The importance of attitude markers (AM) and engagement markers (EM) use in academic discourse

Abstract

Motivated by the concept of attitude and engagement markers as rhetoric features of academic discourse, the present study aimed to examine the use of these markers in the Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English (MICASE). It intended to see whether native and non-native speakers of English differed in attitude and engagement markers’ use across academic divisions, levels of interactivity, genders, and academic roles in academic spoken English. The corpus, investigated through the list of attitude and engagement markers suggested by Hyland (2005), totally consisted of four academic divisions, five levels of interactivity, and both male and female speakers in four academic roles. The results of the inferential statistic of UNIANOVA revealed that not only did native speakers of English utilize attitude and engagement markers more than non-native ones across the four variables, but also they made academic division, levels of interactivity, genders, and academic roles-specific use of these markers. In other words, the findings indicated that their use in academic spoken English was not only conditioned by the discipline or academic divisions but also by levels of interactivity, genders, and academic roles. Besides the influence of culture and proficiency on attitude and engagement markers use, this corpus analysis study found that native English speakers designate evaluation and share it with the immediate audience and direct them to interpretations in soft sciences more than the hard ones. It also indicated native speakers’ greater attempt to compare/ contrast and admire/ criticize the presented viewpoints to win the argument and to address/ instruct listeners to do an action or not in highly interactive levels. Furthermore, it was shown that female native speakers exceeded to indicate their higher expression of assessment, significance, and position on certain issues to listeners and engage their listeners in the discourse and anticipate their concerns in academic spoken English of the MICASE. Ultimately, it illustrated that native academic speakers of English of faculty role surpassed in higher expression of their evaluation and relation-building with their listeners to ensure they are attending. Pedagogically, it was suggested that English teachers should make students aware of these rhetorical features to help them place themselves within the norms of the discourse community in academic spoken English.