Student Perceptions of Assessment-for-Learning Practices in an English Academic Writing Course

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingjing Ma
Keyword(s):  
Student Perceptions ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Assessment For Learning ◽  
Learning Practices ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
English Academic Writing

Academic Writing Teaching Method for Arab Students: A Case Study in a Health Sciences University in the U.A.E

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 8-19
Author(s):  
Omnia Ibrahim
Keyword(s):  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Teaching Method ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
Sentence Structure ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Arab Students ◽  
Potential Methods ◽  
English Academic Writing

This study examines the difficulties faced by Arab students in the tertiary level in creating a well-written paragraph in English academic writing. The participants were approximately 40 students from RAK Medical and Health Sciences University located in Ras Al Khaimah in The United Arab Emirates. The study’s significance is to propose potential methods and solutions for academic English instructors to improve the students’ performance by designing a writing course based on the pre-and post-tests that were used to monitor students’ progress in writing before and after the course of Academic writing. Pre-tests were conducted to analyze the needs of the students. The analyses revealed that the participants had trouble using the writing fundamentals like grammar, vocabulary, and sentence structure. After implementing the course topics, the results of the post-tests showed changes in the students’ academic writing performance. The study concludes that to obtain the best results from the courses of English Academic writing, the course should be based on the difficulties faced by the students. It also shows that before applying any academic writing course, the instructor has to carry out an error or needs analyses to identify the weak points of the group, then the course can be designed accordingly.

‘Maybe complicated is a better word’: Second-language English graduate student responses to syntactic complexity in a genre-based academic writing course

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (Spring) ◽  
pp. 95-114
Author(s):  
J. Elliott Casal ◽  
Xiaofei Lu
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Student Perceptions ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Research Writing ◽  
Targeted Instruction ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
Learner Perception ◽  
Potential Benefits

This practice-oriented exploratory study reports student perceptions and potential benefits of introducing syntactic complexity-focused activities in an advanced English for Academic Purposes writing course. Syntactic complexity, seen by many as a multidimensional construct and generally defined as the range and sophistication of structures used, is here operationalized through four approaches. The pedagogical site was a six-week mixed-discipline writing course with an emphasis on second-language English research writing. Attention to syntactic complexity was integrated into a previously established corpus- and genre-analysis based pedagogy, and data is comprised of a learner-perception survey and interview and instructor observational journals. Emphasis was placed on reflection on complexity in academic writing, rather than the production of complex structures. The findings suggest benefits for targeted instruction of syntactic complexity in all four categories, with particular benefits to student writer confidence and intentionality resulting from increased awareness of the affordances and appropriateness of complexity overall.

Instruction of Nominalization by Applying Enabling of POA

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 342-358
Author(s):  
Hao Chen
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Academic English ◽  
English Writing ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
Learning Journals ◽  
English Majors ◽  
Chinese English Learners ◽  
Oriented Approach

AbstractIt is noticeable that the academic papers written by Chinese English learners are lacking in academic features largely due to their poor ability to use nominalization. Therefore, the instruction of nominalization in an academic English writing course is badly needed. The author conducted one-semester-long instruction of nominalization to 90 non-English majors under the guidance of the production-oriented approach (POA). This research demonstrated how to apply POA, specifically, the enabling procedure to the teaching of nominalization. By triangulating the data of students’ interviews, learning journals and written output, and the data of 4 teachers’ class observations and interviews, this study found that the accurate application of the three criteria of effective enabling contributed to the improvement of the quantity and quality of nominalization in academic writing.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document