Self-Mention and Identity Construction in YouTube Lectures by Pakistani and Indian ESL Instructors: A Corpus-Based Study

Abstract

This study aims to examine how self-mention is utilized as a metadiscursive strategy in the construction of a purpose-generated corpus of YouTube-delivered ESL lectures with intermediate Indian and Pakistani teachers of English as a Second Language (ESL). The present study is based on the interpersonal model of metadiscourse presented by Hyland (2005) and relies on a balanced corpus of 63,073 words (31,736 Indian and 31,337 Pakistani) analysed using AntConc 4.2.4 for keyword-in-context (KWIC) and frequency analysis. The result shows a remarkable difference with respect to usage in quantitative and qualitative terms, that is, 16.26 per 1,000 words for instructors from India and 0.35 per 1,000 words for instructors from Pakistan. Qualitative analysis shows that the four types of self-mention functions identified in the Indian corpus (namely authority assertion, peer solidarity positioning, experiential narration and affective stance) are distinct from the self-reference largely presented in the Pakistan corpus (authority-oriented, institutional, and religious). These imbrications are viewed as they demonstrate the idiosyncrasy of the ESL teacher identity in the different national settings, which is driven by the sociolinguistic, cultural and pedagogical context. The results have implications for teacher training, corpus-based pedagogy and cross-cultural discourse research in the South Asian digital learning environments.

Keywords: Self-mention, metadiscourse, identity construction, ESL instructors, YouTube lectures, corpus linguistics, Hyland, South Asia