Abstract Book of the 9th International Conference on Research in Education, Teaching and Learning
Year: 2025
DOI:
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Comparing the Use of Hedges and Boosters in Arabic and English Research Article Case of Oran Tradtec International Symposium of April 2017
Narimene KHELFI, Nouha CHERIET
ABSTRACT:
Hedges and boosters as metadiscourse devices play a crucial role in academic writing where it is important to distinguish opinions from facts and evaluate certainty of assertions. This study primarily aims at investigating the taxonomy of hedges and boosters used in Arabic and English Research Article (RA) abstracts written by Algerian academic writers; to see their awareness therein; and if concordance is evident. The secondary aim is to study the similarities and/or differences in the frequency of these two devices used in “purpose” and “results” moves; and if influence of culture or practice is apparent. Hence, a corpus analysis of 36 RA abstracts has been selected from the International Symposium held in Oran on April 2017, Algeria. A mixed-method approach has been deployed depending on two different models of analysis and a semi-structured interview. The results reveal that Algerian academics writing in Arabic might be aware of using only boosters in their Arabic RA abstracts. Whereas, academics writing in English might be aware of using both. Moreover, the findings show that English RA abstracts use hedges significantly more frequently than Arabic RA abstracts. However, Arabic RA abstracts use boosters more frequently than English RA abstracts. These findings suggest that there is no cultural influence on the use of hedges and boosters and it might involve practice. Accordingly, curriculum designers and teachers are invited to include hedges and boosters in the syllabus and teach them to masters’ and doctoral level students both who learn Arabic and English languages.
keywords: RA Abstracts, Hedges, Boosters, Metadiscourse, Academic Writing