Hyland Three Tier Structure Of Acknowledgement: Does It Reflect Malaysian Or American University Students?

Abstract

Over the past decade, the postgraduate dissertations acknowledgement has become the center of empirical study among linguistics. The argument is that these dissertation acknowledgements portray one of the most significant communicative personal tools for postgraduate students to express their gratitude upon completion of their dissertation.  This study is a qualitative study using a sample of 4 Masters Theses/Dissertations acknowledgements which have been selected randomly from Google Scholars and Science Direct. The study utilizes three generic tier Hyland’s structure of acknowledgement to make comparison between dissertation acknowledgements of Malaysian and American postgraduate university students. Findings indicate that Malaysian postgraduates’ students have the tendency to begin their acknowledgement by “Thanking God” which is completely absence among the students from American universities’ dissertation acknowledgement. Additionally, Malaysian students follow the sequence of Hyland’s three tier of acknowledgment.  However, both groups exhibit similarities of the Hyland’s model for the “Thanking Move” but the students from American universities omit Step 3 of the Hyland “Thanking for resources”. Most importantly, both students’ acknowledgements from American universities include “Reflective Move” which considered as optional in the Hyland’s model. The main contribution of this study is that dissertation acknowledgement reflects conviction, moral obligation, modesty, and responsibilities on the part of the author as an academic scholar. Hence, the study in this area should not be taken for granted by linguistics researchers.