Structure of introductions to conference presentations

Ting, Su Hie (2012) Structure of introductions to conference presentations. In: 8th International Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) Seminar, 4-5 September 2012., Kuala Lumpur. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

Different communicative purposes produce texts with different organisational structure and register of language use. Among the academic genres, oral conference presentations have been less studied compared to research articles and expository texts. This study examined the structure of introductions in paper presentations for conferences held in Malaysia and abroad. The focus was on the staging before the main content was presented. The data were collected from 200 presentations in 15 conferences in the fields of applied linguistics, humanities and language teaching. The conference paper presentations were audio-taped for analysis. Results showed the title of the paper was included in nearly all the conference presentations but inclusion of greetings, acknowledgement, research context and presentation outline was variable, subject to the influence of the presenters’ background. The conference presentation genre is situated in the broader framework of oral presentations but the move structure characteristics is a function of the discipline specific nature of the content and the expertise of the audience. The findings suggest that the structuring of introductions to conference presentations reflects extent of socialisation in the research discourse community.

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