Foregrounding learner voice: Chinese undergraduate students’ understanding of paraphrasing and source use conventions for English research paper writing

2021 ◽  
pp. 136216882110270
Author(s):  
Qian Du ◽  
Ying Liu
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Research Paper ◽  
Essay Writing ◽  
English Academic Writing ◽  
Source Use

We examined how a group of Chinese undergraduate students understood paraphrasing and source use conventions for research paper writing in English. Prior scholarship has generated valuable insights about novice second language (L2) writers’ unconventional source use practices, but little is known about how these writers interpret and understand source use expectations for English academic writing. We followed a group of nine Chinese undergraduate students for an academic term as they learned to paraphrase and write with sources for their research paper assignments. Drafts of students’ papers were collected and rounds of text-based interviews were conducted where students were asked to explain their source use decisions. Findings showed that the students actively and constantly referenced their source use knowledge of Chinese essay writing to help make sense of source use expectations for English academic writing, although their understanding of English academic source use as well as their rendition of culture may likely be viewed by expert academic writers as ‘insufficient’ or ‘inadequate’. We conclude by highlighting the importance of foregrounding learner voice and acknowledging the legitimacy of the interpretations of novice L2 writers as intercultural informants in the teaching of English academic source use.

scholarly journals Toward an Intercultural Rhetoric: Improving Chinese EFL Students’ Essay Writing through Outline Writing

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 83
Author(s):  
Fang Li ◽  
Yingqin Liu
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Essay Writing ◽  
Intercultural Rhetoric ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Main Ideas ◽  
English Academic Writing ◽  
Chinese And English

This study explores the effects of teaching EFL students to use an outline in their English essays. The researchers maintain that using outlines can raise students’ awareness of different audience expectations embedded in the rhetoric of the target language (English) and culture and can improve their English academic writing. The study was based on a four-week long case study at a university in Xi’an, China, in which 24 Chinese EFL students at the College of Translation Studies participated. A discourse analysis was conducted by comparing the Chinese EFL students’ English essays produced at the beginning of the study with those produced at the end of the study after learning and practicing outlining for writing the English essays. Email inquiries were used for understanding the participants’ viewpoints on learning how to write English essay outlines. The findings reveal that teaching EFL students to use outlining in their English essays is an effective way to help them improve their essay writing. Not only can it enhance the students’ understanding about using the English thesis statements, but it can also help improve the use of related, logical, and specific detailed examples to support the main ideas in their essays. The email inquiries also revealed that the students believe that outline learning helped them to understand the differences between Chinese and English essay writing. The implications of the study for intercultural rhetoric are also discussed.

scholarly journals A Discourse Analysis: Cohesion of the Introduction Section of Research Article

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Anis Firdatul Rochma ◽  
Sulis Triyono
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Semantic Meaning ◽  
Lexical Cohesion ◽  
Research Article ◽  
English Academic Writing ◽  
Writing Competence

<em>As an effort to give contribution to the existing knowledge, it is expected for the undergraduate students to compose an engaging research article in order to convince the readers about the importance of the research article. However, there is only a little attention given to the articles written by the undergraduate students although it is considered very critical to examine whether the exposure of English academic writing has significantly enhances the writing competence of the students. Furthermore, as it is also very crucial to build a meaningful semantic meaning among the sentences in order to disclose the worthiness of the research article, it is essential to analyze the cohesion of the research article written by the undergraduate students. Henceforth, the present research is projected to investigate the cohesion of the research articles written by the undergraduate students of English Language Teaching. As the introduction section of research article is likely to be an area to portray the logical explanation of the research, the present research solely focuses on examining the cohesion of the introduction section of research article. By adopting a qualitative design and involving several steps to analyze the introduction section, it is revealed that the grammatical cohesion is considered to be the most utilized type of cohesion in writing the introduction section. Still, the lexical cohesion is also necessary to build an eloquent semantic meaning about the topic as well the importance of the research article.</em>

scholarly journals An examination of the placement of adverbials in the academic writing of fresh undergraduate students in the University of Cape Coast, Ghana

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 110-128
Author(s):  
Philip Arthur Gborsong ◽  
Anita B. Appartaim
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Random Sampling ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Simple Random Sampling ◽  
The Other ◽  
Cape Coast ◽  
The University

