Using tentative language in English

One aspect of English which non-native speakers (in this case the Czech academics) find difficult when learning the English language is the use of tentative language, sometimes also called hedging or a vague language. The reason is that this phenomenon in the Czech language is not that strong as in English. Therefore, the teachers of English as a foreign language should address this issue since its ignorance might cause serious cross-cultural misunderstandings in all spheres of human activities. The purpose of this paper is to discuss tentativeness or hedging within the framework of teaching academic writing at the Faculty of Informatics and Management at the University of Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic and illustrate the difficulties which the non-native speakers of English face when using it. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.