Introduction Stage

Rhetorical Functions of Introduction

The Introduction stage gives the overview of the whole research paper as it predicts the content of the paper. As the generic stage suggests that the first stage of the research paper is indication of the Value and Significance of the current research, in order to emphasise on the importance of the research - which is to fill the research gap and establish a warrant for the research (Hood, 2010).

According to the corpus, the attitudinal density of the Introduction Stage is the highest among the other generic stages.

Attitudinal Lexis at Introduction Stage

The expression of attitude types of the Introduction stage varies owing to the focus of the study (Hood, 2010, p.79). The focus of study of the research paper compiling the corpus in this study relates to the analysis of pedagogies in L2 English classrooms, in which writers were required to identify different teacher approaches, teachers’ difficulties and challenges in course of paradigm shift, as well as the L2 students’ lack of interest or motivation as a result of the mistakes they make, or deprivation of interaction or support. Therefore, all three kinds of attitude are represented, but with Appreciation being the most prominent type. Below are the examples of the appraisal items in the Introduction (roll the mouse over the underlined words or phrases for more information):

(a)	The New Secondary School (NSS) curriculum came into play [+app] in Hong Kong.
(b)	Teacher’s scaffolding plays a vital role [+app] in genre-based teaching.
(c)	Teachers always find problems [-app] and difficulties [-app] in teaching students with low proficiency.
(d)	The students can make a success [+jud] in society.
(e)	School teachers in Hong Kong do not have experience [-jud] in teaching short stories.
(f)	Students do not enjoy[-aff] English writing.
(g)	Middle students suffered [-aff] a lot from this policy.

The interplay of attitudinal-invoking tokens as in (a) and (b) and explicit inscribed values from (c) to (g) successfully constructs an evaluative voice towards the field of the object of study. Judgement values are mainly chosen to code the abilities of teachers and students as well as their weakness under different pedagogical approaches and practices. Affect values are present in this section, albeit in the least proportion among the three attitude types, to report on the teachers’ or students’ emotional responses to the teaching approaches or education policies imposed on them.

Summary

The high density of attitudinal values in the introduction stage of research papers identifies with Hood’s (2010) view on this stage functioning as a macro-genre to align readers with the writers and establish a warrant for research, revealing a contextual metaphor with the infusion of evaluation while presenting “a series of descriptive reports” (p. 73) of the object of study, other research and the writers’ study (p. 42-43).