• Saman Ebadi

  Author

• Zahra Khaksar

  Author

Hedging is a kind of expression which transfers the indeterminacy in message and
through which, authors of academic articles can present their claims and arguments cautiously
and politely. This article aimed at investigating the types and frequency of hedges used by
Persian and English native speakers in the conclusion section of academic research articles in
the field of English Teaching. To this end, 80 English teaching research articles published in
national and international journals were randomly selected and their hedging devices in
conclusion section were analyzed according to Salager-Meyer’s (1994) taxonomy. To find out
about the significance of difference, Chi-square was run. The results of the study indicated that,
there is no significant difference between native and non- native authors in the use of hedging
devices. The results evidenced that the majority of the non-native authors uses hedges in the
same way as their native counterparts, which reflects the fact that the use of hedging devices is
more related to discipline, rather than nationality of authors and non-native authors can exploit
their linguistic devise to present their ideas more effectively as native authors. The findings of
this study could be applied in genre based academic writing instruction focusing on rhetorical
structures.

• pdf