The argumentation structure of research article ‘findings and discussion’ sections written by Non-native English speaker novice writers: a case of Indonesian undergraduate students

Abstract

ABSTRACT Considering the increasing participation of non-native English speaker (NNES) writers in international publications, the rhetorical organization of their research articles (RAs) keeps receiving ample attention from researchers of English for academic purposes. However, the issue is understudied among NNES novice writers. This study examines the rhetorical organization of academic argumentation in 113 Indonesian English education undergraduate students' iterative findings and discussion sections using a move analysis method. The findings demonstrated that the conformity manifestations of the comments move were exhibited in interpreting results and comparing results with previous literature. The non-conformity manifestations exemplified the limited manifestations of dissimilarities with previous research and the absence of explanation after claims were made. This caused an absence of criticality as the fundamental element of RA writing. Moreover, several grammar-related and idea-related errors occurred in most steps. Hence, recommendations for the pedagogy of English for research publication purposes and future research are presented.