Editor

JLLT edited by Thomas Tinnefeld
Journal of Linguistics and Language Teaching
Volume 6 (2016) Issue 1


Structural Patterns and Linguistic Features
of Research Articles on Applied Linguistics:
Evidence from Introduction Sections to Methods Sections

Attapol Khamkhien (Bangkok, Thailand)

Abstract
Writing and publishing research articles (RAs) in English is crucial because an RA is considered as one of the channels to communicate among researchers and scholars worldwide. This paper centres on the rhetorical structures and linguistic features commonly used in the Introduction and Methods sections of the RA genre. Inspired by Swales’ analytical framework (1990; 2004) and the contributions of Connor, Upton and Kanoksilapatham (2007) who suggest steps of conducting a move-based genre analysis, this study examined 50 RA Introduction and Methods sections in the field of applied linguistics. These RAs were analysed by genre analysis into ‘moves’ and ‘steps’. Through a comprehensive analysis of 50 systematically selected RAs published in journals listed in the Thai Citation Index (TCI) database, the results revealed that each section displayed a generic pattern, comprising a series of moves and steps. Lexico-grammatical features associated with a communicative function were also identified. The structural patterns and linguistic features found to functionally interact with one another may facilitate the understanding of novice writers and graduates of published RAs in these sections. Pedagogically, the findings generated by this study could be useful for teaching students how to write scholarly publications in EAP classrooms. The structural patterns identified might also be meaningful for teachers in designing relevant reading and writing materials for advanced learners to improve their writing skills to effectively disseminate discoveries in their fields.
Key words: Rhetorical structure, Introduction, Methods, genre analysis, applied linguistics, research writing


1 Introduction
Writing for scholarly publications in peer-reviewed journals is crucial. Scholars and researchers from various academic disciplines have been under tremendous pressure to not only get access to information, but also share and disseminate their research findings through English in prestigious journals. Consequently, since RAs represent the preferred medium of exchanging knowledge among members of the academic community (Flowerdew 1999: 123-124), researchers and scholars are pushed to successfully involve and meet the standard criteria and conventions of writing practices for academic and professional reasons.
Thai faculty members, researchers, and practitioners are currently encouraged to have their research papers accepted and published in top-tier journals in English. Many Thai universities have recently set up a bonus payment scheme stipulating that for RAs published in prestigious academic journals indexed in respectful databases, authors will be rewarded. Moreover, successful publications can enhance an author’s reputation, prestige, chances of receiving promotions and grant awards, and acceptance in the field (Kanoksilapatham 2007: 173). Furthermore, one of the essential characteristics that Thai graduate students should have is the ability to communicate, share, and exchange their knowledge in English so that the knowledge gained can be used to develop the country. Many Thai universities require candidates wishing to graduate with a master’s or doctoral degree to publish their research findings in at least one RA in an academic journal. Also, any RA published must contain master’s or doctoral research and be published in an international peer-reviewed journal (Svasti & Asavisanu 2007). Writing for scholarly publications is, thus, regarded as a prerequisite for Thai graduate students before entering the academic community.
As stated by Canagarajah (1996) and Flowerdew (1999), without having received formal training in how to write academic English, publishing RAs in peer-reviewed articles is somewhat difficult for many non-native speaking researchers. The task of writing RAs in general is also considered relatively daunting and challenging in the view of most novice writers. To publish an RA successfully, writing skills are essential to ensure that writers can efficiently and successfully express themselves academically. Cook (1990) and MaCarthy (1991) suggest that to be able to understand and produce RAs, writers need to make use of both macro and micro skills. The macro knowledge of an RA genre starts with the knowledge of the structural organisation of the discourse units, before moving on to lexical and grammatical features used in the text. In contrast, the micro knowledge of the RA concerns the smallest units of discourse, such as grammatical items, before moving on to more general features such as sentences, discourse units, and structural organisations of the discourse units. In other words, to write effectively, writers need to have knowledge of the genre and linguistic characteristics, including lexico-grammatical features, rhetorical organisation, communicative functions, and content (Hyland 2004: 149-150). In other words, these macro and micro language components therefore have different but complementary characteristics.
However, Thai authors and graduate students still often face serious problems when attempting to publish their RAs in English in refereed journals, particularly international journals. Specifically, Thai graduate students in the field of social sciences seem to have some difficulties in publishing in English for a number of reasons. First, they need to understand how to conform to the overall organisation, and how to use certain expressions and vocabulary commonly employed in their respective discourse communities and academic disciplines. Second, the trend towards publishing in English, including venues for publication with a huge number of academic journals, is more pronounced in the hard sciences (Cargill & O’Connor 2006, Flowerdew & Li 2007) than in the humanities and social sciences. Hence, it is inevitable that the ability to read and write an RA in English is pivotal for novice authors in general, and for Thai graduate students in particular, and for handling academic writing tasks encountered in a higher education setting.
Through the widely used Create a Research Space Model (CARS) proposed by Swales (1990, 2004), a multitude of genre-based studies have been textually conducted on the macro-structure of RAs and have revealed that different components and lexico-grammatical features were found in the four sections of RAs (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion (IMRD)) and different fields of discipline (e.g. Basturkmen 2012, Bruce 2008, 2009, Kanoksilapatham 2012, Lim 2006, Pho 2010, Ozturk 2007, Yang & Allison 2003). These studies also acknowledge the increasingly important role of RAs written in English. The results of these studies generally seem to indicate that the rhetorical structure of the RA is, to some extent, dependent on to which the text it belongs and the linguistic and / or cultural context in which it is written. However, particular attention in this line of research has been paid to the analysis of the Introduction section in several disciplines, whereas the Methods section seems to have attracted the least attention (Duenas 2007).
With respect to the importance of publishing RAs in refereed journals, the generic schemata and conventions associated with these are taken into account. The objective of the present study is to describe how the Introduction-and-Methods sections in RAs on applied linguistics are rhetorically constructed. We also attempt to present detailed rhetorical and lexico-grammatical realisations prevalently found in applied linguistics RAs. It is hoped that the rhetorical descriptions will shed light on their RA genre to sharpen a better understanding in writing RAs for publication to disseminate scientific discoveries. In addition, awareness of rhetorical patterns and linguistic features used is valuable to novice writers in general and graduate students in particular who encounter difficulties in reading, preparing and writing RAs for publication.

