Boosters in the writing of Kurdish learners of English

الملخص EN

Boosters have a significant role in academic writing; they help writers represent their beliefs, opinions, and evaluations with confidence.

This paper aims to identify, analyse and classify the frequencies and types of boosting devices in the corpus comprising essays written by Kurdish Learners of English to express certainty in their English academic writing and if there seems to be a gender related difference.

The results indicate that Kurdish learners depend on a narrow range of boosting devices; moreover, there are significant differences between female and male groups in using boosters.

Female students are found to be more likely to make firm assurances to the statements they give.

The results can have implications for foreign language teachers in that they should take measures to familiarize their students with the boosting devices, help them to increase their awareness of the way they organize their writing and show them how to use such devices in an appropriate way.