Metapragmatic Expressions as Relation-oriented Strategies in Peer Feedback: A Case Study of Business English Writing

Abstract

This paper explores the interpersonal functions of metapragmatic expressions (MPEs) in peer feedback, where students were assigned a business English writing task, and examines the metapragmatic awareness revealed in this context from the metapragmatics perspective. It is shown in the data that the use of MPEs in peer feedback not only helps students to deliver information by creating common ground but also reflects their concern for their interpersonal relations. Data analysis indicates that students in peer feedback use MPEs as relation-oriented strategies such as hedging, complementing, repairing, inducing, and transferring strategies to manage and regulate their relations so that effective feedback can be achieved, which reflects their consideration of relational factors, including face work and emotion management on both sides of feedback. The present study deepens our understanding of the mechanisms of MPEs in peer feedback and advances our knowledge of metapragmatic awareness in classroom discourse, providing some implications for foreign language teaching.