The use of hedges and boosters in English : a comparative study in native writers and Malay writers of English /
Hedges and boosters are crucial elements of metadiscoursal devices which contribute to effective academic writing. They are used by academic writers to express doubts and certainty on ideas or information being proposed. Incorporating these devices in research articles can help writers to modify the...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Kuala Lumpur :
Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences, International Islamic University Malaysia,
2018
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Click here to view 1st 24 pages of the thesis. Members can view fulltext at the specified PCs in the library. |
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| Summary: | Hedges and boosters are crucial elements of metadiscoursal devices which contribute to effective academic writing. They are used by academic writers to express doubts and certainty on ideas or information being proposed. Incorporating these devices in research articles can help writers to modify the assertions they make, tone down uncertain or potentially risky claims, emphasise on what they believe is correct and conveying appropriate collegial attitudes to readers (Hyland, 2000). Despite the importance of these devices in academic articles, previous researches have indicated that second language users of English find it troublesome to use appropriate hedges and boosters in academic writing due to cultural influences and different writing styles. Hence second language writers often face difficulties to express themselves in English when incorporating these devices in their writing. This study compares the use of hedges and boosters in humanity-based academic articles written by native and non-native Malay writers of English. Based on a corpus of 60 research articles written in English, 30 research articles were written by Malay writers, and another 30 research articles were written by native writers of English, the overall, rhetorical and categorical distribution of hedges and boosters were calculated across the four rhetorical sections (Introduction, Method, Result and Discussion) of the research articles. The overall analysis shows that the use of hedges are higher than the use of boosters by both sets of writers. The differences found were that the use of hedges and boosters is higher in the Discussion section of academic articles written by native writers of English; while Malay writers of English tend to use hedges and boosters the most in the Result and Introduction section, respectively. There were also some differences found in the categorical distribution of hedges and boosters from the two sets of writers. These findings may have some implications when it comes to teaching academic writing, especially to second language learners. |
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| Physical Description: | ix, 116 leaves : colour illustrations ; 30cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (leaves 104-107). |