Effect of metadiscourse on reading comprehension of Iranian EFL learners

Metadiscourse, known as discourse about ongoing discourse, has been the subject of discourse research from a wide range of perspectives. In academic contexts, knowledge of metadiscourse as a prominent feature of all types of academic discourse provides second language readers with information about writer’s attitudes towards the text and the readers. Over the past decade there has been a growing interest in conducting studies investigating different aspects of metadiscourse in relation to language learning. The present study hopes to contribute to the study of metadiscourse by investigating its effect on EFL learners’ reading comprehension (with three levels of reading proficiency: low, medium, and high) when faced two text types –academic and general. To this end, data were collected through two instruments, namely a TOEFL reading comprehension sample test and a reading comprehension test which consisted of two text types was developed for the purpose of this study. Two versions of this reading comprehension test were developed: one with metadiscourse enriched texts and the other with metadiscourse removed ones. The results of data analysis showed that students in all three levels of reading proficiency performed better on metadiscourse enriched test booklet than their counterpart groups who took the metadiscourse removed text booklet. In comparing students’ performance on metadiscourse removed text types, it was revealed that they did more poorly on academic metadiscourse removed test booklet than on general one. The findings of this study suggest that making students aware of metadiscoursal features of different text types enhances students’ reading comprehension

Writing Center as Contact Zone: Resources for Mediation

When ESL writers write, they are attempting to be heard in an academic community. One of the academy’s shortcomings is its disinclination to hear from writers who struggle with academic discourse. In a contact zone, such as a university that includes accomplished and novice academics, communication becomes a casualty (particularly with novices whose first language is not English). If writing centers and their staffs are the cultural mediators of this contact zone, then we must first be afforded the tools to do our work: a good text, skilled teachers, sufficient funding, and an un-marginalized place on the campus. Irrespective of these resources, however, writing consultants can provide ESL writers with knowledge of contrastive rhetorics and how a failure to acculturate to demands for standard American academic writing may limit their success at the university level.University Writing Cente

Metadiscourse and Topic Introductions in an Academic Lecture: A Multimodal Insight

This paper is part of a larger scale project where I explore the structure of academic lecture. The focus of the study here presented is to investigate the structure and organization of a university lecture through the introduction of new topics. One of the tools traditionally referred to as an organizer of discourse is metadiscourse (Crismore et al. 1993. Metadiscourse in persuasive writing: A study of texts written by American and Finnish university students. Written Communication, 10:39–71; Vande Kopple. 1985. Some exploratory discourse on metadiscourse. College Composition and Communication, 36(1):82–93). Although metadiscourse has been studied from a wide range of perspectives (Hyland. 2005. Metadiscourse: exploring interaction in writing. London, England: Continuum), these analyses have most of the time been conducted from a purely linguistic point of view and neither the speaker as a social actor nor metadiscourse as part of a multimodal interaction are taken into account. That being so, the aim of this study is to explore the role played by introducing topic metadiscourse (Ädel. 2010. Just to give you kind of a map of where we are going: a taxonomy of metadiscourse in spoken and written academic English. Nordic Journal of English Studies, 9(2):69–97) from a multimodal perspective as it is being used within a lecture. In order to obtain a holistic account on how topics are introduced and the role of metadiscourse within the set of actions performed by the speaker in interaction, I make use of the tools provided by Multimodal (Inter)action Analysis (Norris. 2004. Analyzing multimodal interaction. A methodological framework. New York: Routledge; 2011. Indentity in (Inter)Action. Introducing multimodal interaction analysis. Göttingen: De Gruyter Mouton). The main analysis is carried out on two excerpts where new topics are being introduced which come from a lecture on African-American History belonging to Yale University’s opencourseware. Through the production of verbal and multimodal transcripts, this paper demonstrates how the lecturer structures the class before he verbally utters metadiscursive expressions and the minor significance that these instances play in the lecturer’s broad organization of the lecture, as metadiscourse is predominantly performed as a background task

AN ANALYSIS OF METADISCOURSE DEVICES USED IN THE INTRODUCTORY TEXTBOOKS OF SOCIAL SCIENCE AND NATURAL SCIENCE

Fitri Nurhelawati. 14121330385. “An Analysis of Metadiscourse Devices Used In the Introductory Textbooks of Social Science And Natural Science” This research is primarily intended to capture exploring metadiscourse devices in the introductory texbooks of social science entitled „English for Academic Purposes: An Advanced Resource Book by Ken Hyland‟ and introductory textbook of natural science entitled „Mathematics: A Very Short Introduction by Timothy Gowers‟. In writing study metadiscourse has come to refer to the various ways that these understandings of context and audience are realized in texts, the forms we use to transform what may otherwise be a lifeless text into discourse that meets the needs of participants. It is a universal aspect of our everyday language and a major feature of the way we communicate in a range of genres and setting. This research is interest because this research based on the popular‟s theory of Hyland about metadiscourse. The aims of this research are to analyze types of metadiscourse devices used in the introductory textbooks of social and natural science and a dominant metadiscourse device used in the introductory textbooks of social science and natural science. This researcher based on theory from Hyland (2005) to find out the types of metadiscourse devices in kind of textbooks. The researcher employs the descriptive qualitative research as a type of the research. The instrument of research is documentation and technique of collecting data is documentation content analysis. The data sources consist of „English for Academic Purposes: An Advanced Resource Book by Ken Hyland‟ and introductory textbook of natural science entitled „Mathematics: A Very Short Introduction by Timothy Gowers‟. The first findings show that types of metadiscourse in the introductory texbook of social science there are logical connectives with the precentage 58%, sequences 13%, reminders 3%, topicalizers 1%, code glosses 8%, attitude markers 0%, certainty markers 8%, attributors 0%, hedges 8% and commentary 1% were frequent in the first introductory textbooks. And in the introductory texbook of natural science are logical connectives 77%, sequences 6%, reminders 3%, topicalizers 2%, code glosses 4%, attitude markers 1%, certainty markers 4%, attributors 0%, hedges 0% and commentary 3%. The second finding in this research is a dominant metadiscourse in the introductory textbooks of social and natural science is textual metadiscourse exactly is logical connectives devices. Keywords: metadiscourse, textbook, social and natural scienc

Are Drivers\u27 Manuals Understandable?

In 1984, researchers determined that the readability of state drivers\u27 manuals exceeded the average literacy levels in the United States. Because text complexity threatened the ability of license applicants and practicing drivers to understand the information presented in the manuals, a potential safety risk was indicated. This study analyzes recent editions of the manuals using readability formulas and formal text presentation ratings. It was found that the average difficulty of the drivers\u27 manuals was reduced by more than one grade level and that the 1994 manuals are clearly superior to their earlier versions, but that, in the interest of highway safety, improvements should still be sought

Write Free or Die: Vol. 04, No. 01

Department Writing Goals, Outcomes, and Plans, Page 1-2 Upcoming Events, Page 1 Persistence v Genius, Page 2 Writing Committee Members, Page 2 Dangling Modifier, Page 3-4 Ask Matt, Page 5-6 Grammar Box, Page 7 Past Perfect, Page

Write Free or Die: Vol. 04, No. 01

Department Writing Goals, Outcomes, and Plans, Page 1-2 Upcoming Events, Page 1 Persistence v Genius, Page 2 Writing Committee Members, Page 2 Dangling Modifier, Page 3-4 Ask Matt, Page 5-6 Grammar Box, Page 7 Past Perfect, Page