Chunhui Lecturel| Jiang Feng: The Metadiscourse Perspective on Academic Discourse Interaction: Concepts, Methods, and Case Studies

This Friday, Professor Jiang Feng from the School of Public Foreign Language Education at Jilin University was invited to deliver an engaging lecture to the teachers and students at the School of Foreign Languages, with the lecture chaired by Vice Dean Liu Jiaji.

Professor Jiang Feng began the lecture with a focus on academic discourse rich in metadiscourse resources, exploring the motivations behind the research of metadiscourse. Through concrete examples, he elucidated the concept of metadiscourse, traced the varying definitions and classifications of metadiscourse across different historical periods, and highlighted that contemporary metadiscourse research primarily follows two analytical paths: a broad and a narrow perspective.

After that, Professor Jiang discussed the application of metadiscourse in discourse studies, underscoring its widespread use in academic discourse analysis across a variety of genres, cultures, languages, disciplines, historical periods, and levels of author expertise. Continuing his presentation, Professor Jiang discussed the application of metadiscourse in discourse studies, emphasizing its extensive use in analyzing academic texts across various genres, cultures, languages, disciplines, time periods, and levels of author expertise.

During his discussion on the methodology of metadiscourse research, Professor Jiang emphasized the need for future studies to enhance the theoretical framework of metadiscourse and to extend the research to include symbolic resources beyond the linguistic system.

Furthermore, he explored the pedagogical implications of metadiscourse research. He highlighted that metadiscourse research can assist students and novice academic writers in grasping the patterns of metadiscourse in academic writing, developing an awareness of metadiscourse rhetorical interaction, thereby improving the quality of their academic writing.

In the interactive session, Professor Jiang engaged in discussions with teachers and students on topics including the categorization and annotation of metadiscourse, the role of artificial intelligence in empowering discourse analysis. Professor Jiang’s lecture not only deepened the understanding of metadiscourse among the attendees but also provided new perspectives for the study of metadiscourse and academic discourse.