Page 165 - English - Teaching Academic Esl Writing

TEACHING VERB TENSES ANDVOICE 151
1985, p. 215).In academicwriting, such definitive references to future activ- ities or states are extremely rare because the writer is usually expected to project "modesty and proper caution," as well as anticipate negative reac- tions to the "claims being advanced" (Swales, 1990a, p. 175). On the other hand, the future-tense markingbymeans of goingtohas not been widelyac- cepted in formal written prose.
Thus, an important outcome ofvarious analysesofwritten academic cor- pora is that the future tense marked by any type of future verb forms, such as will, going to, or the simple present tense, is often considered to be inappro- priately definite and/or conversational and colloquial. Instead modal verbs such as may, can, or could represent the hedging devices of choice to project an appropriate amount of hesitation and cautious claim making (see chap.
12 on Hedges).
Studies of L2 writing and text have noted that NNS academic prose often
creates an impression of a high degree of certainty (Hyland & Milton, 1997). Among other textual features that convey an exaggerated degree of defmiteness is the fact that L2 writing employs significantly more markers of the future tense than NS college-levelwriting does. For example, the dif- ferences in the degree of certainty and defmiteness expressed by means of the future marker will and the modal verbs mayand can is readily apparent
in the following contrasting sentences:
a.) Whengoalsarehardtodefine, managersmaytellemployeestodotheirbest.
b.) Whengoalsarehardtodefine, managerscantellemployeestodotheirbest,
c.) Whengoalsarehardtodefine, managerswilltellemployeestodotheirbest.
Sentence (c) clearly expresses definitively what the manager will say as opposed to noting a possibility in (a) or an ability in (b).
Due to defmiteness and certainty constraints associated with the usage of the future tense, it is hardly ever used in academic writing, and L2 academic writers should be encouraged to employ modal verbs such as may, can, and could instead.
In teaching it is helpful to present excerpts from student texts and ask stu- dents to analyze them to determine which displays a higher degree of definite- ness and certainty in the future outcomes of events. Excerpt (a) is extracted from a student's paper on the role of the government in a market economy.
a) In countries like Costa Rica, political decisions are based on the economic model. Under this model, the market competition will increase, and the market economy will solve most problems in an efficient way without any interruption of the government.
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