Abstract
This study investigated the type and frequency of metadiscourse markers used in fifty research articles written by Saudi EFL college students. In analyzing the data, Hyland's (2005) model of metadiscourse was adopted. The findings showed that there are significant differences in the frequency of interactive and interactional metadiscourse. The students employed more interactive metadiscourse markers than interactional ones. The analysis further revealed that transitions occurred most often in the research articles, followed by hedges. The least used metadiscourse markers were endophoric markers and attitude markers. To conclude, some pedagogical implications for teaching English writing to Saudi EFL college students were drawn from these findings. It can be noted that Saudi EFL college students need more training in using interactional metadiscourse to be able to convince the reader of their ideas and arguments in a text. In addition, they must be more aware of the importance of using metadiscourse in improving their writing skills in general.
Highlights
In recent years, an increasing number of studies have been carried out to investigate the common problems faced by Second Language (L2) learners in English writing and their use of metadiscourse markers
Based on Hyland’s (2005) model of metadiscourse, the present study examined the use of metadiscourse in 50 research articles written by Saudi English as a Foreign Language (EFL) college students
The results of the study showed that Saudi EFL college students employed interactive metadiscourse markers more than interactional metadiscourse markers
Summary
An increasing number of studies have been carried out to investigate the common problems faced by Second Language (L2) learners in English writing and their use of metadiscourse markers. The term metadiscourse was first formulated by the linguist Zellig Harris (1959) to refer to the way a writer or a speaker endeavors to guide a recipient’s perception of a text (Hyland, 2005). It has been defined differently by various researchers. Metadiscourse assists the writer (or speaker) to express a viewpoint clearly and engage effectively with readers as members of a certain community (Hyland, 2005). It allows writers to change the subject, come to a conclusion, point out an important idea, define a term and acknowledge a difficult line of thought (Crismore, 1983)
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