2 Swales’ Framework of Move and Step Analysis
Swales’ framework was originally designed to help non-native speakers of English in a university setting to master the macro level of organisational structures and the micro level of linguistic features which are conventionally used in texts required in their disciplines and professions (Hyon 2002, Swales 1990, 2004). According to Biber et al. (2007: 15), Swales’ move analysis is regarded as a specific genre analysis. It was developed as a top-down or macro approach to demystify the discourse structure of texts. The basic aim of move analysis is to consider and describe texts as a sequence of 'moves', where each move presents a stretch of text serving a particular communicative function. Each move, therefore, not only has its own purpose but also contributes to the overall communicative purpose of the genre.
In conducting a move analysis, researchers segment texts into moves based on their communicative purpose as it is believed that the overall discourse structure of a text can be described in relation to the sequence of move types. Some moves occur more frequently than others and can be realised as obligatory, whereas other moves do not occur frequently in the text and can be described as optional. Each move contains a number of elements with which it is realised. These constituent elements are referred to as 'steps' by Swales (1990, 2004) or 'strategies' by Bhatia (1993). The steps of a move primarily function to achieve the purpose of the move to which it belongs. To be precise, a move captures the function and purpose of a segment of text at a more general level, whereas a step more specifically presents the rhetorical means of realising the function of the move. The set of steps for a move is recognised by the set of rhetorical choices most commonly available to RA authors so as to realise a certain communicative purpose (Biber et al. 2007).
Swales (1990, 2004) proposed a version of the CARS model which has been the predominant analytical tool used in the analysis of the Introduction component of RAs. It is used to describe the content schema structure of RAs Introduction, consisting of three moves. Each of the moves is obligatory and minimally consists of one component step. However, Swales’ analytical model was criticised by scholars for its subjectivity (Ädel 2014, Kanoksilapatham 2013 and 2015). Conducting a move analysis also lacks explicit rules for decisions on move boundaries, leading to questions of the reliability and empirical validity of the analysis (Paltridge 1994). However, as suggested by Dudley-Evans (1994: 226), decisions about the classification of move patterns are made on the basis of linguistic evidence, text comprehension, and the understanding of the academic discourse community. Furthermore, according to Swales (2004), the model proposed is not to prescribe, but is used to provide guidelines with regard to how ideas are marshalled in the Introduction section.
Although criticism concerning the usefulness and validity of the CARS model has been raised, the model has been subsequently validated in a number of RA Introductions across several disciplines (e.g. Samraj 2002 in wildlife behaviour and biology conservation, Kanoksilpatham 2011 in civil engineering, Ozturk 2007 in second language acquisition and second language writing). As an extension, the model was also used to analyse other internal sections of RAs in academic disciplines (e.g. Brett (1994) in the Results section, Peacock (2011) in the Methods sections in eight disciplines, Lim (2006) in the Method sections of management RAs, Yang & Allison (2003) in Results and Discussion sections of applied linguistics RAs, and Nwogu (1997) in the Discussion section of medical articles). The findings from these studies have helped us to recognise that the rhetorical organisation of texts is helpful, providing the schema of what information elements or moves are presented. These studies also indicate that, although the CARS model was very informative, the scrutiny of individual disciplines demonstrated that each discipline has its own unique characteristics. A rhetorical organisation could be identified even though the corpus of each study was taken from different disciplines. Swales’ framework seems to be successful with the application to each of the four sections of RAs. However, as demonstrated by these studies, not all the findings from diverse academic disciplines are identical, displaying the characteristics of their academic disciplines. Some studies did not clearly report linguistic features prevalently used in each move type identified, whereas specific results from previous studies that focused on similar disciplines remain underdeveloped (Kanoksilapatham 2015: 75). In addition, most previous studies have focused on a single section of articles, contributing to an incomplete understanding of what should be included in each section when linking the knowledge of macro and micro-structure of the Introduction-and-Methods sections of an RA, at least in the discipline of applied linguistics

3 The Study
3.1 Data Compilation
To obtain valid genre analysis results, 50 RAs on applied linguistics were first systematically compiled so as to ascertain that the datasets were representative of the genre. To enhance the validity of the analysis with regard to a journal selection, the journals approved to be included in the Tier 1 by the Thai-Journal Citation Index (TCI), representing the high quality of their publications and journals (Sombatsompop et al. 2012), were carefully selected. From these journals, the respective 2013 and 2014 issues were selected so as to enhance the coherence and validity of the results of the study.
To systematically select 50 RAs from each of the journals, firstly, RAs were chosen whose contents appear to relate to studies in the field of applied linguistics (e.g. teaching and learning, second language acquisition, discourse analysis, foreign language teaching, and testing and assessment). Secondly, since each issue of the journals may contain review articles, forums or book reviews, only empirical RAs, consisting of Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion and / or Conclusion sections were compiled. However, only the sections of Introduction and Methods were analysed in this study.

3.2 Data Analysis
The data collected and complied were analysed using Swales’ analytical framework and the steps developed by Connor, Upton and Kanoksilapatham (2007) to perform a move-based genre analysis to determine the sub-units of moves and steps. Linguistic features found in move and step instances were analysed to explore their communicative function in the text segments. To determine the potential status of each move, the frequencies of occurrence of the individual moves identified were recorded. Based on the criterion arbitrarily established as a potential measure of move stability for any move posited, a move was classified as obligatory, usual, or optional if it was found in 100%, more than 60%, and in less than 60% of the corpus, respectively. Inter-coder reliability analysis was also conducted to demonstrate that a text segment identified in each move type can be defined to ensure that different coders can demarcate the boundary of text units at a sufficiently high agreement rate (Kanoksilapatham 2005, 2012). In the present study, inter-coder reliability for identifying moves between the researcher and three coders across the texts was attained, with an average rate for the introduction section of 89.30% and the Methods section of 92.14%, respectively.

