The Stance taking of Kurdish EFL learners in their L2 Argumentative Writings

Stance taking has a major role in academic writing and “its importance lies in the fact that academics gain acceptance for their research claims by balancing conviction with caution, either investing statements with the confidence of reliable knowledge, or with tentativeness to reflect uncertainty or appropriate social interactions” (Hyland, 1998, p. 349). The present study aims at investigating the stance staking of 21 Kurdish BA students of English Language and Literature. The participants, 6 females and 15 males, were asked to write an argumentative essay on “It is better for children to grow up in the countryside than in a big city.” The collected essays were rated based on a modified framework inspired by Hyland (2012). The results indicate that Kurdish EFL learners used more hedges than boosters and even less attitude markers in their essays. The fact that hedges were used more than the other two markers, suggests that Kurdish EFL learners are more cautious when it comes to claiming their personal ideas. Kurdish learners expressed their ideas and explained them clearly, but at the same time they used hedges more than boosters, leaving room for their ideas to be proven otherwise.