Helping intermediate learners use

hedges in discourse

Jennifer Lynn Kwiatoski Cody

Bell Educational Trust – The Online Delta
Submitted 23 November 2015
Word Count: 2486

Helping intermediate learners use hedges in discourse 1

Jennifer Lynn Kwiatoski Cody
INTRODUCTION 3

ANALYSIS 3
WHAT ARE HEDGES? 3
TYPES OF HEDGES 3
USE 5
SPEAKING 5
WRITING 6
GRAMMAR 6
COLLOCATION 7

LEARNER ISSUES 7

TEACHING ISSUES 8

TEACHING SUGGESTIONS 8
APPROACHES 8
ACTIVITIES 9

BIBLIOGRAPHY 13

APPENDICES 16
APPENDIX 1 16
APPENDIX 2 17
APPENDIX 3 18
APPENDIX 4 19
APPENDIX 5 21
APPENDIX 6 23
APPENDIX 7 26

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Jennifer Lynn Kwiatoski Cody
Introduction
Hedging is a discourse strategy that expresses tentativeness (Hooi and
Shuib 2014:123), shields the speaker or writer from an unwanted
consequence/commitment (Markkanen and Schröder 2007) – to the
language itself or to some action or truth in the real world - or to avoid
sounding rude/overly direct (Cabanes 2007:139). These are all vital to
maintaining the pragmatic elements of discourse (Fraser 2010(b):15).

Hedging encompasses a wide range of language present in almost all

forms of discourse. Although it is more common in spoken discourse
(Hyland1996), it is also found in writing. Defining particular hedges is a
challenge (Markkanen and Schröder 2007) as they generally embody
abstract concepts of vagueness, qualification or intensity, and their
grammatical forms are varied.

I have chosen this area as my learners tend to underuse most hedges

while overusing others. This occasionally causes them to sound too direct,
too precise/imprecise, or simply not as native-like as they would prefer.

Analysis

What are hedges?

Hedges are not easily categorizable, have variable functions (Hyland

1996) and may vary based on context (Lakoff 1973:458). At their core, all
hedges render a proposition more or less precise, qualifying or
depersonalizing it, creating a veneer of politeness (Thornbury 2005:66) or
implying a lack of commitment (Fraser 2010(b):22). These modifications
reflect a pragmatic awareness that contributes to the efficiency of
discourse by approximating the true real-world nature of a proposition
(Neary-Sundquist 2013:152). They are also considered a marker of native-
like speech (Fraser 2010(b):15).

Types of hedges

Prince cited in Kaltenböch, Mihatsch and Scheider (2010:5) classifies

hedges into shields and approximators. Shields mitigate force: softening
the impact of communication, whereas attributors mitigate content:
attenuating the meaning of communication (Fraser 2010(a):201).

Shields are divided into plausible shields and attributors (Yue and Wang
2014:50).
Helping intermediate learners use hedges in discourse 3
Jennifer Lynn Kwiatoski Cody
Plausible shields soften the tone of language or show a lack of
commitment to “the true condition of a proposition” (ibid). They may
convey a good impression, good intentions (ibid:49)or a sense of
cooperation (Hidayati, Muhammad, Dallyono 2008:35) and often employ
modals (Yue and Wang 2014:50). Some examples include:

 Maintaining/defining relationships, e.g. between friends/in a

hierarchy
o Hierarchy/power structures: those lower in a hierarchy
(Markkanen and Schröder 2007), may not want to seem
overly direct/opinionated (Thornbury 2005:66) e.g. Perhaps
we could consider...
o Politeness and ‘face’: smoothing social interaction through
implying unstated ideas or soften language, due to:
 An expectation of politeness, e.g. You might want to
close the window c.f. Close the window (Lakoff
1973:490)
 ‘No’ being considered too direct: e.g. I’m afraid not c.f.
No
 A lack of context: unfamiliar interlocutors may wish to
keep a polite/cooperative atmosphere (Gee 1993:422)

 Being vague/avoiding commitment:

o To a truth value, e.g. It seems that she wrote this email (Prince
cited in Fraser 2010(b):19)
o To semantics, e.g. using quotes (He said this was American
“culture”) or with phrases such as so-called (Markkanen and
Schröder 2007)
o To an action, e.g. I might consider it or performative, e.g. I
should apologize (Fraser 2010(b):23)

