The foreign language experience as mother tongue deviation: a study on indeterminacy

Abstract

This paper examines indeterminacy in foreign language production, which can be defined, in this context, as a mismatch between what speakers wish to express and what they end up saying (VEREZA, 2002). The study resorts to Appraisal Theory (MARTIN; WHITE, 2005) and its semantics of affect and stance taking, which provided the research units of analysis. The methodology involves the contrastive analysis of texts of the same genre produced by Brazilian advanced students of English in their L1 and target language.