International Journal of Language & Linguistics

A Critical and Practical Analysis of the Generic Rhetorical Structure of Literature Reviews In the Non-Native Theses of Iranian TEFL Students
Seyyed Mohammad Reza Adel, Seyyed Mohammad Reza Amirian, Homeira Ghaderi

Abstract
This study intended to report findings from a survey of 95 literature reviews of TEFL graduate students’ theses at four universities to foster improvements in the compilation and assessment of literature reviews. A variant of a rubric for evaluating was used and inspired by Boote and Beile (2005). For validating the rubric, in addition to evaluating literature reviews in the whole literature, 60 students’ responses and three experts’ reflections were gathered through questionnaires and interviews accounting for the construct, content, and response validity of the rubric to improve skills in conceptualizing, writing, and analyzing data. The overall results signified deficiencies in some parts in the use of writing resources. To have pedagogical implications, findings revealed the necessity to teach knowledge transformation skills in graduate classes and collaboration among disciplines on the writing instruction and academic practitioners and also introduced a comprehensive rubric for evaluating literature reviews in the MA theses.

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