Metadiscourse Markers in Applied Linguistics RAs Published in International and Local Journals

The present study was an attempt to compare the types and frequencies of the Metadiscourse Markers (MMs) used in research articles published in international and Iranian local journals across the sub-disciplines of Applied Linguistics. In so doing, 512 RAs totaling 3,051,168 words, selected from sixteen international and Iranian local journals across the sub-disciplines of Applied Linguistics were compared and contrasted regarding the use of MMs applying the Frequency Program (Nation & Heatley, 2007). The study drew upon Hyland's (2005) model of MMs. The findings of the study demonstrated some similar and distinct trends in the way the two corpora employed MMs. It is suggested that the observed differences call for raising Iranian local RA writers’ awareness of the principles regarding the conventional application of MMs.