A comparative analysis on hedging language usage in English and Vietnamese academic writing

Abstract

Academic writing is of great importance for EFL students, particularly in writing research papers in their study. Hyland (1994) claimed that L2 learners are most likely to encounter problems with hedging language. The first purpose of this study is to investigate how hedging language is used in EFL academic writing. It is also aimed to do a contrastive analysis to see whether Vietnamese learners, when writing, use hedging language or not and how it is used appropriately. The data of the study were collected through first drafts of EFL students’ academic writing. The findings indicated that: in both written English and Vietnamese, hedging language as a mitigating device is extensively applied; though the structures of hedging language may be different in both languages, it has the same roles in written discourse: to indicate a lack of complete commitment to the truth of the proposition, and a desire to lessen the impact of an expression.