Islamic Azad University
Ilam, Iran
Faculty of Humanities
Department of English Language Teaching
Thesis
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in
Teaching English as a Foreign Language
Subject:
Familiarity of Iranian ESP Teachers and Learners with Academic Rhetoric Within a Systemic Functional Grammar at Graduate Level
Thesis Supervisor:
Azizifar Ph
Thesis advisor:
Gowhary Ph.D
August 2014
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1: Introduction. 2
1.1 Introduction. 3
1.2 Statement of the Problem.. 6
1.3 Significance of the study. 7
1.4 Research Questions. 8
1.5 The Research hypothesis. 8
1.6. Definitions of the Technical Terms Used in the Study. 8
1.6.1 Systemic Functional Grammar (Halliday) 8
1.6.2 Rhetoric. 11
1.6.3 Teaching English for Specific purposes (ESP) 12
1.7 Outline and the organization of the study. 15
Chapter 2: Review of the related literature
2.1. Overview.. 17
2.2. SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR (SFG) 17
2.3. ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES (ESP) 21
Chapter 3: Methodology
3.1. Overview.. 34
3.2. Research design. 34
3.3. Participants. 35
3.4. Instrumentation. 35
3.5. Data collection procedure. 38
3.6. Data Analysis. 38
Chapter 4: Results and Discussion
4.1. General overview.. 41
4.2. The Descriptive Statistics of participants. 41
4.3. Test data normality. 42
4.4. Description of the data and variables. 44
4.4.1. Distribution of respondents according to gender: 44
4.4.2. Frequency distribution of respondents by education level 46
4.4.3. Distribution of respondents according to age. 47
4.5. Frequency distribution of respondents in terms Rhetoric and Systemic Functional Grammar usage 48
4.4 The graph shows these distribution: 49
Discussion. 56
Chapter 5: Summary and Conclusion
5.1 Overview.. 59
5.2. Summary. 59
5.3. conclusion. 60
5.4. Implications. 60
5.5. Limitation of the study. 61
5.6. Directions for future studies. 61
References. 62
Appendices
Appendix 1. 71
Appendix 2. 74
List of tables
Table1 (3.1): 37
Table (4.1 )Frequency distribution of participants. 41
Table (4.2) test data normality. 42
Table (4.3) test data normality. 44
Table (4.4) Frequency distribution of respondents by gender 45
Table (4.6) Frequency distribution of respondents by age. 47
. 50
Table (4.9)The t-test is used to verify this hypothesis. 51
Table(4.10) Independent Samples Test 51
Table(4.11) Group Statistics. 52
Table(4.12) Independent Samples Test 53
Table(4.13) RHETORIC AND SFG.. 54
Table(4.14) Group Statistics. 55
Table(4.15) Independent Samples Test 56
List of abbreviation
Abstract
Publication of research articles (RAs) in English seems a challenging task for native and non-native writers. The acquisition of rhetorical structure and function grammar can be very helpful for academicians to achieve the wanted goal which is, of course, the Publication of their RAs. This study aims to investigate the current level of familiarity to academic rhetoric within a systemic functional grammar among the Iranian ESP teachers and ESP course learners. The participants of the study consist of 10 ESP teachers and 85 learners at M.A and PhD level at Ilam state university and Islamic Azad university of Ilam. Data collected through self-report questionnaires with 22 items. The finding of this study revealed that the familiarity of ESP teachers with structures is too high and learners are high.
Keywords: Academic Rhetoric, Systemic Functional grammar, ESP teachers, ESP course learners
Chapter 1
Introduction
1.1 Introduction
Writing has become central in today’s schools and universities as a measure for academic success. Students work hard to learn how to make more informed decisions about their writing and gain more control over improvement of English writing skill (Jahin, 2012). Therefore, the acquisition of rhetorical structure and function grammar (Halliday, 1985) can be very helpful for academicians to achieve the wanted goal which is, of course, the publication of their research articles (RAs). One of the main concerns of the writers is the publication of research articles which can reward their authors and writers high reputation and become a kind of motivation for them to perpetuate the advancement in their vocations (Kanoksilapatham, 2007).
