Use Of Metadiscourse Research Articles

An Investigation into the Occurrences of Metadiscourse in Moves in Dissertations of Applied Linguistics

The present study tries to investigate the frequency of metadiscourse makers and moves and the occurrence of metadiscourse in certain moves in discussion section in dissertations of applied linguistics. The present study employs the corpus as the research method, using MAXQDA as research tool to conduct qualitative and quantitative analysis. The research finds that the most frequent use of metadiscourse are hedges and transitions, while the lowest is self-mentions, and the central moves are reporting the results and interpreting the results. The research refines the move structure after investigating the corpus. The most frequent occurrence of metadiscourse is hedges in interpreting the results, following the transitions in reporting the results. Self-mentions are the lowest occurrence in any moves.

Metadiscourse in MOOC Video Lectures: Comparison with University Lectures and Disciplinary Variation

Abstract Based on Hyland’s (2018) interpersonal model of metadiscourse, this study explores MOOC video lecturers’ use of metadiscourse and compares it to traditional university lecturers’. Disciplinary variation in metadiscourse in the MOOC video lectures has also been investigated. The MOOC corpus consists of sixteen MOOCs across three disciplinary areas, including Arts and Humanities, Engineering and Physical Sciences, and Social Sciences. The results suggest that despite slight differences, the most frequently appearing metadiscourse in the MOOC corpus resembles the patterns found in university lectures, which reveals the remarkable similarities in using metadiscourse between MOOCs and traditional face-to-face lectures. However, different instructional contexts and teacher-student relationships indeed contribute to the variance in the employment of metadiscourse. Overall, MOOC video lecturers employed more interactive metadiscourse but less interactional metadiscourse than university lecturers. Cross-disciplinarily, the use of metadiscourse in MOOC video lectures is considerably influenced by disciplinary features. MOOCs containing more discipline-specific content and requiring intensive cognitive effort tend to use more interactive metadiscourse and engagement markers; while for MOOCs that may include more perspectives than basic facts, boosters and attitude markers seem to be employed more frequently. Possible reasons and purposes of the differentiated use of metadiscourse across disciplines are discussed in detail.

Building Successful Communication in EMI Contexts: A Multimodal Approach to Organizational Metadiscourse in Intercultural Lectures

Abstract Higher education (HE) has experienced a swift internationalization process in the last decade, introducing English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) in many universities. This new reality brings about novel challenges for content lecturers as they adapt to a new way of teaching in English for intercultural audiences. Following Ädel’s (2010) taxonomy of metadiscourse, this paper aims to explore the use of organizational metadiscourse in EMI lectures to foster successful communicative interaction and engagement. Assuming that all communication is multimodal, i.e., meaning is conveyed through the combination of several semiotic resources, this paper sets out to go beyond traditional linguistic studies in order to examine the multimodal use of organizational metadiscourse in lectures. To carry out this analysis, three 90-minute-long videorecorded EMI lectures taught at Universitat Jaume I (Spain) were selected, transcribed and manually inspected to account for all instances of organizational metadiscourse. Next, six structuring segments were chosen, i. e. sections within the lectures in which the contents are being organized. Using the software Multimodal Analysis Video, interactions between speech (organizational metadiscourse) and paralanguage, gestures, gaze, proxemics, head movement and facial expression were examined. Finally, the findings were presented to the lecturers in the recordings to obtain an insight perspective. Results show the active utilization of complex multimodal ensembles co-occurring with organizational metadiscourse. These ensembles reveal an underlying aim of achieving successful communication, by accommodating language to a non-native intercultural audience, and engaging the audience. Lastly, these results are interpreted and pedagogical implications for teacher training are put forward.

One Journal, Different Practices: A Corpus-Based Study of Interactive Metadiscourse in Applied Linguistics

Abstract Research articles are a primary medium for scholars to communicate with disciplinary community, but there is little evidence suggesting how much writing practices on different research subjects within a discipline diverge in a single journal. This study remedies the oversight by comparing the use of interactive metadiscourse in the papers of Applied Linguistics on language acquisition and discourse analysis. Based on a corpus of 30 research articles on each research subject, results show that writers in language acquisition make a significantly more frequent use of additive and consequential transitional markers, reformulators, and non-integral citations. However, discourse analysts prefer to invest in exemplifiers, linear and non-linear references and topic shifts. All the differences can be attributable to the characteristics of disciplinary research paradigms, which lead to different knowledge-making and interactive patterns in academic writing. The findings offer empirical evidence to the rhetorical function of metadiscourse in constructing disciplinary knowledge, and raise pedagogical implications for EAP instructors to help scholars in applied linguistics increase international publications.

