ERIC Number: EJ1127326
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2016-Aug
Pages: 8
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-2203-4714
EISSN: N/A
Rhetorical Moves in Problem Statement Section of Iranian EFL Postgraduate Students' Theses
Nimehchisalem, Vahid; Tarvirdizadeh, Zahra; Paidary, Sara Sayed; Binti Mat Hussin, Nur Izyan Syamimi
Advances in Language and Literary Studies, v7 n4 p173-180 Aug 2016
The Problem Statement (PS) section of a thesis, usually a subsection of the first chapter, is supposed to justify the objectives of the study. Postgraduate students are often ignorant of the rhetorical moves that they are expected to make in their PS. This descriptive study aimed to explore the rhetorical moves of the PS in Iranian master's (MA) degree theses. The study focused on 30 PSs written by MA Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) students. The samples were analyzed based on Swales' (1990) Create-a-research-space (CARS) model. The findings revealed the students' flaws in writing the PS where they typically presented the significance of their study. The results of the analysis of their written samples also showed that some of the students failed to address a problem as an academic issue based on the existing gap in the previous studies and failed to recommend ways to solve the problem. Students' awareness of the rhetorical structure of the PS may help them create higher-quality works in academic settings. This study has theoretical and pedagogical implications, a discussion of which concludes the paper.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Graduate Students, Masters Theses, Rhetoric, Academic Discourse, Second Language Instruction, English (Second Language), Content Analysis, Student Writing Models, Problem Solving, Failure, Writing Evaluation, Language Usage, Qualitative Research
Australian International Academic Centre PTY, LTD. 11 Souter Crescent, Footscray VIC, Australia 3011. Tel: +61-3-9028-6880; e-mail: editor.alls@aiac.org.au; Web site: http://journals.aiac.org.au/index.php/alls/index
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Iran
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A