Book Reviews and Disciplinary Discourses: Defining a Genre.

This study analyzed the English discourse organization of sixty academic book reviews in three disciplines (linguistics, chemistry, economics) published in 1990, to help define book reviews as an academic written genre. Analysis revealed that although book reviews show regularities in information form, function, and content, some variation occurs in terms of how reviewers realize evaluation and description moves across disciplinary boundaries. Results suggest that this variation is produced by the reviewers' tendency to respond to differences in epistemological organization of the three fields (e.g., object of study, methodologies commonly adopted, and the literary tradition) indicating connections between text and context. The study indicates that discursive practices in the disciplines have to be considered in the teaching of English for academic purposes (EAP) to help learners develop more critical and effective reading and writing competencies. Contains 25 references. (Author/MSE) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ********************** ************************************************* 0 Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages 29th Annual Convention Long Beach, CA, USA 1995 BOOK REVIEWS AND DISCIPLINARY DISCOURSES: Defining a genre Desiree Motta-Roth (Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Santa Maria, RS, BRAZIL) Genre analysts attempting to map down the repertoire of genres used in academia have contributed to reading and writing pedagogies in English for Academic Purposes (EAP). With the objective of contributing to the definition of an academic written genre, this paper presents the analysis of the discourse organization of sixty academic book reviews in Linguistics, Economics, and Chemistry, published in 1990. Although book reviews can potentially offer novice academic writers opportunity to get started in the academic debate, researchers have neglected the genre due to its unremarkable character as reference literature. The analysis revealed that, although book reviews show regularities in information form, function, and content, some variation occurs in terms of how reviewers realize evaluation and description moves across disciplinary boundaries. The results suggest that this variation is produced by the reviewers' tendency to respond to differences in epistemological organization of the three fields such as the object of study, the methodologies commonly adopted, and the literary tradition, indicating connections between text and context. The study indicates that discursive practices in the disciplines have to be considered in EAP teaching in order to help learners develop more critical and effective reading and writing competencies. INTRODUCTION With the increasing speed of recent advances in all areas of knowledge production and with the use of English as the lingua franca of the international scientific community, publications in academic journals in English have become very important. In such an almost exclusive English-speaking academic environment, nonnative scholars interested in publishing in international spheres are faced with the problem of developing adequate academic competencies in English. In response to this need and in an attempt to inform teaching practices, Genre Analysts working with English for Academic Purposes (EAP) have focused their attention on academic written genres (see, for example, Swales, 1990, 1981, and Bazerman, 1988, on research articles; Salager-Meyer, 1990, and Ventola (in PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY korpR 67714 TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) BEST COPY AVAILABLE 2 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. ° Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. TESOL/1995 Long Beach, CA 2 Book reviews and disciplinary discourses: Defining a genre press) on abstracts). Nevertheless, the book review as a highly common short genre has been almost entirely ignored by this research community and this dismissal accounts for an important gap in our knowledge of the academic genre system for a number of