An Analysis of the Introduction Section in an Educational Research Article

 Research running begins with the identification of a knowledge gap in the researcher’s field of study which will determine not only the objectives and, in turn,  the type of research to be carried out, but also the communication manner of the resulting findings to the academic community, in order to gain acceptance and recognition. The introduction section plays an important part in the achievement of such aim. By organizing it into a general- specific manner, as established by Swales and Feak in their Create a Research Space Model (C.A.R.S) (1994, p. 174), the reader’s attention is compelled. On account of this, the present paper will analyze the introduction section in one Research Article (RA) from the education field “Supporting In-service Language Educators in Learning to Telecollaborate” written by O’ Dowd (2015), taking into account the aforementioned model, and delving into the examination of linguistic features that characterize the production of such section and the stages of the said model.

According to Swales and Feak (1994), the main feature of introductions is the realization of the three moves outlined by the C.A.R.S. model which go from the general state of affairs to the specific situation under study. These movements are: creating a research space by referring back to what has been done in the field, establishing the niche by stating the motivations for the study, and occupying the niche by stating the purpose of the current research. These three moves can be clearly identified in the RA written by O’Dowd (2015).  Move 1is presented in the first and second paragraphs by means of defining the term telecollaboration and how it evolved and was included in language teaching methodology: “In the literature on CALL, the term telecollaboration has been prevalent since the publication of Mark Warschauer’s “Telecollaboration and the language learner” almost two decades ago (1996).” (O’ Dowd, 2015, para. 1) The third paragraph begins with the indication of the gap in the previous research described in the preceding  paragraphs: “However, telecollaboration is undoubtedly one of the most complex aspects of CALL for in-service teachers to master due to the combination of organisational and pedagogical competences and technological skills […]” (O’ Dowd, 2015, para.3). The following paragraphs accomplish the third and last move by means of both a purposive and a descriptive statement:” With this in mind, this paper sets out to identify the challenges that in-service foreign language educators encounter when they undertake telecollaborative exchange projects with their learners. […]”  (O’ Dowd, 2015, para 4.); “These aims will be achieved in the following way: first, the paper carries out a review of sociocultural approaches to CALL teacher education and presents a model of telecollaborative competence which has been developed by this author (O’Dowd, 2013) to outline which competences teachers need in order to carry out telecollaborative exchanges. Following that, the paper looks at how this model of telecollaborative competence has been reflected in the UNICollaboration platform—an online platform designed to support telecollaboration at university level. […]” (O’ Dowd, 2015, para. 5).

Regarding linguistic features, each of the former moves present the use of different tenses, statements, connectors, and genres. The first move includes the present perfect to indicate that the study is of utmost importance: “The educational activity of engaging foreign language learners in online intercultural collaboration with partners in distant locations has gone under many different terms […]” (O’ Dowd, 2015, para.1). The selection of both present tenses responds to citation patterns: the author wants to refer to what has been found in the field. The establishment of the niche is realized by the use of the negative connector however, which begins the third paragraph. The third move includes a purposive statement to assert the purpose of the paper, and a descriptive statement to explain how the content is organized. The present tense is used to refer to the type of text and investigation.

In conclusion, the present paper has attempted to analyze the introduction section of an article in the education field, by applying the C.A.R.S. model (Swales and Feak, 1994). The three different moves stated in such model have been identified, together with the linguistic features that characterize them. This proves that the organization of such section responds to conventions that writers must follow in order to be respected in their academic communities, thus gaining the recognition of fellow researchers and contributing to their fields of study.

References

O’Dowd, R.  (2015). Supporting In-service Language Educators in Learning to Telecollaborate. Language Learning & Technology http://llt.msu.edu/issues/february2015/odowd.pdf

Swales, J.M., & Feak, C.B. (1994).  Academic writing for graduate students: Essential tasks and skills. Ann Harbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.