A gender-based study of interpersonal metadiscourse markers in the research papers of Iranian senior undergraduate students of translation studies

Resumen

Regarding the gender of writers, this study aims to extract and classify the metadiscourse markers (MDMs1), both interactive and interactional metadiscourse markers, used in the research papers written by senior undergraduate students of translation studies at the University of Sistan and Baluchestan, based on Hylandˈs interpersonal model of metadiscourse. The study covers all the five sections of 60 research papers written by 30 male students (MS) and 30 female students (FS): the abstract, the introduction, the methodology, the results, and the discussion sections. Regarding the frequencies and types of MDMs, the manual frequency count was applied to record the types of MDMs identified in the model. Findings revealed that, regarding the macro-level analysis, the students applied all the strategies (like transitions, frame markers, endophoric markers, hedges and boosters). However, they applied just some of the strategies mentioned in the micro-level analysis, such as “additions”, “comparisons”, “consequences”, “sequencing”, “label stages”, “adjectives” and “directives”. In addition, the results of Chi-square tests showed that the gender of the students, which seems to be affected by factors like social settings and culture, influences the use of interactive and interactional metadiscourse by them. Therefore, one of the areas closely related to the performance of English learners is the role of gender in the use of MDMs by foreign or second language learners.