scholarly journals Analyzing Writing Style and Adapting to a New Writing Culture: A Teaching Practice

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 213-220
Author(s):  
Charity Givens
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Private University ◽  
Sentence Length ◽  
First Year ◽  
Writing Style ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
First Year Composition ◽  
Writing Culture ◽  
University Degree

This teaching practice presents a classroom exercise completed in a first-year composition class at an English-medium private university in Lithuania. The course typically takes place in the second semester of the year and is required for all first-year students, who are multilingual but completing their university degree in English. The instructor, a US speaker of English who has a background in US composition studies, leads the exercise that consists of a writing style analysis that examines sentence length, word variety, and sentence emphasis, concluding with a discussion of how students can adapt their writing style to meet the needs of a new audience. The exercise aims to help students understand their writing style and what they need to know to adapt their style to fit the academic writing context in the university.

scholarly journals Motivational Teaching Strategies in Indonesian EFL Writing Classrooms

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 60
Author(s):  
Yustinus Calvin Gai Mali
Keyword(s):  
Teaching Strategies ◽  
English Language ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Private University ◽  
First Year ◽  
Motivational Strategies ◽  
English Language Education ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Efl Writing

This qualitative study explores motivational teaching strategies employed in English as a foreign language (EFL) writing classrooms and designs a sample of lesson plans elaborating the strategies that were reflected from open-ended questionnaires of sixty-five first-year students at English Language Education Program in a private university in Indonesia. The data analysis reveals possible motivational strategies that are classified into Dornyei’s (2001) framework of motivational teaching practice. Based on the analysis, the study reinforces a view that teachers can motivate their students to learn and they use particular teaching strategies to motivate their students. Eventually, this study hopes to provide insights for EFL teachers espousing similar teaching practices, so they can enhance their students’ motivation, particularly in their EFL writing classrooms.

Refining Contrapuntal Pedagogy: Reflections on Teaching Warsan Shire’s “Home” and W.H. Auden’s “Refugee Blues” to First-Year Students

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bridget Grogan
Keyword(s):  
Racial Identity ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Poetic Voice ◽  
Teaching Poetry ◽  
Approach To Teaching ◽  
The University ◽  
The Way

This article reports on and discusses the experience of a contrapuntal approach to teaching poetry, explored during 2016 and 2017 in a series of introductory poetry lectures in the English 1 course at the University of Johannesburg. Drawing together two poems—Warsan Shire’s “Home” and W.H. Auden’s “Refugee Blues”—in a week of teaching in each year provided an opportunity for a comparison that encouraged students’ observations on poetic voice, racial identity, transhistorical and transcultural human experience, trauma and empathy. It also provided an opportunity to reflect on teaching practice within the context of decoloniality and to acknowledge the need for ongoing change and review in relation to it. In describing the contrapuntal teaching and study of these poems, and the different methods employed in the respective years of teaching them, I tentatively suggest that canonical Western and contemporary postcolonial poems may reflect on each other in unique and transformative ways. I further posit that poets and poems that engage students may open the way into initially “less relevant” yet ultimately rewarding poems, while remaining important objects of study in themselves.

Education for sustainable development in Spanish higher education: an assessment of sustainability competencies in engineering and education degrees

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fermín Sánchez-Carracedo ◽  
Daniel Romero-Portillo ◽  
Bàrbara Sureda Carbonell ◽  
Francisco Manuel Moreno-Pino
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Education For Sustainable Development ◽  
First Year ◽  
Education Students ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Spanish Higher Education ◽  
Percentage Measure ◽  
University Degree

