hedging

Hedging academic claims has been recognized as one of integral pragmatic features of academic writing in which most EFL academic writers seem to face substantial problems. Explicit instruction has been proposed by some scholars as an effective approach to make EFL writers aware of the importance, different forms, and pragmatic functions of hedging devices some of which are polysemous and polypragmatics (e.g., Hyland 1996a). The present study with the aim of shedding more light on the effectiveness of explicit instruction in improving the pragmatic knowledge of Iranian EFL learners in terms of hedging devices, investigates the acquisition and use of English modal auxiliaries as hedging strategies via applying a direct teaching strategy in the classroom. To this end a sample of 37 undergraduate students majoring in different fields of study were recruited and assigned into a control and experimental group. Explicit instruction of the modal auxiliaries as hedging resources was applied for the treatment group while the control group received only the regular academic writing instruction. A pretest and a posttest were administered to the two groups. The descriptive analysis of the scores as well as the results of the t-tests revealed a significant progress in the participants’ linguistic and pragmatic knowledge of modal auxiliaries as hedges in the treatment group. The results also indicated that the experimental group outperformed the control group in acquiring and using modal verbs to hedge their claims. The findings of the study provide insightful implications for the administrators of educational programs.

In this paper we distinguish between operational risks depending on whether the operational risk naturally arises in the context of model risk. As the pricing model exposes itself to operational errors whenever it updates and improves its investment model and other related parameters. In this case, it is no longer optimal to implement the best model. Generally, an option is exercised in a jump-diffusion model, if the stock price either exactly hits the early exercise boundary or the price jumps into the exercise price region. However paths of the diffusion process are continuous. In this paper the impact of operational risk on the option pricing through the implementation of Mitra’s model with jump diffusion model is presented. A partial integral differential equation is derived and the impact of parameters of Merton’s model on operational risk and option value by operational value at risk measure is employed. The option values in the presence of operational risk on data set are computed and some of the results are presented.