scholarly journals The Development of Stance-taking Strategies in L2 Students’ Academic Essays: the Case of a Content-based Russian-American Teleconference Course

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 45-53
Author(s):  
Irina Shchemeleva
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Education Students ◽  
Epistemic Modal ◽  
American Students ◽  
Internationalization Of Education ◽  
Novice Writers ◽  
English Academic Writing ◽  
Russian Universities

Due to internationalization of education, students in the majority of leading Russian universities are increasingly likely to use English as a medium of instruction. At the same time, they are not offered preparatory courses in English academic writing. As a result, students are able to develop their academic writing skills mainly while undertaking content-based courses. Recent research indicates that one of the major concerns for novice writers is to be able to express their stance. The key aim of the study is to show that implementing some methods of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) into a content-based course might improve students’ ability to take a stance in their writing. The paper presents the analysis of 45 essays written in English by L2 novice writers during a teleconference course taught to a group of Russian and American students. The study employs a comparative linguistic analysis of some stance markers (pronoun ‘I’, reporting verbs, epistemic modal and evidential expressions) used in students’ essays written at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of the course. The results suggest that the students’ ability to take a stance might be developed through the integration into the course of some elements of EAP teaching.

Understanding the use of mediational means in academic writing

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 378-407
Author(s):  
Peisha Wu ◽  
Shulin Yu
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Journal Articles ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Master Level ◽  
Mediational Means ◽  
Novice Writers ◽  
Present Case Study

Abstract While the majority of previous studies on EAP (English for academic purposes) writing have been devoted to professional or academic writing at a more advanced level (i.e., PhD students and scholars) in ESL contexts, little attention has been paid to the academic writing of master-level novice writers in EFL contexts. From a sociocultural perspective, the present case study examined the writing strategies of a master-level novice writer – Alice in Macau context. Non-structured, semi-structured and text-based interviews were used as the primary source of data, with document analysis used for triangulation. The study identified two major categories (i.e., artifacts and community) and five subcategories of mediational means (i.e., journal articles and theses, languages, online writing materials, peers and experts) as significant in the novice writer’s academic writing activities. It also unveiled double-edged features of mediational means and recognized their interplay with the writer’s goals and relatedness to her situated context.

scholarly journals Paradigmatic influences on lexical bundles in research articles in the discipline of education

Corpora ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-263
Author(s):  
Duygu Candarli ◽  
Steven Jones
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Structural Characteristics ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Lexical Bundles ◽  
Research Paradigms ◽  
Quantitative And Qualitative Research ◽  
Writing Research ◽  
Novice Writers ◽  
English Academic Writing

Lexical bundles are pervasive in English academic writing; however, little scholarly attention has been paid to how quantitative and qualitative research paradigms influence the use of lexical bundles in research articles. In order to investigate this, we created two equal-size corpora of research articles in the discipline of education. We examined four-word lexical bundles in terms of their structural characteristics and discourse functions in the quantitative and qualitative research articles published in international English-medium journals. We attribute intra-disciplinary variations in the use of lexical bundles to the knowledge-making practices that are specific to quantitative and qualitative research articles. This paper provides further evidence that the research article is not a unitary construct. The results have implications for academic writing, and corpus building and design in academic discourse. One of the key implications of this study is that L2 novice writers need to take into account the influences of research paradigms on the use of lexical bundles when writing research articles for English-medium journals in the discipline of education.

scholarly journals International Postgraduate Students’ Perception of Challenges in Academic Writing in Malaysian Public Universities

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (7) ◽  
pp. 191
Author(s):  
Sedigheh Shakib Kotamjani ◽  
Arshad Abd Samad ◽  
Mehrnaz Fahimirad
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Public Universities ◽  
Academic Language ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Critical Thinking Skills ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
English Medium Instruction ◽  
Lexical Phrases

