earticle

영어

This study aims to compare different uses of epistemic modality used in both non- native texts (NNT) and native texts (NT) of writers based on the frequency of epistemic modality. In addition, there is an insightful exploration of how these different usage of modality should be tackled in order to foster the pragmatic competence of L2 learners in second language teaching and learning environment since the use of epistemic modality is a crucial area of pragmatic failure in the work of L2 learners. In order to answer the research questions, the range and frequency corpus program was used to show the total frequency of word usage including different types of epistemic modality. 180 NNT and 152 NT were collected and analyzed based on the categorization of epistemic modality. The study shows that can and should are prominent features, taking a higher frequency in NNT of writers among other modal expressions used. On the other hand, would and might are the ones much less used in comparison to ones in NT. In addition, NNT of writers tend to overuse a number of epistemic modality such as think, know, always, and a lot of, indicating the lack of awareness of using various types of epistemic modality particularly used by NT of writers such as would, might, seem, perhaps, likely and so on. This study also demonstrates a number of misused examples of epistemic modality which are corrected by native writers. These cases indicate the possibility of first language transfer and weak pragmatic competence of learners in second language learning environment.