A Cognitive Study Of Moves And Stance Markers In Model United Nations Position Papers

Position papers are an important part of United Nations meetings;and they are also an indispensable part of the Model United Nations(MUN),an educational simulation in which students are assigned to represent different countries and join in negotiations and conversation.Despite the ubiquity of such an activity worldwide,barely any research has been done on position papers.The present study seeks to fill the gap by examining 75 awarded position papers from the 2017 National MUN in New York with the help of Max QDA.Drawing on the Swales' move analysis model and Hyland's classification of stance markers,the study attempts to(1)identify the move patterns of position papers,(2)examine the usage of stance markers in each move and(3)explain salient linguistic phenomena with theories of cognitive linguistics.Results of the study show that five move types could be identified in position papers,among which three are obligatory(recall existing frameworks;express acknowledgement/support;make suggestions/proposal)while the others(stating the state's general attitude;reiterating hope and/or importance of addressing the issues)are optional.Among the five moves,Move Three occupies most space(51%),followed by Move 4(30.2%)and Move 1(16.4%).Although the two optional moves appear in more than half of the position papers,they occupy only a marginal space.In terms of stance markers,there has been an obvious preference for boosters(7.5 per 1000 words)and self-mentions(20.4%)and the usage of different stance markers varies from one move to another.Unlike academic writing,the use of boosters exceeds the use of hedges(4.1 per 1000 words).The most frequently used booster is should,which could be attributed to position paper writers' ambition of exerting a powerful image onMoreover,salient linguistic features could be explained with the PATH,CONTAINER,and VERTICALITY schema.For instance,the PATH schema is frequently implicated while solution to the problem is proposed;the CONTAINER schema is often seen in places where the author argues for the need to get out of a plight or to initiate a new action;VERTICALITY schema follows the idea that “more is better” and is therefore explicit with words such as raise and rise.The study also provides some pedagogical implications that might assist teachers and educators in designing genre-based training.