Page 343 - English - Teaching Academic Esl Writing

HEDGING IN ACADEMIC TEXT IN ENGLISH 329
informal discourse to a far greater extent than they are to formal writing, in- struction on the functions and uses of hedging in English requires persis- tence and focused attention. On the whole, learning to hedge academic prose appropriately is unlikely to take place in informal conversations and/or by means of fluency activities.
STRATEGIES AND TACTICS FOR TEACHING AND TEACHING ACTIVITIES
As with other work on improving students' vocabulary as well as lexical and syntactic range, a practical approach can begin with helping students learn to notice that hedging devices are very common in written text in English, but not in conversations. Noticing the types of hedges in written prose can be followed by learning to distinguish between formal and informal regis- ters as well as hedges. In addition to giving attention to the hedges frequent in formal written prose, it is also important to notice those that are not. The teaching suggestions and activitiespresented next are designed to enhance:
• • •
Noticing the functions and uses of hedges in written text Distinguishingbetween the features of formal and informal registers Developing editing skills to hedge L2 students' writing and avoid overstatements
In teaching students how to use hedging devices appropriately, the snow- ball effect helps increase learners' range of hedges. "Growing" hedges rep- resents one of the most effective and least work- and time-consuming strategies. To this end, the teacher needs to encourage students to employ diverse types of hedges in their writing because many hedges are not lexi- cally or syntactically complex. Holding students accountable for the hedged quality of their written text may require both teachers' and students' atten- tion to detail in working on the features of formal academic prose.
The teaching suggestions presented next rely on written texts easily ob- tainable from students' own writing, textbooks, and other print media sources, such as newspaper science, business, and society reports. For learn- ing to notice the functions and uses of hedges, the teacher may also choose to begin with simplified juvenile formal prose usually found in books on en- vironment, geography, wild life, plants, science, nutrition, sports, and other nonfiction literature.
(1) Noticing Hedges in Academic or News Media Texts
Students can be asked to bring samples of written materials from their disci-
plines or the teacher can supply a newspaper report on health issues, sci-
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