Cross-cultural Difference on the Use of Hedges in Academic Writing

Abstract

This study aimed to examine Korean EFL learners’ use of hedges and analyze their overall awareness of English academic writing conventions. Discussion sections of 20 doctoral dissertations were analyzed; ten were written by Korean EFL students, and the other ten by native counterparts. Dissertations for analysis were selected from two different fields of study, Humanities and Science, to examine if the field of study affects the use of hedging. The total number of words examined was 20,000 using Salager-Meyer’s taxonomy[1]. The mean for each field between Korean EFL and native English students was compared using t-tests of the SPSS 27 statistical program. The study’s results revealed that Korean students used fewer hedges regardless of field, which means they sounded more confident and definite than their native peers. This result can be interpreted that Korean students’ overgeneralized perception of explicitness and directness of English academic writing affected their writing. Thus, Korean EFL students avoided using hedging devices and used more explicit language to sound more explicit and direct in their academic writings. Furthermore, the study's results implied that the perception of the target culture’s writing conventions could affect the EFL learners’ writing styles. Also, Korean students overgeneralized culture-specific differences between English and Korean writing. Therefore, the research suggests that EFL teachers promote intercultural communicative competence and emphasize the importance of genre-based instruction in teaching writing.