Anadili ve yabancı dil konuşurlarının İngilizce akademik sözlü söylemde kaçınma stratejisi kullanımlarının karşılaştırmalı incelenmesi

Hedging strategies affect communication in academic discourse. Speakers use hedges to express tentativeness and manage relationships. Although extensive research exists on hedging, studies on its use in spoken academic contexts, particularly among proficient non-native speakers (NNSs), are limited. This study compares adverbial hedging devices used by Turkish English Language Teaching (ELT) professionals and native English-speaking (NS) counterparts in academic webinars. Two corpora were compiled: ELT webinars by Turkish professionals and webinars by native English-speaking professionals. The analysis examined frequency, lexical range, and pragmatic functions of adverbial hedges using quantitative and qualitative approaches. Turkish speakers use adverbial hedges more frequently than native speakers, though differences were not statistically significant. While overall frequency did not differ, hedge distribution in forms and functions showed significant differences. Turkish speakers' adverbs are semantically fixed, often using expressions like just formulaically. Native speakers employ hedging where adverbs like maybe serve multiple functions and show adaptability across contexts. Results were discussed in light of relevant literature, and implications and suggestions were offered for teaching and research.