In contrast, attributors often employ the third person (Yue and Wang
2014:50) or, in my experience, passive voice and depersonalize in order
to:
o Avoid taking undue credit, e.g. the results were analyzed
(you alone did not analyze the results)
o Express views through others, e.g. According to... due to a
perceived lack of personal expertise (ibid)
o Broadcast a message, e.g. smoking is prohibited in the
common areas: the writer is not the policy’s creator
o Avoid personal responsibility, e.g. mistakes were made

Approximators are divided into rounders, which add vagueness to a

phrase, and adaptors, which modify a phrase by intensifying, de-
Helping intermediate learners use hedges in discourse 4
Jennifer Lynn Kwiatoski Cody
intensifying or qualifying it to better approximate its real-world value
(Fraser 2010(b):19).

Rounders may be used when a proposition’s exact value is unclear,

especially with numbers/figures e.g. approximately (ibid).

Examples of adaptors include:

 Intensifiers, e.g. very

 De-intensifiers, e.g. kind of
 Qualifiers: modifying a proposition’s truth value for a proposition
that is true in only certain respects, e.g. She’s relieved in a sense
may be more accurate than “She’s relieved.”
o Often used to something that is not an exact example of its
group (Lakoff 1973:484), e.g. a tomato is technically a fruit
o May define a group that includes exceptions, e.g. Generally
speaking, New Yorkers tend to be direct
o May introduce vagueness, e.g. to an extent

While some question whether intensifiers and de-intensifiers are true

hedges, Lakoff cited in Markkanen and Schröder (2007) includes them.

Use

Hedges are found in both spoken and written discourse at different

frequencies depending on genre. In both types of discourse, intimacy –
the relationship’s closeness and how well the context is known to all –
determines hedging frequency and type (Fraser 2010(b):22). For example,
friends chatting may frequently/informally hedge (e.g. kind of/sort of),
whereas a more formal presentation may contain hedging modals for
politeness (e.g. “This may be the best way forward”), but avoid hedging
for vagueness.

Speaking

Hedges are common in spoken discourse as it is:

 Often less lexically dense than writing, which may be achieved

through hedging (Pérez-Paredes, Hernández and Jiménez
2011:109), and may include hedge strings (Torres-Martínez 2014:28),
e.g. I guess maybe I could think about calling him
 Often less formal than writing, lending itself to informal hedges such
as sort of and kind of
 More given to hesitations and “stops and starts” (Thornbury 2005:64)
which may be filled with hedges, e.g. it’s...kind of...well...okay
Helping intermediate learners use hedges in discourse 5
Jennifer Lynn Kwiatoski Cody
  More likely to be interactional (c.f. transactional), requiring the use
of more polite hedged language (Schröder and Zimmer 1997:253)

Pronunciation is an important part of spoken hedging. Hedges are:

 Usually de-stressed as they tend to modify the most-stressed word:

 May exhibit features of connected speech, e.g. assimilation, elision
and weak forms, e.g. it’s sort of a strange thing to say
(/ɪsɔːrdəvə‘streɪnʤ.../)
 At times given a rising tone if they fill a sentence ‘tail’ (ibid:65), e.g. I
went out with him, sort of.
 May be emphasized if their use is of particular note, e.g. Is bourbon
a whiskey? Well, it’s sort of a whiskey.
Writing

Hedging in writing is genre-dependent (Hyland 1996) and may be present

in:
 Intentionally softened writing where politeness and reader
acceptance is key (Markkanen an Schröder 2007), e.g. One thing
you might consider is...
 Writing that must closely approximate the truth, e.g. scientific writing
where the author is unsure of how well evidence correlates to a
hypothesis (Hyland 1996), e.g. The results indicate that cats may
understand human language to an extent...
 E-mail writing, messaging and texting, which often displays
characteristics of spoken discourse (Baron 2001:4), e.g. Yeah, it’s
kind of a problem.

Grammar

Hedges have no set grammatical form (Fraser 2010(a):203), and may

include:

o Adjectives (significant)
o Adverbs (presumably)
o Modals (might)
o Adverbials (to an extent)
o Clauses, including sentence headers (I’m no expert, but...)
and tails (...if you know what I mean)
o Copula (seem)
o Questions (Could it be that...?)

