Poster Presentation
Abstract Writing Instruction to HeteroHomogenous Learner Groups inScience and Engineering
Steven Taro Suzuki
Waseda University, Faculty of Science and Engineering
Teaching abstract writing to a heterogeneous class of English as a foreign language (EFL)
science and engineering students can pose challenges for English for Specific Purposes(ESP) practitioners. This short paper discusses a genre analysis approach to abstract writing
instruction to the aforementioned learner group. Implementing a genre analysis model,
attention will focus on easily observable language moves of research article abstracts.
This focus can help students learn and understand on a fundamental level, the rhetoricalfunction(s) of each move, and textual features often used to realize those functions. The
paper encourages rhetorical consciousness-raising and reflection, and promotes assisting
EFL students to become better writers as well as improving their academic texts.

Introduction
One important area of ESP instruction is teaching abstract writing to EFL scienceand engineering university students in Japan. This instruction is importantbecause if these students intend to earn a degree from graduate school, they mustwrite the abstract of their graduate thesis in English. However, teaching abstract
writing can pose a variety of challenges to ESP practitioners working in this ESP
context. One challenge may be a case where the learner group is heterogeneous.
Although homogenous in the sense of being students of science and engineering,a technical writing class may contain students from different departments suchas architecture and computer science.
Despite the challenges to teaching a heterogeneous group, there areadvantages to having a multidisciplinary class. One advantage is that attention
139Suzuki

can be switched from the correctness of the language to the rhetorical featuresof language in a text (Swales & Feak, 2004). Swales and Feak (2004) also argue
that this switch encourages rhetorical consciousness-raising and can lead to avariety of rich group discussions. They argue that this type of multidisciplinaryclass can create a learning atmosphere and a community among its members thatis more tolerant and less competitive.

The Model and Method
With the foregoing in mind, this short paper introduces a genre analysis
approach to teaching abstract writing on an introductory level to theaforementioned learner group in the third and fourth year of university. In myexperience working in this type of context, I find it more effective to teach moregeneral and easily observable genre features (Suzuki, 2012). The five-move model
I use (Table 1) is proposed by Swales and Feak (2009). Having students focus
on these moves in abstracts is designed to help them learn and understand on afundamental level the rhetorical function(s) of each move and to recognize thetextual features that are often implemented to realize those functions.
In class, the students first learn these abstract moves. Then, we look at anumber of abstracts from various disciplines and analyze them using the Swales
Table 1Five Typical Moves of the Research Article Abstract*
Move #

Typical Labels

Implied Questions

Move 1

Background/Introduction/Situation

What do we know about the topic?
Why is the topic important?

Move 2Present Research/Purpose

What is this study about?

Move 3

Methods/Materials/Subjects/Procedures

How was it done?

Move 4

Results/Findings

What was discovered?

Move 5

Discussion/Conclusions/Implications/Recommendations

What do the findings mean?

*Taken from Swales & Feak, 2009, p. 5140

Abstract Writing Instruction, OnCUE Journal, 7(2), pages 139-142

and Feak (2009) model. Through their analyses, they discover that in somecases all five moves are realized. In other cases, one or more moves are missing.
Sometimes, they will observe that two moves will occur in one sentence, or thatit takes two or more sentences to accomplish a move.

Results and Discussion
As a result of the above activities, the students become more rhetoricallyconscious. Through their discoveries, they learn that the model is a guiderather than a rule. As Anthony (2000) argues, they avoid the danger ofovergeneralization by forming their own generalizations through their analysesof authentic materials from a variety of disciplines. Finally, it is important tonote that this genre analysis approach and model are designed to work for bothheterogeneous and homogenous learner groups.

Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Professor Laurence Anthony of the Center for
English Language Education in Science and Engineering (CELESE) at Waseda
University Faculty of Science and Engineering. He has given me important
advice on how to be more effective at teaching technical writing, and has helped
me to further develop and improve my pedagogical skills as an ESP practitioner.

References
Anthony, L. (2000). Implementing genre analysis in a foreign language
classroom. TESOL Matters, 10(3), 18.
Suzuki, S. T. (2012). Explicit instruction of research genres in EFL tertiary
education. In A. Stewart & N. Sonda (Eds.), JALT2011 Conference
Proceedings (pp. 273-282). Tokyo, Japan: JALT.
Swales, J. M., & Feak, C. B. (2004). Academic writing for graduate students:
Essential tasks and skills (2nd ed.). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan
Press.
Swales, J. M., & Feak, C. B. (2009). Abstracts and the writing of abstracts. AnnArbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
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SuzukiAuthor’s bio
Steven Taro Suzuki holds an M.A. TESOL from Columbia University and iscurrently teaching at Waseda University Faculty of Science and Engineering, theMinistry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, and the University of Electro-Communications.
Steven’s research interests are in areas involving genre analysis, genre-based
pedagogy, and corpus linguistics. suzukitaro@aoni.waseda.jp
Received: October 1, 2013Accepted: February 18, 2014142