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Evaluation in Foreign Language Education in the Middle East and North Africa pp 145–158Cite as

Genre Analysis and Cultural Variations: A Cognitive Evaluation of Anglo-American Undergraduate Personal Statements

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Part of the book series: Second Language Learning and Teaching ((SLLT))

Abstract

This chapter is a contrastive genre study that investigates the rhetorical structure of the British and American personal statements (PSs) written by undergraduate students. The corpus consists of 60 PSs (30 British and 30 American) selected from three different disciplines: Business, Physics and Psychology, and they were collected from four websites. The genre analysis of the collected data has been based on Ding’s (2007) model as an analytical framework. This study seeks to test the applicability of this model on the corpus and examine the rhetorical and the linguistic resemblances and variations found between both cultures. Results of the genre analysis indicate that the analysed statements have revealed some rhetorical and linguistic similarities and differences between both corpora. The divergences and convergences between both corpora were attributed to certain socio-cultural and academic factors. The findings of the present study offered valuable insights regarding the genre features of PSs. Further, this research may fill in the gap in the rhetorical studies of the British and American academic genres.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Tunis, Tunisia

    Ghada Hajji

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  1. Ghada Hajji
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Correspondence to Ghada Hajji .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. English Language Institute, University of Jeddah , Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

    Sahbi Hidri

  2. Higher Colleges of Technology , Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Christine Coombe

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Hajji, G. (2017). Genre Analysis and Cultural Variations: A Cognitive Evaluation of Anglo-American Undergraduate Personal Statements. In: Hidri, S., Coombe, C. (eds) Evaluation in Foreign Language Education in the Middle East and North Africa. Second Language Learning and Teaching. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43234-2_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43234-2_8

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-43233-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-43234-2

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

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