This study analyzes the use of questions in English-medium Master’s thesis defenses conducted at Taiwanese universities. The preliminary analytical results reveal significant disparities in the frequency, forms and functions of the questions, which can be attributed to the influence of institutional duties, dynamic roles, and the relationship between the participants.
Recently a trend toward the internationalization of higher education in non-native English-speaking countries has led to the increasingly widespread use of English as a medium of instruction and academic communication at the tertiary level. This trend has attracted a great amount of research attention on academic English writing and speaking and cross-cultural/disciplinary comparative analysis of native and non-native writers and speakers. Academic spoken genres, particularly lectures and seminars, have been extensively studied. Until now, however, oral defenses have remained largely underexplored. This study attempts to fill the knowledge gap by examining oral defenses, with a specific focus on the use of questions by examiners, advisers, and candidates. The oral defense, a final hurdle to degree qualification, is often an inherent component of doctoral degree examinations. Yet it has also been adopted by institutions worldwide as a final assessment for the Master’s degree. Some empirical work has examined its organization, functions and discoursal features, such as hedging and laughing during the defense. This study extends previous research by investigating the use of questions in six English-medium Master’s thesis defenses conducted at four Taiwanese universities. The participants come from diverse nations and regions, including Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Gambia. The analytical framework for the questions’ forms and functions mainly relies on Athanasiadou’s and Chang’s categories, which are modified to accommodate our data. The preliminary results of the analysis reveal significant disparities in the frequency, forms, and functions of questions. This can be attributed to the influence of institutional duties, dynamic roles, and the relationship between the participants. On the other hand, several similarities in the use of questions suggest the need to deal with the dynamic communicative and interpersonal purposes of the given genre.