The purpose of this study is to investigate international postgraduate students’ perceptions of difficulty with academic writing in Malaysian public universities. A survey was used to collect students’ perceptions of difficulties and challenges in general academic writing skills and language-related skills. The results revealed that students perceived greater difficulty in language-related problems than general academic writing skills. In terms of language-related skills, they ranked writing coherent paragraph, summarizing and paraphrasing, applying appropriate lexical phrases, utilizing proper academic language and vocabulary respectively as the most difficult areas in writing. However, with respect to general academic writing skills, they perceived the most difficulties in reviewing and criticizing the literature, writing introduction and research gap. The results of this study implied that international postgraduate students who graduated from non-English medium instruction universities should be supported in terms of English for Academic Purposes (EAP), critical thinking skills and language-related skills to become self-directed in learning to write.

scholarly journals A Comparative Study of Saudi and International Journals of Applied Linguistics: The Move–Bundle Connection Approach

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 9-30
Author(s):  
Basim Alamri
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
English Language ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Writing For Publication ◽  
Lexical Bundles ◽  
Raising Awareness ◽  
Novice Writers ◽  
Rhetorical Structures

The present study implemented a genre-based approach to analyze the rhetorical structure of English language research articles (RAs): specifically, the Introduction-Methods-Results-Discussion-Conclusion (I-M-R-D-C) sections. Next, lexical bundles (LBs) associated with patterns of moves were identified by applying a corpus-driven approach. The study analyzed two corpora of 30 RAs purposely selected from 16 peer-reviewed journals of applied linguistics published in Saudi Arabia and internationally during the years of 2011-2016. First, a genre-based approach was used to identify the move structures of RAs through analyzing different RA sections by different models. Next, lexical bundles associated with each identified move in each IMRDC section were analyzed using a corpus-driven approach, based on structural and functional taxonomies. The study findings showed that both corpora share similarities and differences related to rhetorical structures and lexical bundles. These findings have pedagogical implications for novice writers, graduate students, and English for Academic Purposes (EAP) instruction, including raising awareness of rhetorical structures and LBs in academic writing for publication, which could help produce more successful publishable research articles.

scholarly journals WIKIPEDIA PROJECT TO TEACH ACADEMIC WRITING IN AN EAP UNIVERSITY COURSE

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 406
Author(s):  
Joseph Jack Horgan
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Negative Attitude ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
First Year ◽  
Writing Project ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
University Course

The introduction of modern information and communication technologies (ICT) into the classroom has led to a number of challenges and opportunities for instructors across the field of education. Wikipedia, a collaborative encyclopedia, has proven to be one of the most controversial online platforms throughout academia, with many higher education instructors banning its use outright. Despite the prevailing negative attitude, there has been a recent shift in thought among some in the field regarding its utilization as a teaching tool in a number of applications. One popular use is as the centre of a writing project, most commonly the creation of a new article or the improvement of a pre-existing one.This paper outlines a case study conducted at the Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies in the autumn semester of 2019, in which first year international veterinarian medicine students wrote Wikipedia articles as part of a semester-long project in an English for academic purposes course in order to improve academic writing skills such as researching, analysing, summarizing, and editing. Analysis of two questionnaires and the students’ work suggest that despite some challenges, a Wikipedia article writing project can serve as an engaging, rewarding, and effective method to teach academic writing skills. 

scholarly journals Project-computer technology in teaching english academic writing to students of linguistic higher educational institutions

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 67-74
Author(s):  
O.B. Tarnopolsky ◽  
◽  
S.D. Storozhuk ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Computer Technology ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Educational Institution ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Language Instruction ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Higher Educational Institutions ◽  
On Line ◽  
Higher Educational ◽  
English Academic Writing