These worthwhile issues have urged writers to focus on writing for publication. However as long as writing is regarded to be a culturally bounded phenomenon (Kaplan,1966) publication of research articles in English seems a challenging task for native and non-native writers. Therefore, for a long time academic genre analysis has been announced to assist writers to come up with their wishes. The kernel organization of segments of RAs can to a great extent determine their publication (Belcher & Braine, 1995; Swales, 1990; Kelly & Bazerman, 2003). There are some influential factors in an acceptable organization of academic texts, one of which is the realization of academic conventions. It is generally believed that being aware of principles dominating the standardized structure of academic research articles can lead to successful publication. Acquisition of rhetorical structure and functional grammar (Halliday, 1985) can be very helpful for academicians to achieve the wanted goal which is indeed, the publication of papers. Pedagogic materials exist for teaching these skills but to date. There has been little interactive online assistance available. (Susan Birch.Becaas&Ray cook).
The tools and skills need to develop such a knowledge or capacity(skills) include: Traditionally, doctoral students are expected to pick up the conventions of scientific writing by reading articles published in their field, by participating more and more within the community and by collaborating with more expert writers and colleagues( Lave & Wenger 1991). By writing article and getting feedback, their writing gradually improves and becomes more mature (Berkenkotter, Huckin&Ackerman 1991). Text books such as those by Swales and Feak (1994, 2000) and Weissberg and Buker (1990) have provided useful information for writing courses and further advice is given in style guide. However it would be useful if such information could be made more easily available a ready to be integrated into their own drafts. Another tool is the Objective of Tyos (type your own script http://www.tyos.org is to highlight rhetorical strategies and linguistic choice within a corpus of scientific writing. (Susan Birch.Becaas&Ray cook). So this familiarity can be very helpful to achieve the wanted goal in writing for both ESP teachers and learners.
Writing not only as a particularly challenging discipline but as the singly most difficult aspect of English language acquisition. Writing presents difficulties for non-native speakers of English for a number of reasons; grammatical accuracy issues are a constant focus. However, the problem of producing purposeful and practical documents should not be overlooked.
Worldwide, much has been written regarding the role of affective learner related variables, such as writing apprehension (Huang, 2009; Lee, 2005; Rubin, Katznelson & Perpignan; 2005; Ozturk & Cecen, 2007; etc.) and its effect on the writing process. Writing anxiety is a “fear of the writing process that outweighs the projected gain from the ability to write” (Thompson, 1980:121) and which clearly negatively affects writing performance (Pajares & Johnson, 1994; Atay & Kurt, 2006; etc.) Research has shown a consistent relationship between writing apprehension and a variety of measures of competence in English. High apprehensive score lower on standardized tests of writing and write essays that receive lower evaluations (Wen-Shuenn (2006). Writing apprehension has proven to have a negative influence on EFL/ESL learners’ writing performance and quality (Cheng, Horwitz & Shallert, 1999; Hassan, 2001; Masny & Foxall, 1992 Atay & Kurt, 2006; etc.). Tsui (1996) believes that learning to write in the foreign language involves as much anxiety as learning the other skills, because writing is predominantly product-oriented, and it requires individual work, i.e., students feel they are deprived of help, support and encouragement. As a result, learners suffer from a “distress associated with writing” and develop “a profound distaste for the process” (Madigan, Linton & Johnson, 1996: 295). When teacher feedback includes inconsistent marking of errors or vague responses on content, it may even influence students’ writing ability negatively making them confused, passive or frustrated (Williams, 2003).
A recent study (Jahin, 2007) highlighted the need for teachers to create a sense of community within the EFL classroom, especially in EFL writing classrooms, as well as the need to provide students with ample opportunity to cooperate in groups or pairs so that they can overcome their apprehension blocks.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent of familiarity of ESP teachers and ESP course learners with writing skills, based on the current rhetorical and systemic functional grammar (SFG).Scholars who are non-native speakers (NNS) may receive inadequate training in the skills required to write scientific English and may even be unaware of the various language and procedural issues involved in gaining acceptance from their own research community.
