Conclusions and implications for teaching

The tasks proposed in this paper for the understanding of the rhetorical information and the meta-language of RA abstracts in English from the field of the social sciences, based on a personal interest in introducing a new approach, can contribute to improve the teaching and learning process of ESP at university level. However, these tasks can indeed be improved, that is, what is proposed in this study is open to changes, reformulations or adjustments. This can also be achieved by working in conjunction with other colleagues and specialists in the field of Social Communication.

It is important to highlight that the learning of academic genres in English, such as RA abstracts, can be troublesome, particularly, when students do not possess the language level required to deal with the meta-language characteristic of discourse genres. Thus, the tasks suggested in this paper are proposed to be implemented with 3rd year students of Social Communication because these learners are already acquainted not only with the reading comprehension strategies but also with different linguistic structures (e.g.: noun/verb phrases, passive voice, comparison, discourse markers, among others), two important elements when dealing with RA abstracts in English.

One aspect that needs to be stressed is related to the fact that the acquisition of the lexico-grammatical features characteristic of the sub-genre abstract, their communicative functions, that is to say, form and function correlation and the relationship between the lexico-grammatical components to their rhetorical moves or sections requires a careful

179 systematization in the design of the tasks under the genre-based approach. In other words, this systematization is necessary, particularly, when considering the target group this study was addressed to, that is, university students of a non-language subject with limited but specific skills in and knowledge of English. Besides, the fact that each of the tasks were systematically organized may contribute not only to raise students‘ awareness of the importance of learning a different text type, that is, the sub-genre abstract but this systematization can also foster students‘ understanding of the various features of RA abstracts in English from the field of the Social Sciences. Thus, the tasks proposed in this paper, under the genre-based approach, were systematically designed in order to sensitize learners to the importance of: a) the understanding of the rhetorical information characteristic of RA abstracts in English from the field of the Social Sciences; b) the identification of the lexico-grammatical features or meta-language; c) the recognition of the communicative functions conveyed by the lexico-grammatical elements; and d) the detection of the rhetorical organization of informative RA abstracts .

As stated in the preceding section of this paper, the teacher needs to be acquainted with the sub-genre abstract in terms of the lexico-grammatical features or exponents, their communicative functions and the rhetorical organization or structure since all these components are key elements when dealing with academic or discourse genres. This familiarity can be achieved by analysing different informative abstracts from the field he/she wants to teach. By doing this, the teacher can have a thorough understanding of: a) how RA abstracts in English from the field of the social sciences are typically organized or structured; b) the most common or recurrent lexico-grammatical features or meta-language; and c) the communicative functions underlying these lexico-grammatical elements. With this information in mind, the teacher can also design a table specifying each rhetorical section/move, the subsections or steps, the communicative functions or purposes and different examples taken from the abstracts in order to illustrate the lexico-grammatical features characteristic of each move and steps. Finally, since the teacher needs to be a facilitator of his/her students‘ learning process the systematization of the tasks and the design of this table are of vital importance because they can undoubtedly aid learners while carrying out each of the tasks proposed in this paper.

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