The Use of Interactive Metadiscourse in Research Articles: A Corpus-Based Case Study of Astronautics

Based on Hyland’s interpersonal model of interactive metadiscourse, this study adopts astronautics as a research case to investigate the textual features of research articles, aiming to investigate the use of metadiscourse in research articles and assist academic writing for students who major in astronautics. A corpus consisting of 43 research articles published in Journal of Guidance, Control and Dynamics (JGCD) in 2020 and 2021 was built. AntConc 3.5.9 was utilized for searching and counting the standardized frequency results, so as to identify the most frequently used expressions. Results show that transition markers are most frequently used (35.72 per 1,000-word tokens), accounting for 65.62% of the total amount of interactive metadiscourse. The frequency of evidentials is the lowest, i.e., 0.26 per 1,000-word tokens, accounting for 0.48%. These indicate that transition markers play an important role in research articles in astronautics owing to the high requirement of logical expression. The low frequency of evidentials reflects low-level of dependency from others’ opinions, focusing on own experiments and argumentations. The relatively high frequencies of frame markers and endophoric markers confirm that straightforward logic and clear structure together with transparent figures are preferred in research articles in astronautics.

The Use of Interactive Metadiscourse in Research Articles: A Corpus-Based Case Study of Astronautics

Based on Hyland’s interpersonal model of interactive metadiscourse, this study adopts astronautics as a research case to investigate the textual features of research articles, aiming to investigate the use of metadiscourse in research articles and assist academic writing for students who major in astronautics. A corpus consisting of 43 research articles published in Journal of Guidance, Control and Dynamics (JGCD) in 2020 and 2021 was built. AntConc 3.5.9 was utilized for searching and counting the standardized frequency results, so as to identify the most frequently used expressions. Results show that transition markers are most frequently used (35.72 per 1,000 word tokens), accounting for 65.62% of the total amount of interactive metadiscourse. The frequency of evidentials is the lowest, i.e., 0.26 per 1,000 word tokens, accounting for 0.48%. These indicate that transition markers play an important role in research articles in astronautics owing to the high requirement of logical expression. The low frequency of evidentials reflects low-level of dependency from others’ opinions, focusing on own experiments and argumentations. The relatively high frequencies of frame markers and endophoric markers confirm that straightforward logic and clear structure together with transparent figures are preferred in research articles in astronautics.

First language and second language English editorialists’ use of interactional metadiscourse

This study explores the use of interactional1 metadiscourse by first language (L1) and second language (L2) English editorialists. The study uses Hyland’s (2019) model of metadiscourse to analyse 80 editorials published between 2020 and 2021 in The Guardian and The Jordan Times newspapers (40 from each newspaper). A mixed-method approach – adopting quantitative and qualitative measures – was used to analyse the data. The frequency of interactional metadiscourse resources was statistically examined to find similarities and differences (if any) between the two corpora. The analysis revealed a statistically significant difference in the use of interactional metadiscourse resources in the editorials of the two newspapers. For instance, L2 editorialists used fewer hedges in their editorials and more boosters than L1 editorialists. In addition, engagement markers were used the most by L1 editorialists. The study provides some implications for editorialists who write in English and recommendations for future research.

