“WE ARGUE FOR NEW KNOWLEDGE”: ARGUMENT STYLES IN DISCUSSIONS OF SCOPUS-INDEXED ELT JOURNALS

Numerous studies over the past decade examined rhetorical structure and linguistic features of research articles (RAs); however, the investigation of writers’ arguments in research article discussions (RADs) in reputable international journals in specific disciplines remains scarce. This present study aims to investigate argument styles (AS) and the linguistic clues that characterise the arguments in RADs of English Language Teaching (ELT) Scopus-indexed journals. 115 RADs were collected purposively from twelve ELT journals and analysed using the adapted framework of Arsyad et al. (2020). The results revealed that new knowledge claims in RADs were constructed with strong and complete arguments, where interpreting the findings (AS-1) was obligatory, while contrasting the findings with previous research (AS-6) was optional. Other argument styles, such as elaborating (AS-2), illustrating (AS-3), stating the reasons for the findings (AS-4), comparing with previous studies (AS-5), and stating the contribution of the findings (AS-7) were very commonly used by the writers. Furthermore, each argument was characterised by distinct linguistic realisations that demonstrated the writers’ expertise in academic writing. These findings contribute to the academic writing instruction in the English for Academic context in that novice writers can emulate the writing style of the RAD in reputable international ELT journals.