Teaching writing in English is one of the principal tasks of English training of students in linguistic higher educational institutions, i.e. of training future teachers of English, translators, and applied linguists. This is due to the fact that written speech is more and more taking the position of the leading form of international communication in English as the global/planetary language of such communication, especially if that communication is professional, and, in particular, the academic one. For students of linguistic higher educational institutions, the main constituent of their English writing training is teaching them English academic writing (i.e. writing academic essays) because gaining command of just such writing skills serves as the basic means of mastering the skills of writing in English the most sophisticated types of written papers, such as professional articles, theses, presentation texts, etc. This kind of teaching only now begins to be researched in Ukrainian methodology of foreign language instruction, while using the project-computer methodology for that has not been researched at all as yet. This was the stimulus for choosing the above-mentioned issue as the subject matter of consideration in this article. It analyzes the project-computer technology developed by the authors and consisting of 12 stages of forming students’ academic essay writing skills in three selected subgenres of such essays (“personal opinion,” “for and against,” “problems and solutions”). All these stages are divided into the stages of off-line (purely project stages) and stages of blended off-line – on-line and purely on-line learning activities (project-computer stages). The characteristics of every stage are discussed and the model of the teaching/learning process in the conditions of using project-computer technology is suggested. The information concerning the practical efficiency of this technology is given. The conclusion is made about the rationality of introducing such a technology into courses of English at both linguistic and non-linguistic higher schools. Keywords: linguistic higher educational institution, academic writing in English, project-computer technology, stages of developing academic writing skills.

Write on the edge: using a chemistry corpus to develop academic writing skills resources for undergraduate chemists

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 580-589 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. L. Bruce ◽  
P. K. Coffer ◽  
S. Rees ◽  
J. M. Robson
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Scientific Literacy ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Language Pedagogy ◽  
Use Of Data ◽  
Chemistry Research ◽  
Second Language Pedagogy

Many undergraduate students find the production of an extended piece of academic writing challenging. This challenge is more acute in the sciences where production of extended texts is infrequent throughout undergraduate studies. This paper reports the development of a new English for Academic Purposes (EAP) workshop and associated resources for third year undergraduate chemists to support their dissertation module. The workshop is designed to utilise a searchable database of student texts (a corpus) developed as part of the FOCUS project at Durham University. This novel use of data-driven learning (DDL), common in second language pedagogy, transfers well to the chemistry classroom as the processes of research and discovery (of words rather than chemicals) involved in DDL parallel similar processes in chemistry research. Our workshop and online consolidation activities have been positively evaluated by both staff and our current cohort of students. The project is being rolled out across other departments at Durham as well as the corpus tool being utilised at other UK HEIs. This corpus-based approach to academic writing in chemistry offers a unique perspective on the interplay between language and scientific literacy.

scholarly journals THE EFFECTS OF TYPES OF FEEDBACK ON STUDENTS' REVIEWING PROCESS IN AN ONLINE SCAFFOLDED PROCESS WRITING CLASSROOM

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (43) ◽  
pp. 49-61
Author(s):  
Wardatul Akmam Din ◽  
Suyansah Swanto ◽  
Megawati Soekarno ◽  
Noraini Said
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Process Writing ◽  
Writing Classroom ◽  
Esl Students ◽  
Intervention Period ◽  
Post Intervention ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
English Academic Writing ◽  
Surface Changes

There has been growing evidence that the lack of academic writing skills among university students who learn English as a Second Language (ESL) affects their overall academic performance. Higher education ESL students often find writing academic essays a complex process and hence struggle with academic writing convention issues. However, in order to encourage these students’ to be autonomous in their English academic writing, explicit and supportive instruction is necessary on the teacher’s part. This study aims to investigate thirty Foundation students’ revision activities pre- and post-intervention and whether there are any changes in their reviewing activities after being exposed to the intervention for twelve weeks. The reviewing activities were categories and analysed for inter-correlations. It is found that the students’ revision activities at first seem to concentrate mostly on Surface Changes-Meaning Preserving Changes activities. However, this changes in the second half of the intervention period where they seem to perform more Meaning Changes-Microstructure Changes and the least is Surface Changes-Formal Changes.

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