Prof. HU Guangwei, Department of English and Communication

Disciplinary knowledge-knower structures and their influences on academic discourse. The First International Conference on English for Specific Purposes in Action. The University of Béjaïa, The University of Béjaïa, Béjaïa, Algeria, 27-28 November 2024.

Abstract
British sociologist Basil Bernstein (1999) points out that academic knowledge produced by different disciplines has different structures. He divides these structures into two broad categories based on how disciplinary knowledge is organized: hierarchical and horizontal knowledge structures. The former is characteristic of natural sciences, whereas the latter is typical of the humanities and social sciences. Australian sociologist Karl Maton (2013) extends Bernstein’s theorizing of knowledge structures to include a knower dimension, distinguishing between hierarchical and horizontal knower structures “by the degree to which they integrate and subsume new knowers” (2010, p. 164). While the humanities are often dominated by a hierarchical knower structure, natural sciences typically have a horizontal knower structure. Furthermore, Maton combines the knowledge and knower dimensions and proposes that each disciplinary field is characterized by a distinct knowledge-knower structure. In this presentation, I will apply the notion of knowledge-knower structure to the analysis of academic discourse and demonstrate the influences of different disciplines’ dominant knowledge-knower structures on their preferred rhetorical and discourse strategies in academic communication. To this end, I will present the findings of several studies that I conducted on cross-disciplinary differences in academic discourse and rhetorical practices. I will conclude my presentation by discussing the implications of the knowledge-knower structure and the previous findings for the curriculum and pedagogy of EAP/ESP programs and courses that are tasked to socialize students into the academic discourse of their disciplinary communities.