4 Results
In the presentation of the texts below, parenthetical citations appearing in the original texts are replaced by the abbreviation (Ref) for space-saving purposes. Distinct lexico-grammatical features in text segments, which seem to particularly indicate communicative functions, are highlighted in boldface, because they offer semantically driven clues on how moves are identified with regard to their communicative function. However, the original division of paragraphs has been preserved. Lastly, the names of the journals are abbreviated as JES, JLA, LEA, MNY, NET, SCOJ, SJSH, SPPJ, and VEJ (see Appendix).

4.1 Features of Moves and Steps and their Frequency in Introduction Sections
Our analysis reveals that the Introduction section in RAs on applied linguistics consists of four move types. The following table presents the occurrence and frequency of each move and step identified in the 50 RA Introduction sections analysed:



As shown in Table 1, Moves 1, 3 and 4 occurred relatively often. Specifically, Moves 1 and 4 were always present (100%) in the Introduction section, whilst Move 3 occurred less frequently (92%). Move 2 was rarely found (32%), however, compared with other moves in the section. Moves 1 and 4 were always present (100%) in the Introduction section, whilst Move 3 occurred less frequently (42 out of 50 Introductions or 84%). Move 2 was rarely found (16 Introductions or 32%). Based on the criterion to classify the status of each move regarding the occurrence rate of the move, with the exception of Move 2, all moves identified appeared in all 50 Introductions, resulting in a high frequency of occurrence ranging from 84% to 100%. Thus, Moves 1 and 4 were considered obligatory, while Move 3 appearing quite frequently in the section was a usual move. Move 2 was considered to be optional. The following sections discuss in detail the characteristics of each move type and its constituent step(s) with regard to linguistic features reflecting the specific communicative functions that they have, contributing to the generic structure of the section.

4.1.1 Move 1: Establishing the Topic Being Studied
This the first move to occur in the initial position of the Introduction section. This move is generally used to ensure that readers can determine if the research is of relevance to them and, thus, worth reading, and to claim its significance of further exploration in the field. Move 1 consists of three possible steps: announcing the importance of the field, making topic generalisations, and reviewing previous research.

4.1.1.1 Move 1 / Step 1: Announcing the Importance of the Field
This move is generally used to present the importance of the research topic being studied. This move / step functions as a statement of current knowledge, highlighting the importance of the research topic.
Examples:
(1)  Reading entirely in English is particularly important for Thai university EFL students because of the large number of course texts, references and internet materials appearing in that language. (JLA 1, Dorkchandra 2013: 33)
(2)  Language learning strategies have been considered as a key factor for successful language learning for the last few decades. (SCOJ 2, Yang 2013: 41)
As can clearly be seen, the authors can introduce the topic of the study and claim that it is a significant area of study through emphatic lexical items (important, key factor) and amplifiers (particularly important). Evaluative adjectives are used as predicative adjectives. More interestingly, the current state of the topic is signalled by the use of the Present tense and the Present Perfect tense (have been considered), showing that the topic under investigation is still of potential interest to the readers. These linguistic features and lexical items help contribute to highlighting the importance of the topic and the on-going interest to investigate a particular concept or area of applied linguistics. This finding is congruent with Samraj’s (2002) study which suggests that centrality claims seem to be made in two ways: either by assertions about the importance of the topic being discussed or by assertions regarding active research activity in the field concerned.

4.1.1.2 Move 1 / Step 2: Making Topic Generalisation
This move is invariably present and usually opens the section. This can occur elsewhere in the Introduction section. Similar to Swales (2004), this move / step can take a variety of forms, but it generally falls into one of two categories: statements about knowledge that are generally known in the field or practice and statements about phenomena.
Examples:
(3)  Reading involves a number of cognitive processes; therefore, awareness and understanding of these processes help readers perform their reading better. (SPPJ 1, Chanprasert 2013: 95)
(4)   The English language is complicated by the fact that one word can carry more than one meaning and various meanings can be associated with a word. (JLA 2, Laongphol & Chatupote 2013: 3)
Move 1 / Step 2, indicates that the statement represents what is generally known or accepted in the field. Therefore, reference to a particular scholar is not made. The use of verbs in the present tense, be they active or passive (involves, is complicated, can carry, can be associated), is the dominant linguistic feature used to accomplish this move / step; expressing a statement is assumed to be known to, or agreed by, discourse members including potential readers and those who are interested in the topic. Given that the statement which denotes this move is brief and / or uncontroversial, the function of this move is similar to Wharton’s (2006) comment, asserting that by stating initial information in a brief form, writers are signalling that they believe this information to be shared knowledge in the community.

4.1.1.3 Move 1 / Step 3: Reviewing Previous Research
In this move, previous studies deemed by the authors to be relevant to the topic are presented to help establish the claims that the authors want to make. This move / step is always recognised through clusters of citations intermingled throughout the text.
Examples:
(5)   A number of studies on modified interaction or negotiation for meaning (Ref) suggested that the process of negotiating for meaning is facilitative of L2 acquisition. (NET 2, Champakaew & Pencingkarn 2014: 81)
(6)   (Ref) confirmed this notion by saying, “In learning another language, it is evident that we have to learn both grammatical correctness and idiomatic preference”, otherwise the production of lexical errors and improper use of words could result. (LEA 8, Yumanee & Phoocharoensil 2013: 90)
The excerpts above reveal that a unique feature of this step is the presence of citations or references (Ref). Compared with Step 2 of Move 1 (Making topic generalisations), Move 1 / Step 3, is relatively specific, as all realisations of the move refer to previous studies, e.g. a number of studies. These lexical items are employed to contextualise the study being reported, demonstrating its connections to previous studies. This move / step is widely found in the Introduction section because assessing previous research in the literature can possibly enhance the author’s credentials as a possessor of knowledge.
Interestingly, the instances above show the distinct use of the Present Perfect tense and the Past tense. With respect to the use of tense, Shaw (1992: 303) proposes some intriguing and perspective views on the use of tenses by claiming that the Present Perfect tense is used when the author needs to continue a discussion based on previous literature or to point out that the results of previous studies are acceptable in general. In contrast to the Present Perfect tense, the simple past tense is used when previous results are not generally accepted, and thus do not support the author’s claims.

