A Functional Analysis of the Thematic Organization in Electrical Engineering Research Article Introductions Written in English by Native and Saudi Scholars: A Comparative Study

Autor/inn/en	Alyousef, Hesham Suleiman; Alzahrani, Alaa Ahmed
Titel	A Functional Analysis of the Thematic Organization in Electrical Engineering Research Article Introductions Written in English by Native and Saudi Scholars: A Comparative Study
Quelle	In: Arab World English Journal, 11 (2020) 2, S.114-141 (28 Seiten) PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Alyousef, Hesham Suleiman) ORCID (Alzahrani, Alaa Ahmed)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	2229-9327
Schlagwörter	Research Reports; Engineering; Native Speakers; Contrastive Linguistics; English; English (Second Language); Second Language Learning; Arabs; Authors; Foreign Countries; Academic Language; Discourse Analysis; Phrase Structure; Language Usage; Writing Instruction; Material Development; Saudi Arabia + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Research report; Forschungsbericht; Maschinenbau; Muttersprachler; Linguistics; Kontrastive Linguistik; English language; Englisch; English as second language; English; Second Language; Englisch als Zweitsprache; Zweitsprachenerwerb; Arab; Araber; Author; Autor; Autorin; Ausland; Academic; Language; Languages; Akademiker; Sprache; Wissenschaftssprache; Diskursanalyse; Phrasenstruktur; Sprachgebrauch; Schreibunterricht; Lehrmaterialentwicklung; Saudi-Arabien
Abstract	The study of the Research Article (RA) genre has been dominated by genre analysis and corpus linguistics focusing on rhetorical moves and, or lexicogrammar, with little attention to the level of the message and the realization of different types of Theme and progression patterns. To the best of our knowledge, there is a lack of comparative studies investigating similarities/differences in the use of theme in electrical engineering RA Introductions written by native English-speaking (NES) scholars and non-native English-speaking (NNES) Saudi scholars. We address this gap using Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) approach to analyze the texture of electrical engineering RA Introduction sections written by NES scholars and NNES Saudi scholars from a message perspective. The research questions aimed to quantitatively and qualitatively investigate (1) Theme types, (2) thematic markedness, and (3) thematic progression patterns in the two data sets. After reviewing comparative research on message structure, we analyzed 117 RA Introductions written by experienced NES/NNES authors. The results accord with research comparing thematic organization in native English scholars' writings and those from cultural background other than Arabic. The findings showed that NESs' and Saudi NNESs' introductions overlap at a clause level, but they start to diverge beyond the clause. This study provides a good starting point for understanding NNES Saudi scholars' use of underexplored linguistic items. The results of the current study offer insights for academic writing instruction and material developers. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	Arab World English Journal. 10602 Davlee Lane, Richmond, Texas, 77407. e-mail: editor@awej.org; e-mail: info@ASELS.org; Web site: https://awej.org/
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01