Text content variables as a function of comprehension: Propositional discourse analysis

Text complexity impact on immediate recalls and range of metadiscourse markers remains a research niche due to the lack of multidisciplinary data necessary to shed light on the issue. The current study aims to identify effects of text complexity and Russian-English discourse differences on immediate text-based recalls relating to the amount and type of the information reproduced. For the research purposes we engaged 94 native Russian speakers as respondents in a text-retelling task to explore the amount of propositions recalled from an opinion article and the range of discourse markers employed. The reading text and text-based recalls were contrasted on informative and linguistic levels. The informative complexity of the reading text was evaluated on the basis of propositional analysis, and the linguistic complexity was carried out on the basis of descriptive parameters (word and sentence length, proportion of long words), readability index, word complexity and range of metadiscourse markers. The study revealed that the complexity level of the reading text is a strong predictor of propositional recall. The comparative analysis indicated a slight decrease in metrics of descriptive parameters. We also revealed that high ability readers make a choice in favor of superordinate propositions recalling about 60% of them and losing over 70% of the subordinate propositions. They also tend to shift the metadiscourse patterns of the original text from interactive to more logical ones by loosing hedges, emphatics and evidentials. The study furthers our understanding of cross-linguistic differences in the use of metadiscourse, its results will find application in discourse complexology and natural language processing.

Use of metadiscourse for identity construction in tourist city publicity：A comparative study of Chinese and Australian social media discourse

Social media publicity has become an important way for the official tourism agency to promote the city image and interact with the public. In order to explore the linguistic devices that support tourist city publicity, a corpus-based comparative study is conducted on the use of metadiscourse and identity construction in Facebook posts on the public pages of the city Xiamen in China and Sydney in Australia. The corpus consists of 344 posts with a total of 12, 175 words on the page of Xiamen and 315 posts with a total of 12, 319 words on the page of Sydney collected over the same 1-year time span. Combining the statistical results of metadiscourse use and identity types with the analysis of specific examples, it is concluded that both posters use three categories of metadiscourse to construct the identities of introducer, inviter and evaluator for the purpose of promoting good city image and forming good interaction with the public. The differences in the frequencies of metadicourse and identity occurrences in the two corpora suggest different focuses on city publicity. This study has implications for the writing of tourist city publicity posts as well as raising posters’ awareness of employing metadiscourse to construct identity and build rapport with readers so as to enhance the impact of the tourist cities.

Interdisciplinary variations of metadiscursive verb patterns in English research articles

AbstractThe widespread use of metadiscourse is vital to the study of academic discourse and genre analysis. This article focuses on the concept of metadiscursive verb patterns (MVPs) and examines their variation in English research articles across four domains representing hard/soft‐pure and hard/soft‐applied disciplines. Based on a bottom‐up investigation of a self‐compiled corpus, three findings are highlighted: (1) the crucial rhetorical roles of MVPs were established by their distinct functions in knowledge construction; (2) significant interdisciplinary variations of MVPs reflected the typical written conventions shared by writers of different disciplinary communities; and (3) the association between (sub‐)categories of MVPs and disciplines foregrounded the most popular rhetorical strategies for using MVPs and salient disciplinary features. These findings are discussed in terms of the factors governing the use of MVPs and identification of disciplinary boundaries. Pedagogical considerations for understanding MVPs and proper rhetorical strategies for using these tools are discussed.

Re-exploring writer-reader interaction: Analyzing metadiscourse in EAP students’ infographics

As multimodal texts become ubiquitous in the digital age, analyzing how writers interact with readers via the multimodal genre is getting increasingly important. Enlightened by Kress and van Leeuwen's (2006) work on visual design, D'Angelo (2016) extended the metadiscourse model (Hyland, 2004) and proposed a new framework of visual metadiscourse to analyze academic posters. In this study, we adopted the well-recognized metadiscourse model (Hyland, 2004; Hyland & Tse, 2004) and developed D'Angelo's (2016) visual metadiscourse framework to evaluate the comprehensibility and engagement of medical students' infographics completed in an EAP class. A total of 127 Visme infographics on how to prevent hypertension were collected and analyzed. We focused on how the students used diverse metadiscourse resources to inform and engage the audience in their infographics. We coded interactive and interactional features regarding both textual metadiscourse and visual metadiscourse for each poster and identified the overall patterns of the EAP students' metadiscourse use. We also zoomed in on illustrative posters to depict the students' use of various metadiscourse resources. This study adds to the metadiscourse model by extending it to the multimodal genre and sheds new light on multimodal pedagogy.

