Toward the understanding of Chinese ESL writing

English Today ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Min Hu
Keyword(s):  
Learning Styles ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
The United States ◽  
Esl Students ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Academic Environments ◽  
English Writing ◽  
The Usa

It is worth noting that an increasing number of international students, especially Chinese students, have been flooding into English-speaking countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States or Australia in pursuit of advanced knowledge and better academic environments. As ESL students are enrolling in writing courses in colleges and universities, teachers are confronted with problems that non-native speakers bring to the class when it comes to their academic writing. The problems are more serious than they appear to be. For one thing, according to Reid (1993: 774), there is a dramatic difference between native students and ESL students in ‘the needs, backgrounds, learning styles, and writing strategies’. For another, the situation becomes worse due to ‘considerable diversity even among ESL students in terms of language and cultural backgrounds, prior education, gender, age, and ESL language proficiency’ (Reid, 1993: 774). Although there is not a single solution which is effective in solving complex ESL issues, teachers would be in a better position to understand their ESL students' writing problems if they were to learn about the distinct nature of L2 writing shaped by linguistic and cultural differences. In this article, the author, who was once a Chinese ESL student in the USA and is now an EFL teacher in China, explores how English writing differs from Chinese writing and how these differences lead to Chinese ESL students' difficulty with English writing. This article is expected to increase ESL practitioners' awareness of the urgency for them to recognize and deal with these differences in order to teach L2 writers effectively, to treat them fairly and thus provide them with equal opportunities to achieve academic and professional success.

scholarly journals A Study of University Students in Japan: Learning and Application of Academic English Writing

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
James Graham McKinley
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Social Constructivist ◽  
Academic English ◽  
Writing Classes ◽  
Writer Identity ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
English Writing ◽  
Written Texts ◽  
The Rich

<p>This study investigated Japanese first and second year undergraduate students learning English academic writing in their compulsory English composition courses in a Japanese university. The thesis takes a social constructivist approach to investigate the aspects of critical argument and writer identity in these students’ classes and their writing.  The data for the study include classroom observations and teacher and student interviews, all conducted monthly throughout the academic year-long course. In total there were six courses, four teachers, and sixteen student participants. The observations were analyzed using an adapted version of Ivanič’s (2004) Discourses of Writing framework, which focused on aspects of identity construction in the writing classroom. The linguistic data included a selection of one major piece of writing from each student, analyzed using an adapted Appraisal framework within Systemic Functional Linguistics (Martin, 1997; 2000). In order to maintain a focus on writer identity in the analysis, Clark and Ivanič’s (1997) selves were identified through this analysis. In addition, the texts were analyzed for use of Casanave’s (2002) writing game strategies, in order to further establish the students’ approaches in writing their texts. The objective was not to generalize about how Japanese students learn to write academic English, but rather to provide, from a social constructivist, Western researcher’s perspective, an analysis of what happened in these students’ writing classes and how it affected their writing for those classes.  Teachers’ general practices in the observed courses mainly focused on two aspects of writing: 1) as a communicative act (writing for a reader), and 2) as an exercise in critical thinking (developing a thesis). These two aspects emerged from the observation and interview data collection. The four teachers used very different approaches in designing their courses, and the students in the same classes responded in different ways, mostly depending on their ability to understand their teachers’ intentions and to form appropriate academic identities in an attempt to meet their teachers’ expectations. The analysis of the students’ written texts revealed that students often did not meet the teachers’ expectations of writing objectively and using a genre-appropriate voice as students often resorted to the same authorial voice to push their thesis.  This investigation was designed to inform pedagogic practices for university teachers of academic English and curriculum designers in Japan to establish effective English writing courses. The rich description of classroom practices and resulting written texts and the focus on differences in cultural expectations between teachers and students provide significant contributions to this area of inquiry. The main pedagogical suggestions are standardizing course objectives and goals, assigning more reading as a part of writing, and teaching students how to write authoritatively.</p>

scholarly journals Formation of foreign communicative competence of adult immigrants in the USA

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-44
Author(s):  
Olesya Sadovets
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Interpersonal Communication ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
The United States ◽  
Contextualized Curriculum ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Adult Immigrants

ABSTRACT The necessity of forming foreign communicative competence of adult immigrants has been substantiated. The topicality of this issue for Ukraine has been defined. The experience of Global Talent Bridge, an initiative of World Education Services that is dedicated to helping skilled immigrants fully utilize their talents and education in the United States, concerning formation of adult immigrants’ communicative competence has been analyzed. It has been defined that their research concerning organization and realization of contextualized education of adult immigrants aimed at the formation of communicative competence in the process of learning English as a second language has positive results and can be used as a basis for formation of communicative competence of Ukrainian emigrants. Principles of communicative approach to learning a language and the essence of learning for specific purposes have been defined. It has been determined that the education of adult immigrants aimed at the formation of communicative competence is sure to presuppose the availability of contextualized curriculum. The definition of contextualized curriculum has been given. It has been stated that in the process of its elaboration it is necessary to take into consideration the aim of immigrants’ language learning, the priority of fluency and proficiency of language, principles of learning a foreign language by adults, communicative aspect of learning a language, the necessity of forming skills of Basic Interpersonal Communication and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency; usage of special tests for checking skills of communicative competence, different types of lessons for proficient knowledge of everyday English as a second language.

