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This article examines the developmental pattern of expressing writer’s stance with focus on the use of modal verbs and stance verbs in L2 academic argumentative essays. For this, two corpora from two different proficiency groups of Korean EFL university learners(KEFL 1, KEFL 2) and native speakers of English(NE) were analyzed, employing both quantitative and qualitative analyses. The findings reveal several distinct developmental aspects across corpora. In terms of the frequency of modal verbs, L2 learners show a strong propensity to use can as a basic expedient to add an objective position into writer’s statement due to the influence of spoken language, while would and will are followed by can in NE. As proficiency develops, writers show a rising tendency of using more 3rd person pronouns(ex. they, it) or general nouns as a subject rather than 1st and 2nd person pronouns(ex. you, we, I) and inserting more elaborated stance devices such as passives or other various stance expressions into an original statement. Basically, L2 learners seem to develop their rhetorical awareness for academic prose by starting imply adding‘I think’into a statement at first, and gradually using more various stance verbs and multiple linguistic repertoires. The study highlights the importance of useful guidance and instruction to raise register awareness for Korean EFL learners who are in the process of acquiring appropriate rhetorical devices to carry their academic stance, expanding the range of stance expressions.