Comparative Study of Conclusion Section of Aerospace Research Article (RA) in the Use of Interactional Metadiscourse

This study provides a comparative corpus-based analysis of interactional metadiscourse between Chinese scholars and English native speakers’ conclusion section of aerospace research articles. For this purpose, based on Hyland’s (2005) interactional metadiscourse taxonomy, 52 aerospace conclusions writing pieces from two high-profile journals were selected for analysis. Results indicate that the discrepancy in total number and frequency lies in the use of hedges, boosters, and attitude markers. Linguistic features, sociocultural factors, and rhetoric functions are responsible for these discrepancies. This work may shed lights on academic writing and pedagogy.

Representation of interactional metadiscourse in translated and native English: A corpus-assisted study.

The present study aimed to investigate the differences between translated and non-translated English texts with regard to interactional metadiscourse features, which are crucial in engaging readers in the reasoning process and establishing the credibility of a proposition. Despite numerous studies investigating lexical and syntactic differences between translated and non-translated language, little research has been conducted on the textual level in terms of metadiscourse use. To address this gap, we conducted a comparative analysis of six interactional markers across two comparable multi-genre corpora, namely, FLOB (Freiburg-LOB Corpus of British English) comprising native English and the English subset of COCE (Corpus of Chinese-English) containing translated English. Our ANOVA analyses revealed that translated English exhibited a tendency to underuse stance features, such as hedges, boosters, and attitude markers, compared to native English. Furthermore, our post-hoc analysis revealed that genre modulated the use of metadiscourse features in both translated and native texts. Importantly, we found that there was greater cross-genre variation in the use of interactional metadiscourse in translated English than in native English. Our study highlights the unique characteristics of translation and emphasizes the importance of taking into account metadiscourse in the field of translation studies.

Metadiscourse Functions in Political Speeches: A Study of Three Leaders’ National Addresses

This study employs discourse analysis and corpus analysis to investigate the use of reflexive metadiscourse in national addresses delivered by three national leaders, one from Thailand, one from Myanmar, and one from Pakistan, during periods of democratic reform in their respective countries. The corpus of 129,460 running words was constructed by randomly selecting fifteen addresses from each of the leaders’ national address pools. The corpus was analyzed and coded with tags to classify the metadiscourse functions employed by the speakers, and the taxonomy proposed by Ädel (2010) was adapted to serve as the framework for analysis. The search terms “I” and the inclusive “we,” “you,” “let me,” and “let us” were used in screening non-reflexive sentences. The study found that sixteen metadiscourse functions from Ädel’s (2010) taxonomy are present in the corpus, and that 314 (4.09%) of the 7,663 sentences in the corpus have reflexive metadiscourse functions. The study also found significant use of the ‘elaborating’ function, which signals the audience that the speaker is about to elaborate on the current topic and/or emphasize a particular aspect thereof. This function was previously considered an ‘other speech act labelling’ function.

How do Arab Writers Interact With Their Readers? An Analysis of the Use of Metadiscourse Markers

A considerable body of research has investigated the use of metadiscourse in academic writing in different languages, and it is assumed in the literature that the use of metadiscourse is language- and culture-specific. However, little research has investigated how Arab writers interact with their readers in Arabic research articles (RAs). Thus, following Hyland’s (2005) models, this study explores the use of the interactional metadiscourse in the introductions of 94 Arabic RAs totalling 88,350 words published between 2013-2022. Findings showed that Arab writers tend to establish a relationship with readers and involve them as discourse participants through the use of the inclusive pronoun naḥnu نحن ‘we’ and the rhetorical forms. Arab writers used both grammatical and lexical items to express their views with confidence with a high degree of commitment. They were found to use reader-accuracy markers to mitigate their arguments. They, however, appeared not to evaluate what is presented through their personal feelings, and this might be due to sociocultural reasons, which requires further investigation.

