16 Advanced Learners’ Dictionary 2007, p.1582 defines tentative as “not definite or
certain because you may want to change it later”. The modal lexical verbs in the students writing are including words such as believe, think, assume, seem, appear,
suggest, tend, argue, and claim. Students used this lexical items to introduce others’
opinions, both which supports and against their argument. The most used lexical verbs in the students writing is think.
Examples: Student 15
:
“…, some people who choose NEST because they believe that they
are best role- model,…”
Student 17: “…, that they seem to ignore the fact that NNESTs’ pronunciation
is actually influenced by their accent such as a mix of Javanese- English.”
Similar to approximators and modal auxiliary verbs, although it appears in all of the students writing, I still find some students neglected these modal lexical verbs and made
some of their propositions sound too over-confident.
1.4 Introductory Phrase
Table 5. Distribution of Approximators of Introductory Phrase
Introductory Phrase Total Occurrence
I believe 11
I think 9
My- viewpoint of viewopinionargument
9 I argue
1
Introductory phrases similar to modal lexical verbs functions to “express
writer’s personal doubts” Salager-Mayer 1997 but this one has a more direct involvement. These
“include first person pronouns so as to show speakers’ stance that
17 their statement is
not absolutely right or true since it is just their own opinions” Hua, 2011, p.563. They were mostly used to introduce a claim on a new passage. Modal
lexical ‘believe’ is used most by the students as an introductory phrase.
Examples: Student 8
:
“[because] of that and other reasons, I believe that Non-native
English Speaker Teacher is better than Native English Speaker Teacher.”
Student 9 :
“
I believe that a result of a proficiency test can only be a
measurement for the basic competence of someone’s proficiency,…” 12 out of 19 students see table. 1 managed to make use of this tentative language to
safely enter the conversation in their writing, while some failed to present introductory phrases. It results in as if their writing has not voice because they were merely
presenting comments without a clear stance toward the topic. This also will be discussed further in discussion part.
1.5 If Clause
Table 6. Distribution of Approximators of If Clause
If Clause Total Occurrence
If 25
If- clauses were also found in the students’ writing. 12 students applied this on
their writing. They made use of if when trying to explain their proposition. In order to make an example or illustration of a case before giving arguments.
Examples:
