The Use of Metadiscourse Markers in TESOL and Medical Research Articles

Abstract

Meta-discourse is one of the important concepts in fields of discourse analysis. It deals with the
relationship between authors and their texts together with the relationship between writers and
their readers (Hyland, 2005). Following the meta-discourse markers model of Hyland and Tse
(2004), this study attempts to explore types and frequencies of meta –discourse markers used in
Discussion and Conclusion sections of medical and TESOL research articles written in English,
and investigate whether there is any significant difference between TESOL and medical RAs in
the use of meta-discourse markers. For this purpose,30 medical research articles and 30 TESOL
research articles written in English and published between 2008 and 2015 were selected
randomly and used in this study. The results of this study showed that there is a significant
difference between TESOL and Medical RAs in the use of evidentials, in the use of code glosses,
in the use of attitude markers, and in the use of self-mentions. Moreover, the results of this study
indicated that, in both TESOL and medical research articles, hedges and transitions were the
most frequently used meta-discourse markers  .