L1 Turkish and L1 English writers' use of metadiscourse markers in research articles written in English in applied linguistics

The purpose of this study is to investigate the utilization of interactive metadiscourse markers in the discussion and conclusion sections of research articles authored by L1 Turkish writers of English (L1TW) and L1 English writers (L1EW) within the field of applied linguistics. In order to identify the similarities and differences in the types and frequencies of interactive markers used, a small-sized specialized corpus was compiled with a total of 40 research articles, with 20 research articles selected to represent each group of writers, following certain criteria. These articles were selected from the internationally recognized SSCI-indexed journals published between the years 2018-2022. The analysis incorporates both corpus and manual examination based on the taxonomy offered by Hyland and Tse (2004), as well as utilizing the N-gram feature of LancsBox to identify the bundles that are likely to function as interactive markers. The findings of the study reveal that transitions were the most commonly used type of interactive markers by both groups of writers. While L1TW employed transitions more frequently than L1EW, code glosses, frame markers, and endophoric markers constituted a higher percentage of all interactive markers in the L1EW subcorpus. The findings also revealed a more frequent use of transitions, code glosses, frame markers, endophoric markers, and evidentials in the discussion sections of research articles for both groups of writers. The study's implications extend to pedagogical considerations for academic writing courses, aiming to enhance understanding of metadiscourse use in writing research articles Keywords: Academic writing, research articles, interactive metadiscourse markers