Resumo
Expressing claims with an adequate degree of certainty and uncertainty is one of the major setbacks for foreign language students writing academic essays in English. In order to differentiate beliefs from facts and evaluate statements in satisfactory and persuasive ways authors have to make use of epistemic comments which exert a crucial role in academic writing. However, regardless of its significance, little is known about how foreign language learners present their claims in their writing. This article compares exponents of doubt and certainty in the essays of 67 Brazilian speaking university students writing in English with those of 52 British and American learners of similar age and educational level in a corpus of about 68,000 words. A meticulous analysis of the essays reveals that the Brazilian writers deviate considerably from their native speaker counterparts in employing a more restricted variety of items, being much more assertive in relation to their propositions and demonstrating greater difficulties in transmitting an exact degree of assurance. This paper stresses a number of issues raised by the study and makes some pedagogical recommendations for developing skills in this central pragmatic area.
Academic essay writing; EFL; expressing doubt and certainty
Academic essay writing; EFL; expressing doubt and certainty
ARTIGOS
Negociando certeza e incerteza em escrita acadêmica em inglês
Leonardo Recski* * Agradecimentos: Gostaria de agradecer a Hamilton Wielewicki por seus pertinentes comentários e grande ajuda na edição deste artigo.
Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina
ABSTRACT
Expressing claims with an adequate degree of certainty and uncertainty is one of the major setbacks for foreign language students writing academic essays in English. In order to differentiate beliefs from facts and evaluate statements in satisfactory and persuasive ways authors have to make use of epistemic comments which exert a crucial role in academic writing. However, regardless of its significance, little is known about how foreign language learners present their claims in their writing. This article compares exponents of doubt and certainty in the essays of 67 Brazilian speaking university students writing in English with those of 52 British and American learners of similar age and educational level in a corpus of about 68,000 words. A meticulous analysis of the essays reveals that the Brazilian writers deviate considerably from their native speaker counterparts in employing a more restricted variety of items, being much more assertive in relation to their propositions and demonstrating greater difficulties in transmitting an exact degree of assurance. This paper stresses a number of issues raised by the study and makes some pedagogical recommendations for developing skills in this central pragmatic area.
Keywords: Academic essay writing, EFL, expressing doubt and certainty.
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Referências bibliográficas
ADAMS SMITH, D. (1984). Medical Discourse: Aspects of Author's Comment. The ESP Journal, 3: 25-36.
BIBER, D. ; CONRAD, S. ; REPPEN, R. (1998). Corpus Linguistics: Investigating language structure and use. Cambridge: CUP.
BLOOR, M.; BLOOR, T. (1991). Cultural expectations and socio-pragmatic failure in academic writing. In P. Adams, B. Heaton & P. Howarth (eds.), Socio-cultural issues in English for academic purposes (pp. 1-12). Basingstoke: Modern English Publications/British Council.
CHANNEL, J. (1994). Vague language. Oxford University Press.
COATES, J. (1983). The Semantics of the Modal Auxiliaries. Beckenham: Croom Helm.
_______. (1987). Epistemic modality and spoken discourse. Transactions of the Philological Society, 85: 100-131.
CRISMORE, A. (1990). Metadiscourse and Discourse Processes: Interactions and Issues. Discourse Processes, 13: 191-205.
DUBOIS, B. (1987). Something in the order of around forty to forty four: Imprecise numerical expressions in biomedical slide talk. Language in Society, 16: 527-541.
GRANGER, S. (1993). New insights into the learner lexicon: A preliminary report from the international corpus of learner English. In. L. Flowerdew & K.K. Tong (eds.), Entering text. (pp. 102-113). Hong kong: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
HALLIDAY, M. (1985). An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Pinter.
_______. (1994). An Introduction to Functional Grammar (2nd ed.). London: Pinter.
HAMP-LYONS, L. (1991). The writer's knowledge and our knowledge of the writer. In. L. Hamp-Lyons (ed.) Assessing second language writing in academic contexts (pp. 51-68). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
HOLMES, J. (1983). Speaking English with the appropriate degree of conviction. In C. Brumfit (ed.), Learning and Teaching Languages for Communication: Applied Linguistics Perspectives(pp. 100-121). London: CILT.
