The Comparative Study of Moves and Sub moves in the Abstract and Introduction Sections of English Language Teaching and Literature Thesis

Throughout years, after Swales' ground-breaking contribution to the field of move and sub move analysis, most of studies analyzing various moves and sub moves of research articles have been carried out. Theses in Teaching English and literature especially Abstract and introduction sections are of the neglected moves and sub moves and need to be explored. To this end, the study of move analysis of academic writings initiated by Hyland’s (۲۰۰۵) on abstracts and Chen and Kuo’s (۲۰۱۲) on introduction has gained significance in English for Specific Purposes. This study was an attempt to explore the analysis of the moves and sub moves in abstract and introduction parts of MA TEFL and literature theses. To this end , ۲۰۰ MA theses abstract and introduction sections written by MA students of Islamic Azad university of Tabriz branch during the years of ۱۹۸۸ to۲۰۲۰ were analyzed with reference to Hyland (۲۰۰۵) and Chen and Kuo’s (۲۰۱۲) models. The findings revealed that step ۴ of move ۱ in literature MA theses and step ۳ of move ۱ in the abstract section of TEFL MA theses were the least manifested steps, while step ۱ of move ۴ was the most occurred step in the abstracts section of both literature and TEFL MA theses. The results indicate no significant difference between introduction section of literature and TEFL theses with respect to the use of steps۱, ۲, and ۳ of move ۱, step ۳ of move ۲, step ۱ of move ۳, and steps ۲ and ۳ of move ۴ across two corpora but there was significant difference concerning frequencies of step۱ and step۴ of move ۲, step۱ of move ۴. The pedagogical implications of this study may serve a facilitative role in the work of many groups such as syllabus designers or in preparing the MA candidates for their six-credit course of thesis writing.