4.1.2 Move 2: Presenting Statement of Problems / Needs
In Move 2, the author tries to attract the readers' attention by mentioning some problematic issues, leading to the necessity and / or need to conduct the study in question. Words or phrases, negation patterns conveying negative connotations are usually employed in this move in order to present key characteristics of a particular problem. This move could occur once in the Introduction section or could be interrupted by another move type.
Examples:
(7)    Although the importance of reading is well-recognized, many Thai university EFL students’ English reading comprehension skill is still poor. This indicates difficulties in fulfilling the demands of their studies. (JLA 1, Dorkchandra 2013: 33)
(8)  Despite a regular use of the English language both inside and outside the classroom setting, the students still encounter problems in their learning and they generally see unknown words as the first problem to overcome. (SJSH 1, Saengpakdeejit 2014: 148)
In the instances above, the authors try to convince readers that the problem being stated in the paper is relevant by pointing out how the situation or problem arises. The use of verbs in the present tense (is, indicates, encounter, see) is prominent in Move 2, highlighting the existence of the current problems, which are thus worth investigating in the study. The distinct use of words that have negative meanings (difficulties, problems) is the main strategy commonly used to accomplish this purpose. Meanwhile, contradiction connectors (although, despite) are used to connect the ideal situation previously mentioned to the current situation that falls short of the goal.

4.1.3 Move 3: Establishing a Niche
Move 3 is used in the Introduction section of RAs on applied linguistics to draw attention to a weakness or gap in the literature. This third move found represents a common strategy used in order to prepare readers by addressing or identifying gaps in previous studies, pinpointing how inadequate and problematic they are. Move 3 is typically realised through two steps as follows.

4.1.3.1 Move 3 / Step 1: Indicating Research Gaps
Step 1 of Move 3 serves to express critical comments addressing a current gap in existing research. This move / step is used most to pinpoint some limitations or weaknesses in the existing literature. The occurrence rate of Move 3 / Step 1 was quite high (56%), as opposed to Hirano (2009) suggesting that Brazilian writers have a tendency to not criticise others’ work openly.
Examples:
(9) Generally, many of the two-way communication task studies were conducted in experimental setting where NS-NNS were involved, and few studies have explored EFL learners’ negotiating in classroom. (NET 2, Champakaew & Pencingkarn 2013: 82)
(10)  No study has been reported about the type of processing approach of English language by learners of non-romance languages in general and Persian in particular. (LEA 6, Ansarin 2013: 17)
Move 3 / Step 1, is employed in the above examples as a strategy to mention that previous research studies suffer from some limitations. A number of lexical entries are used in this move, involving a set of lexical items including negative quantifiers and evaluations, such as indefinite adjectives or pronouns, negation devices (no, few), and adversative connectors (yet). The use of the adversative connector indicates that existing knowledge bears some limitations, and thus remains to be explored. This finding is in line with the work of Swales (1990), who observes that this step shows that previous literature studies have been limited in some way and is therefore associated with more affirmative sentence connectors.

4.1.3.2. Move 3 / Step 2: Presenting Positive Justification
Move 3 / Step 2, serves to support the need for the existence of the study, specifying the expected benefits obtained from the work being reported.
Examples:
(11)  Considering these studies, examining the components of student engagement is essential to successfully engage students even if following the school curriculum is required in some schools. (NET 1, Hirano 2014: 58)
(12)  There is, consequently, a need to improve this aspect of their service to the customer. One area of possible improvement would be the recognition of the more practical training of ‘small talk’. This particular approach to facilitating a more interactional form of conversation would have potentially several benefits apart from greater social interaction with the customers developing confidence in terms of language for the cabin crew. (NET 4, Pawataungsunit 2014: 133)
As shown above, the verbs in the present tense (is) and lexical items indicating that research should be conducted (need as a noun) are commonly used. Moreover, the authors used lexical items with positive reasons in reporting the study (essential, potentially several benefits) to assist them in reinforcing the research topic which they intend to investigate.

4.1.4 Move 4: Introducing the Respective Study
Move 4 is a means to introduce the work which will fill in the gap indicated in Move 3. Therefore, Move 4 is closely connected to Move 3. With regard to the position of this move, it usually ends the Introduction section. Move 4 could be realised by four steps: stating objectives, summarising research methods, claiming the value of the given research, and indicating research questions.

