DECLARATION OF THESIS / POSTGRADUATE PROJECT PAPER AND COPYRIGHT

Author’s full name : CHONG CHAI HONG

Date of birth : 15 JANUARY 1987

Title : A GENRE ANALYSIS OF MALAYSIAN BANKING BROCHURES

Academic Session : 2012/2013

I declare that this thesis is classified as:

I acknowledged that Universiti Teknologi Malaysia reserves the right as follows:

1. The thesis is the property of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.2. The Library of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia has the right to make copies for the

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Certified by:

_______________________________ ________________________________

SIGNATURE SIGNATURE OF SUPERVISOR

870115-01-5464 PROF. MADYA DR. UMMUL KHAIR BINTI AHMAD

Date: 17 JUNE 2013 Date: 17 JUNE 2013

�

CONFIDENTIAL (Contains confidential information under the Official Secret Act 1972)*

RESTRICTED (Contains restricted information as specified by the organization where research was done)*

OPEN ACCESS I agree that my thesis to be published as online open access (full text)

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UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA

NOTES: * If the thesis is CONFIDENTAL or RESTRICTED, please attach with the letter from

the organization with period and reasons forconfidentiality or restriction.

“I hereby declare that I have read this thesis and in my opinion this thesis is

sufficient in terms of scope and quality for the award of the degree of Master of

Education (Teaching English as Second Language)”

Signature : ....................................................

Name of Supervisor : Prof. Madya Dr. Ummul Khair Bt Ahmad

Date : 17 June 2013

A GENRE ANALYSIS OF MALAYSIAN BANKING BROCHURES

CHONG CHAI HONG

A project report submitted in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the award of the degree of

Master of Education (Teaching English as Second Language)

Faculty of Education

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

JUNE 2013

ii

I declare that this thesis entitled “A GENRE ANALYSIS OF MALAYSIAN BANKING

BROCHURES” is the result of my own research except as cited in the references.

The thesis has not been accepted for any degree and is not concurrently submitted in

candidature of any other degree.

Signature : ....................................................

Name : Chong Chai Hong

Date : 17 June 2013

iii

To my beloved father and mother

iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to take this opportunity to express my thanks to the people who

have assisted me in the completion of this project. First and foremost, I want to

thank my father, Chong Yew; my mother, Lee Gok Eng, my husband, Kok Sze Fei;

my brother, Chong Kok Fui; my sis-in-law, Loh Fong Sien; my sister, Chong Chai

Yin and my niece, Chong Shi Rou for their endless support, understanding and

encouragement towards me in completing this study.

Next, I owe my deepest gratitude to Dr. Ummul Khair Ahmad, for her

support, encouragement and confidence in my abilities and for her excellent

scholarship that has guided and inspired me throughout the study. I particularly

appreciate her constructive feedback and her promptness in responding to my

questions and providing comments on all my drafts. I could not have asked for

anyone better to guide me through this journey.

Special gratitude is also given for one friend, Christina Ong Sock Beng for

her continuous help and endless support. I also want to thank my fellow friends who

have supported me along the process of completing this study.

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ABSTRACT

The use of authentic material is one of the significant features in English for

Specific Purpose (ESP) classrooms. The gap between the classroom and the real

world could be minimized by using authentic materials as they exposes the learners

to how language is used in the real world. It is noteworthy to know that the use of

authentic materials has contributed an outstanding outcome in language classroom.

This study aims to examine authentic promotional materials that are used in the

banking sector in Malaysia. Apart from this, this study also aims to expose the

learners to salient language used in the authentic promotional texts. A corpus of 50

Malaysian banking brochures was collected from ten Malaysian banks. This study

was divided into two phases. In the first phase, the generic feature and structures

were identified while the linguistic features were investigated in the second phase.

The analysis of the bank brochures was based on the move analysis developed for

promotional genre by Bhatia (1993) and the approach used in identifying the generic

structure of university brochures by Osman (2008). The occurrence of salient

linguistic features such as imperative sentences and the use of personal pronouns

were analysed using Wordsmith Tool 5.0 software. The result suggested that

Malaysia banking brochures consist of five moves which include: announcing the

products, attracting attention, establishing credential and calling for action. The use

of second personal pronoun “you” in banking brochures is to personalize the

message by which the banks try to personally reach the customers.

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ABSTRAK

Penggunaan “authentic material” atau bahan bantu mengajar dari sumber

yang sebenar merupakan salah satu ciri yang penting dalam kelas Bahasa Inggeris

untuk tujuan khusus. Ini dapat mendedahkan pelajar kepada penggunaan Bahasa

Inggeris dalam konteks sebenar. Selain itu, ia dapat merapatkan jurang antara

pembelajaran dalam bilik darjah dengan apa yang berlaku dalam dunia perkerjaan.