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Collocation

In my experience, how hedges collocate is a key consideration. For

example, more or less collocates with certain adjectives (I’m more or less
satisfied) but not others (it’s more or less expensive), and not numbers
(He’s more or less 32).

Learner Issues
Some issues intermediate learners have with hedges include:

 Meaning and context: in my experience, the abstractness and

context-based variability of most hedges may cause difficulties,
especially for learners in contexts far removed from their teachers’
or materials’ origins. For instance, learners from vastly different
climates may understand it’s a bit cold quite differently.

 Form: Learners who have studied in English in a Grammar-

Translation classroom and expect concepts to follow a
grammatical framework may struggle with the unified concept of
hedges, as they cannot be so categorized.

 Overuse: In my experience, learners in non-English-speaking settings

tend to pick up a few basic hedges, e.g. very, and overuse them,
leading to repetitive speech (Neary-Sundquist 2013:154). Speakers
of languages in which interlocutor relationship/hierarchy strongly
influences language choices, such as Korean (Lee 2014:339) and
Japanese, may also overuse hedges in certain situations.

 Underuse, resulting from:

o Underexposure (Abbuhl 2006:153). In my experience, modals
are underused compared to phrases like please, e.g. Please
fix the code c.f. You might want to fix the code, common
among learners in Asia.

o Cultural differences: e.g. German learners may feel that

hedging indicates a lack of confidence in their claims and
lowers persuasiveness (Kreutz and Harris cited in ibid:153).

 Identifying/using collocations: In my experience this is common

among learners who studied hedges in vocabulary lists without
much context, which I have found to be common among learners
self-studying for proficiency exams.

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  Pronunciation: Learners, especially in non-English speaking contexts,
may have difficulty with:
o Weak forms (Brown 2006:13) and other elements of
connected speech common in hedging
o Appropriately using intonation/chunking with hedges
o Understanding hedges if they are attached, when de-
stressed, to the word they modify (Field 2008:143).

Teaching issues
Issues in teaching hedging to intermediate learners include:

 Inauthentic materials: ‘tidied up’ language is often neat, clean and

easy to follow (Thornbury 2005:64), implying a lack of hedges. While
there are good reasons for this – to make it more comprehensible or
to highlight a particular focus (ibid:103) – it ultimately leads to less
exposure to hedges.

 A lack of classroom focus: Abbuhl (2006:153) notes that there is a

lack of attention paid to teaching hedging, and that some
classrooms reduce it to presenting decontextualized “lists of modals
and sentence connectors”. Wishnoff cited in Abbuhl (ibid) notes a
similar issue in writing classrooms.

 The wide grammatical range and collocation of hedges: If taught

from a grammatical perspective, learners may not form a unified
concept of hedging or be adequately exposed to how hedges
collocate.

Teaching suggestions

Approaches

Potential teaching approaches for intermediate learners include:

 A functional grammar focus: for example, plausible shields, noted in

the analysis as often containing modal verbs, can be taught as a
functional lesson on modals.

 A lexical focus: learners may find this useful for hedges that are
harder to categorize grammatically. For example, approximators

Helping intermediate learners use hedges in discourse 8

Jennifer Lynn Kwiatoski Cody
 such as somewhat, kind of, sort of, to an extent and more or less
may be taught together as softeners, with their different
uses/collocations as mentioned in the analysis, within a
collocational framework which is key in such an approach (Lewis
1997:32).

 A context-based/genre approach: the analysis mentions that

differing perspectives may cause learner difficulties with hedges,
which may be remedied through context-based teaching.
Authentic materials can be mined for naturally occurring hedges,
which, as noted in the analysis, these are more likely to contain. This
also provides an opportunity for noticing (Lewis 1997:52).

