So What Do We Have Here? An Engineering Lecturer’s Metadiscursive Use of Rhetorical Questions in L1 and English-Medium Instruction

Abstract

Among research on teacher questions, the metadiscursive role of rhetorical questions (RhQs) is rarely examined in depth. This study attempts to redress this imbalance, exploring a lecturer’s use of RhQs in order to identify their metadiscursive functions and compare them in L1 (Catalan) and EMI lectures. RhQs were identified and coded from two 90-minute lectures in Catalan and English. Two overarching categories emerged: macro RhQs, marking a topic shift and micro RhQs, marking the lecturer’s navigation within a given topic. More RhQs and more audience-engaging forms were found in L1 (Catalan) and micro RhQs were of predominantly low cognitive complexity (providing facts and explanations, following Dalton-Puffer, 2007) in both languages. We argue that the lecturer uses RhQs to perform both textual and interactional metadiscursive functions, organizing his discourse, deconstructing complex knowledge while simultaneously engaging students and maintaining their attention.