Exploring the Expressed and Perceived Discoursal Self of Multilingual Senior High School Students in Academic Writing

Date of Award

5-1-2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts major in English Language and Literature Teaching (Option I-Thesis)

First Advisor

Marianne Rachel G. Perfecto, DA

Abstract

Academic writing, like all mediums of expression, is an act of identity, and it involves not only expert information, but also a representation of the author. Writers must carefully choose their words in order to entice, influence, and persuade their audiences (Hyland, 2002). The use of these resources, as well as the decisions made from the options they provide, reveal who the writer is. In this particular study, the researcher adds to the literature of analyzing the development of writer identity, specifically expressing the discoursal self of multilingual students. This reveals a self- representation that a writer inscribed in the text for the reader, deliberately or inadvertently (Burgess & Ivanič, 2010). This qualitative study aims to determine the extent to which the reported discoursal self is reflected in the academic writing of selected Grade 11 students in a private school in Pasig City. The researcher asked for their consent to give a copy of their article critique and college application essay in Reading and Writing Skills class, in which these were examined using metadiscoursal analysis (Hyland, 2010). They also underwent a semi-structured interview in order to see their perception on their discoursal self in academic writing, in line with the concept of writer identity by Ivanič (1998) and to see if it reflects with their projected discoursal self. Results showed that most of the students still need to familiarize and utilize the metadiscourse markers effectively in order to express their projected discoursal self well in their essays and that they mostly rely on the expectations of their teachers. However, students still have the awareness in identifying their perceived discoursal self, which mostly reflects the projected discoursal self.

Keywords: Discoursal self, Writer identity, Academic writing, Senior high school

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