Menurut kajian lepas, penggunaan bahan yang sebenar telah menambah baik

pencapaian pelajar untuk kelas Bahasa Inggeris untuk tujuan khusus. Kajian ini

bertujuan untuk mengkaji teks promosi sebenar yang digunakan dalam sektor

perbankan Malaysia. Selain itu, kajian ini juga bertujuan untuk membantu pelajar

dalam mengenalpasti penggunaan linguistik yang penting dalam teks promosi

sebenar dalam sektor perbankan Malaysia. Lima puluh risalah perbankan telah

dikumpul daripada sepuluh bank di Malaysia untuk dianalisis. Kajian ini dibahagikan

kepada dua fasa. Ciri-ciri generik dan strucktur “move” ditentukan dalam fasa

pertama. Manakala, ciri-ciri linguistik ditentukan dalam fasa kedua. Struktur analisis

Bhatia (1993) yang terdiri daripada tujuh ‘moves’ telah digunakan sebagai rujukan

untuk menganalisis sampel-sampel dalam kajian ini. Selain itu, pendekatan yang

digunakan untuk mengenal pasti struktur generic risalah adalah berdasarkan langkah

yang digunakan oleh Osman (2008) dalam menganalisis risalah Universiti. Malahan,

ciri-ciri linguistik seperti ayat perintah dan kata ganti nama dianalisis dengan

menggunakan Wordsmith Tool 5.0. Hasil kajian ini menunujukkan terdapat lima

‘move’ yang penting dalam risalah perbankan Malaysia: mengumumkan produk,

menarik perhatian, mewujudkan tauliah, memperkenalkan produk dan menggesa

tindakan. Ciri-ciri linguistik yang penting dalam risalah perbankan Malaysia adalah

penggunaan kata ganti nama kedua “anda” yang bertujuan untuk menjalinkan

hubungan secara peribadi dengan khalayak pelanggan.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER TITLE PAGE

DECLARATION ii

DEDICATION iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv

ABSTRACT v

ABSTRAK vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS vii

LIST OF TABLES xi

LIST OF APPENDICES xii

1 INTRODUCTION

1.0 Overview 1

1.1 Back ground of Study 2

1.2 Statement of Problem 2

1.3 Purpose of the study 3

1.4 Objectives of the study 5

1.5 Research Questions 5

1.6 Significance of Research 6

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1.7 Scope of Study 6

1.8 Limitation of this study 7

1.9 Conclusion 7

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 Introduction 8

2.1 The use of authentic materials in ESP 8

2.2 Genre analysis in ESP 9

2.3 Promotional genre 10

2.3.1 Moves structure in promotional genre 11

2.3.2 Linguistic feature in promotional genre 13

2.4 Banking system in Malaysia 15

2.5 Brochure 16

2.5.1 Essential elements of a brochure 20

2.5.2 Move structure in brochure 22

2.5.3 Linguistic feature in brochure 23

2.6 Conclusion 26

3 METHODOLOGY

3.0 Introduction 27

3.1 Research Design 27

3.2 Description of the corpus 28

3.3 Analytical Procedures 29

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3.4 Conclusion 30

4 RESULTS

4.0 Introduction 31

4.1 Generic features of bank brochures 31

4.2 Generic Structure of Banking Brochures 42

4.2.1 General description of corpus 42

4.2.2 Informational structure 43

4.2.2.1 Announce the service 44

4.2.2.2 Attract Attention 47

4.2.2.3 Establish Credential 52

4.2.2.4 Introduce the products or services 55

Step 1: Indicate the products

or services

55

Step 2: State essential elements of

products or services

57

4.2.2.5 Call for action 60

4.3 Lexical-Grammatical features 63

4.3.1 Imperative sentence 63

4.3.2 First personal pronouns “I” vs second

personal pronouns “You”

66

4.3.2.1 Analysis of first person pronoun “I”

vs “we”

68

x

4.3.2.2 Analysis of second person pronoun

“you” and “your”

71

4.4 Discussion 74

4.5 Conclusion 79

5 CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATION

5.0 Introduction 81

5.1 Summary of findings 81

5.2 Limitations of the study 83

5.3 Pedagogical implications 84

5.4 Recommendation for further research 86

5.5 Conclusion 87

REFERENCE 88

APPENDIX 96

xi

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE NO. TITLE PAGE

2.1 Research conducted focusing on images in brochures 17

2.2 Research conducted focusing on linguistic aspects in

brochures

19

4.1 General description of corpus 42

4.2 Rhetoric structures in banking brochure 43

4.3 Statistical information of imperative sentences 63

4.4 Top ten frequently used words in the corpus 66

4.5 Frequency of first and second personal pronouns in

the corpus

67

4.6 Selected concordance lines for the personal pronoun

“I”

69

4.7 Selected concordance lines of first person plural

pronoun “we”.

