Textuality in EAP Research Articles: A Genre Analysis

One of the main concerns of scholars working in the field of EAP over the last 2decades has been raising the awareness of EAP students and publishers of genreconventions in academic journals. In line with the above concern, many studies haveaimed at exploring the general characteristics of research articles (RAs) in the field.Among these features, it seems that the generic moves and textuality have drawn theattention of researchers. Therefore, the purpose of this study was twofold: (1) tocompare and contrast the Iranian local ESP journals with their internationalcounterparts in terms of the given features by drawing upon existing research, and(2) to develop a more inclusive model for the analysis of moves and lexical cohesionpatterns (LCPs) in the Discussion sections of ESP RAs. Results showed that theDiscussion sections in the international ESP RAs tended to have a more cyclicalevaluative move mechanism compared with their Iranian local counterparts.Findings also revealed that the organizational patterning and use of the LCPs inconsolidating the Results sections of the RAs have a dual intrinsic relationship.Translation of such findings provides a better chance for nonnative EAP writers topublish in international journals.