_______. (1984). Modifying illocutionary force. Journal of Pragmatics, 8: 345-365.
_______. (1988). Doubt and certainty in ESL textbooks. Applied Linguistics, 9: 21-44.
HYLAND, K. (1994). Hedging in academic writing and EAP textbooks. English for Specific Purposes, 13: 239-256.
_______. (1996a). Talking to the academy: Forms of hedging in science research articles. Written Communication, 13(2): 251-281.
_______. (1996b). Nurturing hedges in the ESP curriculum. System, 24: 477-490.
_______. (1996c). Writing without conviction? Hedging in Science Research Articles. Applied Linguistics, 17: 433-453.
_______. (1996d). "I don't quite follow": Making sense of a modifier. Language Awareness, 5(2): 91-109.
KENNEDY, G. (1987). Quantification and the use of English: a case study of one aspect of the language learners' task. Applied Linguistics, 8(3): 264-286.
LEECH, G; SVARTVICK, J. (1994). A communicative grammar of English,2nd ed. London: Longman.
LYONS, J. (1977). Semantics, Vol. 1 & 2. Cambridge: CUP.
MYERS, G. (1989). The pragmatics of politeness in scientific articles. Applied Linguistics, 10(1): 1-35.
PALMER, F. (1990). Modality and the English modals, 2nd ed. London and New York: Longman.
PERKINS, M. (1983). Modal Expression in English. London: Pinter.
QUIRK, R; GREENBAUM, S; LEECH, G; SVARTVICK, J. (1972). A grammar of contemporary English. Harlow, Essex: Longman.
RECSKI, L. (2002). Computer-assisted error analysis: A study of prepositional errors in the Brazilian subcomponent of the International Corpus of Learner English (Br-ICLE). Masters Thesis. Florianópolis, Brazil: PGI/Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina.
SALAGER-MEYER, F. (1994). Hedges and textual communicative function in medical English written discourse. English for Specific Purposes, 13: 149-170.
_______. (1998). Language is not a physical object. English for Specific Purposes, 17: 295-301.
_______. (2000). Procustes' recipe: hedging and positivism. English for Specific Purposes, 19: 175-187.
SARDINHA, T. (2000). O corpus de aprendiz BR-ICLE. DIRECT Papers 40. São Paulo: LAEL _ PUC/SP.
SKELTON, J. (1988). The care and maintenance of hedges. ELT Journal, 41: 37-43.
SMITH, E. (1986). Achieving impact through the interpersonal component. In B. Couture (ed.), Functional approaches to writing: Research perspectives (pp. 108-119). Norwood: Ablex.
STUBBS, M. (1986). A matter of prolonged fieldwork: Notes towards a modal grammar of English. Applied Linguistics, 7: 1-25.
THOMAS, J. (1983). Cross-Cultural Pragmatic Failure. Applied Linguistics, 4(2)
plied Linguistics, 12(4): 365-382.
VANDE-KOPPLE, W. (1988). Metadiscourse and the recall of modality markers. Visual Language 22(2/3): 233-272.
- ADAMS SMITH, D. (1984). Medical Discourse: Aspects of Author's Comment. The ESP Journal, 3: 25-36.
- BIBER, D. ; CONRAD, S. ; REPPEN, R. (1998). Corpus Linguistics: Investigating language structure and use Cambridge: CUP.
- BLOOR, M.; BLOOR, T. (1991). Cultural expectations and socio-pragmatic failure in academic writing. In P. Adams, B. Heaton & P. Howarth (eds.), Socio-cultural issues in English for academic purposes (pp. 1-12). Basingstoke: Modern English Publications/British Council.
- CHANNEL, J. (1994). Vague language Oxford University Press.
- COATES, J. (1983). The Semantics of the Modal Auxiliaries Beckenham: Croom Helm.
- _______. (1987). Epistemic modality and spoken discourse. Transactions of the Philological Society, 85: 100-131.
