Interactional Metadiscourse in Research Articles Written by Turkish and Native Speakers

Abstract

This study investigates how Turkish non-native speakers and native speakers of English usemetadiscourse markers in research articles. With this purpose, a total of 100 research articles onthe field of teaching a foreign language were analyzed based on the taxonomy of Hyland and Tse(2004). 50 research articles written by Turkish academic writers and 50 research articles written byAmerican academic writers were collected from prestigious journals. The taxonomy has mainlytwo components: Interactive and interactional resources. This study focuses on the interactionalresources. A qualitative approach was applied. The results of the binomial test showed that thereare significant differences in the use of interactional metadiscourse markers between the twogroups. American academic writers (AAWs) used significantly more interactional metadiscoursemarkers (IMMs) in English research articles (ERAs) compared to Turkish academic writers(TAWs). The use of the subcategories of engagement markers were also significantly differentspecifically in terms of the use of self-mention and questions. This may suggest that the use ofIMMs may show cultural preferences, which can be considered as stylistic difference and may notneed further instructional intervention. Thus, academic writing courses are suggested to beincluded especially in MA and PhD programs. Models of academic texts can be used in coursesand raising consciousness on both micro and macro aspects of academic discourse can besuggested.