The Application of Hedges in EFL Class

来源 :校园英语·下旬 | 被引量 : 0次 | 上传用户:kekedala
下载到本地 , 更方便阅读
声明 : 本文档内容版权归属内容提供方 , 如果您对本文有版权争议 , 可与客服联系进行内容授权或下架
论文部分内容阅读
  【Abstract】Hedges, as a common linguistic phenomenon, are used in daily communication to make sure that the communication can move on smoothly and to attain specific goals by speakers. If the hedges are used properly in class, they could make talks between teacher and students become more polite, flexible and effective and facilitate effective teaching and learning. Based on the writer’s past experience, this paper intends to analyze the specific application and pragmatic functions of hedges used by both teacher and students in EFL class.
  【Key words】hedges; EFL class; pragmatic functions; application
  1. Introduction
  Hedges, as an important component of fuzzy language, have received wide attention of linguists in the past few decades. Lakoff, who is the first person that studies hedges from the linguistic perspective, defines hedges as “words whose job is to make things fuzzier or less fuzzy”. Researchers at home have done a lot of work on the pragmatic functions of hedges in news, technology articles, political speech and others. However, less research has been done on the pragmatic functions of hedges in EFL class. EFL class is the place where communication takes place, so the research should consider both sides of the communication. This paper will analyze the applications of hedges used by teacher and students in order to find how the hedges promote English teaching and learning and their pragmatic functions in EFL class.
  2. Classification of Hedges
  Hedges in English are a very wide range of words and expressions including verbs, model verbs, adjectives, nouns, if-clauses, passive voice, etc. According to the dichotomy proposed by He Ziran, whether the hedges can change the truth condition of the discourse or whether to change the original intent of the discourse structure, hedges can be divided into two parts: Approximators(subdivided into Adaptors and Rounders) and Shields(subdivided into Plausibility Shields and Attribution Shields).
  Approximators are those that affect the truth-conditions of propositions. They may change or even cancel the original meaning of proposition. Approximators can be subdivided into two types: Adaptors and Rounders. Adaptors are usually used when a proposition is nearly precise but the speakers or writers are not absolutely certain (He Ziran, 1985), such as: always, usually, quite, kind of, sort of, to some extent, a little bit, etc. Shields are those that do not affect the truth-conditions but reflect the degree of the speaker’s commitment to the truth-value of the whole proposition. (He Ziran, 1985) Shields can also be subdivided into two types: Plausibility shields and Attribution shields.   3. Adaptors used by Teacher
  Teacher in EFL class usually use Adaptors to change his intensity of tone in order to make his talk more euphemistic or polite, save the students’ face. Adaptors can also help teacher to make the sentences of which he is not certain more appropriately. Let’s see some examples:
  Example 1: T: To some extent, your answer is right.
  In Example 1, the teacher uses the adaptor “to some extent” to give evaluation of answer made by some student who actually fails to give the correct answer the teacher wants. In doing so, teacher can save the student’s face and protect the student’s enthusiasm of answering questions.
  4. Hedges Used by Students in EFL Class
  EFL class is composed of teacher and students, so the characteristics of students’ talk should not be ignored. But most of the current English class is still teacher-centered, students’ talk mainly involve in answering the teacher’s questions or the dialogues between students themselves. So students use much fewer hedges than the teacher and most of the hedges used by students are plausibility shields. They can use these hedges to answer the teacher’s questions or express their views. For example:
  Example 2: I think this sentence should use past perfect tense.
  With the help of plausibility shields, students can express their views more freely and get more opportunities to talk which is benefit for the improvement of their communicative competence.
  5. Conclusion
  Both teacher and students use hedges in EFL class and the hedges play a positive role in the communication between teacher and students. The limitation of this paper lies that the analysis of the hedges used by teacher and students is confined to imaginations and the author’s past experience, so that the correctness and authority of this paper are weakened. Further study of this paper may collect data from actual classes to test what kind of hedges is the most frequently used by teacher and students, and find out the representative situations where teacher and students use hedges.
  References:
  [1]George Yule.Pragmatics[M].Shanghai:Foreign Language Education Press,2000.
  [2]何自然.模糊限制语与言语交际[J].外国语,1985,(5).
  [3]伍铁平.模糊语言学初探[J].外国语,1979,(4).
  [4]伍铁平.模糊语言学再探[J].外国语,1980,(4).
其他文献
【摘要】翻译英美文化作品过程中较容易受到中西文化差异的影响,且影响非常大。英美文化作品是西方文化的精髓所在,要想使学生的整个素养和英语应用能力得到提升,就必须要注重开展英美文学作品翻译教学,使学生的跨文化交际能力得到提升,引导学生明确中西文化之间存在的差异,且能够在今后的英美文化作品翻译过程中合理的运用,以便更好地翻译出英美文化作品。文中,笔者通过查阅文献资料,分析了中西文化之间存在的差异,且探究
【摘要】在我国经济社会建设发展事业稳定有序发展的历史背景下,国民的基本观念认知正在想着多元有序的方向深度演化,这种演化背景也深刻地促进了我国大学教育事业运作模式的多元化发展演进趋势,因此,本文围绕多元化大学英语教学展开了简要阐述。  【关键词】多元化 大学英语 教学 探究  改革开放事业的无内胆管有序推进为我国社会主义市场经济的发展提供了具备更加开放且更加包容的发展环境,也为现代国人开展英语学习活
期刊
随着国际贸易的繁荣发展,商务高层次人才必须具备良好的书面信息沟通能力。本文以体裁及其相关理论为基础,提出了现代商务英语写作教学的新认识,以此培养适应现代国际贸易的
2007年6月,农业部发布了.作为的姊妹篇,该旨在引导特色农产品向最适宜区集中,促进农业区域专业分工,深化农业结构战略性调整,加快形成科学合理的农业生产力布局.
李家庄对我来讲,是一段难忘的历史.这段历史虽然时间不很长,据我所知,大约是1948年三四月,中共中央城工部(即后来的中央统战部)到了李家庄,到1949年3月下旬进北平城,时间将近
5月17日,在国家七大石化产业基地之一的大连长兴岛,恒力2000万吨/年炼化一体化项目举行了全面投产仪式.rn从破土动工到全部建成仅用19个月,全流程开车投产仅用3个月,全面达产
期刊
“性贿赂”是当前官员腐败堕落的一个主要途径.想谋取不正当利益和政治利益的人正是抓住了官员们的这个软肋,不断向他们输送美色,使他们在温香软玉的环境中丧失了廉洁,成为行
经典的Fendi广告设计精美,摄影无可挑剔,可是它们全部是静态的——拎着价值2000美元手袋的模特一动不动地呆在光滑的纸版上。然而,当2006年9月底Fendi的首次视频广告在Style.c
近年来,民革安徽省马鞍山市委立足社会主义市场经济的大舞台,紧扣参政为公、议政为民的主旋律,唱好维护一方稳定,服务民众的配角戏,受到各界好评.