Ryabykh L. Lecture as Genre of American Academic Discourse

The subject of the analysis is the genre forming characteristics and genre elements of the American academic lecture (AAL). The object of the research is the lecture as a genre of American academic discourse (AAD). The purpose of the study consists in identifying its genre forming characteristics, genre elements, strategies and tactics of AAL as a genre of AAD. We used a comprehensive methodology which presupposes a combination of traditional and modern methods of linguistic analysis. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that it was first paper that characterized a lecture as a genre of AAD, that modeled genre forming characteristics of the lecture based on the devised algorithm of the study; the paper that helped to develop a list of micro genres and to establish the dominant/peripheral status of genre elements, as well as to establish the influence made by discursive factors, and to establish the strategic purpose of genre elements. The main characteristics of the AAD have also been specified. The theoretical value of the paper consists in the fact that its results and conclusions are a contribution to Discourse Studies (specification of the academic discourse definition, the establishing of the lecture characteristics as its leading genre). The study also enriches Genre Studies (determination of genre forming characteristics and description of formal, structural, content, pragmatic elements of the AAL genre, its micro genres as well as strategies and tactics). The practical value of the paper lies in the fact that its statements and results can be used in the theoretical course of English Stylistics ('Functional styles'), in special courses in Discourse Studies and Genre Studies, in scientific studies of undergraduate and graduate students.