scholarly journals Hedging in Academic Discourse

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-127
Author(s):  
Maria Elena Gherdan
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Academic Discourse ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Appropriate Use ◽  
Written Discourse ◽  
Writing Practices ◽  
Pragmatic Failure

AbstractHedging has become a topic of interest among discourse-oriented linguists. The paper will discuss ways in which the term “hedge” has been understood and defined in the literature within the academic writing discourse. As epistemic devices with significant characteristics, hedges are often seen as features in academic writing practices that may cause problems, being often a serious source of pragmatic failure in written discourse in a foreign language. It is suggested that the appropriate use of hedging, which clearly requires subtlety and awareness of pragmatic competence of written discourse, is utterly important in avoiding “communicative failure” (Thomas, 1983) and allowing authors to find a way of expressing their true voice in a target discourse.

scholarly journals Cultural Diversity in Native and Non-Native Speakers of English Communication

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (43) ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Iman Khalaf Jasim ◽  
◽  
Sabah S. Mustafa
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Grammatical Competence ◽  
Cross Cultural Communication ◽  
Pragmatic Failure ◽  
On Line ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Communication Breakdowns

With the advancement of technology ,the study of cross-cultural communication via on line has become an important and researchable topic in linguistic theory and its applications.The aims of this study are two- fold (a) exploring the influence of cultural diversity on on-line interaction between American native speakers (NSs) and Iraqi non-native speakers (NNSs) of English which, together with other factors might potentially lead to what Thomas(1983) calls "pragmatic failure" (PF), a main cause of communication breakdowns and (b) specifying which type of PF occurs more frequently between the two groups along with the reasons behind such failures. To achieve these objectives , a number of online chats conducted between (10) American speakers of English and (8) Iraqi graduate students of English were collected and analyzed on the basis of Thomas' (1983) division of PF in an attempt to verify the assumption that pragmatic failure is a result of cultural diversity between the two groups of participants.Results revealed that the cultural differences between the two groups could be a major cause of misunderstanding ie. PF., a finding which can be of value to textbook designers and teachers of English as a foreign language (FL)who are required to improve students' pragmatic ability in classroom by focusing not only on their grammatical competence but also on their pragmatic competence.

scholarly journals SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION: ANALYZE OF PRAGMATIC FAILURE

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 85
Author(s):  
Rahmatul Khasanah
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learner ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Authentic Material ◽  
Pragmatic Failure

The paper is created based on the reality of communication in Indonesia that is done by language learner, as a foreign language. Not a public secret anymore if a failure occurs within communication of an Indonesian language learner with foreign people. Perhaps, the learners can communicate by using correct grammatical but he or she often does not understand the utterance that uttered by foreign people. In this case, pragmatic competence is needed by the learner in order to avoid a pragmatic failure. Giving an authentic material is also one of the ways to avoid a pragmatic failure and increase the learner’s pragmatic competence.

scholarly journals Practical Aspects of Academic Literacy Development in Higher Education Institutions

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (7) ◽  
pp. 117-127
Author(s):  
N. V. Ageenko ◽  
S. G. Menshenina ◽  
V. V. Dobrova ◽  
P. G. Labzina
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Literacy Development ◽  
English Language ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Academic Literacy ◽  
Academic Discourse ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Academic Reading

Global tendencies in all scientific spheres require developed academic literacy of the researcher for effective international communication. Foreign language communication in a professional academic environment implies proficiency in the language of academic discourse. For academic discourse, as a component of academic literacy, development of academic writing skills is crucial. Higher educational institutions realize the necessity to design academic writing courses, and determine their place in the curriculum. Following the challenges of the time and academic community demands, SSTU English Language instructors designed an academic writing course to increase the methodological and academic literacy of students and young researchers. We believe that the development of the key educational and communicative foreign language competencies for academic and professional interaction can contribute to successful integration into the international scientific environment. Course design considered foreign experience, methods and curricula in the field of academic writing and academic reading.

scholarly journals Coherence: Implications for teaching writing

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-30
Author(s):  
Emilija Sarzhoska-Georgievska
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
English Language ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
First Language ◽  
Teaching Writing ◽  
Written Discourse ◽  
Argumentative Essays ◽  
L1 And L2

The paper presents the results of a study consisting of three text-based analyses of groups of student argumentative essays written on the same topic. The aim was to identify text-based features of coherence in L1 and L2. The analyses were carried out on essays written by first and third year undergraduates at the Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Philology "Blazhe Koneski" at the Ss. "Cyril and Methodius" University in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia who wrote in their first language Macedonian, L1, and in English as a foreign language, L2. The goal was to recognise the importance of discourse organisation in academic writing in L1, and to examine factors which may affect second language learners' competence in the organisation of written discourse in English as a foreign language, L2. The paper points out the differences in the rhetorical models in Macedonian and English written discourse and how these differences may have an impact on writing assessment and the teaching of writing at university level.

Speech acts of request and apology realised by Czech students of English as a foreign language: Selected findings of a pilot study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Lahodová
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Similar Data ◽  
Written Discourse ◽  
Oral Production ◽  
Pilot Investigation ◽  
Shed Light

During the second half of the 20th century, there was a shift in focus in second-language-acquisition research from linguistic competence to communicative and pragmatic competence (Hymes 1972, Canale & Swain 1980, Bachman 1990, Bachman & Palmer 1996, Usó-Juan & Martínez-Flor 2006). This resulted in a growing number of studies on speech acts in general. Motivated by a lack of studies on the speech acts of apology in conversations of Czech learners of English as a foreign language, my study aims to shed light on request and apology strategies used by Czech university students. The aim of this paper is to present the findings of a pilot investigation into the speech acts of apology and request. The first aim of the study is to compare two data collection techniques: the open-ended written discourse completion task (DCT) and the oral production task (OPT). The second aim is to investigate the use of request and apology strategies by Czech learners of English. The findings suggest that both of the data collection techniques produced very similar data. In terms of requests, most respondents opted for a conventional indirect strategy. In terms of apologies, respondents opted for statements of remorse, offers of repair and account.

