Authorial Stance in EFL Master Dissertations Discussions: A Corpus-Based Study. Case of Master Two Students at M’sila University
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Date
2021-06
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Abstract
Abstract
The research into the rhetorical functions that allow for interpersonal communication in academic writing has shown a great deal of interest in EFL learners’ academic production. In the light of that, this present study attempts to explore the use of metadiscourse in Algerian EFL novice writers’ dissertations as a linguistic recourse to convey their attitude, judgment, and presence to project their authorial stance. The study aims to investigate the projection and conception of authorial stance by M’sila University Master 2 Linguistics students. It additionally seeks to shed light on students’ awareness of this intersubjective positioning and teachers’ thoughts about it as the main audience of students’ writing. This comparative corpus-based study adopted Hyland’s (2005) model of interaction as a framework for studying stance in a corpus of 80 research discussion sections, half of which are written by students and half by expert writers. The data from this study undertook qualitative and quantitative analysis assessed by a concordance toolkit. Two questionnaires were designed to gather the data needed from students and teachers. The findings revealed that students use stance markers differently than expert writers. The quantitative analysis showed that they employed fewer instances and forms of stance, especially in the expression of self-mention and hedges, while the qualitative analysis showed that students hold an overly assertive yet impersonal conception of stance. Furthermore, students were found to lack awareness of the concept of authorial stance and the use of stance markers, and teachers acknowledged the importance of and disclosed that they considered it while evaluating students’ dissertations; however they did not expect students to show their presence. Hence, this study raises teachers and students’ awareness to its subject matter, highlights the importance of authorial stance, and asks for the explicit teaching of stance taking to EFL novice students in their academic writing.
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Keywords: authorial stance, stance markers, academic writing, EFL novice students, expert writers.