Stance and engagement markers in quantitative and qualitative applied linguistics research articles: The discussion section in focus
Stance and engagement markers in quantitative and qualitative applied linguistics research articles: The discussion section in focus

Summary/Abstract: The epistemological diversity of quantitative and qualitative research has left its trace on the role and presence of the interpersonal metafunction in written research reports, and applied linguistics research is no exception in this respect. The present study was designed to compare the use frequency of interactional metadiscourse markers in a corpus of the discussion sections of 40 recent applied linguistics research articles (20 quantitative discussions totaling 22984 words and 20 qualitative discussions totaling 23052 words). To this end, Hyland’s (2005) model of such markers, including (a) stance markers: hedges, boosters, attitude markers, and self-mentions; and (b) engagement markers: reader pronouns, appeals to shared knowledge, personal asides, questions, and directives, was employed. Instances were detected and marked by two coders, and inter-coder agreement was set at .78. Chi-square indices indicated that the discussion sections of qualitative research articles housed a significantly higher number of stance markers (except for boosters, which were more frequent in quantitative research articles discussions), and engagement markers (except for asides and shared knowledge appeals, for which no difference was detected). This shows authors’ deployment of more interactional devices in the discussion of qualitative research findings. The results have implications for the role of researchers’ awareness of stance and engagement markers in quantitative and qualitative research reports, and for academic writing instruction.

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