Hedging and Boosting Strategies in Linguistics and Geography – A Case Study of Student Perception
Hedging and Boosting Strategies in Linguistics and Geography – A Case Study of Student Perception

Summary/Abstract: This paper examines the use of hedging and boosting strategies in written academic discourse, specifically in scientific/research monographs in Linguistics and Geography. In particular, hedging and boosting strategies in academia are analysed within the corpora of monographs written in the two abovementioned disciplines in English and in Serbian, in order to investigate the possible differences in the interactional disciplinespecific practices. Moreover, the paper explores student perceptions of the hedging and boosting used in the written scientific discourse in both Linguistics and Geography. This pilot study, conducted at the University of Novi Sad, focuses on the student reception of the hedging and boosting used in the scientific monograph corpora in the field of Linguistics and Geography in English and Serbian. Our findings show that focusing on hedging and boosting strategies in academic discourse in the English and in the Serbian corpora helps students achieve a better understanding of the discourse. We propose that exposing students to various samples of scientific writing and guiding them through the examination of the discipline-specific usage of hedges and boosters could benefit both students and language instructors. Students would better understand the intentions and implications of the authors’ scientific discourses if they were given a comparison of the English and Serbian discipline-specific hedging and boosting strategies. If language instructors were to focus students’ attention on the languagespecific features used in scientific discourse, it would improve students’ understanding of scientific inquiry and scientific methodologies. Guiding students through the rules of hedging and boosting would most likely enable them to better locate hedging and boosting within the existing body of literature, to reflect upon the credibility of scientific findings, and to integrate such strategies into their future academic and professional writing.

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