4.1.4.1 Move 4 / Step 1: Stating Objectives
Move 4 / Step 1, explicitly indicates the purpose of the research being reported. This is in line with Samraj’s (2002) study which shows that research goals are generally presented and elaborated in all the Introductions to articles on wildlife behaviour that she studied.
Examples:
(13) This research aimed to study whether the training in part of speech identification and dictionary use would help students translate better and find out what factors they thought affect their ability to translate and how they feel about the training. (JLA 2, Laongphol & Chatupote 2013: 6)
(14) With this in mind, the researchers were encouraged to examine a range of LLS by employing a case study of a group of undergraduate students majoring in English in Cambodia. (LEA 1, Seng & Khleang 2014: 59)
The most frequent signal in this step to state the objectives is the use of deictic references to the texts, including demonstrative adjectives (this), and specific determiners (the) followed mainly by common nouns (study, research). Impersonal stereotypical phrases such as the aim of this study or this study aimed to were also used (e.g. This research aimed to study). The noun researchers is used to express identity and inform readers of their involvement of the research. In this regard, it is worth noting that the verbs is and aimed are used in the form of the Simple Present tense or Past tense in order that the authors can explicitly state the objective(s) of the research. The use of the noun aim and semantically suitable infinitives (to study, to examine) to go with it in this move / step is congruent with Swales’ study (2004), stating that proposing the purpose of the study is usually categorised in two forms: the descriptive form, focusing on the features of the study, or the purposive form, which is marked by the use of expressions such as the aim or the goal.
In this respect, the first pronoun (I) is also used to stress that the study being presented was conducted by the author him or herself as shown in the following instance.
Example:
(15)  In this study, I examined the effective instructional strategies that help students who study a foreign language understand reading and writing in the target language. I also examined in what ways teachers can encourage and motivate students to learn a foreign language, how the strategies that teachers in the United States use compared with my experience teaching in Japan and with that of Japanese students I interviewed, and how teachers manage time to involve students while teaching a huge amount of content, which might take up most of the class period. (NET 1, Hirano 2014: 59)
The use of the first person pronoun signals the presence of a researcher in the research paper, serving to claim ownership. This explanation is in line with Hyland (2009) and Hyland & Tse (2012) who indicate that by referring to the writers in the first person, they want to stress their contribution and their presence in the article where the author interacts with other scholars and the audience.

4.1.4.2 Move 4 / Step 2: Listing Research Procedures
Move 4 / Step 2, serves to briefly describe methodological procedures and / or experimental frameworks adopted by the studies.
Examples:
(16) However, in this study three different two-way communication tasks were selected; problem-solving tasks, information gap tasks and story-telling tasks. (NET 2, Champakaew & Pencingkarn 2013: 82)
(17) Using Lee’s working definition of coherence and students’ voices as the conceptual framework, we ventured into a writing class to explore how a group of EFL university students viewed coherence and the extent to which teaching and students’ views on coherence might be related. (LEA 4, Vivekmetakorn & Kaewbangpood 2014: 94)
Compared to Move 4 / Step 1, Step 2 of Move 4 normally exceeds mere one-sentence announcements. Lexical signals used to express Move 4 / Step 2, include expressions related to research procedures and research tools (problem-solving tasks, information gap tasks, story-telling task). Activity verbs describing research activities (were selected) and underlining theoretical frameworks used (Using Lee’s working definition of coherence and students’ voices) are also used to present methodological procedures. The choice of the Simple Past tense also indicates that the methodology was carefully selected in the study being reported.

4.1.4.3 Move 4, Step 3: Claiming Research Value
Move 4 / Step 3, serves to inform readers of the value of the research being presented. Functionally, in this move / step the research findings are discussed from several perspectives, including implications, significance, interpretations or contributions of the study being reported.
Examples:
(18) The results of this study contribute some empirical evidence in an attempt to raise awareness of a test bias which has been overlooked in many ESL / EFL contexts. (JES 1, Wuttipornpong 2013: 34)
(19) The results of this study may not only minimize the marginalization of value and lived experiences of Thai secondary school students, but also enable them to share and value their own cultural identities with students from other countries. (VEJ 2, Nomnian 2013: 15)
The above examples indicate that the authors use Move 4 / Step 3, to express the contribution of the results of their studies and their practical implications. Some linguistic features used to accomplish this move / step include cognitive nouns (awareness) and nouns expressing likelihood (empirical evidence) as well as predicative and possibility modals (may). Deictic elements, including specific determiners or demonstrative adjectives (this) followed by common nouns (study) and formulaic structures (the results of this study) are frequently used in these texts. Move 4 / Step 3, is regarded as a strategy to state the value of the research before the authors make strong claims for the validity of their research and implications in the Discussion section.

4.1.4.4 Move 4 / Step 4: Indicating Research Questions
If present, Move 4 / Step 4 may be the last move to end the Introduction. The aim or goal of a study in this move / step can be explicitly stated in the form of research questions.
Example:
(20) In particular, this investigation tried to answer the following questions:
1) How do students respond, in terms of attention / awareness, action and attitude, to WCF?
2) Are there significant differences in students’ responses to the three types of WCF, namely direct, indirect, and coded corrective feedback? (LEA 2, Parreño 2014: 7)
As shown here, the research questions found in Introduction sections are stated directly (to answer the following questions), and are generally listed. Since this move / step is used infrequently in the corpus, this finding is consistent with Swales’ (2004) CARS model, indicating that Step 2 in Move 3 (Presenting RQs or hypotheses) is regarded not only as optional but that it is less fixed in its occurrence of order than the other steps.

4.2 Features of Moves and Steps and their Frequency in Methods Sections

The Methods sections of 50 RAs on applied linguistics consist of a set of five distinctive moves organised into a particular pattern. The findings concerning the frequency of occurrence of the rhetorical moves and steps of the 50 RA Methods sections are presented in Table 2:



Table 2 demonstrates that a set of five moves was not always used in the RA Methods as some moves were found to be more frequent than others. Moves 6 and 7 were discovered in all of the 50 RAs (100%), while Moves 8 and 9 were relatively frequent (47 and 41 out of 50 or 84% and 82% of occurrence, respectively). Move 5 was found to be the least frequent move type (40%). Moves 6 and 7 are considered obligatory (as they were found in all the texts of our corpus) in performing their communicative functions in this particular section, while Moves 8 and 9 are usual moves (occurring in more than 60% of the texts of our corpus). Move 5 is regarded as optional. Therefore, it can be said that Moves 6, 7, 8, and 9 play an integral role in the Methods sections of the RAs on applied linguistics analysed. In contrast, the relatively low percentage of Move 5 indicates that summarising research objectives and research methods may play a much smaller role in the Methods section than it does in others.

