Preface

There has been a considerable amount of effort devoted to contrastive genre analysis.Previous studies typically focus on differences in genre practices between native and non-native speakers of English.The differences are often used as pedagogical suggestions for L2 learners to write more like native speakers.Fewer studies have investigated the social or learner factors underlying the genre differences(See Chapter 3 and Section 5.1.1 for reviews.).

The present study investigates the genre differences in the Introduction and Literature Review chapters of 90 Master’s Theses in Applied Linguistics written in China,New Zealand and America,and explores possible factors in the context and learner’s experience that may have contributed to the variation in genre practices.It is hoped that understanding the genre differences and factors underlying the variation can facilitate L2 learners and expert members of English-medium communities in their intercultural communication.

Three studies are reported in this book:first a move model of the opening section of Master’s Theses is developed based on an analysis of the thesis writers’metatexts;the second study investigates genre differences among the three communities and explores possible influencing factors in the social context and epistemological traditions of the local disciplinary communities;Study 3 examines individual differences in genre practices and explores learner factors underlying the variation.

The results show statistically significant differences in genre practices among the three communities.Post-hoc tests reveal that the differences lie in the moves of

Providing Rationales,Establishing a Theoretical Framework,and Presenting the Study.The differences in local disciplinary cultures are examined as an attempt to explain the variations.Noticeable differences are also observed in individual practices within the communities.It is found that learner factors such as former communities may have contributed to the variations.The study highlights the importance of incorporating contextual and learner factors in the interpretation of genre differences and shows how contrastive genre analysis can be used in the investigation of genre knowledge for equal intercultural communication rather than as a tool for converting L2 learners to a particular set of genre conventions.

Guangsa Jin

August,2019 Beijing