Abstract
In an EFL context like Taiwan, academic English writing demands considerable attention to match the rapidly increasing numbers of graduate students in recent years. There has been more and more research concerning academic writing on metadiscourse lately, which revealed Taiwanese student writers’ immature writing skills, yet few of them discussed the teaching and learning efficacy of metadiscourse in EAP courses. To gauge the feasibility and acceptability of metadiscourse instruction in EAP courses, this study explored Taiwanese graduate students’ knowledge and performance in metadiscourse use in argumentation. Participants involved are 40 doctoral students registered in basic academic writing courses at a national university in northern Taiwan. Data collected included different questionnaires and surveys on subjects’ previous writing experiences, knowledge of academic writing, perceived difficulties in and reaction to metadiscourse learning. In addition, students’ use of interpersonal metadiscourse in argumentation was coded and analyzed to disclose the potential rhetorical patterns. Moreover, follow-up interviews were also conducted to elicit more and clarify participants’ individual responses based on questionnaires. The findings showed that, because of traditional education focus, most doctoral students are confident of their reading ability, yet unsatisfied with their writing proficiency for academic purposes. Nevertheless, relying heavily upon reading journal articles as the major media of self-learning, Taiwanese doctoral students have acquired an initial understanding of academic writing, although their academic knowledge remains incomplete and deficient. Learners’ abundant reading experiences complement their limited writing proficiency, and facilitate metadiscourse learning process. However, without formal instruction in metadiscourse, most students revealed that unequal awareness and frequency caused different difficulties between textual and interpersonal metadiscourse learning. In writing argumentation, Taiwanese doctoral students used slightly fewer interpersonal markers than in textbooks, the authoritative models of academic writing, representing the preliminary conformity of learners’ writing behaviors with the expected academic genre. In conclusion, most students expressed positive attitudes toward the learning process, confirming the acceptability and feasibility of metadiscourse instruction in EAP courses. Moreover, participants’ responses and metadiscourse use in their writing performance not only expanded our understanding of students’ background knowledge, but also assisted in prioritizing teaching techniques and learning focuses.