A CORPUS ANALYSIS OF ARGUMENTATIVE STRUCTURES IN ESP WRITING

Abstract

One of the challenges in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) classrooms is teaching writinggenres, especially to students who come from fields that are taught in L1. This is presumably“not only because different languages seem to have different ways of organizing ideas andstructuring arguments but because students’ prior writing experiences in the home, school orelsewhere do not prepare them for the literacy expectations of their university or professionalworkplace” (Hyland, 2013, p. 95). In our study, we analyze 36 argumentative essays writtenby students of Political Science and International Relations in an English for Social Sciences(ESP-adapted) course taught at the West University of Timisoara in Romania. The essays arewritten in English and the students’ L1 is Romanian. The aim of the study is to find out to whatextent argumentative structures in English are influenced by Romanian academic writing genrenorms. For our analysis, we use corpus linguistics methods, looking at frequencies andphraseology patterns as well as prominent rhetoric features related to argumentation. We arguethat translations of Romanian structures feature prominently when descriptive moves(description, definition, enumeration) are employed.