An Analysis of Hedges/Intensifiers in Argumentative Essays Written by Native English Speakers and Vietnamese EFL LearnersAn Analysis of Hedges/Intensifiers in Argumentative Essays Written by Native English Speakers and Vietnamese EFL Learners
- Other Titles
- An Analysis of Hedges/Intensifiers in Argumentative Essays Written by Native English Speakers and Vietnamese EFL Learners
- Authors
- Tram-Anh Tran Nguyen; 이상근
- Issue Date
- 2021
- Publisher
- 한국중원언어학회
- Keywords
- argumentative essays; hedges; intensifiers; native English speakers (NESs); politeness; Vietnamese EFL learners (VEFL); writing qualities
- Citation
- 언어학 연구, no.58, pp.195 - 226
- Indexed
- KCI
- Journal Title
- 언어학 연구
- Number
- 58
- Start Page
- 195
- End Page
- 226
- URI
- https://scholar.korea.ac.kr/handle/2021.sw.korea/129619
- DOI
- 10.17002/sil..58.202101.195
- ISSN
- 1975-8251
- Abstract
- This study investigated the characteristic distribution of hedges and intensifiers in argumentative essays of NESs and Vietnamese EFL learners to see if there is any positive or negative relation between writing qualities and the two rhetorical devices. By using both quantitative and qualitative analysis of 90 essays (30 from NESs, 30 from advanced Vietnamese EFL learners, and 30 from intermediate Vietnamese EFL learners), we obtained some meaningful findings. First, no significant difference was found between the NESs and the Vietnamese learners regarding the frequency of hedges and intensifiers. However, both the NESs and the advanced Vietnamese learners showed a tendency to use more hedges and fewer intensifiers than the intermediate Vietnamese learners. Second, hedges turned out to have a positive correlation with writing qualities while intensifiers were negatively related to writing scores. This study is significant from the ESL/EFL education in that it reveals a correlation between language proficiency and the use of hedges/intensifiers and that it helps ESL/EFL learners to more effectively use the two devices in academic writing.
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