ADJECTIVES IN THE EXPRESSION OF EPISTEMIC MODALITY IN APPLIED LINGUISTICS RESEARCH ARTICLES

Research in academic writing has shown that writers have a strong tendency to communicate their ideas interactively with readers. This study examines how professional writers use adjectives as part of interactional metadiscourse when writing research articles. A total of 255 research articles published in distinguished journals in the field of applied linguistics between 2015 and 2020 were systematically compiled and quantitatively and qualitatively analysed. The extent to which epistemic adjectives and typical phraseological patterns are used in research articles was investigated with the help of corpus linguistics methods, as was their epistemic strength indicated by writers. The interpersonal model of metadiscourse was used as the theoretical framework for the study. The findings suggest that the academic writing corpus, in essence, is interactionally oriented, while the use of adjectives as an epistemic modality reflects a methodical approach by article writers when presenting propositions and discussing their knowledge claims. This study provides a deeper understanding of these linguistic features to impact the reader. Pedagogically, the study can be useful for teaching academic writing to postgraduate students and help them and novice writers develop writing competency through epistemic devices, especially in research articles intended for publication.

Sustainable Development of EFL Learners’ Research Writing Competence and Their Identity Construction: Chinese Novice Writer-Researchers’ Metadiscourse Use in English Research Articles

English for foreign language (EFL) novice writer-researchers are faced with an increasing pressure for international publication as a prerequisite for sustainable career development in academia. The use of metadiscourse, as a key indicator for their discourse competence, has been a subject of research for English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and/or English for Specific Purposes (ESP) scholars. This study investigates metadiscourse features of research articles’ (RA) results and discussion (R&D) sections written by Chinese PhD students and their writer identities reflected through metadiscourse choice. A corpus was built, consisting of a subcorpus of R&D of unpublished research articles (RAs) written by Chinese PhD students (CNWs) and one of the same part-genre by English-speaking expert writers (EEWs). Metadiscourse used by the two groups were identified based on Hyland’s interpersonal model of metadiscourse. Quantitative analyses on the frequency and variety of metadiscourse markers found a significant difference not only in interactional metadiscourse but also in some subcategories of interactive and interactional metadiscourse, indicating that CNWs attach more importance to organisation of ideas than to the persuasiveness of arguments. A questionnaire survey was conducted to explore the influence of the CNWs’ perception of RA writing on their metadiscourse choice. It revealed that knowledge of generic conventions and metadiscourse functions, awareness of the writer–reader relationship, and confidence in language competence may influence metadiscourse choice. The paper concludes with the view that the CNWs generally view themselves as a recounter and reporter of their research, remaining conservative when presenting an authoritative voice and a confident identity as a knowledge creator.

The Sanctifying Work of the Holy Spirit in Christian Virtue Formation

The Christian tradition envisions the third member of the Triune Godhead—the Holy Spirit—as central to a life of virtue. But just how does the Holy Spirit figure into virtue formation? William Alston developed three models of the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit: the fiat model, the interpersonal model, and the sharing model. In response to Alston’s argument for the sharing model, this chapter offers grounds for a reconsideration of the interpersonal model. It closes with a discussion of some of the implications of one’s understanding of the transforming work of the Holy Spirit for practical Christian spirituality.

Theoretical Mapping of Suicidal Risk Factors During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Mini-Review

Suicide prevention in times of COVID-19 pandemic has become more challenging than ever due to unusual circumstances. The common risk factors identified with regard to suicidal behavior are fear of COVID-19, economic instability, poor access to healthcare facilities, pre-existing psychiatric disorders, and social disconnect. The studies done so far have reported either case studies or have made an effort to understand the risk factors. An understanding of the underlying causal pattern from existing theories, behind these risks, will enable adopting appropriate prevention mechanisms. Hence, this review examines evidence related to risk factors of suicides that occurred during COVID 19 and discusses it in the light of three major theoretical approaches: interpersonal model, stress diathesis model, and cognitive model. The insights obtained from the three viewpoints reveal that perceived burdensomeness, thwarted belongingness, stress sensitivity, cognitive errors such as magnification, catastrophic thinking, arbitrary inference, and mind-reading are likely reasons behind these risk factors for suicide. It is suggested that awareness regarding COVID-19 stressors, use of community-based approaches like gatekeeper training, and brief online psychotherapy by using techniques of mindfulness, interpersonal psychotherapy, and cognitive behavior therapy can be useful in reducing suicide risk during COVID-19.

Metadiscourse within a discipline: A study of introduction and literature review chapters of sociology masters’ theses

It has been established that there are inter-chapter variations regarding metadiscourse use in masters’ thesis. This paper, therefore, investigates the differences and similarities in metadiscourse use between the Introduction and Literature Review (LR) chapters in Sociology masters’ thesis from an English-medium university. The Introduction and LR Chapters of ten theses constituted the corpus for this study. The metadiscursive devices were manually coded, drawing on the modified version of the Hyland’s (2005a) interpersonal model of metadiscourse. It was realized that there are both differences and similarities between the two chapters in terms of metadiscourse use. In the ranking, the interactive and interactional devices, transitions, and hedges respectively recorded the highest frequencies in the two chapters. Besides, there were significant variations across the two chapters in terms of both interactive and interactional subcategories. The findings have implications for the teaching of English for Research Purposes, and the theory of metadiscourse.

THE USE OF INTERACTIVE METADISCOURSE IN SERBIAN STUDENTS’ WRITING IN ENGLISH

Writing can be very demanding, especially if it is done in aforeign language. What can make writing even more difficult aredifferent writing traditions in L1 and L2 languages. Having that inmind, the aim of this paper is to establish to what degree isstudents’ usage of discourse markers successful in organizing theirideas in argumentative essays in the target language. In otherwords, this research sets out to determine how well Serbianstudents of the English language employ resources available tothem to anticipate the readers’ needs and guide the readersthrough their writing. The theoretical background for this researchis Hyland’s (2010) interpersonal model of metadiscourse, moreprecisely, interactive resources, whose purpose is to guide thereaders through the text. These include transitions, framemarkers, endophoric markers, evidentials, and code glosses. Thispaper hopes to provide new insights into Serbian students’ writingin English.