A Contrastive Analysis Of Engagement Resources And Move Structures In The Discussion Sections Of English And Chinese Research Articles In Applied Linguistics

Research article(RA)should not only present research findings to readers,but also communicate with readers,persuade them and build alliances with them.The discussion section is one of the important sections in RA,which helps the authors evaluate and interpret the research data and results,and fully express their voice.As a subsystem of appraisal theory,engagement can be used to express the authors’ or speakers’ different degree of recognition of a certain position and viewpoint,which is helpful to express personal voice.At the same time,as an important method of genre analysis,moves can investigate the organizational structure and communicative function of the discussion section.However,at present,the comparative study of engagement resources in the discussion section of English and Chinese RAs is not enough,and there are few studies combining micro level of engagement resources with relatively macro level of rhetorical moves.Based on the above,this study draws on the engagement framework of Martin and White(2005)and the move model of discussion section proposed by Yang and Allison(2003)as the research frameworks.25 English and Chinese RAs are selected respectively from academic journals in the field of applied linguistics,and the discussion sections are selected to build two small corpora,so as to explore the authors’ voice expression and discourse organization structure in the discussion section.This study uses qualitative and quantitative methods to answer the following three questions:1.What are the tendencies of using engagement strategies in English and Chinese RA discussions respectively,and what are the similarities and differences between them?2.What are rhetorical options adopted in English and Chinese RA discussions in terms of rhetorical moves and steps respectively,and what are the similarities and differences between them?3.How do the engagement resources be distributed in moves to construe an effective authorial stance and rhetorical effects?The findings are as follows:(1)In terms of engagement resources,both English and Chinese RA discussions have a higher proportion of heteroglossia than monoglossia.The differences are that the proportion of monoglossia in Chinese RA discussions is higher than that of English,while the proportion of contraction resources is lower than that of English.(2)In terms of rhetorical moves,both English and Chinese RA discussions have the highest proportion of move 4 Commenting on results and the lowest proportion of Move 5 Summarizing the study.The differences are that the proportion of Move 6Evaluating the study in Chinese RA discussions is significantly lower than that of English,while the proportion of Move 3 Summarizing the results is significantly higher than that of English.(3)Different moves contain different engagement resources.Move 1Background information is dominated by monoglossia,while the other moves are dominated by expansion in both English and Chinese RA discussions.The reasons for the above results lie in the disciplinary feature of applied linguistics,Chinese and Western culture,and the organizational structure of RA discussion.This study provides useful enlightenment for RA writing and teaching.When writing discussion section,the authors of RAs can use specific engagement resources and rhetorical moves for different communicative purposes to make discussion better express their voices and enhance the logical structure of RA discussion.Teachers can also teach students the engagement resources and moves commonly used in academic writing,so that students can more strongly express their voices and engage in dialogue with underlying ideas when writing discussion sections.