70

4.8 Selected concordance lines of second person pronoun

“you”

72

4.9 Selected concordance lines of second person

possessive pronoun “your”

73

xii

LIST OF APPENDIXES

APPENDIXNO.

TITLE PAGE

A Banking brochures from ten local banks 96

B Summary of Malaysian banking brochures 97

C The moves in Malaysian banking brochures 99

D Imperative sentences in Malaysian banking brochures 101

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.0 Overview

English is an international language which is widely used in various sectors

such as business, tourism, advertising academic purpose and et cetera. As Chilver

(1988) stated English language is highly used for exchanging information as well as

instruction in business context in which a lot of communication is needed. Keithley

and Thompson (1977) supported the essential of English in business world. They

further declared that it is vital for students to develop the use to English language

because it will be the means to success. Malaysia is a multiracial country where

Bahasa Malaysia as the official language while English and Chinese are another two

languages which are also widely used in various aspects, especially in private sector,

and thus the essential of English language is unable to belittle.

In banking and financial field, English is highly used as the means to

communicate with customers. The financial institutions use different channels to

communicate with customers. One of the channels is using brochures. As such, it

serves to function as the first communication bridge between financial institutions

and the public. English appears to be the main language used in brochures from

Malaysian banks. Hence, it is important for students from business studies,

marketing and financial studies to master this language as well as understand the

specialist genre with the intention to be successful in their future workplace.

2

1.1 Back ground of Study

English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is a tailor-made course which is designed

with the intention to meet learners’ needs on their area of professional expertise

(Hutchinson and Water 1987). In other words, a learner–centered approach is

emphasized in the ESP classroom. Basically the materials used in an ESP classroom

are selected according to the learners needs in their professional setting. It is crucial

for learners to get a better understanding of the professional genre in which they will

be involved in their future workplace in order to be professional in the specific field.

The use of authentic materials have been one of the prominent characteristic

in ESP classrooms (Benavent, 2011). The use of authentic material in classroom can

minimize the gap between classroom context as well as the real-world context

(Bhatia, 2003). It enables learners to understand the way language is used in a

specific real-world context in which it does not only exist in isolation in classroom

setting. Also, learners are able to be motivated by means of authentic materials in

language classroom. This is because they are being exposed to the target language as

it is used by a particular community, thus the gap between the language used in real

context and the classroom setting is minimized (Guariento and Morley, 2001).

The use of authentic materials in classroom has received attention from many

researchers (Sien, 2012; Henry and Roseberry, 1998; Meinardi, 2009). The authentic

materials that were used by Henry and Roseberry (1998), Meinardi (2009), Sien

(2012) have contributed to a conspicuous outcome in language classroom.

1.2 Statement of Problem

The terminal product of professional communication is a text. It consists of a

number of resources such as lexico-gramatical, information structure and

organization (Bhatia, 2010).

3

Students from business studies always face problems in dealing with

appropriate linguistic features in using English Language (Santos, 2002). It appears

that promotional language are useful in their future workplace for promoting their

brand (Cheung, 2010), building relationships (Bhatia, 1993), gaining attention from

the public (Bruthiaux, 2000). Therefore learners from business studies should be

equipped with promotional language as they will usually engage in promotional

activities (Palmer-Silveira et al, 2007). Additionally, the lack of awareness in text

structure is another problem in producing a specific genre (Martin, 2003). The low

degree of genre awareness could contribute to the disappointment of language used

in specialist genres. However, one of the problems that lies with the ESP teachers is

that they are not the member of the specified community. This has resulted in the

unawareness of the specific genre that is used in the particular community (Bhatia,

2008). This has further led to the ineffective teaching in ESP classroom.

Therefore studying the linguistic features as well as the text structure in an

authentic text could help learners and teachers to gain insight into the way language

is used in an authentic workforce. As Bhatia (2008) pointed out when the learners

are being placed in a professional setting, they may be unaware of the realities of the

professional world (Bremmer, 2010; Yang, 2011). This may due to ESP class

teachers treats the specific genres as an artificial text (Bhatia, 2008). As a result, the

students do not have ability in handling a specialist genre (Osman, 2004) when they

participate in their professional workplace. In other words, this problem could result

in their inability to perform professionally.

