Genre analysis in ESP: A review of move analysis models and metadiscourse taxonomies

Abstract

Genre analysis has received much attention in the last decades. For both academic and pedagogical purposes, different genres have been analysed in terms of their rhetorical features. In English for Specific Purposes (ESP) tradition, genre analysis focuses on communicative functions described in terms of moves and steps, and linguistic properties of these functions. For such an analysis having both structural and linguistic aspects, researchers typically use models and taxonomies. However, there are several models and taxonomies in the literature that researchers can use for the analysis of different genres. Therefore, this study aims to review the move analysis models and metadiscourse taxonomies presented over many years. It clarifies the ESP approach to genre analysis and then provides a comprehensive review of the models and taxonomies offered since the second half of the twentieth century. It is expected that the study will help both researchers in the field and learners of academic writing by specifying the basics of genre analysis in ESP and providing a comprehensive account of the models and taxonomies used commonly in the genre analysis literature.

Keywords

• genre analysis
• english for specific purposes (esp)
• move analysis models
• metadiscourse taxonomies