How to Express Gratitude in the Acknowledgement Section: the Case of Thai EFL Graduate Students

Completing a postgraduate dissertation requires various types of support, whether it be academic, moral, or financial. One way to express gratitude towards those who contribute is through the acknowledgement section. However, the guidelines provided by universities appear to be inadequate to support students, which poses challenges for those who are non-native English speakers. The present study, therefore, aims to examine the generic structure of the move patterns and the frequency of moves in the acknowledgement sections written by Thai EFL graduate students in applied linguistics. A corpus of 60 acknowledgements from the e-databases of two public universities was compiled. Hyland's (2004) framework of dissertation acknowledgements, consisting of three moves with their sub-units, was adopted as the analytical framework. The findings revealed that the thanking move appeared in every acknowledgement and was thus regarded as an obligatory move. However, both the reflecting and announcing moves were considered optional moves. Interestingly, one new move was found, suggesting a specific characteristic of Thai EFL graduate students in composing this section. The findings have pedagogical implications for both English for Academic Purposes (EAP) teachers and students in terms of raising their awareness of the diverse acknowledgement patterns that they can utilise.