19
1.7 Compound Hedges
Table 8. Distribution of Approximators of Compound Hedges
Compound Hedges Total Occurrence
May seem 3
Might think 3
Might Rarely 2
May Assume 2
May tend 1
May tend to 1
Compound hedges just like adverbial, adjectival, and nominal phrases were rarely to be found but appeared in some of the students writing. Only 6 students applied
this type of hedges in their writing. There are no significant difference on the number of occurrence of each lexical item.
Example: Student 7
: “
Although the issue of NESTs and Non-NESTs may seem
trivial,…”
Student 17 :
“Although accented speech may seem of concern to only small
group of students ,…”
2. The Absence of Hedges
The main problem students are having in the application of hedging is that they sometimes forget to put one in their proposition and comments. I have sorted some
proposition and comments in the students’ writing which I think are supposed to be hedged. In relation to the previous discussion, although it may seem as if the students
20 have acquired the skill of using hedges within their writing, they still have to pay
attention in the consistency of applying hedges.
Table 9. Occurrence of missing hedges
in the Students’ Writing
RESPON DENTS
S
S 1
S 2
S 3
S 4
S 5
S 6
S 7
S 8
S 9
S 10
S 11
S 12
S 13
S 14
S 15
S 16
S 17
S 18
S 19
Issues
According to the table, 11 out of 19 students struggled with the consistency of applying hedges in their writing. Although they had applied some hedges in their
writings, they still neglected the importance of hedges in some of their arguments and comments.
Diagram 2. Missing Hedges on Propositions and Comments
The diagram shows the distribution of missing hedges. I found 26 problematic sentences. The problematic sentences refers to sentences without hedges. However the
three main missing hedges in the students writing are approximators, introductory phrase and adjectival, adverbial and nominal verbs. Adjectival, adverbial and nominal
30.77
42.31 26.93
Missing Hedges on Propositions and Comments
No Approximator No Introductory Phrase
No Adjectival, Adverbial, Nominal Phrase
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