Purpose This paper aims to present a methodology for analysing the extent to which students of a university degree perceive that they have received a good education for sustainable development (ESD). The methodology enables us to quantify this perception, which, in turn, allows us to determine: to what extent the objectives related to ESD are achieved in the degree, and to compare the learning in ESD perceived by students of different degrees. The methodology is applied to nine engineering degrees and nine education degrees in the Spanish university system. Design/methodology/approach ESD is analysed from the students’ learning perception. This perception is measured by comparing the responses of first- and fourth-year students to a questionnaire about their sustainability competencies. Two indicators have been designed to analyse the results. The first indicator, learning increase, measures the declared learning difference between fourth- and first-year students. The second indicator, learning percentage, measure the amount of learning as reported by fourth-year students compared to how much they could have learned. Findings The results show that the average learning percentage perceived by students is higher in engineering degrees (33%) than in education degrees (27%), despite the fact that the average learning increase declared by students at the end of their studies in both areas of knowledge is similar (66%). Engineering students report having achieved higher learning than education students in all sustainability competencies, with the exception of ethics. Originality/value This paper analyses ESD from the student’s perspective. Furthermore, to the knowledge of the authors, this is the first study that compares the perception of ESD between engineering and education students. This comparison allows us to determine the different approaches that university Professors take to ESD according to the discipline they teach.

scholarly journals Error Analysis of Students Essays: A Case of First Year Students of the University of Health and Allied Sciences

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 54
Author(s):  
Benjamin Amoakohene
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Error Analysis ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Communicative Skills ◽  
Daunting Task ◽  
Integral Role ◽  
The University

Writing is considered as a daunting task in second language learning. It is argued by most scholars that this challenge is not only limited to second language speakers of English but even to those who speak English as their first language. Thus, the ability to communicate effectively in English by both native and non-native speakers requires intensive and specialized instruction. Due to the integral role that writing plays in students’ academic life, academic literacy has garnered considerable attention in several English-medium universities in which Ghanaian universities are no exception. It is therefore surprising that prominence is not given to Academic Writing and Communicative Skills at the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS). In this paper, I argue for much time and space to be given to Academic Writing and Communicative Skills, a programme that seeks to train students to acquire the needed skills and competence in English for their academic and professional development. This argument is based on the findings that came out after I explored the errors in a corpus of 50 essays written by first year students of  UHAS. The findings revealed that after going through the Communicative Skills programme for two semesters, students still have serious challenges of writing error-free texts. Out of the 50 scripts that were analyzed, 1,050 errors were detected. The study further revealed that 584 (55.6%) of these errors were related to grammatical errors, 442 (42.1%) were mechanical errors and 24 (2.3%) of the errors detected were linked to the poor structuring of  sentences. Based on these findings, recommendations and implications which are significant to educators, policy makers and curriculum developers are provided. This study has implications for pedagogy and further research in error analysis. 

scholarly journals The Prevalence and Frequency of Authorial Identity among Undergraduate Students in Fiji

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 136
Author(s):  
Jasbir Karneil Singh ◽  
Ben K. Daniel
Keyword(s):  
Academic Success ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
First Year ◽  
Esl Students ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Student Writers ◽  
Authorial Identity ◽  
National University ◽  
Authorial Voice

Expressing an authoritative voice is an essential part of academic writing at university. However, the performance of the authorial self in writing is complex yet fundamental to academic success as a large part of academic assessment involves writing to the academy. More specifically, the performance of the authorial self can be complex for English as a Second Language (ESL) student-writers. This research investigated the extent to which ESL first-year students at the Fiji National University perform their authorial voice using interactional metadiscourse in their academic writing. The study employed a quantitative analysis of corpus produced by 16 Fijian ESL undergraduate students enrolled in an EAP course. The research found that the ESL authorial voice was predominantly expressed through boosters and attitude markers, with relatively little usage of other interactional metadiscoursal elements such as hedges, engagement markers and self-mentions. Further, the research showed that this particular cohort expressed their authorial voice and identity through boosted arguments and avoiding language that directly mentions the authorial self. The study concludes that the ESL authorial self for this cohort manifests itself in a selected range of selected interactional metadiscoursal elements, requiring the need to raise the awareness of self-reflective expressions for ESL students. The study also encourages further exploration of ESL authorial identity construction in academic writing at undergraduate level and beyond.