Rules have been formulated on how adverbials are used. Such rules as stated by Quirk and Greenbaum (1973), Hornby (1975) and Swan (1995) are silent on how a few adverbials that have no restrictions regarding their position and order in sentences should be used. This paper, relying on language variation in the second language setting as a theoretical framework, explored how undergraduate students used these kinds of mobile adverbials. The quantitative research design and a simple random sampling were applied to select a total of 100 essays and exercises from fresh undergraduates of the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. Analysing these essays and exercises, we concluded that although the adverbial is an optional clausal element, the undergraduate students used it in providing further information on the other clausal elements. In addition, the undergraduate students often placed the adverbials in the mid position of their sentences. Keywords: Adverbials, GE, Undergraduate students, Clausal elements, Effective communication

scholarly journals The Writer, the Text and the Reader: An Exploration of  Identity in Second Language Academic Writing

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Kirsten Reid
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Second Language Writing ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Student Writers ◽  
Language Writing ◽  
The Relationship

<p>Students studying in university contexts often find learning to write English for academic purposes especially challenging. Some of the challenges reside in acquiring the necessary skills and strategies to be successful academic writers. A less tangible consideration which has received recent attention from first and second language writing researchers is the relationship between writing and identity. How do student writers become part of a situated community in which some discourses may be privileged over others? While all writing can be a potential site of struggle, this may have particular significance for second language students who bring their own unique backgrounds and literacy histories to their academic writing and may find becoming part of a new and heterogeneous discourse community profoundly unsettling. Using case study methods, this dissertation explores the experiences of four undergraduate students as they become academic writers in a second language. It also carries out an analysis of some of the linguistic features one particular student essay to examine how writers simultaneously construct their texts and are constructed by them.</p>

STUDENT METACOGNITIVE AWARENESS IN L2 WRITING: COMPETENCE VS. PERFORMANCE

2020 ◽  
pp. 119-138
Author(s):  
Branka Milenkovic
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Second Language ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
English Language ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
L2 Writing ◽  
Metacognitive Awareness ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Common Belief ◽  
Essay Writing

Writing in a second language certainly embodies constraints that are not met in L1 writing due to numerous decisions L2 learners make while producing a text. Many researches have shown that L2 writing is largely based on decision-making with relation to form and search for appropriate words which make the writing process even more complex and time-consuming. Therefore, communicating with the readers through the use of metadiscourse poses an addi- tional obstacle in L2 writing. This paper is concerned with the use of metadiscourse markers in L2 student writing at the Department of English language, at the University of Kragujevac in Serbia. In essay writing research we frequently observe quantitative analysis of specific lan- guage items, however, in this research, we attempt to juxtapose the quantifiable metadiscourse items in student writing with their thinking processes and decision-making while composing. Thus, the research correlates three insights, one being the students’ liability to deep writing, which relies on their metacognitive awareness in writing, established through the modified questionnaire of the Inventory of Processes in College Composition (Lavelle and Zuercher 2001) and based on previous research (Milenkovic & Lojanica 2015). Students’ responses are then correlated with the analysis of 33 student essays on behalf of the use of metadiscourse mark- ers based on A model of metadiscourse in academic texts established by Hyland and Tse (2004). Finally, the students’ metacognitive awareness in writing is analyzed through an introspective questionnaire with the aim to yield qualitative responses in relation to their cognitive ability to reflect upon their writing. The results of the study confirm the common belief that using metadiscourse features is a constraint in L2 writing. Evidently there is a disproportion between the metadiscourse items students use in writing with relation to what they believe that they use and students have displayed more metacognitive awareness in relation to interactive resources as opposing to the interactional resources in academic writing. Implications of the results may establish a basis for a modified teaching practice in second language writing instruction with the aim to enhance students’ communicative competence in writing.

scholarly journals Investigating writing difficulties in essay writing: Tertiary students’ perspectives

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 61
Author(s):  
Suhaimah Bulqiyah ◽  
Moh. Arif Mahbub ◽  
Dyah Ayu Nugraheni
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Writing Difficulties ◽  
Essay Writing ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Language And Education ◽  
Cognitive Problems

This study is primarily designed for investigating the tertiary students’ perspectives on the writing difficulties of essays. This study was conducted in explanatory research in which quantitative and qualitative data were obtained from the web-based questionnaire and semi-structured interview, then analyzed separately. 21 undergraduate students have enrolled in the survey and 6 of them were invited to the interview section. This research reveals tertiary students' problems in essay writing course are categorized into: affective problems which raise from students’ and lecturers’ attitude while teaching and learning Essay Writing Course, cognitive problems that considered as the difficulties in the areas of writing viewpoint, transferring language, and the process of writing, and linguistic problems in the area of lexico-grammar, vocabulary, and the structure of the essay. Due to the findings, those aspects of academic writing should be serious attention for both EFL students and teachers to overcome the problems. The findings of this study have implications for EFL writing course designers as basic data of material improvement and for researchers particularly in the realms of language and education.