4.2.1 Move 5: Summarising Research Objectives and Methods
Move 5 is to present the general information of the research design and research method of a given study. In some cases, it is used to restate the research objectives of the study being reported. Move 5 was found to occur at the beginning of the Methods section and can be accomplished in two steps which are presented in the following.

4.2.1.1 Move 5 / Step 1: Announcing Research Objectives / Questions
Move 5 / Step 1, is the segment in which authors address the objectives of their research, or the question(s) to be answered in the study.
Example:
(21) This study sets out to investigate Thai students’ attitudes towards the native-speaker and other ASEAN models in English pronunciation learning that highlight intelligibility with reference to the ideologies of ELF and EIL. Corresponding to the objective stipulated, the research question addressed in this study is: What are the Thai English learners’ attitudes towards native-like pronunciation or the pronunciation of other varieties of English advocated by the nations of EIL, ELF, and WEs? (JES 2, Kanoksilapatham 2013: 133)
The above focuses on the research objectives and research questions to be addressed in the study which the example is quoted from. The linguistic features of this move / step are rather formulaic, consisting of the use of to or in order to, followed by an infinitive verb form (investigate) to announce the research objectives of the study. The research questions can be listed in the form of an interrogative sentence.

4.2.1.2 Move 5 / Step 2: Presenting Research Designs
Move 5 / Step 2, serves to give an overview of the research design and / or approaches used to collect the research data. In other words, the authors might announce the research design of the study being reported before giving more details of the data collection process later in the Methods section. The position of this move / step is not fixed as it can be found anywhere in the section.
Examples:
(22) This study employed four qualitative research methods: in-depth interview, focus-group interview, documents and questionnaires. (LEA 3, Wanich 2014: 107)
(23) A qualitative descriptive research design using random sampling was employed to determine how students’ perceive their service learning involvement at RIS as well as their satisfaction level in the RIS service-learning program. (SCOJ 4, Vu 2013: 50)
The predominant linguistic features used to identify and guide readers to the research design include the type or nature of research (qualitative, quantitative research), and research methods or data collection techniques employed in the study (in-depth interview, focus-group interview, documents and questionnaires, random sampling). Linguistically, the use of verbs in the past tense, be they active or passive constructions (employed, was employed) indicate the completion of the research activities in the study.
In this regard, as another possible variation of Move 5, the co-occurrence of Move 5, Step 1 (Announcing research objectives / questions) and Move 5, Step 2 (Presenting the research design) can occur in a sentence to accomplish the function of Move 5.
Example:
(24) Following the notion of triangulation (Ref), we gathered data from three sources i.e. classroom observation, interview and documents with aims to explain students’ views on coherence and gain a better insight into teaching and learning this concept in an EFL setting. (LEA 4, Vivekmetakorn & Kaewbangpood 2014: 94)
Noticeably, this move is relatively infrequent compared to other moves in the Methods section. The use of verbs in the past tense suggests that the research activities were completed, and thus informs the success of the study. Moreover, the use of lexical items with research-oriented meanings indicates the specification and characteristics of the study being reported. Interestingly, the occurrence of this move was not reported by Lim (2006) and Ngowu (1997), who also examined Methods sections. However, it was found in Arsyad’s (2013) study.

4.2.2 Move 6: Describing Participants or Sources of Data
Move 6 is to ostensibly describe the size of the sample of participants and their characteristics. Sometimes, the population, description of sampling technique, and representativeness of the sample are also provided. Move 6 can be realised by three possible steps.

4.2.2.1. Move 6 / Step 1: Providing the Description of Participants or Data
Move 6 / Step 1, precisely reports the number of participants who took part in the research study being reported. Demographic information of the participants, including gender, age, and occupation, and the setting in which the research was carried out is also provided in this move / step.
Example:
(25) The research population was the air hostesses and air steward in: first class, business class or economy class. The participants totalled 20 crew, both male and female. Their education background ranged from high school to that of a Bachelor of Arts degree. (NET 4, Pawataungsunit 2013: 134)
The presence of the word participants clearly serves to specify the information regarding the people selected in the study being reported. The description of the participants is precise and specific, providing their number, gender, and other characteristics (20 crew, both male and female). Specific information of the participants such as age range and educational background (Their education background ranged from high school to that of a Bachelor of Arts degree) is also reported in this move / step.

4.2.2.2 Move 6 / Step 2: Justifying Selection Criteria
This move draws attention to the rationale and / or criteria used in the selection of participants / data in the study. This move / step is used to assure readers that the potential participants or samples taking part in the study satisfactorily fulfil the requirements, serving appropriately the objective(s) of the study.
Example:
(26) This target group was chosen for the following reasons. Firstly, they were the students of one researcher’s friend; therefore, it was convenient to gather data. Secondly, with exposure English during lower and higher secondary school, it was assumed that they would have their own opinions on and effective ways of English learning. Also, because they were freshman English majors, they were useful for investigating and reflecting their possible formulated strategies to learn English at early undergraduate degree. (LEA 1, Seng & Khleang 2014: 6)
The above text demonstrates some explicit reasons why the participants were selected to participate in the study. Linguistically, the subordinating conjunction because is used to imply a justification for selecting these participants. The use of verbs in the simple past is rather dominant in this move / step. Other linguistic features which indicate that the participants were selected wisely and systematically, serving the purpose of the study, are lexical items, such as the adjectives convenient and useful, and the enumeration of the various reasons through the use of firstly, secondly, and also.

4.2.2.3 Move 6 / Step 3: Defining Variables
Move 6 / Step 3, provides information about research variables. It is used with the experimental study, investigating what research variables could affect the outcome.
Example:
(27) Independent variables were the variable of person factor, the variable of family factor, and the variable of institution factor.
    The dependent variable was the characteristic of self-directed learning of the students from Faculty of Education, Silpakorn University. (VEJ 1, Paiwithayasiritham 2013: 4)
As shown above, the author can explicitly state research variables in Move 6 / Step 3, by using words such as independent variable, and dependent variable. This move / step is used because the author needs to guide and inform readers of the factors to be investigated in the study.