Information Literacy Education for First-Year Composition Students

2018 ◽  
pp. 85-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica D. T. Rysavy ◽  
Russell Michalak ◽  
Kevin Hunt
Keyword(s):  
Information Literacy ◽  
Business Students ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
First Year ◽  
Literacy Assessment ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Composition Students ◽  
First Year Composition ◽  
Composition Course ◽  
International Graduate

This chapter describes how the researchers at a small private Master's level college examined how different delivery modes—face-to-face (F2F), hybrid, and online instruction—may impact first-year students' perceptions of their information literacy (IL) skills compared to their test-assessed information literacy skills using the students perception of information literacy-questionnaire (SPIL-Q) and information literacy assessment (ILA) instruments. These instruments were developed and deployed to international graduate business students in two previous studies: Michalak and Rysavy and Michalak, Rysavy, and Wessel. The students (n=161) in this study were enrolled in a first-year English composition course in the Spring 2017 semester. This iteration achieved an overall response rate of 87.04% (n=141). Overall, results demonstrated the greatest achievement were demonstrated by students in hybrid course sections.

scholarly journals Investigating Cohesion and Coherence Discourse Strategies of Chinese Students with Varied Lengths of Residence in Canada

2012 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krista Leo
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
First Language ◽  
Chinese Students ◽  
Discourse Markers ◽  
Generation 1.5 ◽  
First Year ◽  
Writing Proficiency ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Cohesive Devices ◽  
Discourse Strategies

This study examines how three age-on-arrival (AOA) groups of Chinese-background ESL students use two types of cohesive devices on a standardized essay exam. A discourse analysis of 90 first-year students’ expository writing samples was conducted to ascertain how factors such as first language (L1) and length of residence (LOR) in Canada influence a student’s ability to create cohesive and coherent writing. The study uses both quantitative and qualitative methods to explore how Canadian-born Chinese (CBC) students use lexical and referential discourse markers. Twelve essay features of this group of Generation 1.5 students are compared with those of two other cohorts of Chinese students with a shorter LOR. Key writing variables that measure academic writing proficiency were quantitatively analyzed to compare the expository writings of the CBC cohort with those of the later AOAs. Results indicate that synonymy and content words distinguish the writings of the CBC students from those of their later-arriving peers. A qualitative analysis of one CBC essay reveals that a more flexible and contextualized approach to evaluating writing by longterm Generation 1.5 students is required to acknowledge fully the productive lexical and discoursal strengths of these students.

scholarly journals Actividad física y consejería en estudiantes universitarios de primero y quinto año de medicina de Bogotá, Colombia

2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Gustavo Tovar ◽  
Ángela Rodríguez ◽  
Gabriela García ◽  
José Rafael Tovar
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Private University ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
First Year ◽  
Healthy Patient ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Allocation Of Time ◽  
Main Barrier ◽  
De Medicina

