The Functions and Types of Evidentiality in the Discussion Sections of Native and Non-native RAs.

No matter whatever field one is in, evidential is an essential yet common feature of all academic writing and is used by both native and non-native academic writers. The linguistic phenomenon of evidentiality exists in almost all the languages and has recently become a hot research issue in linguistics. Due to the importance of evidentiality in the field of discourse, the present study aimed at investigating the frequency and functions of evidentiality in the discussion sections of published research articles in TEFL between Iranian faculty members and their English speaking counterparts. To this end, twenty discussions produced by NS/NNS from TEFL disciplines were analyzed in terms of evidentiality types and functions based on Ifantidou’s taxonomy (2001). The results revealed that adverbials were used more frequently by both writers in TEFL discipline, whereas epistemic modals like may, could and will were mostly used by Iranian researchers as non-native speakers. However, there existed subtle differences both in the degree and the way these writers draw evidentiality links to their writings. The findings can be of considerable help to EAP instructors to raise their students’ awareness from the types and functions of evidentiality in the discourse area.