The present study aimed to investigate the generic rhetorical structures used by native and Iranian non-native writers in the Introduction and Discussion sections of ELT RAs. To this end, moves and steps used in the Introduction sections were investigated through Swales' (2004) model. To determine the moves and steps used in the Discussion sections, Yang and Allison's (2003) model was implemented. Then, Fairclough’s (2001) CDA framework was used to recognize the rhetorical structures used in the two aforementioned sections. To specify differences in the use of rhetorical structures by the two groups of writers, multiple Chi-square tests were implemented. The data set contained 120 ELT RAs (60 written by native writers and 60 written by Iranian non-native writers). The frequency of rhetorical structures was recorded in MAXQDA software and the percentage for each section were calculated. Then, the two groups were compared through Chi-square tests. The results indicated that there were no significant differences in the use of moves. However, some steps were different in the two groups. One of the implications of the current study was to help researchers and instructors in the field of ELT articles to write their papers using the common patterns.
