A Study Of Metadiscourse In Engineering Academic Discourse

In recent years,metadiscourse has become a heatedly discussed topic in various research fields of linguistics and applied linguistics.Since the important role played by metadiscourse in communication between writers and readers,many studies have discussed the use of metadiscourse in research articles from different perspectives or by adopting various approaches(Hyland,1998,2005,2012;Li,Xiuming,2007,2011;Gillaerts & Velde,2010;Bruce,2010;Lin,2015;Hu & Cao,2015;Kawase,2015;Bal-Gezegin,2016).However,metadiscourse in research articles from the field of engineering has been less investigated.This study,therefore,attempts to examine the metadiscourse in research articles from the field of engineering based on Hyland's(2005)classification of metadiscourse and answer the following questions:(1)What is the general distribution of metadiscourse in research articles from the field of engineering?(2)What is the distribution of sub-categories of interactive metadiscourse in research articles from the field of engineering?(3)What is the distribution of sub-categories of interactional metadiscourse in research articles from the field of engineering?In order to answer the above three questions,the study collected 60 articles from the six journals published in 2013 and 2014,covering three sub-disciplines of engineering,i.e.,mechanical engineering,civil engineering and material engineering.Quantitative and qualitative methods are employed in the study.Metadiscourse markers were searched with the help of AntConc 3.4.3,and then the frequency of each marker was examined.The study yields the following results:First,the number of interactive markers is more than that of the interactional markers.The high frequency of interactive markers indicates that writers expect their readers to get through the text,because the interactive markers are mainly used to organize a text.Second,the results show that transitions are mostly used within interactive markers.The high frequency of transitions indicates that writers intend to organize a text in a coherent way.With respect to interactional markers,hedges rank the first place compared with other interactional markers,and the reason is that the main function of hedges is to mitigate potential damage to other researchers when writers express their own achievements.Third,due to the different characteristics of engineering discipline,the metadiscourse is differently used in different disciplines.The results show that the writers from the research field of civil engineering would select more metadiscourse markers,while the authors from the research field of material engineering may use less metadiscourse markers.This study can provide some implications on the discussion of metadiscourse by presenting a detailed analysis of engineering texts.It can help English learners increase their awareness of organizing information in a coherent and convincing way.This study can also help writers learn to communicate effectively with their targeted readers by using appropriate metadiscourse markers.