 A task-based approach, which may be used for:

o Approximators, which can be used to negotiate meaning, a
component of task-based learning (Ellis 2006)
o Plausible shields, if the task is to convey a ‘good impression’
o Completion of tasks that require certain hedges, e.g.
attribution in a report or memo

Activities

Sentence insertion
(Powell 1999: 56)
Appendix 1

In this activity, which can also be done as a gap fill, learners:

 Receive a list of unhedged sentences, preferably within a common

context, followed by hedging language in parentheses
 Work in pairs/groups to insert the hedges into the sentences
 Identify relevant collocations for further work/ practice

This may be a springboard for further work with hedging collocations, and
allows learners to focus on how hedges may be used naturally in a
sentence, with an eye to both grammar/form and collocation, noted as
important in the analysis. The sentences may link together to form a longer
text, which can add additional context to the use of hedges.

Helping intermediate learners use hedges in discourse 9

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Text extraction
Appendix 2

In this activity, learners:

 Read/hear a text (dialogues/conversations are a prime choice)

 Work in pairs/groups to find the specified hedging language
 Return to the beginning of the text and find more hedges with
similar structure or meaning
 Classify these hedges according to use

The hedges in the text may be used for further productive work. This
activity puts hedges in a larger discourse or genre-based context, which
promotes greater awareness of their use and role in native-like discourse,
noted in the analysis. It also provides chances to deduce hedge
meanings from context.

Multiple choice worksheet

Appendix 3

After working with hedges within a context, learners work in pairs to finish a
multiple-choice worksheet asking about the meanings of the various
hedges, or work individually and compare answers with a partner.

This activity is ideal following a text extraction or other text activity. It is

limited in scope but extremely clear, allowing learners to clarify meaning.

Prompts/Cards
Appendix 4

Learners receive a conversation prompt that may be:

 A task to complete
 A role play
 An information gap
 A discussion opener

They also receive a set of cards printed with hedges and:

 Have the necessary discussion/complete the task in pairs/groups

 Use as many of the hedge cards as they can, avoiding overuse

Helping intermediate learners use hedges in discourse 10

Jennifer Lynn Kwiatoski Cody
This activity is ideal for productive speaking practice after learners work
with hedges in more controlled contexts. It may also be done as a writing
prompt, e.g. an e-mail writing/response. The prompts/cards address issues
mentioned in the analysis by:

 Providing a foundation to begin speaking

 Encouraging using the hedges/negotiating meaning
 Addressing underuse
 Promoting more native-like speech

Mix-and-Match Cards
Appendix 5

After working with hedges within a discourse context, learners:

 Receive one set of cards printed with hedges and another printed
with words they may modify
 Pair hedges with collocating content words
 Use the result to create sentences
 Choose a few of their pairs to create a dialogue or text

This activity may also be done as a matching activity with full sentences. It
may draw on the importance of collocation in hedging as mentioned in
the analysis. It allows for controlled practice following an introduction to
the hedges given and extends naturally to less controlled production. The
hedges and their collocating lexis may be restricted, e.g. only including
adverb hedges with collocating adjectives.

Giving Directions
Appendix 6

In this activity, learners:

 Extract lexis from a dialogue giving difficult directions

 Deduce meaning from an accompanying map before working on
form/pronunciation
 Use the extracted lexis to give directions to a partner using a new
map

This activity draws on the use of hedges to approximate real-world truth

values by prompting learners to use them for precision rather than
vagueness, an important distinction noted in the analysis. While it may be
possible to give directions without hedges, learners will quickly see that
such directions are confusing or insufficient.

Helping intermediate learners use hedges in discourse 11

Jennifer Lynn Kwiatoski Cody
Avoiding Questions
(Powell 1999:116)
Appendix 7

In this activity, learners:

 Do a question-and-answer gap fill worksheet in which hedges are

used to deflect or diplomatically answer hostile questions
 Create or receive their own sets of difficult questions
 Work in pairs to ask and answer/avoid these questions

This activity centers on using plausible shields, attributors and, to some

extent, rounders, which are all key hedge types noted in the analysis. The
format allows learners to practice them in a controlled activity before
more independent production, which provides more opportunities for
understanding their discourse function as evasive or diplomatic tools.

Helping intermediate learners use hedges in discourse 12

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Bibliography
Abbuhl, R., 2006. Hedging and Boosting in Advanced-Level L2 Legal
Writing: The Effect of Instruction and Feedback. In Educating for
Advanced Foreign Language Capacities, H. Byrnes, H. Weger-Guntharp,
K. Sprang (eds), 152-164. Washington: Georgetown University Press.

