Investigating the Use of Grammatical Stance Markers in Discussion Section of English Applied Linguistics Research Articles Written by Indonesian Scholars

Abstract

The use of stance, i.e. linguistic mechanism used by the authors to convey their personal viewpoint, in a research article has received considerable attention from researchers in the field of applied linguistics. This is due to the fact that the concept of stance plays a critical role in academic research writing. However, how grammatical stance markers are used in a discussion section of a research article from the field of applied linguistics written in English by Indonesian applied linguistics scholars has been left unexplored. The major aim of the present study was to fill that lacuna by examining the frequency of use of grammatical stance markers. A small specialized corpus consisting of 10 discussion sections of research articles from the field of applied linguistics written by Indonesian scholars published was built for the purposes of the study. It was found that Indonesian scholars used grammatical stance markers sparingly. Since grammatical stance markers are markers of interpersonality and interactivity, this finding suggests that Indonesian applied linguistics scholars do not see academic research writing as a site for interpersonal relation and interaction with the putative readers. Pedagogically, it implies that there is a need for a pedagogical program to introduce Indonesian scholars to the notion that academic research writing is a site where knowledge claim is negotiated with the readers.