Constructing Interaction and Identity Through Metadiscourse Markers: A Cross-cultural Study of Discussion Section of Applied Linguistics Research Articles

The present study seeks to depict how the impact of writers’ identity, culture and native language are realized through the use of interpersonal metadiscourse markers by comparing research articles on applied linguistics written by English native speakers and Asian nonnative speakers. A total of 48 academic research articles on applied linguistics written by English native speakers and Asian authors were selected as the corpus of this study. The discussion section of the chosen research articles were compared for the frequency and the amount of different interpersonal metadiscourses. These metadiscourses were extracted based on the model proposed by Hyland (2005) which is comprised of two dimensions, interactive and interactional. The result of the study revealed that Asian authors generally tend to use more interpersonal metadiscourse markers than English native speakers. Significant differences were also identified regarding the distribution of different subcategories of interactive and interactional metadiscourses. The probable causes of these differences might be rooted in the cultural background of the authors as well as their level of proficiency.