Willem B. Hollmann, Kazuko Fujimoto, Masahiro Kuroda
{"title":"Japanese EFL undergraduate students’ use of the epistemic modal verbs may, might, and could in academic writing","authors":"Willem B. Hollmann, Kazuko Fujimoto, Masahiro Kuroda","doi":"10.1515/cercles-2023-0014","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Modifying and hedging one’s claims appropriately is an important characteristic of academic writing. This study focuses on the three main English modal verbs used to express “epistemic possibility” to avoid making strong statements, viz., <jats:italic>may</jats:italic>, <jats:italic>might</jats:italic>, and <jats:italic>could</jats:italic>. The purpose of this corpus-based study is to explore modal verb usage by Japanese EFL undergraduate students and consider pedagogical implications of our findings. Our analysis suggests that the Japanese students’ use of these modal verbs, especially <jats:italic>could</jats:italic>, has a tendency to be informal and insufficiently academic. While the Japanese students use <jats:italic>could</jats:italic> very frequently, they do not use it sufficiently in the sense of “epistemic possibility”, and some of their use is inappropriate not just in academic English but in English more generally. The observed high frequency of <jats:italic>could</jats:italic> may be related to topics and may also be due to the influence of L1. We discuss different factors that may explain the findings, based mainly on the overview of factors impacting on EFL learners’ use of academic English offered by Gilquin and Paquot (2008). Too chatty: Learner academic writing and register variation. English Text Construction 1(1). 41–61), suggest several additions to this overview, and discuss implications for the instruction of these modal verbs in academic writing and in order to improve relevant teaching materials.","PeriodicalId":53966,"journal":{"name":"Language Learning in Higher Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7000,"publicationDate":"2024-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Language Learning in Higher Education","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1515/cercles-2023-0014","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Modifying and hedging one’s claims appropriately is an important characteristic of academic writing. This study focuses on the three main English modal verbs used to express “epistemic possibility” to avoid making strong statements, viz., may, might, and could. The purpose of this corpus-based study is to explore modal verb usage by Japanese EFL undergraduate students and consider pedagogical implications of our findings. Our analysis suggests that the Japanese students’ use of these modal verbs, especially could, has a tendency to be informal and insufficiently academic. While the Japanese students use could very frequently, they do not use it sufficiently in the sense of “epistemic possibility”, and some of their use is inappropriate not just in academic English but in English more generally. The observed high frequency of could may be related to topics and may also be due to the influence of L1. We discuss different factors that may explain the findings, based mainly on the overview of factors impacting on EFL learners’ use of academic English offered by Gilquin and Paquot (2008). Too chatty: Learner academic writing and register variation. English Text Construction 1(1). 41–61), suggest several additions to this overview, and discuss implications for the instruction of these modal verbs in academic writing and in order to improve relevant teaching materials.
期刊介绍:
Language Learning in Higher Education deals with the most relevant aspects of language acquisition at university. The CercleS journal presents the outcomes of research on language teaching, blended learning and autonomous learning, language assessment as well as aspects of professional development, quality assurance and university language policy. Its aim is to increase the quality of language teaching and learning programmes offered by university language centers and other providers in higher education by presenting new models and by disseminating the best results of research activities carried out at language centers and in other higher education departments.