Revising strategies in ESL academic writing

2004 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sachiko Yasuda
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Esl Students ◽  
Esl Writing ◽  
Essay Writing ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Writing Instructions ◽  
Revising Strategies ◽  
L1 And L2

This article presents a case study that analyzes the revising processes of three Japanese ESL students in academic writing contexts. Much previous research into the revision strategies used by L1 and L2 writers has been conducted in experimental-like settings rather than naturally occurring situations. In contrast, the present study seeks to show what writers are doing during revision in their L2 academic essay writing in naturally occurring situations. The results indicate that the three students had very different revising strategies and very different perceptions of the role that revision played in the entire composing process. The results further demonstrate how ESL students struggle with their academic writing tasks in a new academic discourse community. Implications for ESL writing instructions are discussed from the viewpoint of literacy skills, second language proficiency, and students’ past learning, writing and professional experiences.

scholarly journals Exploring Writing Individually and Collaboratively Using Google Docs in EFL Contexts

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jawaher Alsubaie ◽  
Ali Ashuraidah
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Learning Styles ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Collaborative Work ◽  
Learning Tools ◽  
Google Docs ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
English Writing

Online teaching and learning became popular with the evolution of the World Wide Web now days. Implementing online learning tools within EFL contexts will help better address the multitude of teaching and learning styles. Difficulty in academic writing can be considered one of the common problems that students face in and outside their classrooms. Moreover, because the young learners today are digital native, integrating online learning tool with their learning is needed. This research was conducted to analyze students’ achievements by submitted tasks using both face-to-face setting for the pre individual and collaborative tasks, and online learning environment for the post individual and collaborative tasks. The participants in this study were a class of Arabic major from a college in Saudi Arabia. The research was searching for the differences between the students’ individual and collaborative work using Google Docs, and discerning the students’ perspectives toward collaborative work with Google Docs on English writing tasks. To explore the integration effectiveness; pre and post-questionnaires, pre and post written tasks, students’ portfolio, a customized rubric for test scores, and post interviews were conducted to test and analyze the outcomes. Results show significant increase in the students’ scores using Google Docs. Further, the results were consistent as that students perceived Google Docs as a useful tool for both individual and group work.

An Investigation of Taiwanese Doctoral Students’ Academic Writing at a U.S. University

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li-hua Chou
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Task Analysis ◽  
New York State ◽  
The United States ◽  
Doctoral Dissertation ◽  
York State ◽  
English Writing ◽  
Writing Instructors

The United States has always been the top choice of Taiwanese university students who want to study abroad.Consequently, English writing is especially vital for doctoral dissertation; insufficient research deals with academicwriting of such students, despite its importance to their success. This paper aims to fill the gap by analyzing thecourse syllabi as well as interviews with Ph.D. students at a university in New York State. Task analysis and verbalreports of these students yielded significant insights that may contribute to more effective guidance for bothacademic writing instructors and curriculum developers in Taiwan.

scholarly journals Experiential Study in Learning English Writing: An Inquiry into Saudi Learners’ Concerns

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 181
Author(s):  
Sahal R. Al Shammari
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Professional Training ◽  
English Language ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Saudi Students ◽  
Writing Skill ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Difference

Writing plays a prominent role in learning a second language or foreign language. Research mainly focused on the development of writing skill from the teachers or trainers’ perspectives, but in the recent studies researchers have explored students’ concerns about writing skill and the difficulties they encounter in the process. The learners are fully aware of the challenges and their expectations of the courses. The purpose of this study is to investigate students’ perceptions about academic writing courses or writing in general and to investigate the differences they observe about the teaching practice followed in the kingdom as well as ELP in the USA. A total of 03 students (from three different provinces of the KSA) from the pre-university English language program (Applied English Center, Kansas University, USA) for Saudi students enrolled for various courses in their masters program in the US universities participated in this study. The general design of the study was qualitative in nature as a questionnaire and a focus-group interview were implemented for data collection. The overall results demonstrated that the difference in teaching strategies is a significant factor which poses a question mark on the professional training expected of the teachers involved in various universities in the kingdom. The major findings demonstrated students’ awareness of their needs and ESL writing requirements and how teaching writing in MT or so to say L1 influences their ESL learning. The study concluded with recommendations for future research.

scholarly journals Academic writing for Spanish scholars: exploring the challenges with argumentation analysis

10.29007/lrb9 ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samira Allani
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Argumentative Discourse ◽  
Systematic Analysis ◽  
Academic Environments ◽  
English Writing ◽  
Academic Communities ◽  
Writing Practices ◽  
Argumentation Analysis ◽  
Argumentative Strategies

