or similar frequencies as compared to the English language abstracts, but with rare ‘introduction’ and ‘conclusion’ moves
The small corpora resulted in unfeasibility of finer analysis of the move structure than it is presented in the article, e.g. involving steps and their sequences
Summary
Genre analysis has established itself as one of the most favored and fruitful frameworks for assisting language learners in perceiving, interpreting, and producing academic or professional discourse. In line with Santos’ (1996) and Swales and Feak’s (2004) five-move models comprising ‘background’, ‘aim’, ‘method’, ‘results’, and ‘conclusion’ moves with some terminological differences, Hyland’s (2000) model based on a thorough study of 800 abstracts in 8 science domains includes 5 moves They are: ‘introduction’ establishing the context of the paper and motivating the research or discussion; ‘purpose’ indicating purpose, thesis or hypothesis, outlining the intention behind the paper; ‘method’ providing information on design, procedures, assumptions, approach, data, etc.; ‘product’ stating the main findings or results, the argument, or what was accomplished; and ‘conclusion’ interpreting or extending results beyond the scope of the paper, drawing inferences or pointing to applications or wider implications Because of a comparatively small size of the corpora, the study did not regularly look into the move-constituting steps and their sequence; rather, it attempted to certify some distinct differences between the languages in the step structures of some moves
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