META-DISCOURSE MARKERS IN INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW SECTIONS OF MANAGEMENT ARTICLES WRITTEN BY IRANIAN AND FOREIGN SCHOLARS

This study aimed to explore and compare interactive meta-discourse markers used in the introduction and literature review sections of the management articles written by Iranian and foreign scholars based on Hyland’s (2005) model. A quantitative design was selected. The materials used in this study included 60 English management articles: 30 articles were written by Iranian Scholars and 30 by foreign scholars. They were selected through availability purposive sampling. After data collection, the introduction and literature review sections of the papers were investigated by the researchers in terms of the use of interactive meta-discourse markers (i.e., transitions, evidentials and code glosses) based on Hyland’s (2005) model. Data analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics and Chi-square test. According to the results, in Iranian scholars’ articles, the most frequent meta-discourse markers used in the introduction and literature review sections of the management articles based on Hyland’s model were transitions and evidentials, respectively. In addition, the least frequent meta-discourse markers used in the introduction and literature review sections of the management articles written by Iranian scholars based on Hyland’s (2005) model were code glosses. Regarding foreign scholars’ articles, transitions were shown to be the most frequent meta-discourse marker used in the introduction section of the management articles based on Hyland’s (2005) model. In the literature review section of the articles, the highest frequency was related to evidentials and transitions. It was also revealed that the least frequency was for code glosses in both the introduction and literature sections of the articles by foreign scholars. According to the results obtained from Chi-square test, the observed difference between the frequency of interactive meta-discourse markers used in the introduction and literature review sections of the management articles written by Iranian and foreign scholars based on Hyland’s (2005) model was statistically significant