First language and second language English editorialists’ use of interactional metadiscourse

Vol.16,No.2(2023)
Discourse and Interaction

Abstract

This study explores the use of interactional1 metadiscourse by first language (L1) and second language (L2) English editorialists. The study uses Hyland’s (2019) model of metadiscourse to analyse 80 editorials published between 2020 and 2021 in The Guardian and The Jordan Times newspapers (40 from each newspaper). A mixed-method approach  – adopting quantitative and qualitative measures – was used to analyse the data. The frequency of interactional metadiscourse resources was statistically examined to find similarities and differences (if any) between the two corpora. The analysis revealed a statistically significant difference in the use of interactional metadiscourse resources in the editorials of the two newspapers. For instance, L2 editorialists used fewer hedges in their editorials and more boosters than L1 editorialists. In addition, engagement markers were used the most by L1 editorialists. The study provides some implications for editorialists who write in English and recommendations for future research.


Keywords:
politeness, refusal, social distance, social status, marriage proposals
Author biographies

Khulood Al-Anbar

The University of Jordan

Khulood Al-Anbar is Adjunct Lecturer of Linguistics at the University of Jordan. Her research has appeared in journals such as Topics in Linguistics and Humanities and Social Sciences Communications.

Sharif Alghazo

University of Jordan

Sharif Alghazo is Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Sharjah and the University of Jordan. His research has appeared in journals such as System, Journal of Politeness Research, Journal of Pragmatics, European Journal of Applied Linguistics, Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, Sage
Open, Ampersand, and Topics in Linguistics, and edited books.

Marwan Jarrah

The University of Jordan

Marwan Jarrah is Associate Professor at the University of Jordan. He is a specialist in language typology and syntactic theory. His scholarly work appears in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, Folia Linguistica, Studia
Linguistica, Lingua, Word, Journal of Linguistics, Canadian Journal of Linguistics, and The Linguistic Review.

Abdel Rahman Altakhaineh

Abdel Rahman Mitib Altakhaineh is Assistant Professor of English Language and Linguistics at the University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan. His research interests lie in the areas of morphology, lexical semantics, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics and technology in language learning. He has published research papers in Lingua, Languages, Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, Studia Linguistica, Language and Cognition, Canadian Journal of Linguistics, Applied Linguistics Review and others.

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