4.2.3 Move 7: Stating Research Instruments
This move centres on detailed information regarding research instruments used for particular research objective(s). This move is similar to that of the use of Move 6 and consists of two steps as presented below.

4.2.3.1 Move 7 / Step 1: Detailing Research Instruments
Move 7 / Step 1, describes how research instruments are obtained, adapted, or created, pertaining to the particular objective(s) of the study. In this move / step, the detailed description and / or characteristics of the instruments are also provided and are sometimes presented with citations (Ref) if the study adopts or adapts the instruments from previous studies.
Examples:
    (28) The Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI) designed by (Ref) was used to assess students’ awareness and the use of reading strategies while they read. It consists of 30 items of metacognitive reading strategies. (SPPJ 1, Chanprasert 2013. 96)
(29) To investigate the commodification of English through media discourses in this study, I will adopt a critical approach. For this research, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) was adopted as a theoretical framework and Content Analysis was performed to examine the data collected. (NET 5, Kogar 2014: 147)
As can be seen from these examples, the authors explain methods for measuring variables, using lexical items related to research techniques for the collection of data in the study (e.g. questionnaire) or approaches to data analysis (critical approach, Critical Discourse Analysis, Content Analysis). In order to describe a methodological procedure, verbs in passive past-tense constructions (was used, was adopted) are employed. The verbs was used and was adopted also entail some information regarding how the instruments are constructed, used, or developed in the study. The details of the research tools used can also be elaborated by using verbs like consists of, as shown. Clearly, the use of the deictic centre lexical item (this) with a noun (study, research) is to state that the instruments used specifically pertain to this particular study.

4.2.3.2 Move 7 / Step 2: Presenting the Development or Justification of Research Instruments
Move 7 / Step 2, describes the process of implementing research instruments and / or provides justification for their choice, demonstrating in what way they are appropriate for the study being reported. It is possible that this move / step is used as researchers might wish to protect themselves from possible inquiries by convincing readers that the instruments used were carefully and appropriately selected, adapted or developed.
Example:
(30) The initial version of the questionnaire was piloted before use with 30 first and second year students at the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Science of a public university in the second semester of 2012 academic year. The purpose of this piloting was to ensure that the language used in the questions was understood by the respondents, and the questions successfully elicited what they were supposed to. Based on the comments and feedback from the respondents, the questionnaire was revised accordingly. Some question items were rewritten, and others were elaborated to make sure that confusion was eradicated, and clarity enhanced. (JES 2, Kanoksilapatham 2013: 134-135)
The above example reveals that the authors purposely tried to convince readers that the choice of research instruments used appropriately serves the purpose(s) of the study. Specifically, some lexical signals such as was piloted, to ensure, was revised, were rewritten, were elaborated, was eradicated, and clarity enhanced can markedly help to state the justification of the instruments being used. Some lexical items are also used together with infinitive verbs (to ensure, to make sure), demonstrating the objective of the development of research instruments, which aids the authors to clarify the effectiveness and reliability of the instruments after some changes were wisely and appropriately made. In so doing, possible questions relevant to research instruments used in the given study can be eliminated, strengthening the reliability and credibility of the research findings.

4.2.4 Move 8: Demonstrating Research / Describing the Data Collection
Move 8 aims to selectively present data collection procedures in detail. Move 8 is used to convince readers that research activities in the study were systematically implemented in order to obtain reliable data for the analysis.
Example:
(31) The OCSI (Thai translation) was administered to all participants during normal class time. The questionnaire consists of 62 Likert Scale items relating to strategy use. All written and verbal instructions were given in English and participants were informed that participation was voluntary and contribution would remain anonymous. (LEA 7, Metcalfe & Noom-Ura 2013: 74)
As shown in the above example, Move 8 is quite technical and objectively presented as most of the procedures described in this move were used with verbs in the past tense, especially in the passive voice (was carried out, were asked, were required, were given, were informed, was accessed, was used, were interviewed, was recorded, was piloted, and was transcribed). It is possible that the authors use these to indicate that the study accomplished its task of addressing the objectives / purposes established by following step-by-step the research activities mentioned. This finding substantiates Waard & Maat’s (2012) work on biological RAs. That is, the interpretation of the Method propositions can be clearly recognised by the co-occurrence of research activity verbs and passive constructions.
The analysis of the 50 Methods sections of RAs indicates that Move 8 is an important element as the entire corpus of Methods RAs contains the details of research procedures. In agreement with Branson (2004) and Kanoksilapatham (2005), the analysis indicates that details of the procedures are written in a clear manner and fully described to facilitate readers’ understanding and / or to allow replication in future studies to be possible for validation purposes.

4.2.5 Move 9: Describing Data Analyses
Move 9 is the last move of the Methods section in which authors present the method used to analyse the data obtained from the data collection process. To be precise, in quantitative research, authors describe statistical devices used in the analysis and also justify analysis procedures. For the qualitative nature of the study, qualitative procedures may sometimes be described in this move. Our analysis has shown that Move 9 concludes the Methods section, with not a single step being found.
Example:
(32) All of the returned questionnaires (N = 387) were quantitatively analyzed by using the SPSS Statistics (SPSS) program for descriptive statistics in order to calculate mean rating and percentages, and to highlight any trends and significant commonalities, anomalies, etc. The Likert scale data analyzed by descriptive statistics provided a summary of data that not only identify the most popular answer for each question but also a group average. (JES 2, Kanoksilapatham 2013: 135)
As shown in the preceding example, this move emphasises approaches to analyse the data collected for the study, detailing statistical devices (descriptive statistics, mean rating, and percentages). Specific purposes for using statistical analysis are identified by the use of to, followed by a verb in the infinitive (calculate, highlight). Similar to the characteristics of Move 8, to describe how the data analysis is conducted in the study, passive verbs in the past tense (were analyzed) are prevalently found in the RA Methods.

