Comparing the Move Structure and Thematic Progression Pattern of Chinese and Native Speakers’ English Research Article Abstracts (RAA)—A Corpus Based Study of Aeronautics RAA

Abstract

Abstract reflects the main content of a research article. Linguists have made great efforts to analyze the structure of abstracts by using genre analysis. However, there have been little quantitative studies to compare Chinese scholars RA’s English abstract with that of the native speakers in the field of aeronautics. In particular, few studies have focused on analyzing them by means of combing the theory of genre analysis and thematic progression. This study analyzed the move structure and thematic progression pattern of 60 English abstracts selected from two aeronautics journals respectively (AIAA, CJA). Of the 60 English abstracts, 30 are written by Chinese scholars and 30 by native speakers. The results show that the frequency, order of moves, and the choice of thematic progression patterns in each move differ a lot in the two corpora. This study will not only enrich the empirical study of abstract analysis but also have some implications for academic paper writing, publishing, and teaching.