Genre core and periphery: Opportunities for L1 -L2 hybridity in the empirical research reports of second language writers

Anthony Joseph Cimasko, Purdue University

Abstract

In order to create a framework for more fine-grained perspectives on genre, this dissertation looks at English language texts produced by graduate-level writers of empirical research reports in the field of English as a Second Language (ESL), in order to determine the status of genre traits and to classify them as existing in the core or the periphery of the genre. Those features that are found to be most important to readers and more tightly controlled by those with the authority to approve writing in the genre indicate the core of the genre. Traits that are relatively less important and demonstrate a broader range of variability (more dynamism) in how writers are permitted to handle them in successful writing indicate the periphery of that genre. The periphery is expected to offer more opportunities for writers to generate hybrid discourse that blends established generic patterns with unfamiliar ones from the writer's prior experience. For second language (L2) writers, this hybridity is expected to periodically have some basis in individual first language (L1)-based experiences. After reviewing the relevant literature, the study identifies the core and periphery of a particular genre through an examination of samples of successful empirical research reports written by graduate students in an ESL program. While this begins to pinpoint the core and periphery of the genre, further data clarifying core and periphery status were obtained through interviews with writers and with professors, advisors, and others with the power to determine the success of those texts, and through other activities based around the genres. The results of the study present a picture of a community of users, its relationship to the target genre(s), and the community's present level of tolerance for variation and divergence in a genre. The dissertation concludes with an extended discussion of its implications for future research and pedagogy, including a fine-grained understanding of genre-particular features and their relative value to the community of users, and a way for instructors to more effectively balance attention to established norms with writer freedom.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Silva, Purdue University.

Subject Area

English as a Second Language|Rhetoric

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