Metadiscourse (MD) Studies in Second Language (L2) Writings: A Systematic Review of Literature

Abstract

Metadiscourse is one linguistic component that helps authors make their writing coherent and reader-friendly (MD). All authors write for their readers, and by honing their MD skills, they may successfully engage with them. It's crucial for writers to tie their readers to the propositional content in the engaging part. Some authors are more adept at predicting the interests and concentration spans of their readers. There has been an increase in research on MD analyses of academic papers among writers who write in a second language (L2). This systematic review study provided empirical research on MD analysis studies among writers who write in English as a Second Language (ESL) to identify and summarize the studies that are related to MD analysis of L2 writings. The articles are from Scopus, Web of Science (WOS) and Google Scholar from January 2018 until December 2022. It was found that 26 journal articles are eligible for the analysis. The result showed that the present studies had been identified its aims to review previous pertinent research in terms of research design, study types, conceptual framework, taxonomies, corpus characteristics and elicitation measures, analytical methods and reporting practices to be beneficial in assisting L2 writers to write coherently and effectively.