Linguistic markers of stance in advanced second language Spanish academic writing

Written academic texts allow for the observation of advanced capacities as writers must negotiate identities in order to position their claims within a disciplinary community. The construct of stance focuses on how a writer stamps her/his personal authority on a text. This chapter reports on how six Spanish studies majors constructed stance in their writing, reporting on both the interpersonal-epistemic elements and the linguistic devices used. Participants employed all four stance elements, relying primarily on a limited number of lexical items to do so. Findings suggest that Spanish studies majors may need additional instruction to acquire the valued ways of meaning in academic writing and highlight the importance of considering diverse contexts of use when exploring advanced language competencies.