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Description
This study examines how learners appropriate metadiscourse from model texts by conceptualizing learning as a conditional rather than a direct effect of exposure. Drawing on both cognitive and sociocultural perspectives, the study proposes that model texts become pedagogically effective only when they elicit sufficiently deep cognitive engagement. Elaboration is therefore positioned as a mediating mechanism through which exposure to model texts influences learners’ metadiscourse appropriation. At the same time, the study introduces perceived discursive proximity (PDP) as a situated appraisal that moderates this process, capturing whether learners experience a text as accessible, meaningful, and compatible with their participation in academic discourse. A quasi-experimental research study was carried out among roughly 240 Vietnamese EMI undergraduate students, where each participant was randomly placed into one of three groups based on their exposure to model texts with varying levels of metadiscourse usage. Data were gathered through surveys, reflective writings, and an assigned writing task. The data will be analyzed using a conditional process analysis model. It is hypothesized that the disparity in the appropriation of metadiscourse is not just associated with the text types per se, but also how engaged the readers are with the elaborative thinking processes, which in turn is dependent on the degree of discursive proximity.
Key words: metadiscourse; model texts; elaborative processing; perceived discursive proximity; L2 writing; EMI
