A corpus-based study of genre specific discourse: M.A. TEFL thesis abstracts

Abstract

At present, genre analysis of various types of texts has gained much attention by the researchers worldwide. The focus of genre analysis in this study is on the examination of thesis abstracts written by Pakistani students in the field of TEFL in connection with move structure, lexico-grammatical features and style of the writer. The corpus of this study consisted of 30 TEFL thesis abstracts, collected through convenient sample method directly from the students via personal contact. For rhetorical move analysis, Bhatia’s (1993) and Hyland’s (2000) models were used as analytical framework. The results of the study reveal that the thesis abstracts do not meet the criteria as mentioned in the said analytical framework. Further the rhetorical moves are not properly organized. Simple present tense has been used in 66% thesis abstracts. 90 % thesis abstracts have been written in active voice. 80% writers prefer to use impersonal style of writing. This study recommends that the novice researchers in Pakistan in the field of TEFL may be provided proper guidelines for writing thesis abstracts.