Stance in Three-minute Thesis Presentations in Social Sciences: Time and Gender as Influencing Factors
School of Foreign Studies, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710129, China
| Abstract: | This study investigates how stance — the speaker’s attitudinal and epistemic positioning — is expressed in Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) presentations within the social sciences, focusing on changes over time and gender-based differences. We analyzed a balanced corpus of 60 English-language 3MT presentations delivered by PhD students in 2012–2013 (Time 1) and 2022–2023 (Time 2). Drawing on Hyland’s (2005) metadiscourse framework, we identified and categorized stance features into four main types: hedges, boosters, attitude markers, and self-mentions, with a particular focus on distinguishing between singular and plural self-mentions to capture collaborative positioning. Our diachronic analysis reveals a 12.7% increase in stance markers over the decade, with the most notable rise observed in the use of attitude markers (44%), indicating a shift toward more expressive, evaluative, and audience-engaged communication. At the same time, the increased use of hedges and reduced use of certainty boosters reflect growing caution in presenting knowledge in 3MT, likely influenced by the genre’s communicative demands for clarity and accessibility to non-specialist audiences. Gender-based analysis shows that female presenters employed more stance markers overall, particularly plural self-mentions (“we,” “our”), suggesting a greater emphasis on collaborative research. While male speakers showed little change in stance use over time, female speakers increased their stance marker use by 27%, alongside a 7.7% rise in speech length. These findings suggest gendered strategies in academic self-presentation and audience engagement potentially implying that female speakers tend to explain their findings in a more extensive manner. This study contributes to the understanding of academic spoken discourse by highlighting evolving rhetorical practices in 3MT. It underscores how speakers adapt their stance-taking strategies in response to institutional norms and audience expectations. Future research may extend this research to hard sciences or larger datasets. |
| Keywords: | Stance; Three-Minute Thesis (3MT); Metadiscourse; Academic Speech; Gender Differences; Diachronic Analysis; Social Sciences |
| DOI: | 10.57237/j.ssrf.2025.03.003 |
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Received: 13 May 2025
Accepted: 3 July 2025
Published Online: 1 August 2025
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