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Moves and steps to sell a paper: a cross-cultural genre analysis of applied linguistics conference abstracts

  • Reza Ghafar Samar

    Reza Ghafar Samar received his PhD from Ottawa, Canada. He is currently Associate Professor and the head of English Department at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran, where he has been teaching several graduate courses and has been supervising MA and PhD theses and dissertations. His main areas of interest include Applied Sociolinguistics and Discourse Analysis.

    , Hossein Talebzadeh

    Hossein Talebzadeh received his PhD from Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran. He has been teaching courses at the English Department of Kharazmi University where he is Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics. He is mainly interested in Genre Analysis and ESP Materials Development.

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    , Gholam Reza Kiany

    Gholam Reza Kiany has a PhD in Applied linguistics from Essex University, UK. He is Associate Professor in the English Department at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, where he has been teaching MA and PhD courses on Advanced Testing and Research Methodology as well as supervising many theses and dissertations.

    and Ramin Akbari

    Ramin Akbari received his PhD from Isfahan State University, Iran. He is Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics at the English Department of Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, where he has been teaching MA and PhD courses on Critical Applied Linguistics and Teaching Methodology as well as supervising many theses and dissertations.

Published/Copyright: November 7, 2014

Abstract

Conference abstracts are under-represented promotional texts in spite of their key role in the academic life of and communication among scholars. This generic study attempts to capture the structures and strategies of 160 applied linguistics conference abstracts from four world areas in terms of semantic units of Introduction, Method, and Findings and their Moves and Steps. Results revealed similarities and differences arising mainly from the idiosyncratic nature of genre, place of presentation, and western versus non-western, center versus periphery, and theory- versus application-oriented cultures. Implications for novice and non-native researchers to communicate and submit conference abstracts effectively follow a detailed report.

About the authors

Reza Ghafar Samar

Reza Ghafar Samar received his PhD from Ottawa, Canada. He is currently Associate Professor and the head of English Department at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran, where he has been teaching several graduate courses and has been supervising MA and PhD theses and dissertations. His main areas of interest include Applied Sociolinguistics and Discourse Analysis.

Hossein Talebzadeh

Hossein Talebzadeh received his PhD from Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran. He has been teaching courses at the English Department of Kharazmi University where he is Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics. He is mainly interested in Genre Analysis and ESP Materials Development.

Gholam Reza Kiany

Gholam Reza Kiany has a PhD in Applied linguistics from Essex University, UK. He is Associate Professor in the English Department at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, where he has been teaching MA and PhD courses on Advanced Testing and Research Methodology as well as supervising many theses and dissertations.

Ramin Akbari

Ramin Akbari received his PhD from Isfahan State University, Iran. He is Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics at the English Department of Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, where he has been teaching MA and PhD courses on Critical Applied Linguistics and Teaching Methodology as well as supervising many theses and dissertations.

Appendix: list of conferences comprising the corpus

I. East Asia

ITMELT. 2001. Information Technology and Multimedia in English Language Teaching (5 abstracts).

KOTESOL. 3 September – 1 October 2000. Casting the Net: Diversity in Language and Learning, Teagu, Korea (4 abstracts).

Asia TEFL. 18–20 August 2006. Fourth Asia TEFL Conference: Spreading Our Wings: Meeting TEFL challenges, Senian Gakuin University, Fukuoka, Japan (31 abstracts).

II. Europe

BAAL. 9–11 September 2004. British Association for Applied Linguistics, 37th Annual BAAL Meeting, King’s College, London (12 abstracts).

EUROSLA 10. 7–10 September 2000. Krakow, Poland (9 abstracts).

2nd International Conference on First Language Attrition. 17–20 August 2005. Vrije Univesiteit Amsterdam (4 abstracts).

EUROSLA 11. 26–27 September 2001. University of Paderborn, Germany (15 abstracts).

III. The United States

AAACL. 1–3 November 2002. The fourth North American Symposium on Corpus Linguistics, Indianapolis (17 abstracts).

SALSA, XIII. 15–17 April 2005. The University of Texas, Austin (10 abstracts).

TALGS. 18 February 2006. East Carolina University, Greenville, NC (4 abstracts).

SALSA, XV. 12–14 January 2007. Santa Fe, New Mexico (5 abstracts).

TESL/Applied Linguistics: Conference on Technology for Second Language Learning. 22–23 September 2006. Iowa State University, Iowa (4 abstracts).

IV. Iran

The Second TELLSI Conference. 2005. Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran (5 abstracts).

The Third Annual Meeting of TELLSI (Language Education in Iran and Beyond). 2–3 February 2006. Razi University of Kermanshah (6 abstracts).

The Fourth TELLSI Conference (Issues in Teaching English Language and Literature). 8–9 February 2007. Shiraz (12 abstracts).

IELTI 4. 27–28 July 2007. The Fourth Conference on Issues in English Language Teaching in Iran. University of Tehran, Tehran (17 abstracts).

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Published Online: 2014-11-7
Published in Print: 2014-11-1

©2014 by De Gruyter Mouton

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