A mathematical model for academic genre awareness

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 469-491 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosa Muñoz-Luna ◽  
Lidia Taillefer
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Production Quality ◽  
Academic English ◽  
English Studies ◽  
Complex Sentences ◽  
Genre Awareness ◽  
English Academic Writing ◽  
Academic Genre

Spanish undergraduates of English Studies are required to submit their essays in academic English, a genre which most of them are not acquainted with. This paper aims to explore the extralinguistic side of L2 academic writing, more specifically, the combination of metalinguistic items (e.g. transition and frame markers, among others) with writers’ awareness of academic genre features. The research sample conveys a group of 200 Spanish undergraduates of English Studies; they are in their fourth year, so they are expected to be proficient in English academic writing but their written production quality varies considerably. Results are analysed following a mixed methodology by which metalinguistic items are statistically measured, and then contrasted with semi-structured interview results; SPSS® and NVivo® provide quantitative and qualitative outcomes, respectively. The analyses reveal that undergraduate students who produce complex sentences and more coherent texts show greater awareness of academic genre features, being able to (un)consciously employ academic language in their written expression. These high-scoring students make more proficient use of complex transition markers for coherence and frame markers for textual cohesion.

scholarly journals First-year students’ essay writing practices: Formative feedback and interim literacies

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Esambe ◽  
Cina Mosito ◽  
Subethra Pather
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Health Science ◽  
Formative Feedback ◽  
First Year ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Essay Writing ◽  
Writing Practices ◽  
Academic Transitions

The varying literacy standards that undergraduate students represent are a reflection of their interim grasp of academic literacy (Paxton 2007). The aim of this study is to analyse a small group of undergraduate first-year students’ depiction of their interim grasp of academic writing and to reflect on how lecturers use formative feedback to respond to specific issues regarding students’ academic transitions within their discipline. Using an emancipatory methodology, this study was designed as a participatory action research. Qualitative data from focus group interviews with lecturers and photovoice presentations by first-year dental technology students were used to explore how students demonstrated their interim grasp of academic essay writing in a Health Science department at a university of technology. However, this article, which is part of a broader study, analyses a small class of first-year students’ depiction of their interim grasp of essay writing and reflects on how their lecturers use formative feedback to respond to these students’ academic transitions within their discipline. Using activity theory and morphogenetic realist theory to analyse essay writing activities during an intervention, the study reveals that images are potent artefacts that students and lecturers use to build meaningful dialogue during essay writing in an uneven terrain.

scholarly journals Metadiscourse in Students’ Academic Writing: Case Study of Umaru Musa Yar’adua University and Al-Qalam University Katsina

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
pp. 83
Author(s):  
Hamisu Hamisu Haruna ◽  
Bello Ibrahim ◽  
Musa Haruna ◽  
Bashir Ibrahim ◽  
Kamariah Yunus
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
First Language ◽  
Appraisal Theory ◽  
Tertiary Institution ◽  
Essay Writing ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Cumulative Learning ◽  
L1 English

Studies on writing, thus, become crucial because when students make the transition from Secondary School to a Tertiary Institution, they encounter many challenges. One of them is the writing of B.A projects. Most of these undergraduate students both in L1 (English as a first language) and L2 (English as a second language) still find it difficult to argue, discuss or evaluate competently as well as persuasively in English essay writing. The present study aimed at exploring metadiscoursal choice and its influence on the success of students&rsquo; academic writing. The study was conducted within the framework of Appraisal Theory. The data was randomly generated from the written essays by thirty selected Level 400 students both from Umaru Musa Yar&rsquo;adua University and Al-Qalam University Katsina. Also, the data was descriptively alaysed and presented. It was discovered that six (6) of the essays do not contain the relevant elements for this study, thus excluded from the analysis. To achieve the main objective of this study, the first six categories of the most successful essays and the least successful ones were taken for in-depth analysis. They were analysed paragraph by paragraph and then each interactional metadiscourse element was separately discussed as a whole. The findings showed that many of the students were not exposed to these elements, thus, they write academic essay the way they speak. It is against these findings that the present study unravels that embedding the teaching of metadiscourse in cumulative learning practices could consequently empower students to develop both linguistically and intellectually.

