Genre Analysis of Coursebooks Prefaces Doruk Karabulut

Abstract In this study it is aimed to investigate the preface parts of the randomly selected 12 course books in respect of previously genre based practises (Swales 1981, 1990). To reveal the communicational purpose beyond the section the move structures are considered that is consisted with the general content of the preface parts. It is seen that there are not obvious differences between prefaces from social sciences such as psychology, sociology and linguistics.

Introduction Socio-cultural differences affect the style of the communication, leading to different discourse. However, it is supposed that academic genres entail a universal language usage because of the education level of the recievers or anybody involved in the specific interaction. English as a lingua franca of the world is considered as a key of the international communication, that is why the study is implemented through English course-books, used in undergraduate programs of universities. In academic genre, Swales’ focus is considered as a pioneer (1981) in which he investigated the language usage comperatively in research papers from different branches.

Research Questions This study is dealing with the move structures of preface sections and measuring the frequency of word patterns. More specifically, the present study seeks answers to the following questions: 1. What is the most frequent move structure in prefaces? 2. What are the communicational purposes of these structures? 3. Are there any notable grammatical variations?

Methodology The data is obtained from 20 different course-books that are from different branches haphazardly. The chocies are made randomly in order to avoid overgeneralisations. Considering the previous studies (Swales 1981, 1990), course-book prefaces are investigated in respect of their move sturctures. The majority of analysis implemented into sentences.

Results There are four move structure that are shown below: Frequency 1. Introducing Goals 20 2. Describing Target Reader 20 3. Outline 13 4. Mentioning External Contributions 12

1. Introducing Goals This is one of the most frequent moves in the data. It appears in all 20 prefaces and occupies the initial position in 18 texts. passive structure The book is also intended to …… Principles of language learning and teaching is designed to….. This book is concerned with……. NOUN PHRASES The book has the following aims…….. The goal of the third edition of Developing Second Language Skill is…. The twofold objective of the book is to…… BOOK+ VERB (active structure) This book attempts to…… This book provides…… ….it will do a number of things …which also looks at……. WRITER+VERB In this book I try to…….. I have been striving to……. ….I have tried to…..

Describing the Target Reader Another frequently used move is describing the reader who are supposed to benefit the book. BOOK+ VERB+ TARGET AUDIENCE This book is designed to serve as a textbook for graduate or advanced undergraduates…. …..that will enable both prospective and practicing teachers to …. This book is aimed at teachers and applied linguists….. …..should be made available to both teachers of English and students of TEFL/TESOL ….will be of most interest to students of language or linguistics… This text is planned for…… ….a text that can be used as a resource by those carrying out many types of second language research… This book is oriented toward an informed audience… This book is appropriate for both students and professionals ……  …..aims to be a book that can be read by practitioners and theoreticians … ….should prove to be most useful in first-level course….. TARGET AUDIENCE+ VERB Any contemporary student of language teaching needs to …… ….an advanced student will soon realize ….. …..both classroom teachers and trainers of teachers have shown an increasing interest….. ….others coming from sociology, social psychology and anthropology may be interested to…….

Organization One of the less frequent moves is outline that is put forward by different forms as it is stated: CHAPTER+CONTENT or CONTENT+CHAPTER The comprehensive list of …at the end of each chapter helps……The activities at the end of each chapter help.. In chapter 4…….are presented….. The discussion and data base questions and activities at the end of each chapter are aimed to…….. In chapter 2, ………is discussed. This model is presented in chapter 2 and is used in subsequent chapters…….. There is a common format to each chapter The authors present …in chapter 16…… I provide…………….in chapters two and three. The ………… at the end of each chapter are presented The first five chapters deal with…….. There are completely new chapters on…… In the opening chapters he is introduced to…… Chapter 1 provides…… Chapter 2 deals with….. Chapter 3 is devoted to…… Chapter 5 is connected with…… The final chapter discusses….. In the final chapter we examine……. Each chapter opens with…… Each chapter has a ……..section … In chapters four and six I apply…….. In chapter five I explore…… The material in these sections is designed to……..

Mentioning External Contributions GRATITUDE My first debt of gratitude is therefore to ……for….. I want to express my sincere gratitude for…… I express my gratitude to….for….. GRATEFUL I am grateful to…… We are grateful to….. ACKNOWLEDGE I also wish to acknowledge…… I readily acknowledge my indebtedness and gratitude to……for…. I must acknowledge the contribution of……… We would like to acknowledge especially…… I would especially like to acknowledge my debt for…. to……. DEBT I am indebted to……. I owe a considerable debt to….. APPRECIATE The writer wishes to express his appreciation to……for…… We greatly appreciate………… MENTION I hasten to mention…….. I should like to mention in particular… THANK  We would particularly like to thank…..for…… I would also like to thank.... I would certainly be remiss if I did not take this opportunity to thank…. Last but not least, thanks are also due to…..for…… My greatest thanks go to…….. Further thanks go to…..for I want to thank …..for…. I wish to thank……..

Limitations The most obvious limitation of this and similar works is that while we are proposing a genre-based course whereby the main aim is to raise awareness about the schematic structure of academic discourses, this paper represents only a small-scale description, covering only textbook prefaces. However, a genre-based academic literacy should be seen as on-going, one that evolves and takes shape as more description becomes available. Thus while the present research is only a small piece of the puzzle, as other descriptions are created they may eventually create a mosaic of the genre which could be comprehensive in its coverage.

The issue of schematic genre structure is well established The issue of schematic genre structure is well established. However, certain areas have been less investigated than others. This includes many teaching genres and particularly the textbook. Different sections of coursebook genres can be studied on the basis of move structure. There is also room for comparative researches, not only at the move level but also at the textual level to establish what pragma-lingual features are used to signal what schematic structures across academic genres.

Conclusions As discussed previously, coursebooks represent a major teaching genre in academic circles. They are the main tool for providing 'accredited knowledge' to students. The complexity of the subgenres that constitute the coursebook genre can be understood by reference to the multiple participant networks which influence and shape the schematic structure of the discourse in these subgenres. The four move schema in the preface sections of textbooks is an attempt by writers to meet the expectations of actors involved in coursebook discourse.

A genre-based literacy for raising awareness about schematic genre structures should involve a database from which description of academic patterns across academic discourses can emerge. This and similar studies can contribute to the compilation of large-scale databases whose ultimate goal is designing genre-based courses for developing genre awareness skills.

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