GENRE-SPECIFIC FEATURES OF ORAL SCIENTIFIC COMMUNICATION IN FRENCH ACADEMIC DISCOURSE

Abstract

The relevance of this topic stems from the growing prominence of oral genres in academic discourse, driven by the development of the potential of information and communication technologies. The aim of this article is to examine the linguistic and discursive characteristics of oral academic communication and to analyse its genre-specific features in the context of a scholar’s research activities, using French-language academic discourse as an example. Тhe study characterises various approaches to the study of the oral form of scientific and professional communication, the genrespecific nature and extralinguistic features of oral scientific discourse, the specific nature of the lecture as the primary monological genre of academic discourse is characterised, and the linguistic and rhetorical features of the oral scientific text are described in comparison with the written counterpart of the scientific style. Mastering the norms of scientific and academic language facilitates the acquisition of the content– and speechrelated categories necessary for scientific communication, such as, for example, agreement, disagreement, doubt, certainty, uncertainty, commentary, argumentation, evaluation of put-forward arguments, clarification or defence of a viewpoint, and elaboration on the speaker’s opinion. Scientific and academic discourse is built on a synthesis of the foundations of genre specificity, which today exhibits a degree of diffusion leading to the interpenetration of various features. Its distinctive features include the accessibility of information, its relevance to subject-specific activities, the oral form of presentation, the use of a scientific style, as well as a popular science sub-style. This article examines the following genres of oral scientific and academic discourse: scientific dialogue, discussion, debate, project defence, seminar, consultation and conversation (dialogical genres), as well as a report, lecture, presentation, poster presentation, paper and report (monological genres). It has been established that oral scientific communication exhibits linguistic characteristics that are quite distinct from those of research articles. Discourse analysis reveals two key characteristics of this genre: the nature of the statement made and the importance of visual communication. Analysis of the typological sequence of visual elements in each area reveals the existence of visual argumentation and a visual hierarchy.