Prof. HU Guangwei, Department of English and Communication

Disciplinary differences in academic discourse. Sixth National Symposium on Disciplinary English. Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, China, 25-26 May 2024.

Abstract
Members of a disciplinary community share deep-seated epistemological assumptions that underlie and motivate discursive practices. In this presentation, I outline, in broad terms, the relationship between disciplinarity and academic discourse. Drawing on Basil Bernstein’s work on knowledge structures in disciplinary inquiry and Karl Maton’s realist sociology of knowledge making, I discuss how dominant knowledge-knower structures operating in different disciplines may shape the rhetorical and discourse strategies used by members of these disciplines in academic communication. I then present findings of my selected studies on cross-disciplinary differences in academic discourse and rhetorical practices and relate these findings to discipline-specific knowledge-making practices. To conclude, I discuss pedagogical implications for English for academic purposes (EAP) and English for specific purposes (ESP) programs/courses that follow from the findings of these studies and propose pedagogical strategies for socializing students into the academic discourse of their disciplinary communities.