Résumé:
The research into the rhetorical functions that allow for interpersonal communication in
academic writing has shown a great deal of interest in EFL learners’ academic production. In the
light of that, this present study attempts to explore the use of metadiscourse in Algerian EFL novice
writers’ dissertations as a linguistic recourse to convey their attitude, judgment, and presence to
project their authorial stance. The study aims to investigate the projection and conception of authorial
stance by M’sila University Master 2 Linguistics students. It additionally seeks to shed light on
students’ awareness of this intersubjective positioning and teachers’ thoughts about it as the main
audience of students’ writing. This comparative corpus-based study adopted Hyland’s (2005) model
of interaction as a framework for studying stance in a corpus of 80 research discussion sections, half
of which are written by students and half by expert writers. The data from this study undertook
qualitative and quantitative analysis assessed by a concordance toolkit. Two questionnaires were
designed to gather the data needed from students and teachers. The findings revealed that students
use stance markers differently than expert writers. The quantitative analysis showed that they
employed fewer instances and forms of stance, especially in the expression of self-mention and
hedges, while the qualitative analysis showed that students hold an overly assertive yet impersonal
conception of stance. Furthermore, students were found to lack awareness of the concept of authorial
stance and the use of stance markers, and teachers acknowledged the importance of and disclosed
that they considered it while evaluating students’ dissertations; however they did not expect students
to show their presence. Hence, this study raises teachers and students’ awareness to its subject
matter, highlights the importance of authorial stance, and asks for the explicit teaching of stance
taking to EFL novice students in their academic writing