The Effect of Language Learning Experience on the Appropriate Use of Speech Act ‘Request’

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 1060
Author(s):  
Zahra Bazyar ◽  
Ali Taghinezhad ◽  
Marziyeh Nekouizadeh
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
University Students ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Appropriate Use

Nowadays emphasizing linguistic competence is not a sufficient path to reach a target-like communicative competence. Pragmatic competence should be put emphasis on as well. The importance of learning speech acts which is one aspect in the pragmatics is clear to those who want to learn a second or foreign language. This study after investigating the interest of language learners in the acquisition of appropriate use of second language speech acts, traces the variation over time in the use of speech act of request in Iranian EFL University students and for further clarification a group of non-language University students. The results showed no effect of time on the appropriate use of speech act “request”.

scholarly journals Elementy wspólnego pisania na zajęciach pisania akademickiego – badanie pilotażowe

Neofilolog ◽  
2012 ◽  
pp. 41-54
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Marzec-Stawiarska
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Positive Attitude ◽  
Collaborative Writing ◽  
Collaborative Planning ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Written Discourse ◽  
Advanced Students

The article discusses the issue of collaborative writing during classes of academic writing for advanced students of English as a foreign language. It describes a research project in which the influence of collaborative planning on the quality of written discourse was analysed. The research found that essays based on the plan constructed by students in pairs were better in terms of organisation, linguistic variety, content and accuracy than essays written by these participants individually. Moreover, the questionnaires written by the participants revealed their positive attitude to collaborative essay planning.

scholarly journals Pragmatic Competence for L2 Learners: The Case of Maybe, Perhaps, and Possibly as Hedging Terms

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 637
Author(s):  
Fahad Alqurashi
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Significant Part ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Semantic Structure ◽  
Appropriate Use ◽  
Advanced Level ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Sentence Adverbs

The construct of hedging is a significant part of the native speaker’s intuition used to indicate different degrees of un/certainty and mark various levels of likelihood. This paper explores the use of three sentence adverbs, maybe, perhaps, and possibly, in terms of their pragmatic differences in spite of the great deal of overlap in their semantic structure when used to hedge propositions. The use of the three hedging devices is highly affected by three parameters the: formality, positiveness, and possibility. In addition, the three hedging devices behave similarly in the sense that they occur in direct questions but not in imperatives or comparative structures and have no corresponding negative forms. They are different in being derived from an adjective or rephrased with a cognate word and occurring initially in requests or after intensifiers. Appropriate use of hedging is among the difficult aspects of learning a second/foreign language even for those who achieved an advanced level of proficiency in L2.

Pragmatic instruction in L2-Russian

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-95
Author(s):  
Daniele Artoni ◽  
Valentina Benigni ◽  
Elena Nuzzo
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Written Discourse ◽  
Instructional Treatment ◽  
Completion Task ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Experimental Group ◽  
National Corpus ◽  
Pragmatic Instruction

Over the last three decades, a growing number of studies have investigated the effects of instruction on the acquisition of pragmatic features in L2. The bulk of this research has focused mainly on the teaching of English as a second/foreign language. However, instructional pragmatic studies in L2-Russian are lacking. The main purpose of our study is to contribute towards filling this gap by analysing the effects of pragmatic instruction on the acquisition of two speech acts by Italian learners of Russian. Furthermore, we aim to explore whether the Multimodal Russian Corpus (MURCO), a multimedia subcorpus of the Russian National Corpus, can be an effective tool for teaching speech acts in L2-Russian. Our research was composed of one experimental group (n = 18) and one control group (n = 11); each was composed of two intact classes of Italian university students at an intermediate level of L2-Russian, who were pre- and post-tested using a written discourse completion task. The experimental group was subjected to a programme of pragmatic instruction – eight thirty-minute MURCO-based lessons devoted to requests and advice, while the control group was taught according to the standard syllabus, that is, with no pragmatic instruction. The results revealed that the use of the target pragmatic features varied significantly in the experimental group, but not in the control group, thus showing a general positive effect of the instructional treatment based on the MURCO corpus. However, some limitations were identified with regard to the usability of this tool by teachers and learners.

Institutional Plagiarism Policy (Georgian higher education institutions’ case)

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Natela DOGHONADZE ◽  
Ekaterine PIPIA ◽  
Nikoloz PARJANADZE
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Survey Questionnaire ◽  
Existing Problems ◽  
Copyright Violation ◽  
University Policies

The article deals with various aspects of plagiarism: definition (discriminating it from cheating and copyright violation), types (intended / unintended), involved people, causes, prevention, detection and punishment of plagiarism. A survey (questionnaire containing 42 items to be assessed in a 5-point Likert scale and one open- ended item) was conducted in Georgia. The questionnaire developed based on the literature review was uploaded on social media in three variants (to analyze the results separately and compare them): for students, for researchers and for assessors. The obtained results revealed that the opinions of the three groups of respondents differed to a certain degree, but were quite similar, eventually. The survey disclosed the existing problems, such as: lack of academic writing (in the native and especially foreign language) and research skills, lack of training in avoiding plagiarism, insufficiently clear university policies in the area, the emphasis on punishment instead of prevention, etc. Based on the obtained results recommendations for universities are given concerning plagiarism policies. 

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