- CRISMORE, A. (1990). Metadiscourse and Discourse Processes: Interactions and Issues. Discourse Processes, 13: 191-205.
- DUBOIS, B. (1987). Something in the order of around forty to forty four: Imprecise numerical expressions in biomedical slide talk. Language in Society, 16: 527-541.
- GRANGER, S. (1993). New insights into the learner lexicon: A preliminary report from the international corpus of learner English. In. L. Flowerdew & K.K. Tong (eds.), Entering text (pp. 102-113). Hong kong: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
- HALLIDAY, M. (1985). An Introduction to Functional Grammar London: Pinter.
- _______. (1994). An Introduction to Functional Grammar (2nd ed.). London: Pinter.
- HAMP-LYONS, L. (1991). The writer's knowledge and our knowledge of the writer. In. L. Hamp-Lyons (ed.) Assessing second language writing in academic contexts (pp. 51-68). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
- HOLMES, J. (1983). Speaking English with the appropriate degree of conviction. In C. Brumfit (ed.), Learning and Teaching Languages for Communication: Applied Linguistics Perspectives(pp. 100-121). London: CILT.
- _______. (1984). Modifying illocutionary force. Journal of Pragmatics, 8: 345-365.
- HYLAND, K. (1994). Hedging in academic writing and EAP textbooks. English for Specific Purposes, 13: 239-256.
- _______. (1996a). Talking to the academy: Forms of hedging in science research articles. Written Communication, 13(2): 251-281.
- _______. (1996b). Nurturing hedges in the ESP curriculum. System, 24: 477-490.
- _______. (1996c). Writing without conviction? Hedging in Science Research Articles. Applied Linguistics, 17: 433-453.
- _______. (1996d). "I don't quite follow": Making sense of a modifier. Language Awareness, 5(2): 91-109.
- KENNEDY, G. (1987). Quantification and the use of English: a case study of one aspect of the language learners' task. Applied Linguistics, 8(3): 264-286.
- LEECH, G; SVARTVICK, J. (1994). A communicative grammar of English,2nd ed. London: Longman.
- LYONS, J. (1977). Semantics, Vol. 1 & 2. Cambridge: CUP.
- MYERS, G. (1989). The pragmatics of politeness in scientific articles. Applied Linguistics, 10(1): 1-35.
- PALMER, F. (1990). Modality and the English modals, 2nd ed. London and New York: Longman.
- PERKINS, M. (1983). Modal Expression in English London: Pinter.
- QUIRK, R; GREENBAUM, S; LEECH, G; SVARTVICK, J. (1972). A grammar of contemporary English Harlow, Essex: Longman.
- RECSKI, L. (2002). Computer-assisted error analysis: A study of prepositional errors in the Brazilian subcomponent of the International Corpus of Learner English (Br-ICLE). Masters Thesis Florianópolis, Brazil: PGI/Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina.
- SALAGER-MEYER, F. (1994). Hedges and textual communicative function in medical English written discourse. English for Specific Purposes, 13: 149-170.
- _______. (1998). Language is not a physical object. English for Specific Purposes, 17: 295-301.
- _______. (2000). Procustes' recipe: hedging and positivism. English for Specific Purposes, 19: 175-187.
- SARDINHA, T. (2000). O corpus de aprendiz BR-ICLE. DIRECT Papers 40 São Paulo: LAEL _ PUC/SP.
- SKELTON, J. (1988). The care and maintenance of hedges. ELT Journal, 41: 37-43.
- SMITH, E. (1986). Achieving impact through the interpersonal component. In B. Couture (ed.), Functional approaches to writing: Research perspectives (pp. 108-119). Norwood: Ablex.
- STUBBS, M. (1986). A matter of prolonged fieldwork: Notes towards a modal grammar of English. Applied Linguistics, 7: 1-25.
- VANDE-KOPPLE, W. (1988). Metadiscourse and the recall of modality markers. Visual Language 22(2/3): 233-272.
Datas de Publicação
-
Publicação nesta coleção
16 Abr 2014 -
Data do Fascículo
Jun 2004