Use of Engagement in English-Language Editorials from The Japan Times

G. Benjamin White

Metadiscourse ； Engagement ； English-language newspapers ； Japan

應用英語期刊

18卷（2024 / 06 / 01）

97 - 136

英文

Writers can interact with their readers through engagement and quotes. The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of engagement in English-language editorials from Japan. Included in the study was an analysis of the amount of quoted material found in the editorials. I used 22 editorials published by The Japan Times, an English-language newspaper. Even though all of the editorials were from this newspaper, they split evenly between those that were international-focused (n = 11) and those that were Japan-focused (n = 11). Around 16% of the sentences used an engagement feature, with personal asides (7.09%) the most used feature. This was followed by reader mentions (4.69%), directives (3.35%), and shared knowledge (0.77%). None of the editorials used questions. In all four categories, the Japan-focused editorials (17.60%) had a higher percentage of sentences with an engagement feature than the international-focused ones (14.12%). Around 11% of the sentences used a quote. In contrast to the engagement findings, the international-focused editorials (12.94%) had a higher percentage of sentences with a quote than the Japan-focused ones (8.80%). One of the most interesting findings dealt with the inclusivity of the reader mentions found. The majority of reader mentions were used to specifically mention a reader in Japan as opposed to a global reader. The study shows that English-language newspapers from English L2 countries are excellent teaching and learning resources for EFL students and classrooms.