A cross-cultural study on dissertation acknowledgments written in English by native speakers of Turkish and American English

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Eğitim Fakültesi, Yabancı Diller Eğitimi Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2010

Öğrenci: ÖZLEM KARAKAŞ

Danışman: ÇİLER HATİPOĞLU

Özet:

The aim of this thesis is to compare and contrast the ways in which native speakers of Turkish (NST) and native speakers of American English (NSAE) write the acknowledgment sections of their MA and PhD dissertations. The analysis in the study focuses on the pragmatic and discourse strategies used by the authors in the texts written in English. First, the study uncovers the organization of the dissertation acknowledgments and the thanking strategies employed in the acknowledgment sections written in English by native speakers of Turkish and American English in their MA and PhD dissertations. Then, the authors’ choices of expressions of gratitude for specific addressees (e.g., supervisors vs. friends) are discussed. Data examined in the study comprise 144 dissertations written by 72 NST and 72 NSAE and are collected from sources such as the National Theses Centre of The Council of Higher Education of Turkey, ProQuest dissertation services. The thesis aims to contribute to the areas of foreign language education, pragmatics and cross-cultural communication.