scholarly journals Linguistic Challenges Lived by University Students in Bogotá in the Development of Academic Literacy

Author(s):  
Sanjay Nanwani

The focus of this paper is on the challenges that Colombian university students live when developing academic writing in English as a foreign language. At the macro level, it points to the importance of a theoretically informed understanding of teaching practices in ELT; at the micro level it intends to sensitize ELT practitioners, and particularly academic writing instructors, on the diverse challenges students – particularly non-native learners – experience when appropriating a largely unknown discourse upon entry to the university. Excerpts from participants in a two-year study intertwine with a theoretical discussion on academic writing are presented.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helaluddin Helaluddin

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.


2018 ◽  
Vol 50 ◽  
pp. 01128
Author(s):  
Lyubov Pavlova ◽  
Yuliana Vtorushina

This paper presents results of the research aimed at determining essential aspects of the development of university students’ cognition culture as a factor of successful foreign language learning. The authors define cognition culture as a complex of capabilities and skills, enabling students to look for, analyze, process, organize and critically assess information in the text, considering its historical and cultural value background. The investigation proves that a student’s cognition culture is manifested in his/her knowledge of national mentality, language, and cultural picture of the world as well as in the student’s skills of search, procession and critical assessment of information, the skills of analysis, comparison, generalization, cognitive motivation and aspiration for constant improvement of foreign language skills. The research determines the contents of the cognitive component of foreign language learning and works out a complex of teaching techniques for developing students’ cognition culture. The results prove that the application of the complex of special teaching techniques ensures effective development of the university students’ cognition culture for successful foreign language learning. Thus, students’ cognitive culture conditions their social adaptation and academic mobility.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 188-200
Author(s):  
Olajumoke Oyedele ◽  
Waliyat Kola Aderoju

The use of serious games is usually common, but digital games are not used in the teaching of German. This study aims to find out the attitude of students of German to the possible use of serious games in the teaching of German at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) and their impression of the game ‘secret of the sky disc’ introduced by the Goethe Institute for the learning of German as a foreign language. Two different sets of questionnaires were administered to the students of German of OAU. The resulting data were analysed, discussed and conclusions were drawn. The results show the readiness of students of German for the use of digital games in teaching German at the university. The study adds to the limited literature on the use of serious games in teaching German as a foreign language   Keywords: German, Nigeria, perception, serious games, Obafemi Awolowo University, students.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-115
Author(s):  
Abbas Naethel

This study aims at giving an account of an analysis of errors made by Iraqi university students in the area of English Relativization system. It focuses mainly on dealing with the investigation of the syntactic errors committed by Iraqi students in English relative clause. This causes a major problem for university students learning English as a foreign language. This comes from the students' interlingual and intralingual strategies. This also indicates that the university students seem to depend on the target language (TL) system rather than on that of the native language (NL). The technique used is an error analysis which Wilkins (1972) highlights its value in giving "greater understandings of the difficulties that learners face, and will perhaps assist in the development of pedagogic strategies." (p. 206). After analyzing and interpreting the errors made in the 100 students' compositions, some recommendations are given.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 79
Author(s):  
Cindy Hannisya Relia ◽  
Afrianto Daud ◽  
Syofia Delfi

This research examined university students’ ability in paraphrasing paragraphs. This descriptive quantitative research took students of the English Education Department of Universitas Riau as samples using cluster random sampling technique. The selected sample was a Class of the English Study Program, Universitas Riau, which consists of 34 students. The data were collected by administering an online test of paraphrasing paragraphs through Google Form. The collected data were analyzed by three raters and the results were calculated and classified by using adaptation guide rubric from Brown (2004). Three aspects of paraphrasing were assessed and analyzed: contents of information, choice of words and writing convention. This study found that the ability of the Students of English Study Program in paraphrasing paragraphs was an unacceptable level, with total points; 11.21 for Content Information aspect, 9.52 for Choice of Words aspect, and 9.75 for Writing Conventions aspect. In order to answer the research question on how bad the ability is, the only clear answer is that all facts that are found within the research are only referring to the ‘crisis’ of paraphrasing ability shown by the university students themselves. This finding showed that the university students’ ability in paraphrasing paragraphs is low, due to the facts that; First, they get a low-level score in all aspects of paraphrasing. Second, they still make many fatal mistakes in every aspect of paraphrasing like; skipping important details in paraphrasing that may lead to misinformation, misusing the vocabulary and diction in creating the words in paraphrasing, and severe problems in the grammar, punctuation, and spelling (writing conventions). Moreover, choice of words seems to be the most difficult aspect for the students since it had the lowest score than other aspects in paraphrasing. This research suggests that English students should be exposed to more practices in their academic writing subject about paraphrasing skills


