The Effect of Hedging Instruction on Reading Comprehension for Iranian University Students

This study examined the effect of explicit instruction of hedging on English for Specific Academic Purposes (ESAP) reading comprehension performance of English Language Learning (ELL) university students. A reading comprehension test was developed and validated as the pretest and the posttest. The test, including items for assessing the comprehension of the students in their area of specialization, was administered to 180 undergraduates (B.S.), of whom 100 students were selected and randomly assigned to experimental and control conditions. Then, all the participants attended 10 sessions of awareness-raising treatment. During the first 3 sessions, the participants in the experimental condition were instructed on the essential meaning of a hedge, as well as the types and functions of hedging devices. The next sessions focused on the practical use of these markers as they appear in academic texts. After the treatment, the test was again given to the same students as the post-test. The results of two t tests and a two-way ANOVA provided empirical support for the facilitative effect of explicit instruction in recognizing hedging devices that improved their language proficiency and therefore improved their reading comprehension scores.