Metadiscourse Devices in English Scientific Research Articles Written by Native and Non- Native Speakers of English

Abstract

The present study examined the frequently used metadiscourse devices in English scientific research articles written by native (English researchers) and non-native (Arab English researcher) and sought to determine whether differences exist in the use of these devices between Arab researchers of scientific research articles and Native English researchers of scientific research articles. Data was collected from forty research scientific articles written and published in international journals and Arab journals; analysis was done in accordance with Hayland’s model. The analysis revealed that frequently used metadiscourse devices in scientific articles written by native English writers and Arab English writers include evidentials code glosses, frame markers, and endophoric markers; and hedges; boosters; and attitude markers. The results also showed that native English writers of scientific articles embrace more metadiscourse resources than Arab English researchers of scientific academic articles. This confirms that native English writers of scientific articles are more proficient at English than Arab English researchers given the differences in the frequency of metadiscourse resources used. This finding has implication to Arab researchers of scientific research articles.