Exploring the longitudinal development of grammatical complexity in the disciplinary writing of L2-English university students

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-71
Author(s):  
Douglas Biber ◽  
Randi Reppen ◽  
Shelley Staples ◽  
Jesse Egbert
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
University Education ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Disciplinary Writing ◽  
Stages Of Development ◽  
Longitudinal Development ◽  
Research Designs ◽  
Grammatical Complexity ◽  
Dependent Clause

Abstract The present paper employs a corpus-based approach to track the longitudinal language development of university students. Compared to many other longitudinal studies, the present study tracks development over a relatively long period of time (two years) for a relatively large group of students (N = 22). However, the most important difference from previous research is that the study explores the linguistic characteristics of disciplinary writing, across levels of education and academic disciplines, investigating the writing tasks required for disciplinary content courses over two years of university education. We focus on grammatical complexity features associated with the hypothesized stages of development proposed in Biber et al. (2011). Methodologically, the study proposes research designs and statistical approaches that permit investigation of longitudinal development in an unbalanced corpus of natural texts. And linguistically, the results generally support the hypothesized stages of development, documenting a decline in the use of dependent clause complexity features and an increase in the use of phrasal complexity features. As such, the study adds to the growing body of research that emphasizes the importance of phrasal complexity in the development of academic writing.

scholarly journals Phrasal Discourse Style in Cross-Disciplinary Writing: A Comparison of Phrasal Complexity Features in the Results Sections of Research Articles

2020 ◽  
Vol 83 ◽  
pp. 191-204
Author(s):  
Muhammed Parviz ◽  
Alireza Jalilifar ◽  
Alexanne Don
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Disciplinary Writing ◽  
Prepositional Phrases ◽  
Manual Search ◽  
Research Article ◽  
Rate Of Success

The present study aimed at exploring how research article writers from two academic disciplines exploit phrasal complexity features (PCFs) to verbalize the results sections of research articles with the eventual aim of assisting advanced EFL writers with their composition strategies. To this end, following a manual search, 200 empirical research articles in the fields of Applied Linguistics and Physics were comparatively examined. Due to the low rate of success of tagging programs in identifying the occurrences of PCFs, the datasets were also manually analyzed. The results revealed that the research article writers drew upon three high-frequency phrasal complexity features, namely, pre-modifying adjectives, post-modifying prepositional phrases, and nominalizations. The study also revealed that the results sections of research articles included different amounts of exceedingly complex patterns of pre-modification, a hybrid of novel appositive structures, and great reliance on hyphenated adjectives. Overall, we believe that these findings can be used to heighten the awareness of academic writers and instructors regarding the linguistic characteristics of academic writing and of the variations of how such phrasal features of compression are constructed in different academic subjects.

A Need Analysis in Academic Writing by Using Integrative-Based Approach: The Perspective of University Students

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helaluddin Helaluddin
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
University Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Integrative Approach ◽  
First Semester ◽  
Need Analysis ◽  
Initial Stage ◽  
Academic Genres ◽  
The University ◽  
Academic Year

This article discusses the needs and interests of the university students in Banten Indonesia for learning to write with an integrative approach as an initial stage in the development of academic writing textbooks. The participants in this study were 60 students in the first semester of the 2018/2019 academic year who took an Indonesian language course. It was found that students were familiar with writing activities. But the majority were limited to non-academic genres such as writing poetry, short stories, and writing personal blogs. Also, students have almost the same problems in academic writing, both from linguistic aspects, technical aspects, to issues of developing writing ideas. Another thing that was found in this study was the participation of lecturers who they expected in guiding and providing input during academic writing learning.

ANALYSIS OF THE APPLICATION OF DISTANCE EDUCATION IN UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN THE STATE OF AMAZONAS

2020 ◽  
pp. 37013-37019
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Distance Education ◽  
University Students ◽  
Teaching Method ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
The State ◽  
University Education ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Education Students

No teaching method has evolved as much as distance education, in the state of Amazonas this would not be different, especially in higher education. Distance Education is a modality where the student is separated from the teacher and uses several communication technologies around all his learning. The methods used were bibliographic, documentary and quantitative. The researched environment was the capital city of Manaus and the municipality of Maués, with the application of the closed questionnaire aimed at higher education students. Our objective was to question certain nuances as their benefits and challenges for those who study Distance Education in the different locations of the State of Amazonas. The result was the realization that among its many advantages in the execution of education, time is considered the main one, and the loss of deadlines its greatest disadvantage, besides the concept of distance education is already well known by university students. Thus, it is well known that with the passing of time and with the progress of the state's modernization, distance education is gradually becoming the most practical means of teaching.

