Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
This study investigated diachronic changes of linguistic markers of stance in language testing journals. To this end, 2100 research articles published from 1985 to 2025 in four top-tier journals were scrutinized. To explore diachronic changes, the time frame was divided into four periods (1985-1995; 1996-2005; 2006-2015; 2016-2025). For each decade, 525 articles were randomly selected from the pool of eligible publications meeting the study’s inclusion criteria. Hyland (2005a) was used to identify stance markers. Wordsmith Tools (version 6) assisted the researchers in analyzing the markers. All concordance-line matches were subsequently checked manually to confirm that each lexical item functioned as a stance marker in its specific context before being counted. It was found that hedges were used more often than in other categories of stance markers, suggesting that academic writers tend to present their findings with caution. Moreover, because of the objective nature of academic discourse (especially in the past), attitude markers were used less than other categories. The analysis demonstrated that stance-marker use increased overall, with hedges declining in relative dominance while self-mentions increased disproportionately over time. This study has implications for researchers seeking to become familiar with common stance markers used by professional EFL authors and teachers, for learners to be acquainted with the stance markers identified in this study, and for materials developers to design instructional materials on the standard writing of research articles.
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