Generic Relation Of Research Article Abstracts And Introductions In Applied Linguistics: Variation Within A Single Discipline

In recent years, there has been growing interest in conducting research on research articles. The structures of almost all the sections of research articles have been examined, of which research article (RA) abstracts and introductions have received special attention. RA abstracts and introductions are two genres which have been studied extensively. Most research has treated them as an independent genre and taken one of them as the research subject. The structural variation of RA abstracts and that of introductions have been attested in different disciplines and languages; however, few studies have investigated generic relation of RA abstracts and introductions in a particular field to examine whether the relation varies within a single discipline.The present study aims to investigate the generic relation of RA abstracts and introductions in two subdisciplines within a single discipline. That's to say, the study investigates not only how the structure of RA abstracts or that of introductions varies across subdisciplines, but also how the generic relation of RA abstracts and introductions can vary across subdisciplines.60 RA abstracts and introductions are selected from two key journals, Studies in Second Language Acquisition (SSLA) and Journal of Second Language Writing (JSLW), in two subdisciplines of applied linguistics, second language acquisition research (SLA) and second language writing research (SLW). The structure of RA abstracts is analyzed by employing both the traditional four moves (Purpose, Methods, Results and Conclusions) and moves typically found in introductions. Based on the preliminary analysis, the author modifies Swales's (1990) CARS model, and then analyzes the structure of RA introductions using modified CARS model. The generic structure of RA abstracts and introductions is compared between SLA and SLW.The results reveal that in SLA and SLW, the generic relation of RA abstracts and introductions is quite different. SLW abstracts and introductions bear a greater similarity in the structure and communicative purpose than the same two genres in SLA. Both Centrality Claims (CC) and Indicating a Gap (IG) are crucial in SLW introductions and they also have a fairly important presence in the abstracts. However, this is not the case in SLA, where CC and Literature Review (LR) are quite important in introductions, while in SLA abstracts they are largely absent.The present study suggests that generic structures and relation of genres can vary not only across disciplines but also across subdisciplines in a particular field. It has implications for both genre theory and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) pedagogy. In the process of conducting research or academic learning and writing, attention should be paid not only to the structure of a single genre, but also to the relation of related genres; and not only to the disciplinary variation, but also to the subdisciplinary variation.