Stance and engagement in digital oratory

Abstract This study adopts a corpus-assisted approach to examine differences in interactional metadiscourse (IM) between TED Talks and L2 student digital persuasive speeches. Two corpora were compiled for analysis: a TED corpus and a STU corpus comprising English speeches delivered by L2 students in a public speaking course at a Hong Kong university. Quantitative results revealed significant differences across all IM categories except hedges, with the TED corpus showing higher frequencies of self-mentions and boosters, and the STU corpus featuring more directives and audience pronouns. Qualitative analysis further indicated that L2 students employed a narrower range of IM forms, often overusing or underusing specific types, resulting in less persuasive stance and weaker emotional appeal. The rhetorical divergences between the two genres offer valuable insights for L2 public speaking pedagogy, highlighting the importance of explicit instruction in stance and engagement through the effective use of IM in digital oratory.