Is investigating discipline-specific academic lecture introductions a goal worth pursuing?: A corpus-based study of the rhetorical structure of mathematics lecture introductions

Autores/as

  • Branka Živković University of Montenegro Faculty of Philology English Language and Literature Department
  • Milica Vuković-Stamatović University of Montenegro Faculty of Philology English Language and Literature Department

Palabras clave:

academic lecture introductions, maths lecture introductions, rhetorical structure, moves, steps

Resumen

Abstract : This study investigates the rhetorical move structure and linguistic signals of academic lecture introductions in the discipline of mathematics. The goal of the present study is twofold: 1) to determine the rhetorical model of lecture introductions in the field of mathematics so as to help non-native students of English to overcome difficulties in understanding lectures in this discipline, and 2) to find out whether our discipline-specific model differs or not from the general models determined in the literature. Applying a genre-based approach, we explore the largest corpus used in this type of research to date - a corpus of 100 maths lecture introductions delivered at the MIT University (the USA).The similarity between our and previous models exists in the presence of two obligatory moves setting up the lecture framework and putting the topic into context , which confirms the value of the previous research and suggests that discipline does not affect the rhetorical structure at the level of moves . However, another result referring to a more elaborate structure of the move putting topic in context in maths lecture introductions leads to a conclusion that discipline-specificity can play a role at the level of steps. The use of these obligatory moves allows students to create a general mental framework for the lecture, which should facilitate the comprehension of the lecture contents to be presented after the lecture introduction.

Biografía del autor/a

Branka Živković, University of Montenegro Faculty of Philology English Language and Literature Department

Branka Živković has been working at the University of Montenegro since 2006. She teaches Modern English Language 3 – level C1.1 and Modern English Language 4 – level C1.2, as well as Functional and Transformational Syntax at the Faculty of Philology, English Language and Literature Department. As a member of the Faculty's staff, she also teaches English for specific purposes at the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Civil Engineering. Ms Živković earned her PhD in linguistics at the University of Montenegro, Faculty of Philology. Her research interests include discourse analysis, academic discourse, conversation analysis, genre analysis and pragmatics.

Milica Vuković-Stamatović, University of Montenegro Faculty of Philology English Language and Literature Department

Milica Vuković Stamatović, PhD, is Associate Professor of English Language and Linguistics at the Faculty of Philology, University of Montenegro. She currently teaches Discourse Analysis and English for Specific Purposes. Her main research interests lie in the field of discourse analysis, pragmatics and ESP.

 

Publicado

2021-03-08

Cómo citar

Živković, B., & Vuković-Stamatović, M. (2021). Is investigating discipline-specific academic lecture introductions a goal worth pursuing?: A corpus-based study of the rhetorical structure of mathematics lecture introductions. Revista Signos. Estudios De Lingüística, 54(105). Recuperado a partir de https://revistasignos.cl/index.php/signos/article/view/516

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