The present study focuses on the academic discourse shaped by Spanish scholars publishing in English. Writing and publishing in the academia are regarded as central not only to the construction of knowledge in individual disciplines but also to the construction of the identities of scholars and the negotiation of their positions and voices within academic communities (Hyland 2013). Drawing upon the theoretical stances of argumentation theory and more particularly on Pragma-dialectics (van Eemeren &amp; Grootendorst, 2004), the aim of this study is to explore the discursive practices of the Spanish scholars who engage in the academic “debates” of their respective communities using English as a second language. While the need for participation in English is increasing around the world, the experience of publishing in a second language has been widely identified as challenging (Hanauer &amp; Englander, 2010; Moreno et al., 2012). The study uses the systematic method of Pragma-dialectics to examine sixty research articles from scientific and engineering disciplines and to determine how their authors discursively construct their work and how they make a case for their contributions. The analysis focuses on the authors ́ strategic maneuvering, which is the efforts arguers make in argumentative discourse to reconcile aiming for rhetorical effectiveness with maintaining dialectical standards of reasonableness (van Eemeren, 2010). Argumentative strategies highly underlie the reasoning patterns of individuals (Mercier &amp; Sperber, 2011) and the way they position themselves and their claims within a given communicative situation. The systematic analysis of argumentative strategies attempts to shed some light on the writing practices of Spanish scholars and the stances they maintain within more and more demanding academic environments.

scholarly journals Discussion and Implications for Practice: Women Student Veterans and their Sense of Identity, Belonging, and Voice in Writing Courses and through Writing Assignments

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Christine Broding
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Transition Process ◽  
The United States ◽  
Colleges And Universities ◽  
Student Veterans ◽  
Writing Classroom ◽  
Writing Assignments ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Writing Instructors ◽  
The Military

Given the lack of published research on women student veterans as a group separate from men student veterans and the unique needs of women student veterans, individual attention needs to be paid to women student veterans. This qualitative study used feminist critical theory to examine the experiences of women student veterans during their transition process from the military to higher education regarding identity, belonging, and voice in connection with writing courses and writing assignments. Real-time in-depth narrative interviews were conducted with seven current or former women student veterans located across the United States. Analysis of the interviews revealed superordinate themes. These three superordinate themes were 1) military influence: lifestyle transition, identity, and writing; 2) peer connections in writing courses; and 3) writing instructor influence. The findings informed by the superordinate themes included women student veterans sometimes have difficulty transitioning from military writing to academic writing, women student veterans need peer connections in the writing classroom, and writing instructors hold much influence over belonging and voice for women student veterans. These findings led to three recommendations for future practice. The first recommendation was that writing workshops focusing on the differences between military writing and academic writing should be held for women student veterans by individual colleges and universities. The second recommendation was colleges and universities can establish and maintain writing groups for women student veterans in which they write and share narratives and poetry reflective of their military and other life experiences. The third recommendation was writing instructors should be trained on providing women student veterans with individualized attention and supportive feedback. Keywords: women student veterans, writing courses, identity, belonging, voice

scholarly journals Writer Identity in Narrative and Argumentative Genres: A Case of Korean Students in the United States

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 178
Author(s):  
Seongyong Lee
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Narrative Writing ◽  
Esl Students ◽  
Academic Context ◽  
Writer Identity ◽  
Philosophical Framework ◽  
Argumentative Essays ◽  
Writing Task

This study investigated how three Korean ESL students constructed their writer identity in narrative and argumentative genres of writing. For this purpose, the qualitative data collected from interviews, observations and written documents for eight weeks were analyzed according to a social constructionist perspective as a philosophical framework and Ivanič’s approach to systemic functional linguistics as an analytic method. The results showed that the participants constructed a confident identity in narrative writing whereas they identified themselves with a less-confident writer in an argumentative genre. Accordingly, they adopted different strategies for the difficulties they were confronted with in two genres. In addition, while narrative essays showed their ownership of Korean culture as a sojourner in the U.S., argumentative essays revealed their ambivalent identity in an academic context. These findings shed light on the importance of a narrative writing task as a stepping stone for academic writing by empowering an L2 writer in terms of constructing an authoritative voice.Keywords: L2 writing, writer identity, genre-based writing

scholarly journals The Effectiveness of Student Teams-Achievement Divisions in Enhancing Visual and Auditory for English Students’ Writing Skill

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 121
Author(s):  
Baiatun Nisa ◽  
Sulhizah Wulan Sari
Keyword(s):  
Learning Styles ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Writing Achievement ◽  
Auditory Learning ◽  
English Writing ◽  
Writing Test ◽  
Student Teams ◽  
English Students ◽  
Auditory Learners ◽  
Positive Effect

This research discussed the effectiveness of learning English writing using the Student Teams-Achievement Divisions (STAD) and lecture-based learning method. The two methods were applied in two classes of second-year students, and they were given a writing test over one semester. The first class was using STAD and the second class with lecture-based learning. Around 80 students were classified into visual and auditory learning styles based on the questionnaires filled in. The results in the statistical analysis provide important insights into the learning achievement of both visual and auditory learners modeled by STAD. Using the STAD method, they have accomplished considerably higher scores on academic writing achievement than the students who are taught by lecture-based learning. Therefore, it brings a positive effect and association with the students’ learning styles.

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