Abstract:
Moving in line with the postulation that metadiscourse (MD) markers help transform a dry and tortuous piece of text into a coherent and reader-friendly one, the researchers in the current study attempted to investigate the effect different metadiscourse markers might have on Iranian EFL learners’ perception of written texts. To this end, 120 undergraduate English students were given three different texts chosen from the most common textbooks in BA, along with their doctored versions (all MD-removed, interactive-removed, and interactional-removed). Each text duo was then accompanied by an 8-item questionnaire following Ifantido’s (2005) lead. The findings, overall, were indicative of the positive role of metadiscourse markers in bringing about EFL learners’ ameliorated text perception. Furthermore, data analysis via ANOVA and LSD tests revealed that texts with both interactive and interactional resources had more effect on learners’ perception. Moreover, it was found that interactive and interactional resources had more or less the same effect on learners’ reactions to texts. To sum it up, in line with the findings of the present study further evidence is garnered in favor of the postulation holding that metadiscourse markers bring about an increased amount of coherence and reader-friendliness in texts.
Machine summary:
Metadiscourse is typically used as an umbrella term to include a heterogeneous assortment of cohesive and interpersonal features which help relate a text to its context through assisting readers to connect, organize, and interpret materials in a way preferred by the writer and with respect to the understandings and values of a particular discourse community (Hyland, 1998).
Question number 7 asked subjects in an objective form to choose one of the items that indicated their attitude towards the metadiscourse markers, whereas the other questions were about their views of the text as readers in terms of need for effort, effectiveness in communicating message and successfulness in terms of relevance of text to their cognitive processing.
3. Results What the reader is presented with in the following sections is the description of findings of the study and answers to the research questions which mainly try to find the possible effect(s) of metadiscourse and its subcategories on EFL learners’ perception of written texts.
Interactive Resources and Iranian Learners’ Perception of Written Texts In line with the second hypothesis, interactive elements as a main category of metadiscourse markers were posited to have no significant effect on EFL learners’ attitudes towards written texts.
Interactive and Interactional Resources in Isolation In order to come up with satisfactory answers with regard to the fourth research question of the present study, the frequency of ‘+metadiscourse’ text preference in each item of three text types (with the omission of interactive, interactional and both types of metadiscourse markers), and also the total frequency of the subjects’ positive attitudes towards ‘+metadiscourse’ texts were compared (The results of this comparison are depicted in Tables 7 and 8).