Baron, N., 2001. Why Email Looks Like Speech: Proofreading, Pedagogy
and Public Face. [online] Available at:
http://www.american.edu/cas/lfs/faculty-docs/upload/2003-Paper-Why-
Email-Looks-Like-Speech.pdf
[Accessed 20 November 2015]

Brown, J., 2006. Authentic Communication: Whyzit importan’ta teach

reduced forms? Proceedings of the 5th Annual JALT Pan-SIG Conference.
[online] Available at: https://jalt.org/pansig/2006/HTML/Brown.htm
[Accessed 24 September 2015].

Cabanes, P., 2007. A Contrastive Analysis of Hedging in English and

Spanish Architecture Project Descriptions. RESLA (Revista Española de
Lingüística Aplicada) 20, 139-158.

Ellis, R., 2006. The Methodology of Task-Based Teaching. [online] Available

at: https://www.kansai-
u.ac.jp/fl/publication/pdf_education/04/5rodellis.pdf
[Accessed 20 November 2015]

Field, J., 2008. Listening in the Language Classroom. Cambridge: CUP.

Fraser, B. (2010) (a). Hedging in political discourse: The Bush 2007 press
conferences. In Perspectives in politics and discourse, U. Okulska and P.
Cap (eds.), (pp. 201-213). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Fraser, B., 2010 (b). Pragmatic Competence: The Case of Hedging. In New
Approaches to Hedging, G. Kaltenböch, W. Mihatsch and S. Schneider,
(eds), 15-34. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing.

Gee, J.P., 1993. An Introduction to Human Language: Fundamental

Concepts in Linguistics. Edgewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.

Hidayati, F., Muhammad, A. and Dallyono, R., 2008. The Use of Hedging in
Academic Discourse. Educationist II (1), 27-37.

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Hooi, C.M. and Shuib, M., 2014. An Analysis of Hedging Devices in
Complaint Business Letters. GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies
14(3), 123-142.

Hyland, K., 1996. Writing without conviction? Hedging in scientific research

articles. [online] Available at:
http://www2.caes.hku.hk/kenhyland/files/2012/08/Writing-without-
conviction_hedging-in-scientific-research-articles.pdf
[Accessed 20 November 2015]

Kaltenböch, G., Mihatsch, W. and Scheider, S. (eds), 2010. Introduction in

New Approaches to Hedging. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing.

Lakoff, G., 1973. Hedges: A study in meaning criteria and the logic of fuzzy
concepts. Journal of Philosophical Logic 2, 458-508.

Lee, J., 2014. Korean speakers. In Learner English: A teacher’s guide to

interference and other problems, M. Swan and B. Smith (eds), 325-342.

Lewis, M., 1997. Implementing the Lexical Approach: Putting theory into
practice. Hove: Language Teaching Publications.

Markkanen, R. and Schröder, H., 2007. Hedging: A Challenge for

Pragmatics and Discourse Analysis. [online] Available at:
https://www.kuwi.europa-
uni.de/de/lehrstuhl/sw/sw2/forschung/hedging/hedging_and_discourse/a
_challange/index.html
[Accessed 19 November 2015]

Neary-Sundquist, C., 2013. The use of hedges in the speech of ESL

learmers. Elia: Estudios de lingüística inglesia aplicada 13, 149-174.

Pérez-Paredes, P, Hernández, P. and Jiménez, P., 2011. The use of

adverbial hedges in EAP students’ oral performance. In Researching
Specialized Languages, V. Bhatia, P. Hernández and P. Pérez-Paredes
(eds), 95-114. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Powell, M., 1999. Presenting in English. Hove: Language Teaching

Publications.

Schröder, H. and Zimmer, D., 1997. Hedging Research in Pragmatics: A

Bibliographical Research Guide to Hedging. In Hedging and Discourse, R.
Markkanen and H. Schröder (eds), 249-272. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.

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Thornbury, S., 2005. Beyond The Sentence: Introducing discourse analysis.
Oxford: Macmillan.

Torres-Martínez, S., 2014. Introducing conversational grammar in EFL: A

case for hedging strings. English Today 30(2), 24-32.

