Structure Analysis Of The Conclusion Chapter In The M.A. Theses Of English Majors

As early as 1980s, foreign researchers started conducting research on English academic writing. As the representative of ESP tradition, Swales’ (1990) Move analysis theory is highly acknowledged and has inspired numerous studies. However, compared with its application to Abstract, Introduction, Literature Review, Discussion sections, the number of studies on Conclusion is relatively small, and no study has been done on Conclusion structure in English-major postgraduates’ theses.Based on the assumption that Conclusion chapter written by Chinese English-major postgraduates is made up of a regular structure pattern which can be revealed through Move analysis and constituent elements description, this research is designed to answer the following three questions:(1) What are the general functions of Conclusion chapter in Chinese English-major masters’ theses? (2) What is the rhetorical structure of Conclusion chapter to achieve those functions? (3) What constituent elements and distinct linguistic clues can be identified in each Move and Sub-move?After selecting 90 pieces of postgraduates’ theses in fields of Second Language Acquisition and English Language Teaching from three key normal universities (CCNU, NENU, NNU), I follow Nwogu’s (1997) five-step Move identification model and establish my own five Moves and thirteen Sub-moves model on the basis of Bitchener’s (2012) four-Move model for analyzing Applied Linguistics thesis Conclusion.Qualitative analyses show that Chinese English-major postgraduates’ thesis Conclusion chapter mainly serves to summarize the research including its background information, aims, methodological features, and overall outcome, to represent the research findings, to evaluate the theoretical, practical significance and any limitations, and to provide recommendations for future research.Secondly, to achieve these functions, a rhetorical structure made up of five Moves and thirteen Sub-moves is adopted. The five Moves are "Introducing the Chapter", "Representing New Research", "Summarizing Findings", "Evaluating the Research", and "Providing Recommendations for Further Research". Move 2 consists of four Sub-moves, which are "Providing background information", "Restating research aims/questions/ hypotheses", "Restating research methods and methodology", "Highlighting the overall research outcome"; Move 3 can be realized via three Sub-moves, "Reporting findings", "Explaining results" and "Interpreting results"; Move 4 also contains four Sub-moves, namely "Indicating theoretical significance", "Indicating significance of research for practice", "Justifying Move 4-a and 4-b", and "Identifying limitations"; the last Move involves two Sub-moves, which are "Giving recommendations" and "Justifying recommendations".At last, some constituent elements or linguistic clues to realize Moves or Sub-moves are also identified.