Prisma Com ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 105-116
Author(s):  
Olira Saraiva Rodrigues

This article aims to discuss the respect for the need for didactic and pedagogical strategies in relation to academic teaching, in the understanding of university students, as subjects of language, with values and identity marks. A proposal of this research is theoretically theoretical or academic literacy, as well as launching some perspectives, from the possibilities of appropriation practices in the university environment by academics. The study aims to collaborate with the construction of knowledge that interferes and will (re) mean the process of academic literacy, through reflections, for students who are builders of their only speeches and not only reproducers of legitimate speeches. Methodologically, a research carried out in bibliographic and descriptive studies, with a qualitative approach. Therefore, an epistemological analysis based on Foucault (1996), Orlandi (1988) and Rodrigues (2009) for the notion of discourse; Soares (2009) for teaching and Lea and Street (2014) for academic teaching.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 300
Author(s):  
Sarah Al-Mukdad

This study is in the area of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). It aimed to investigate the academic writing problems encountered by students at Arab International University (AIU) who are taking the Academic Writing module (AWR). The purpose of the study is to investigate this problem from the perspective of students in order to suggest possible treatments to deal with it. The data was collected through distributing a questionnaire to 50 students from different majors at AIU. Upon analyzing and discussing the obtained data, results suggest that students tend to perceive all aspects of academic writing to be difficult. One reason is that they poorly recognize the difference between academic and general English writing due to the lack of background knowledge about writing academically. Another prime reason is attributed to having problems in different linguistic elements even at this supposedly high proficiency level. The study concludes with suggesting a number of ways to address this issue.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-127
Author(s):  
Vibeke Christensen ◽  
Peter Hobel

New students struggle to develop academic writing skills during transition to university. To meet this challenge, the Humanities department at the University of Southern Denmark implemented a research and development project to increase feedback to student writers. In the project, graduate students were trained as disciplinary writing tutors, and subsequently provided feedback on undergraduates’ assignments. The study presented in this article examines the feedback offered by the disciplinary writing tutors. As researchers, we ask, “What characterises the feedback offered by the disciplinary writing tutors?” The study is positioned in a sociocultural framework that draws on theories of disciplinary and academic literacy. Data was collected in four bachelor’s degree programmes and consists of the feedback given by the tutors and interviews with the tutors conducted at the end of the tutoring. Principal results indicate that the feedback on the students’ texts is distributed at the text layer of content and structure and the text layer of formalities. Feedback at the text layer of sentences is almost absent. Feedback on the writing and learning processes is limited. The discipline-specific feedback occurs as indications in the feedback to the BA students and is made clearer when comparing feedback in different programmes. The feedback the writing tutors provide demonstrates an understanding of academic writing as academic socialisation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-103
Author(s):  
Dr. Syeda Naureen Mumtaz

This descriptive qualitative research sought to explore as what would be the best writing approach adopted to teach academic writing skill to the undergraduate university students to identify and minimize the identified problems. The aim of the study was to strengthen the academic writing skill of university students. For this purpose, thirty undergraduate students were selected and involved in focus group discussions to highlight the problematic area in the field of academic writing. Thematic analysis helped to understand the problems faced by the students and suggestions were made on the basis of the study’s findings. The study revealed the students’ inability to use appropriate vocabulary. These students lacked the skill to express themselves in their own words, and often their written work would look patchy. English being the foreign language to the students hampered their ability to think in the target language. The present study contributed to understand the problems and suggested process approach of writing to be adopted by the faculty to overcome the academic writing related problems. Key Words: Process Approach, Product Approach, Genre Approach, Academic Writing                


2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (7) ◽  
pp. 117-127
Author(s):  
N. V. Ageenko ◽  
S. G. Menshenina ◽  
V. V. Dobrova ◽  
P. G. Labzina

Global tendencies in all scientific spheres require developed academic literacy of the researcher for effective international communication. Foreign language communication in a professional academic environment implies proficiency in the language of academic discourse. For academic discourse, as a component of academic literacy, development of academic writing skills is crucial. Higher educational institutions realize the necessity to design academic writing courses, and determine their place in the curriculum. Following the challenges of the time and academic community demands, SSTU English Language instructors designed an academic writing course to increase the methodological and academic literacy of students and young researchers. We believe that the development of the key educational and communicative foreign language competencies for academic and professional interaction can contribute to successful integration into the international scientific environment. Course design considered foreign experience, methods and curricula in the field of academic writing and academic reading.


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