Academic Genre Analysis: Teaching Academic Discourse Writing to Medical University Students.

In an era of globalization, fast dissemination of scientific achievements by means of research articles written in English is essential for contemporary researchers. Therefore, the development of students' academic genre awareness with regard to linguistic and rhetorical structure of research articles is one of the components of the syllabi of ESP courses. The aim of this paper is to present evidence from a classroom-based study of the effectiveness of a genre-based approach to developing academic rhetorical competence in students of ESP courses at the medical college in Krakow. The study involved the analysis of eight authentic medical research articles conducted by students under the teacher's guidance and assistance in ESP classes. Based on Swales' (1990) model of creating research space (CARS) and metadiscourse model as proposed by Hyland (2005), this type of analysis together with awareness-raising tasks show how rhetorical conventions govern the structure of the research article as well as the choice of grammar , lexis and style. The results of the students' post-tests and the improved quality of their written and oral assignments, prepared according to recognized standards of academic discourse, seem to indicate the efficacy of a genre-based approach to teaching academic literacy to students in the tertiary educational level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]