Graduate Level

August 2014

 

 

 

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

   Acknowledgment .IV

 

   Dedication .V

 

   Table of content VI

 

  List of tables ..IX

 

  List of abbreviation X

 

  Abstract ..1

 

Chapter 1: Introduction. 2

 

1.1 Introduction. 3

 

1.2 Statement of the Problem.. 6

 

1.3 Significance of the study. 7

 

1.4 Research Questions. 8

 

1.5 The Research hypothesis. 8

 

1.6. Definitions of the Technical Terms Used in the Study. 8

 

1.6.1 Systemic Functional Grammar (Halliday) 8

 

1.6.2 Rhetoric. 11

 

1.6.3 Teaching English for Specific purposes (ESP) 12

 

1.7 Outline and the organization of the study. 15

 

Chapter 2: Review of the related literature

 

2.1. Overview.. 17

 

2.2. SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR (SFG) 17

 

2.3. ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES (ESP) 21

 

 

Chapter 3: Methodology

 

3.1. Overview.. 34

 

3.2. Research design. 34

 

3.3. Participants. 35

 

3.4. Instrumentation. 35

 

3.5. Data collection procedure. 38

 

3.6. Data Analysis. 38

 

Chapter 4: Results and Discussion

 

4.1. General overview.. 41

 

4.2. The Descriptive Statistics of participants. 41

 

4.3. Test data normality. 42

 

4.4. Description of the data and variables. 44

 

 

4.4.1. Distribution of respondents according to gender: 44

 

4.4.2. Frequency distribution of respondents by education level 46

 

4.4.3. Distribution of respondents according to age. 47

 

4.5. Frequency distribution of respondents in terms Rhetoric and Systemic Functional Grammar usage  48

 

4.4 The graph shows these distribution: 49

 

4.6. Discussion and analysis, research questions and hypothese 49

 

Discussion. 56

 

Chapter 5: Summary and Conclusion

 

5.1 Overview.. 59

 

5.2. Summary. 59

 

5.3. conclusion. 60

 

5.4. Implications. 60

 

5.5. Limitation of the study. 61

 

5.6. Directions for future studies. 61

 

References. 62

 

Appendices

 

Appendix 1. 71

 

Appendix 2. 74

 

 

List of tables

 

Table1 (3.1): 37

 

Table (4.1 )Frequency distribution of participants. 41

 

Table (4.2) test data normality. 42

 

Table (4.3) test data normality. 44

 

Table (4.4) Frequency distribution of respondents by gender 45

 

Table (4.6) Frequency distribution of respondents by age. 47

 

. 50

 

Table (4.9)The t-test is used to verify this hypothesis. 51

 

Table(4.10) Independent Samples Test 51

 

Table(4.11) Group Statistics. 52

 

Table(4.12) Independent Samples Test 53

 

Table(4.13) RHETORIC AND SFG.. 54

 

Table(4.14) Group Statistics. 55

 

Table(4.15) Independent Samples Test 56

 

 

 

List of abbreviation

 

CARS Create A Research Space

 

ESP . …English for Specific purposes

 

GPA ..Grade Point Average

 

RAs …………Research Articles

 

SFG .Systemic functional grammar

 

SPSS Statistical package for Social Science

 

 

Abstract

 

Publication of research articles (RAs) in English seems a challenging task for native and non-native writers. The acquisition of rhetorical structure and function grammar can be very helpful for academicians to achieve the wanted goal which is, of course, the Publication of their RAs. This study aims to investigate the current level of familiarity to academic rhetoric within a systemic functional grammar among the Iranian ESP teachers and ESP course learners. The participants of the study consist of 10 ESP teachers and 85 learners at M.A and PhD level at Ilam state university and Islamic Azad university of Ilam. Data collected through self-report questionnaires with 22 items. The finding of this study revealed that the familiarity of ESP teachers with structures is too high and learners are high.

 

Keywords: Academic Rhetoric, Systemic Functional grammar, ESP teachers, ESP course learners

Chapter 1

 

Introduction

 

  1.1 Introduction

 

Writing has become central in today’s schools and universities as a measure for academic success. Students work hard to learn how to make more informed decisions about their writing and