Yue, S. and Wang, X., 2014. Hedges Used in Business Emails: A Corpus
Study on the Language Strategy of International Business Communication
Online. Higher Education Studies 4(6), 49-57.

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Jennifer Lynn Kwiatoski Cody
 Appendices
Appendix 1
Sample of sentence insertion activity

Adapted from Powell, M., 1999. Presenting in English. Hove: Language

Teaching Publications, p. 56

Insert the phrases on the right into the sentences on the left.

I think we’re going to have a good year – sales have been up. All in all / pretty / mostly

You want to consider Suraya’s proposal, which is on target. definitely / might / more or less

We need more time if you want us to include those detailed specifications. may / just a bit / fairly

It may seem like a little work, but it’s a lot. just / actually / quite

I apologize for being rude at the conference. I think / should / fairly

We need more funding, somewhere around $300,000, to get the project just a little / perhaps / in the range
started. of

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Appendix 2
Sample of text extraction

To: <team listserv>

From: Shu-fen Lee
Subject: wrapping up early tonight

Hi all,

Just wanted to let you all know that I’m planning to head home early tonight,
because I’m rather tired. But, I’m basically happy with our work today – I’m
fairly confident we’ll finish the shopping cart module on time.

Drop me a line if you have any questions. I’ll be in pretty early tomorrow.

Cheers,

Shu-fen

From: Kevin Lin

To: Shu-fen Lee
Subject: Re: wrapping up early tonight

Hi Shu-fen,

No problem – have a good rest. Just one question – I’m somewhat confused
about a few acceptance test cases (attached). Perhaps you could take a
look?

Otherwise everything looks quite good. I think we’re basically done!

See you tomorrow.

- Kevin

Find every adverb in these two e-mails. Write down the adverb and what it
modifies.

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rather tired

Appendix 3
Sample of multiple choice worksheet (following Appendix 2’s activity)
...because I’m rather tired

a.) I’m not very tired

b.) I’m tired to a significant degree Which words mean:
c.) I’m really exhausted

a little – somewhat
I’m basically happy with what we’ve accomplished today.

a.) Generally speaking I’m happy

b.) I’m extremely happy
c.) I’m not very happy but I’m trying to be polite to a significant degree (2) –

I’m fairly confident we’ll finish the shopping cart module on

time.
a lot (2) –
a.) I’m not very confident
b.) I’m confident, but there is small room for doubt
c.) I am sure

almost –
I’ll be in pretty early tomorrow.

a.) much earlier than I want

b.) only a little bit early
c.) noticeably earlier than you’d expect generally –

I’m somewhat confused about a few acceptance test

cases.

a.) I am extremely confused

b.) I understand almost everything
c.) I am a little confused

Everything looks quite good.

a.) the module looks very good

b.) the module is just OK
c.) the module is perfect

I think we’re basically done!

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 a.) we still have a lot to do
b.) we’re almost done
c.) we’re done!

Note: how many times is basically used? Is it used the

same way?

Appendix 4
Sample of prompt/card series

It seems to me According to I’m not sure, but

Perhaps... I’m no expert, but It could be that

Look at your situation below. Write a short e-mail to

[Student 1]

Message

Your manager has asked you to give some feedback to [Student 2]

about a report that wasn’t as good as it should have been.

Reply

[Student 4]’s work is good, but a few things could be improved.

Student 2

Message

Write to [Student 3] to ask if it is possible to change the office

temperature – you think it is cold.

Reply

Tell [Student 1] that you agree and you want to change the data
format and a few suggestions in the report.
Helping intermediate learners use hedges in discourse 19
Jennifer Lynn Kwiatoski Cody
Student 3

Message

Write to [Student 5] – you think there have been some mistakes with his
sales numbers for the AMF fund in Greater China.

Reply

Reply to [Student 2] to say that the temperature was turned down

because other colleagues thought the office was warm (HR told you).
Say that you will ask others for their opinion.

Student 4

Message

Send a file of your latest work to [Student 1] to check. You think the work
is good but this is not your department.

Reply

Thank [Student 5] for the message, and agree that these acceptance
test case files were difficult.

Student 5

Message

Write to [Student 4] to let her know the acceptance test case files are
almost done, but it took a long time.

Reply

Reply to [Student 3] to thank him for noticing. Say you got the figures
from the Nikkei and Hang Seng but will check again.

