Page 50 - English - Teaching Academic Esl Writing

36 CHAPTER 3
quirements varied much since the mid-1980s" (p. 29). Based on the find- ings of Swales (1990a), Johns explained that some of these recurring features are at the discourse level of academic text and largely consist of four purposeful introductory moves to prepare readers to read and understand text efficiently. These moves include:
1. establishing or introducing the topic and discussing its importance,
2. reviewing published (or other) sources of information,
3. preparing the ground and reasoning for the present analysis
and/or synthesis of information (or demonstrating how the present examination can accomplish what has not been accomplished pre- viously), and
4. introducing the present examination and stating its purpose.
In addition to the discourse-level features of the academic genre, Johns also noted that linguistic features of text are also recurrent and can be found across practically all disciplines and subgenres. She emphasized that these are often neglected in the teaching of L2 writing and suggested various ways to include them in L2 writing instruction.
In particular, Johns summarized the findings of text analysis and research on academic text and pointed out that several lexical and syntactic features are highly valued "in general expository academic prose" (pp. 58-59):
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Lexical precision and careful use of vocabulary
Careful and purposeful uses of text "maps" and "signposts," such as discourse and metadiscourse markers (e.g., First this essays discusses
xxx and yyy and then presents solutions to the zzz problem)
Appearance of the writer's objectivity and impersonal register (e.g., avoidance of first-person pronouns and use of "author-evacua- tion," the strategic passive voice, and it-cleft constructions; e.g., it is/seems/appears that ...)
Nonjudgmental interpretations of information, findings, and events (e.g., avoidance of emotive descriptors—nouns, adverbs, and adjectives such as great, wonderful, exciting, terrible)
A guarded stance in presenting argumentation and results (e.g., employment of frequent hedges such as modal verbs, adverbs of frequency, or linking verbs)
Other studies of L2 written academic text have identified a range of lexi- cal and grammar features that required focused instruction and concerted effort from both teachers and learners (Dudley-Evans & St. John, 1998;
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