Abstract
Since English is recognized as one of the most widely used languages in the world, intelligible written English is not only a critical business skill but a generally-used social one as well. The major emphasis of research in foreign language writing has been predominately in the area of syntax whereas the pragmatics of metadiscourse has not received the attention it deserves. However, there are factors other than syntax that must be attended to on the part of teachers and learners for a piece of writing to be considered effective in English. Unfortunately, the pragmatic aspect of writing focusing on metadiscourse has not been seriously studied until recently. The present research is an attempt to look at the foreign language learners’ written products from a pragmatic perspective, focusing on the use of metadiscourse markers. For this purpose ninety Iranian EFL students participated in this study and, based on their Oxford Placement Test (OPT) scores, they were divided into three proficiency groups: upper-Intermediate, intermediate, and lower-Intermediate. For a period of one semester, their sample essays, written on argumentative topics assigned to them, were collected and analyzed. Applying Vande Kopple’s (1985) criteria for classification of metadiscourse, the number of correct uses of metadiscourse markers was counted and calculated across the given tasks. Employing a Chi-square test, the differences in metadiscourse use were shown to be significant for different levels of proficiency. From the above observations it can be inferred that the more proficient learners are in a second language, the more they use metadiscourse markers. Also it would appear that metadiscourse instruction has a positive effect on the correct use of metadiscourse markers.

Key Words: Metadiscourse, Metadiscourse Markers, Linguistic Competence, Pragmatic Competence, Discourse Analysis.