Zarrin Khatibi; Rajab Esfandiari
Abstract
In the last few decades, the interpersonal aspect of academic writing has been stressed in English for academic purposes (EAP). This corpus-based study has focused on cross-cultural and cross-contextual analysis of engagement markers in English Physics research articles (RA) written by American English ...
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In the last few decades, the interpersonal aspect of academic writing has been stressed in English for academic purposes (EAP). This corpus-based study has focused on cross-cultural and cross-contextual analysis of engagement markers in English Physics research articles (RA) written by American English writers publishing in English-medium international journals; Persian writers publishing in international English-medium journals; and Persian writers publishing in English-medium national journals. Hyland’s (2005) interpersonal model was used as the analytical framework. The analysis is based on a corpus of 240 RAs in two subsections: introductions and conclusions. The computer programme AntConc was used to analyse the data, and the engagement markers were textually examined for the various functions and uses they served in the introductions and conclusions. Results of data analyses showed differences in the overall frequency of engagement markers among the three sub-corpora. However, although American academics and internationally published Persian academics’ metadiscoursal preferences are relatively similar, Persian writers seem to be affected by cultural preferences when making their engagement choices. This implies that the linguistic background of writers in addition to the cultural contexts of publication seems to direct scholars’ rhetorical patterns when writing their RAs. Results of the current study help novice and international Physics scholars, particularly Iranian academics, to at least partially meet the disciplinary conventions of the journal they submit their manuscripts. Moreover, EAP teachers can benefit from the results to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the needs of EAP learners.
Shirin Rezaei Keramati; Davud Kuhi; Mahnaz Saeidi
Abstract
Thanks to recent developments in metadiscourse studies, it is now increasingly accepted that metadiscourse practices are closely related to social activities, cognitive styles and epistemological beliefs of academic communities. Despite widespread interest and research among applied linguists to explore ...
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Thanks to recent developments in metadiscourse studies, it is now increasingly accepted that metadiscourse practices are closely related to social activities, cognitive styles and epistemological beliefs of academic communities. Despite widespread interest and research among applied linguists to explore metadiscourse use, very little is known of how metadiscourse resources have evolved over time in response to the historically developing practices of academic communities. Motivated by such an ambition, the current research drew on a corpus of 4.3 million words taken from three leading journals of applied linguistics in order to trace the diachronic evolution of stance and engagement markers across four different sections of research articles (Introduction, Method, Result, Discussion/ Conclusion) from 1996 to 2016. Hyland’s (2005b) model of metadiscourse was adopted for the analysis of the selected corpus. The data were explored using concordance software AntConc (Anthony, 2011). Moreover, a Chi-Square statistical measure was run to determine statistical significances. The analysis revealed a significant decline in the overall frequency of metadiscourse resources in all sections of RAs. Interestingly, this decrease was entirely due to the overall decline in the use of stance markers particularly in result and method sections. It might be argued that, diachronic perspective on metadiscourse contributes to teachers and novice writers’ awareness of the malleability of academic writing and its sensitivity to context as well as providing access to current practices for the creation and delivery of teaching materials in EAP courses.