1.3 Purpose of the study

Business students need to be involved in variety promotional activities in

their future professional setting. As Belch (2003) pointed out students should

understand the promotion as one of the marketing communication in order to apply it

in company’s marketing and promotional situation. Therefore, this study was

conducted to expose learners to the promotional language that can be found in

4

banking brochures by using the authentic sample of promotional language. In

addition, this study also aims to provide learners an insight into the salient language

used in promotional texts.

There are a number of products and services provided by banks, namely

loans, investment, saving plan, insurance, bill payments, credit card and others. The

brochures with these products or services being established could have the possibility

of being informative or promotional. In order to enable learners to have a better

understanding of a specific genre, it is important to recognize how the structure of

the information is organized within a given genre. Furthermore, the generic structure

and the linguistic feature are used in specific genre with the intention to realize the

communicative purposes that the specific genre tends to serve.

Hence, the purpose of this study is to examine the authentic promotional

material that is used in banking sector in Malaysia. Apart from this, this research

also aims at exposing the learners to the salient language used in the authentic

promotional texts.

1.4 Objectives of the study

This research was conducted by using a genre analysis to analyze the prominent

linguistic features in banking brochures released by Malaysian banks. Thus, the

research objectives of this study are:

1. To identify what are the generic features commonly emphasized in promotional brochures that are distributed by banks in Malaysia.

2. To determine the text structure of banking promotional brochures.

3. To analyse the salient lexico-grammatical features in promotional brochures

of banks.

5

1.5 Research Questions

To achieve the objectives stated above, this study will seek answers to the

following research questions:

1. What are the generic features that are generally emphasized in promotional brochures distributed by banks in Malaysia?

2. How do Malaysian banks organize the information in their promotional items

in their brochures?

3. What are the salient lexico–grammatical features emphasized in promotional brochures of Malaysia banks?

1.6 Significance of Research

This research highlights on expanding ESP teachers’ and learners’

understanding of the text structure and linguistic features of banking promotional

brochures. It provides some insights to appropriate teaching material that would

assist teachers in understandings the specific genre and further lead the students in

understanding the use of promotional language in brochures in order to maximize the

promotional function.

Therefore, analysing the linguistic features in banking brochures can improve

both teachers’ and learners’ awareness of a specific genre. The findings of this

research provide ESP teachers and learners an insight into specific linguistic features

in promotional banking brochures. Apart from this, the findings of this research

enable ESP teachers to focus on the specific linguistic features when teaching

promotional language or prepare a specific syllabus to intended learners. This allows

the ESP teachers to know the gap between the classroom setting and the real world.

ESP teachers should be aware of the gap between classroom and real world before

teaching relevant ESP courses. In other words, ESP teachers are able to conduct an

6

effective lesson in ESP classroom once they realize the language that the learners

needs in the world outside of classroom setting. It is important for teachers to have a

better understanding towards the materials used in the classroom context.

Furthermore, learners’ writing ability can also be developed by raising their

awareness in the specific genre. Hence, this research can assist both ESP teachers

and students of Business study or those who need promotional language in their

professional setting to produce an effective persuasive writing.

1.7 Scope of Study

Only brochures in print that produced by Malaysian banks were involved in

this research. All the banking brochures were collected from the branches of

Malaysian banks in Johor which aims at promoting a particular service, products or

ideas to potential customers. The information of the banks and the collected

brochures are indicated in Appendix A and B. There are other channels that are

being used by financial institution for promoting, such as posters, radio,

advertisements etc; however, the focus of this research is limited only to promotional

brochures released by local banks. Therefore, the present research will be carried out

by looking into the promotional language that is being used in the brochures released

by local banks.

1.8 Limitation of this study

This study aims at analyzing banking brochures that are released by

Malaysian banks. The study focuses strictly on the types of linguistic features as

well as the text structure that employed in banking brochures. Therefore, the findings

from this study may not be suitable to be generalized to other kinds of promotional

channels, such as poster, printed advertisements in newspaper and magazines that

used by the financial institutions to promote their products or services.

7

1.9 Conclusion

In this chapter, I give a brief background towards the significant role of

authentic materials in the ESP classroom. The statement of the problem shows the

problems of the ESP teachers and learners in dealing with the specific genre and the

purpose of the study explains the purpose of conducting this research. Research

objectives and research questions are raised in this chapter as well. On the other

hand, I also described the significance of this research, the scope and limitation of

this study. The relevant theories and previous studies related to my study will be

further discussed in Chapter Two. .