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Appendix 5
Samples of mix-and-match cards with comparative hedges and
collocations

Match the blue cards with the orange cards to make sentences
comparing cities and places you’ve been.

Example: Taipei is quite a bit more humid than London.

cut here
rather better than...

a little more expensive than...

a bit colder than...

a tiny bit uglier than...

quite a bit more attractive than...

just a little smaller than...

a great deal more exciting than...

a good deal more humid than...

somewhat busier than...

much more crowded than...

so much safer than...

far more dangerous than...

seemingly older than...

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Mix-and-match cards: collocations

somewhat terrible

approximately ugly

very written

really satisfied

more or less 30 years old

kind of happy

about 50%

quite ready

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Appendix 6
Sample of map activity

Aliya: Hey, can you tell me how to get to your house?

Shenghao: Sure. It’s a little complicated though. Go to MRT Jing An

Station. The exit is just off the main road, in Lane 110.

Aliya: Got it.

Shenghao: You exit and turn right and walk just a little ways to Jingping
Road.

Aliya: You live on Jingping Road, yes? So I turn right and go straight?

Shenghao: Not quite. Turn right – the road will curve kind of to the right,
and the road that’s more or less straight ahead becomes Zhongshan
Road.

Aliya: Oh, I see.

Shenghao: So, stay on Jingping Road. On the left you’ll see kind of a
small 7-11. My place is a little bit behind that, there’s sort of a walk way
next to the 7-11 and the door is just around the corner. Make sense?

Aliya: I think I’ve got it. I can use the ATM at the 7-11 right?

Shenghao: Unfortunately not, this one doesn’t have an ATM. For the
ATM, cross Jingping Road right after you exit the MRT. Turn right and
walk to Yuantong Road. Just a tiny bit past that, on the other side of
that sort of weird triangle church on the corner you’ll see Leli Road. Turn
left on that and the ATM is on the left. It’s set back quite a bit from the
road though.

Aliya: Great. I’ll head out now. See you soon!

1.) Is the MRT station on Jingping Road?

2.) Does Jingping Road go straight? Does it turn right?
3.) Does Shenghao live next to the 7-11?
4.) Describe the church between Yuantong Road and Leli Road.
5.) Where is Leli Road compared to Yuantong Road?
6.) What should Aliya remember about the ATM?

Helping intermediate learners use hedges in discourse 23

Jennifer Lynn Kwiatoski Cody
Helping intermediate learners use hedges in discourse 24
Jennifer Lynn Kwiatoski Cody
Now try it with your own map:

Helping intermediate learners use hedges in discourse 25

Jennifer Lynn Kwiatoski Cody
Appendix 7
Sample activity: avoiding questions

Adapted from Powell, M., 1999. Presenting in English. Hove: Language

Teaching Publications, p. 116

I suppose so. Not exactly.

Sort of. Well, it’s true that...

In a sense That’s a fair point.

“The product idea is good, but isn’t the Sealamander basically exactly the same thing
as the XYZipper, which has already been on the market for years? Do you think we can
compete?”

_________________________this is an issue, but our product has several features that the
XYZipper lacks, and customers will notice.

“So you’re just going to let 50 people go?”

____________________________. We’ll be giving out generous severance packages to

those who choose to leave, and offering early retirement to others. Hopefully it won’t
come down to actually laying off that many people.

“But don’t you think morale will drop if you lower pay scales?”

_____________________________, and we’re working on solutions for it now.

“Work with Electrotech? I heard they’re on the verge of bankruptcy!”

_____________________________. They’ve been through some rough times, but they’re in

talks with Howcorp now to discuss a merger. That can only be good for us.

“So what do we do now, just start over? No matter how much it’ll cost us to get back
in the market?”

_____________________________. We’ll have to do what it takes.

“What I’m getting from this is that we’re going to be bought out and there’s nothing
we can do about it.”

__________________________, yes. Though a lot of us are thinking about it as a payout,

and now we’re free to get involved in some new projects.

Helping intermediate learners use hedges in discourse 26

Jennifer Lynn Kwiatoski Cody
Helping intermediate learners use hedges in discourse 27
Jennifer Lynn Kwiatoski Cody