This paper looked into the interplay between language and culture based on the metatext categories utilized by the writers in three speech communities: Philippines, Iran, and Taiwan.  Specifically, it answered the following subproblems: (1) What metatext categories exist in the results-and-discussion section of ESL/EFL research articles written in Philippine English, Iranian English, and Taiwanese English?; (2) At what points are the metatext categories in the three speech communities parallel or contrasting?; and (3) What cultural features are revealed by the use of metatext categories in the three Asian Englishes?

Data analyzed were the results-and-discussion sections of 15 research articles (RAs): ESL RAs representing the Philippine-English variety were published in the TESOL Journal in 2009, and EFL RAs representing both the Taiwanese-English and Iranian-English varieties were from the Asian EFL Journal published in 2008 and 2009.  Two inter-raters helped in the coding of metatext categories in the genre examined and in the validation of the data gathered.  Frequency and percentage counts were employed to examine the corpus.

Results revealed that the relative frequency of preview and review categories was highest in Philippine English RAs than in Taiwanese English RAs and Iranian English RAs.  In the three Asian Englishes, the number of previews was larger than the number of reviews.  With regard to the use of connectors, all three Englishes were built on the additive cohesive relation.  Further, they used both simple connectors, such as and, but, though, and yet and their complex alternatives, such as furthermore, on the other hand, in a similar vein, and in a similar sense - a preference for a more elaborate and a change-oriented rhetorical pattern.  In addition, Philippine English had the most number of action markers, thus, implying the Philippine English’s tendency to be more writer-responsible as compared with the Taiwanese English and Iranian English.