The use of metadiscourse markers in applied linguistics research proposals written by Vietnamese MA students

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate how the metadiscourse
 markers are used in Applied Linguistic research proposals written by
 Vietnamese MA students. Besides, it also examines what the most
 and least common types of metadiscourse markers are used in this
 kind of proposals. The study used the corpus consisting of Applied
 Linguistic research proposals written by a total of 20 students. The
 analysis of the type and frequency of metadiscourse markers used in
 the selected research proposals was based on Hyland’s (2005)
 model. With the support of the concordance computer programme
 namely Antconc, the occurrence of each metadiscourse marker
 found was calculated to find out the results. The finding of the study
 showed that interactive markers are more commonly used than
 interactional markers in Applied Linguistic research proposals. It is
 also seen that transition markers are the most common type of
 metadiscourse markers while evidential markers have the lowest
 frequency. This can be implied that Vietnamese students prioritize
 the interacitve metadiscourse markers over the interactional
 metadiscourse markers in Applied Linguistics research proposals
 due to the fact that it is the easiest way for the author to organise the
 text in order to make readers comprehend the whole text.