Sleep in university students across years of university education and gender influences

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Md Dilshad Manzar ◽  
Wassilatul Zannat ◽  
Manpreet Kaur ◽  
M. Ejaz Hussain
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Sleep Problems ◽  
Subjective Evaluation ◽  
University Education ◽  
Sleep Health ◽  
Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome ◽  
Delayed Sleep Phase ◽  
Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorder ◽  
Delayed Sleep ◽  
And Gender

Abstract Purpose: Assessment of the influence of gender and increasing years at university on sleep health of students. Methods: Four hundred and eighteen students from different streams across years of undergraduate to postgraduate courses participated. Descriptive statistics, test of differences, and correlation were used. The sleep health data comprised of subjective evaluation using a questionnaire and personal interviews. Results: Overall, 43.1% had sleep problems, females were more affected (51.67% vs. 48.33% in males) but were early bed goers. The prevalence of circadian rhythm sleep disorder (11.6% vs. 9.5%) and delayed sleep phase syndrome (4.5% vs. 2.7%) was slightly higher in males. The daytime dysfunction and hypnotic use significantly differed in students of the same class among gender. Bedtime got significantly delayed along years [H(2)=29.769, p<0.001], and hypnotic use [H(2)=8.807, p=0.012] differed significantly among them. The moderate-very strong correlational statistics among sleep health elements was very similar across gender and years of university education. However, more pronounced influence of years of university education than gender was seen in the significant differences for correlated correlation among sleep health parameters. Conclusion: Gender and years of university education influence sleep among university students both separately and concomitantly.

scholarly journals Sport science college students and career stress

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 580-589 ◽  
Author(s):  
Onur Mutlu Yasar ◽  
Murat Turgut
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
University Education ◽  
Average Score ◽  
Stress Scale ◽  
Income Status ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Stress Levels ◽  
Science College ◽  
The University

The aim of this study is to examine the career stress levels of university students in different faculties according to age, gender, faculty, class and financial status variables. The research was conducted using a quantitative research design. The sample of this study consisted of 1,189 university students from Kastamonu University Education Faculty, School of Physical Education and Sports, Faculty of Arts and Faculty of Engineering and Architecture. Career Stress Scale consisting of 20 items and three sub-dimensions was used. Data were normally distributed and parametric analysis was used. According to the findings of this study, it was determined that the average score of the participants was 2.43 from the total score of the career stress scale. In this context, it was found that the career stress levels of the participants were moderate at the lower limit. According to the average scores of the participants, the lowest subscale was found to be an external conflict with 2.13 average and the highest subscale was found to be job anxiety with an average score of 2.82. A significant difference was found almost between all different groups in different ways (p > 0.05). As a result, it was found that the career stress levels of the university students participating in the research were moderate, as well as differences according to variables such as gender, class, age, faculty and income status. Among these differences, the most striking ones appear to be the variables of age and income. In this context, it was determined that university students who have lower age and lower-income status level have higher career stress level than age and income status variables. Keywords: Career, collage, stress, sport, students, university.

scholarly journals Evaluation of First-Year University Students’ Engagement to enhance Student Development

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 113
Author(s):  
Hooi Sin Soo ◽  
Yenwan Chong
Keyword(s):  
Student Engagement ◽  
University Students ◽  
Student Development ◽  
Academic Engagement ◽  
University Education ◽  
First Year ◽  
Development Programs ◽  
Online Engagement ◽  
New Students ◽  
First Year University

Abstract: The COVID-19 crisis has dramatically impacted university education as well as created new challenges for tertiary learning institutions. The pandemic has exacerbated graduate unemployment and increased student dropout rates. In response to these unprecedented challenges, universities are formulating more student development initiatives to support new students to transition into university and produce holistic graduates with essential soft skills. Student engagement evaluation can help inform and enhance the implementation of student development programs. In this study, seven domains of first year university students’ engagement were evaluated namely Academic Engagement (AE), Beyond-class Engagement (BE), Intellectual Engagement (IE), Online Engagement (OE), Peer Engagement (PE), Student-staff Engagement (SE) and Transition Engagement (TE). This study found that university freshmen’s Online Engagement (OE) was the strongest while their Academic Engagement (AE) was the weakest. This study also discovered that first year university students’ engagement were weakest with regard to reading of textbooks before attending class, asking questions in class and borrowing books from the university library. Future student development programs targeted at first year university students could be enhanced by increasing the use of ICT in teaching and learning as well as increasing efforts in assisting new students to transition from school to university learning environments by inculcating good reading habits and encouraging active class participation. Keywords: Academic engagement, First year undergraduates, Student development, Student engagement, Transition to university

scholarly journals Tracks for Russian university students’ multilingual development within remote education during the pandemic

2021 ◽  
pp. 217-233
Author(s):  
Anastasia Atabekova ◽  
Alexander Belousov ◽  
Oleg Yastrebov
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
University Students ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Translation ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Skills Training ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
University Education ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Language Courses

The chapter explores language and non-language university students’ practices of foreign language learning within the unscheduled shift to remote studies in Russia due to the COVID-19 emergency. The RUDN University Law Institute experience is considered as an example. The paper explores common and specific features of foreign language, translation, and interpreting skills training within the Law Institute language and non-language programmes. The research rests on the case study methodology, considered from the policy-making and managerial point of view. The findings reveal both common features and specificities of multilingual university education of non-language and language students. The study also confirms the need for the educational institutions to draft specific guidelines on language courses implementation for different target audiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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