A STUDY OF INTERACTION AND INTERACTIVE METADISCOURSE ON UKRAINE-RUSSIA CONFLICT NEWS ARTICLES

Abstract: Metadiscourse plays an important role in news article writing as it allows writers to express their feelings and ideas using language. The objective of this study is to investigate the usage of interactive and interactional metadiscourse markers in news articles about the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The research design is descriptive and qualitative, based on the theory of interactive and interactional metadiscourse markers by Hyland (2005). Five news articles were selected from The New York Times' English news article website, published between November 9-18, 2022. Data was collected using document research and analyzed through document analysis. Results showed that all types of interactive and interactional metadiscourse were present in the news articles, except for booster. The most frequently used interactional metadiscourse was self-mention, accounting for 65%, while the most frequently used interactive metadiscourse was transition, accounting for 84.7%. The implications of the above research suggest that the use of interactive and interactional metadiscourse in news articles can enhance reader engagement and understanding of the content.

Metadiscourse within a discipline: A study of introductions in marketing journal articles

The present study examines the use of metadiscourse in the introductions of marketing research articles. The corpus for this study comprises 40 introductions of research articles. Hyland’s (2004) model of metadiscourse has been employed as the analytical framework for the present study. The use of the different types of interactive and interactional metadiscourse in the set of introductions is looked at in addition to the use of the metadiscourse to realise the different communicative purposes in the introductions. The study is both quantitative and qualitative. Among other findings, the introductions are found to employ more interactive than interactional forms (average density of 0.78 vs. 0.52) that is the former is 1.5 times higher in number than the latter. In the interactive form of metadiscourse, evidentials (64.5% of all interactive uses) were the most frequent metadiscourse used in the introductions. The findings of the present study provide some insights into the teaching and learning of academic English writing for ESL (English as a Second Language) students.

A Study of Interactional Metadiscourse and Its Persuasive Function in Advertising Discourse

Advertising plays an indispensable role in spreading information and it highly influences and persuades consumers to act in a variety of ways. This paper investigates the distribution and use of interactional metadiscourse in Cosmopolitan in 2022, as well as analyzes the role they play in the construction of persuasion. A total of 50 advertisements were included, and both qualitative and quantitive methods were used in the analysis. Based on the classification model of interactional metadiscourse proposed by Hyland (2005), this study calculated the frequency of interactional metadiscourse in ads and explained how the author used these metadiscourse markers to interact with consumers. Results revealed that attitude markers and engagement markers appeared most frequently. It means advertisers are primarily focused on consumers, as they are effective means of persuasion. The study concluded that interactional metadiscourse successfully fulfills its persuasive function and contributes effectively to the success of ads.

Examining the use of reflexive metadiscourse in the construction of affiliative communication in group email requests

Abstract This qualitative study examines how male-identified and female-identified individuals use reflexive metadiscourse in the construction of affiliative communication, i.e., a mode of communication traditionally coded as feminine. Specifically, it examines requests made in the public context of group email. Both reflexive metadiscourse and affiliative communication are analysed with the concept of indexicality, and two novel sub-categories (i.e., directing and committing) are added to an existing taxonomy. The findings show that whether communicating to institutional subordinates, equals, or superiors, female-identified and male-identified senders displayed great similarity in their use of reflexive metadiscourse in the construction of affiliative communication. Amongst other things, reflexive metadiscourse indirectly indexed the following communicative behaviours associated with affiliative communication: sharing contextual information, expressing supportive feedback, constructing diminutive personas, and suppressing personal agency. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of the findings and directions for future research.

A Diachronic Study of Interaction in Chinese Academic Writing Through the Lens of Metadiscourse

Metadiscourse provides a framework for understanding interaction in discourse by examining the linguistic resources that the writers employ to organize their text and involve their readers. The studies in metadiscourse use in Chinese academic writing reveal that Chinese scholars maintain an impersonal style and adopt an authoritative stance. We investigated the changes in interaction in Chinese academic writing during the past 40 years by exploring metadiscourse use in 90 Chinese research articles from the top five Chinese academic journals in Applied Linguistics in 1980, 2000, and 2020. The analysis shows significant decreases in metadiscourse use during this period in both interactive and interactional features, and changes in linguistic choices of metadiscourse demonstrate a shift to guidance and persuasion with more logical arguments, objective evidence, and relevant literature, possibly suggesting that Chinese scholars now use metadiscourse mainly to clarify and inform, presenting knowledge as codified facts, privileged rather than negotiated or constructed. We also find that metadiscourse use significantly increased in 2000 before its decrease in 2020, unveiling Chinese scholars’ earlier efforts to guide and involve.