scholarly journals Using Turnitin to help students understand plagiarism

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-13
Author(s):  
Angela Unger Waigand
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Second Language ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Branch Campus ◽  
Plagiarism Detection ◽  
International Branch Campus ◽  
Detection Software

The use of plagiarism detection software such as Turnitin or SafeAssign has become common in higher education. While frequently used to catch plagiarism, some institutions have used it as a learning tool to help students better understand plagiarism and the conventions of academic writing. In an international branch campus in the Middle East, a survey was given to undergraduate students, primarily second language students, on the use of Turnitin to help with their writing. Most participants found that the software helped them improve their paraphrasing skills, understand the use of citations, avoid plagiarism and, to a lesser extent, improve their language skills. أﺻﺑ ﺢ ا ﺳﺗ ﺧدام ﺑ رﻧﺎﻣﺞ اﻟﻛﺷ ف ﻋن ا ﻻﻧﺗ ﺣﺎ ل ﻣﺛ ل Turnitin أو SafeAssign ﺷ ﺎ ﺋ ﻌًﺎ ﻓ ﻲ ا ﻟ ﺗ ﻌ ﻠ ﯾ م ا ﻟ ﻌ ﺎ ﻟ ﻲ . ﻋ ﻠ ﻰ ا ﻟ ر ﻏ م ﻣ ن ا ﺳ ﺗ ﺧ د ا ﻣ ﮭ ﺎ ﺑ ﺷ ﻛ ل ﻣﺗ ﻛرر ﻟﻠﻘﺑ ض ﻋﻠ ﻰ ا ﻻﻧﺗ ﺣﺎ ل ، ﻓﻘد ا ﺳﺗ ﺧدﻣﺗ ﮫ ﺑ ﻌ ض اﻟ ﻣؤﺳﺳﺎ ت ﻛﺄداة ﺗ ﻌﻠﯾ ﻣﯾ ﺔ ﻟ ﻣ ﺳﺎ ﻋدة اﻟ طﻼب ﻋﻠ ﻰ ﻓ ﮭم ا ﻻﻧﺗ ﺣﺎ ل ﺑ ﺷﻛل أﻓ ﺿ ل واﺗﻔﺎ ﻗﯾﺎ ت اﻟﻛﺗﺎﺑ ﺔ ا ﻷ ﻛﺎدﯾ ﻣﯾ ﺔ. ﻓ ﻲ ﺣ ر م ﻓ ر ع دو ﻟ ﻲ ﻓ ﻲ اﻟﺷ ر ق ا ﻷ و ﺳ ط ، ﺗم إ ﺟ ر ا ء د ر ا ﺳ ﺔ ا ﺳ ﺗﻘ ﺻ ﺎﺋﯾ ﺔ ﻟ ط ﻼ ب اﻟﻣر ﺣ ﻠ ﺔ اﻟﺟ ﺎ ﻣﻌﯾ ﺔ ، و ﺧ ﺎ ﺻ ﺔ ط ﻼ ب اﻟﻠ ﻐﺔ اﻟ ﺛﺎﻧﯾ ﺔ ، ﺣ و ل ا ﺳ ﺗ ﺧ دا م Turnitin ﻟﻠﻣ ﺳ ﺎ ﻋ دة ﻓ ﻲ ﻛﺗﺎﺑﺎﺗ ﮭم. و ﺟ د ﻣﻌ ظ م اﻟﻣ ﺷ ﺎ ر ﻛﯾ ن أ ن اﻟ ﺑ ر ﻧﺎ ﻣ ﺞ ﺳ ﺎ ﻋ دھ م ﻋ ﻠ ﻰ ﺗ ﺣ ﺳ ﯾ ن ﻣﮭﺎ ر ا ت إ ﻋ ﺎدة اﻟ ﺻ ﯾﺎ ﻏ ﺔ وﻓ ﮭم ا ﺳﺗ ﺧدام ا ﻻﺳﺗ ﺷﮭﺎدا ت وﺗ ﺟﻧ ب ا ﻻﻧﺗ ﺣﺎ ل وﺗ ﺣﺳﯾ ن ﻣﮭﺎ راﺗ ﮭم اﻟﻠ ﻐوﯾﺔ إﻟ ﻰ ﺣد أﻗ ل.

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