Disciplinary Acculturation: A Comparative Study of Intradiscourse Cycles of English and Persian Introductory Textbooks of Sociology and Linguistics

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

Shiraz University

Abstract

The present study aimed at investigating the specific discourse cycles of some
introductory textbooks across disciplines and languages to see to what extent they
acculturate students into the new subjects. To this end, 2 well-established and mostly
used English and Persian introductory textbooks in sociology and 2 other wellestablished
English and Persian introductory textbooks in linguistics were examined.
The study was conducted with reference to Love’s (as cited in Hewings, 2006)
suggested framework for the analysis of introductory textbooks. The texts were
analyzed in terms of the intradiscourse cycles. Then, the introductory textbooks
from the 2 disciplines were compared and contrasted in order to determine their
similarities and differences in acculturating students into the discipline. Results
showed that though in the English introductory textbooks, the cycles either started
with theory, data, or culminated in cutting-edge, real time problematization, in the
Persian texts, the cycles less frequently culminated in problematization of the
interpretive process. The study suggests that this kind of analysis enhances both
teachers’ and students’ knowledge concerning the process of acculturation into their
disciplines.

Keywords

Journal of Research in Applied Linguistics
Volume 4, Issue 2 - Serial Number 2
November 2013
Pages 33-50

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