TITLE:
Corpus-based research into textual patterns in EAP agriculture and veterinary science texts
ABSTRACT
This poster will describe three studies carried out in the context of the EAP reading comprehension courses taught in the School of Agriculture in the University of Córdoba, Argentina. The research employing both corpus and discourse analysis has been carried out since 2008, with the purpose of applying its results to the design of materials for the teaching of reading comprehension courses to agronomy students. Several studies (Carrell, 1985; Meyer, 1985, Pérez de Pereyra et al. 2008, 2010) have shown that systematic instruction on textual organization, for example, on the cause and effect and problem-solution patterns, improves reading comprehension. The 2008 study looked into the problem?solution pattern in agronomical texts used in the context described. The research work in 2010 explored the hypothetical-real pattern in the same corpus, in order to determine how writers signpost this pattern by means of certain lexical items. The results of the latter suggest that while it may be relatively simple to identify the lexical elements that clearly mark the hypothetical component in the pattern, it seems to be difficult to find / locate clear signals of the real element. It is for this reason that the 2012 work purports to look more closely into this element of the pattern in the search for signposts. We intend to analyse the corpus looking not only for lexical items but also for other resources, such as aspect and verb tense, the citation procedures employed and the use of reporting verbs. In sum, the poster will provide a retrospective report of the corpus based research carried out so far, as well as a prospective account of what this team has embarked upon to throw light into the markers that can help readers of agriculture and veterinary science texts read more effectively.
