FROM RESEARCH TO SYNTHESIS: TEACHING ABSTRACT IN ACADEMIC WRITING

Abstract

This Educational Technical Product (ETP) is a didacti guide, structured from a genre-based didactic sequence (GDS) (Barros, 2020; Dolz; Noverraz; Schneuwly, 2004), intended for the teaching of the English language to students of a Portuguese/English Language and Literature undergraduate program, since this training also encompasses the improvement of both Portuguese and English. However, it may also serve as a teaching tool for instructors in other fields of knowledge, as it is aimed at developing students’ language capacities for text production, more specifically, for writing abstracts. This ETP was developed within the scope of the Graduate Program in Teaching (PPGEN) at the State University of Northern Paraná (UENP) and is an integral part of the dissertation entitled “Resumo/Abstract: Instrumento Para o Ensino da Língua Inglesa na Formação Inicial Docente”¹, available at: dissertation. The choice of this genre as the organizing axis of the ETP/GDS is justified by its relevance in the academic/scientific context, where it is a mandatory component of articles, dissertations, theses, and undergraduate final papers. However, in the Literature Review carried out as part of the dissertation, we found a scarcity of studies that systematically address the teaching of this genre, specifically in Language and Literature programs. This gap is even more evident in the education of English teachers, highlighting the need that this ETP seeks to fulfill. It is important to clarify that, although the abstract genre is part of different academic genres, as previously mentioned, this ETP takes the scientific article/paper as its source text. Above all, we conceive the abstract as a specific genre, due to its own characteristics, and not as a mere component of another genre. According to Brazilian Technical Standards Association (ABNT, 2021), abstracts are defined as a synthesis of the essential points of a document, consisting of aims, methods, results, and conclusions. Swales and Feak (2009) further specify an abstract as a brief academic genre, essential for disseminating research and facilitating the circulation of knowledge, a perspective also reinforced by Figueiredo and Bonini’s (2006) study. Swales and Feak (2009) also emphasize that abstracts play a significant role in academia, being widely used to evaluate paper submissions and presentation proposals at scientific and academic events. The authors highlight that this genre fulfills at least four main functions: first, it acts as an independent mini-text, providing readers with a concise summary of the research topic, the methodology employed, and the most relevant results; second, it serves as a resource that helps readers decide whether to explore the full work; third, it functions as an introduction that guides readers on what to expect when reading the complete text, working as a roadmap; and finally, it is a reference tool for writers, professionals, and editors in the preparation of abstracts. The choice of this genre as the axis of our proposal is also justified by my academic experience in the Language and Literature undergraduate program, where practical contact with abstracts occurred only during the Voluntary Institutional Program for Scientific Initiation (VIPSI), when writing my first scientific article, and in the production of my undergraduate thesis. This experience highlights the need for Language and Literature undergraduate programs to offer more opportunities and resources to address this genre systematically, since not all students take part in extracurricular activities. Both for the development of the ETP/GDS and for the conducting of the research, we relied on the theoreticalmethodological framework of the didactic perspective of Sociodiscursive Interactionism (SDI) (Barros, 2019, 2020; Barros; Corrêa, 2023; Barros; Gonçalves, 2023; Barros; Striquer; Gonçalves, 2019; Díaz; Cristovão; Barros, 2023; Dolz, Noverraz, Schneuwly, 2004; Souza; Striquer, 2023), which we address in the next section.