Hedging and boosting in results and discussion section of english applied linguistics research articles by vietnamese and foreign writers

BINH DUONG PROVINCIAL PEOPLE’S COMMITTEE THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY TANG BA THIEP HEDGING AND BOOSTING IN RESULTS AND DISCUSSION SECTION OF ENGLISH APPLIED LINGUISTICS RESEARCH ARTICLES BY VIETNAMESE AND FOREIGN WRITERS MAJOR: ENGLISH LANGUAGE MAJOR CODE: 22 02 01 MASTER THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE BINH DUONG PROVINCE - 2020 BINH DUONG PROVINCIAL PEOPLE’S COMMITTEE THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY TANG BA THIEP HEDGING AND BOOSTING IN RESULTS AND DISCUSSION SECTION OF ENGLISH APPLIED LINGUISTICS RESEARCH ARTICLES BY VIETNAMESE AND FOREIGN WRITERS MAJOR: ENGLISH LANGUAGE MAJOR CODE: 22 02 01 MASTER THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE SUPERVISED BY TRAN QUOC THAO (PhD) BINH DUONG PROVINCE – 2020 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This thesis of Master of Arts in English linguistics would not be done without any assistance from professors, teachers, colleagues, friends, relatives, and family Therefore, I gratefully give great acknowledgement to their supports and motivations during the time of conducting the research as a requirement of completing my thesis First and foremost, I would like to express my special appreciation, sincerest gratitude and profound thanks to my supervisor, Dr Tran Quoc Thao, who took a profound interest to my thesis His timely guidance and comments had been invaluable, important and necessary to me during the process of conducting the study Moreover, his generous contributions and suggestions were greatly added to the quality of the thesis Second, my sincerest gratitude is sent to all teachers in charge of postgraduate programs at Thu Dau Mot University, particularly Dr Tran Thanh Du, without their generous suggestions and supports, this thesis would have been impossible to be completed Third, a great number of special thanks are sent to all my friends and colleagues for their kindly help, care, and motivations during the time I conducted the current study Finally, I would like to address my deepest thanks to my parents, my wife and my children for their endless love and care Their assistance and motivations helped me to conduct my research to standard as it is i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby certify my authorship the Master’s Thesis submitted today entitled “Hedging and Boosting in results and discussion section of English applied linguistics research articles by Vietnamese and foreign writers” in terms of the statements of requirements for Thesis in Master’s Program issued by the Higher Degree Committee This Thesis has not previously been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other institutions Binh Duong, October 2020 Tăng Bá Thiệp ii RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, Tăng Bá Thiệp, being the candidate for the degree of Master of Arts, accept the requirements of the university relating to the retention and use of Master’s Thesis deposited in the University Library I agree that the original of my Master’s Thesis deposited in the University Library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan and reproduction for theses Binh Duong, October 2020 Tăng Bá Thiệp iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ii RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii LIST OF TABLES viii LIST OF FIGURES ix ABSTRACT x CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the study 1.2 The problem statements 1.3 Aims and objectives of the study 1.3.1 Aims of the study 1.3.2 Objectives of the study 1.4 Research questions 1.5 Scope of the study 1.6 Significances of the study 1.6.1 Theoretical contributions 1.6.2 Practical contributions 1.7 Definitions of key terms 1.8 Organization of the study CHAPTER 10 LITERATURE REVIEW 10 2.1 Introduction 10 2.2 Hedges… 10 2.2.1 Definitions of hedges 10 2.2.2 Types of hedges 13 2.2.3 Functions of hedges 16 iv 2.3 Boosters 20 2.3.1 Definitions of boosters 20 2.3.2 Types of boosters 21 2.3.3 Functions of boosters 25 2.4 Hedges and boosters in academic writings 26 2.5 Review of previous studies 30 2.5.1 Foreign sources 30 2.5.2 Local sources 33 2.6 Conceptual framework of the study 34 2.7 Summary 36 CHAPTER 37 METHODOLOGY 37 3.1 Introduction 37 3.2 Research design 37 3.3 Materials 38 3.4 Data collection procedures 39 3.5 Data analysis procedures 40 3.6 Framework for data analysis 43 3.7 Validity and Reliability 44 3.7.1 Validity 44 3.7.2 Reliability 45 3.8 Summary 46 CHAPTER 47 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 47 4.1 Introduction 47 4.2 Results 47 4.2.1 Frequency of hedges and boosters in the corpora 47 4.2.2 Types of hedges in categories 48 4.2.3 Types of boosters in categories 56 4.2.4 Functions of hedges in R&D section in AL research articles 61 v 4.2.5 Functions of boosters in R&D section in AL research articles 66 4.2.6 Similarities 70 4.2.7 Differences 78 4.3 Discussion 80 4.4 Summary 87 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 88 5.1 Summary of the main findings 88 5.2 Implications 89 5.3 Limitations of the study 90 5.4 Recommendations for further research 90 REFERENCES 90 APPENDICES Appendix A: List of hedges and boosters Appendix B: Sample of concordance Appendix C: Sample of analysis of functions Appendix D: Samples of R&D section in AL research articles Appendix E: 30 English AL research articles written by VWs Appendix F: 30 English AL research articles written by FWs 13 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AL Applied Linguistics AWFWs Articles Written by Foreign Writers AWVWs Articles Written by Vietnamese Writers ELT English Language Teaching EFL English as Foreign Language F Frequency FWs Foreign Writers VWs Vietnamese Writers R&D Results and Discussion vii LIST OF TABLES Table Holmes' (1988) taxonomy of hedges and boosters 22 Table 2 Hyland's (2004) taxonomy of boosters 23 Table Hinkel's (2005) category of boosters 23 Table Yagiz and Demir’s (2015) category of boosters 24 Table Demir's (2016) taxonomy of boosters 24 Table Hinkel's (2005) taxonomy of boosters in functions 26 Table Source of corpora in the current research 38 Table Size of corpus used in the present research 39 Table 3 Category of hedges (compiled and adapted) 43 Table Hinkel (2005) taxonomy of boosters in functions 44 Table Frequency and percentage of hedges and boosters 47 Table Distribution of hedges in categories 49 Table Distribution of hedges in category of modal verbs 50 Table 4 Distribution of hedges in category of lexical verbs 51 Table Distribution of hedges in category of adverbs 52 Table Distribution of hedges in category of adjectives 53 Table Distribution of hedges in category of nouns 54 Table Distribution of other hedges 55 Table Hinkel's (2005) category of boosters 57 Table 10 Frequency of boosters in categories 57 Table 11 Distribution of boosters in category of universal pronouns 58 Table 12 Distribution of boosters in category of emphatics 59 Table 13 Distribution of boosters in category of amplifiers 60 Table 14 Frequency of pragmatic function of hedges 74 Table 15 Frequency of hedges in the corpora per 1000 words in types 81 viii ... section in English applied linguistics research articles written by Vietnamese and foreign writers? What are the functions of hedges and boosters used in Results and Discussion section in English applied. .. Results and Discussion section of English Applied Linguistic Research Articles by Vietnamese and foreign writers? ??, in order (1) to examine hedges and boosters and their usage in research articles, ...BINH DUONG PROVINCIAL PEOPLE’S COMMITTEE THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY TANG BA THIEP HEDGING AND BOOSTING IN RESULTS AND DISCUSSION SECTION OF ENGLISH APPLIED LINGUISTICS RESEARCH ARTICLES BY VIETNAMESE