| المستخلص: |
Dissertation acknowledgements are a written academic genre in which graduates express their gratitude towards a help of different types from a number of people and/or institutions upon their study completion. Compared to other academic text types, dissertation acknowledgements have received little research attention, and relatively very little is known about this genre. Accordingly, the present study investigates the generic structure of dissertation acknowledgements written by Iraqi EFL graduates. It is intended to: (1) examine the generic components that are utilized in the construction of the communicative purpose of these dissertation acknowledgments; (2) examine the lexico-grammatical patterns employed to realize the generic components of dissertation acknowledgements (3) examine whether the generic components of dissertation acknowledgements written by Iraqi EFL graduates are different from and/or similar to ones written by graduates from different linguistic backgrounds; and (4) examine whether the socio-cultural background of Iraqi EFL graduates affects their dissertation acknowledgements writing or not. A sample of 100 acknowledgments accompanying MA and PhD dissertations written by Iraqi EFL graduates has been undergone generic structure analysis. The results of study show that the academic genre of dissertation acknowledgements is built around one canonical move only, viz., thanking move with its sub-steps, without any accompanying optional moves. The thanking move is realized via limited lexico- grammatical forms. Besides expressing thanks, the thanking move communicates a lot of information about the socio- cultural values of the writers of those dissertation acknowledgements, affecting the rhetorical structure of this academic genre. On the basis of these findings, a number of pedagogical implications are suggested.
|