5 Discussion and Conclusion
The results obtained from 50 RAs reveal that four distinct move types and five rhetorical move types were found in the Introduction and Methods sections, respectively. Each move identified has its own communicative function, recognised by a set of lexico-grammatical features. The description from a linguistic perspective provided by this study can help to highlight the characteristics of the rhetorical moves and provide more explicit functions of moves and steps found in these two particular sections.
The rhetorical structure of moves and steps generated by this study mostly is in resonance with Swales’ (2004) Create-a-Research-Space (CARS) model for RA Introductions. It is undeniable that his CARS model is rather successful, both in descriptive and pedagogic perspectives (Samraj 2002). This indicates that Swales’ model is invaluable as a descriptive reference. Thus, it is likely that since Swales’ three-move schema found in RA Introductions in many leading journals is relatively well-known and widely accepted among scholars, as witnessed by a plethora of research activities in this line. His framework and model have become prototypical and have entered the consciousness of numerous researchers. Moreover, because of its robustness in the field, the researchers possibly know how to write an RAs which are consistent with Swales’ CARS model.
Regarding the four moves identified in the Introduction sections, the findings are partly congruent with Lakic’s (1997) study focusing on RA Introductions in economics. In this work, four move types were found: establishing the territory, summarising previous research, establishing a niche, and occupying the niche. The occurrence of the four moves identified in the present study is also partly in agreement with Swales’ 2004 model. As mentioned in 4.1.2, Move 2 in the present study is quite specific. The status of Move 2 is considered optional (32%). However, it could be argued that the use of Move 2 in this study is not trivial since there is no consensus of a cut-off point suggested in the literature to allow a move to be categorised as optional rather than simply idiosyncratic. If this is the case, the issue needs to be addressed. It could be argued that those moves which appear to be idiosyncratic and which therefore are not probably considered as optional moves in the framework, and those moves that do not achieve over 60 % of the occurrence rate, are still not trivial.
The results of our analysis also show that most of the steps found in Move 4 are relatively similar to those in Kanoksilapatham’s (2007) study investigating civil engineering RAs and indicating that Move 3 in the Introduction section serves to introduce a particular study. However, the number of steps found in the present study is less than the one found in Kanoksilapatham’s study. This indicates that apart from the four steps in Move 4 of the present study, in engineering RA Introductions, the authors also present major findings of their respective study, define the relevant terminology and direct future research. It is possible that research activities in civil engineering focus on the design and construction determined by the locations and settings of the study site. Summarising results and procedures in Introductions can provide an incentive to readers to maintain their interest and continue reading. As a consequence, when reporting research findings, the Introduction section of RAs on civil engineering contains a number of particular steps providing important descriptions of the respective study. These reasons also reflect the thematic range of the discipline.
As for the Methods section, the typical functions of the five moves found in the present study are partially in agreement with Peacock (2011), Lim (2006), and Nwogu (1997). Despite some common features and characteristics of the move types identified, the presence of Move 5 in the current study is intriguing because it is the first move found in the Methods section in the discipline of applied linguistics. Apparently, the occurrence of Move 5 (Summarising research objectives and methods) is not included in the model for the Methods section proposed by Lim (2006) and Nwogu (1997). This may well be due to the fact that the texts analysed in these studies are taken from different disciplines. That is, in Nwogu’s study, the corpus was from medical journals, while management was the topic of Lim’s study. Therefore, again, disciplinary variations can lead to the uniqueness of the organisational patterns of each discipline. The distinctive results yielded by our analysis also highlight the issue that the disciplinary communities constrain the rhetorical conventions of academic knowledge production (Hyland 2004, 2009).
The results of the present study should be interpreted cautiously. In the present study, only 50 RAs from journals indexed in the TCI database were examined, and this limited scope affects the generalisability of this study. The results yielded might vary due to the fact that each journal analysed may have different standards of publication, even though the data collection of this study was systematically controlled. As the discipline of applied linguistics is quite broadly defined, the selection of articles taken from or published in different journals might affect the rhetorical patterns prevalently used. Thus, analysing different groups of journals in the field and comparing the structural patterns of selected linguistic features, or interviewing the authors of scientific articles to gain empirical evidence for potential claims should be taken into account in conducting future studies.
However, the present study, in general, sheds some light on how the target discourse communities of applied linguistics prefer a certain rhetorical structure to be realised. The awareness of rhetorical macro- and micro-structural patterns is valuable to readers who encounter difficulties in understanding RAs, as well as to less experienced writers, especially Thai graduate students, who need to understand the specific demands and expectations of writing for publication. The insights into how the Introduction and the Methods sections are constructed can increase and facilitate the reception and the production of academic papers. Awareness of the relevant structural pattern can also help to direct the reading of novice writers and graduate students who would like to enter research and academic communities. Specifically, the knowledge provided by the present study can be used in the development of academic writing and reading materials for advanced students, particularly Thai graduate students who wish to publish their research work in journals indexed in the TCI database.
The awareness of prevailing rhetorical patterns also bears some pedagogical usefulness. Since the present study to a certain extent highlights the linguistic features that are commonly associated with the communicative functions of each rhetorical move found in these two sections, the linguistic characterisation of moves has a significant impact with regard to the teaching of rhetorical moves, allowing the presentation of moves not as abstract units but as discourse units that can be characterised by a set of linguistic features. In EAP classes, the description of rhetorical structures and the characterisation of moves provided by this study are pedagogically useful for the teaching of rhetorical elements, both moves and steps, and language use in writing RAs. Teachers can make full use of how to teach the linguistic features found in this study, providing students with authentic materials and knowledge about how to effectively understand and use these sets of linguistic features in reading and writing classes or in writing for publications.


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Author:
Attapol Khamkhien
Assistant Professor
Kasetsart University
Faculty of Liberal Arts and Science
Department of English
Thailand
E-mail: faasapk@ku.ac.th