ResumenIntroducción: La inactividad física es el cuarto factor de riesgo para desarrollar una enfermedad no transmisible. La asesoría brindada por el médico depende de sus propios hábitos de vida. Objetivo: Describir los niveles de actividad física y los factores relacionados con la consejería en estudiantes de primero y quinto año de la facultad de medicina de una Universidad privada en Bogotá, Colombia. Materiales y métodos: Estudio descriptivo con 61 estudiantes de primer año y 62 de quinto año de medicina con edades comprendidas entre 18 y 29 años. Se analizaron los datos de un subconjunto de registros, que hacen parte de un archivo mayor de datos obtenido en un estudio de corte transversal, en el que se aplicó la versión en español del cuestionario Healthy Doctor = Healthy Patient. Resultados: Se evaluaron 123 estudiantes de primero y quinto año de medicina. En primer año el 39,3% y en quinto año el 48,8% cumplieron con las recomendaciones de actividad física. Ser inactivo lo reportaron el 21,3% y el 8,1% respectivamente. La falta de tiempo fue la principal barrera para realizar actividad física. La actitud positiva hacia la consejería fue del 100% en el último año. Se observó más sobrepeso en el grupo de quinto año (23,8% hombres y 9.8% mujeres). Conclusión: La proporción de estudiantes de medicina que realizan actividad física es inferior a la observada en la población general y en poblaciones similares de estudiantes de medicina. El análisis de las barreras sugiere que en futuras intervenciones se debe pensar en la adjudicación de un tiempo para su práctica dentro del currículo. Se debe repensar la forma en que las facultades de medicina están abordando el tema de la actividad física, como pilar fundamental de la promoción de la salud.AbstractIntroduction: Physical inactivity is the fourth risk factor for developing a Non transmissible Chronic Disease (NCD). The advice given by the physician depends on people’s own lifestyle. Objective: To describe the levels of physical activity (PA) and factors associated with counseling in students from the first and fifth year of the faculty of medicine at a private university in Bogotá, Colombia. Materials and methods: A descriptive study was made with 61 first-year students and 62 from fifth year of medicine between 18 and 29 years old. The data from a subset of records was analyzed, which are part of a database obtained in a cross-sectional study, in which the Spanish version of the questionnaire Healthy Doctor = Healthy patient was applied. Results: 123 first and fifth year of medicine students were evaluated. In first year 39.3% and in fifth year 48.8% met the recommendations of PA. 21.3% and 8.1 % respectively reported to be inactive. Lack of time was the main barrier to physical activity. Positive attitude toward counseling was 100% in the last year. More overweight was observed in the group of fifth year (23.8% men and 9.8% women). Conclusion: The proportion of medical students who perform PA is lower than those observed in the general population and in similar populations of medicine students. The analysis of the barriers suggests that future interventions should consider the allocation of time to practice it within the curriculum. The way how medical schools are addressing the issue of physical activity must be reviewed as a fundamental pillar of health promotion.

scholarly journals A Socio-Cultural Analysis of Learning English in Unassisted and Assisted Peer Groups at University in Vietnam

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Pham Hoai Huong Le
Keyword(s):  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Video Recording ◽  
Peer Groups ◽  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
Mediation Process ◽  
First Year ◽  
Text Book ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Senior Student ◽  
Learning English

<p>The fieldwork for this study was carried out in Vietnam over a period of three months with a class of 45 first-year university students who were learning English as a foreign language. The conceptual framework was sociocultural theory as developed by Vygotsky and his followers. The focus was on small groups of peers as they practised speaking English. The processes involved in learning and using English were explored by studying what occurred within two kinds of groups. In one kind there were five first-year students. In the second there were four first-year students and one fourth-year student. These are referred to as unassisted and assisted peer groups. Over the three months of the study all students in the class had an opportunity to work in an unassisted and an assisted group. Data were collected each week by audio- and video-recording an unassisted and an unassisted group discussing the same topic. The processes within each of the groups were compared on the basis of the social interaction and the use of classroom artifacts including the text book which supplied the topics for discussion. First-year students were interviewed following the classroom observations and they kept journals. Students reported their experiences of being assisted and unassisted and what they believed they had learnt from each. Information was also collected on support for learning the English language in the broader Vietnamese environment. The results showed that the discourse pattern of the unassisted groups was unpredictable whereas in the assisted groups the senior student conducted a series of dyadic interactions with each student in turn. In both kinds of groups, students discussed the assigned topics but the assisted groups spoke almost entirely in English while the unassisted groups used more Vietnamese. Analysis of the incidence of Vietnamese showed the kind of situations which produced it. There were differences in the management of the tasks, and unassisted students had more trouble getting started. Observations showed that the unassisted students often teased others and laughed more often. The experience of speaking English amongst peers produced both stress and enjoyment irrespective of the type of group. Students from both groups reported that they had learned new words associated with the discussions of the topics set by the textbook. The textbook was a major factor in guiding participation and structuring the continuity of the discourse. Unassisted students worked directly with the textbook whereas the senior student mediated the questions from the textbook. The textbook came from a foreign culture and the study illustrated how students used their knowledge of Vietnamese culture in giving responses to the questions in the text. The study showed a complex mediation process consisting of interconnected layers. Mediation occurred both through the oral language of the discussions and through the written language in the textbook and on the blackboard, through the classroom teacher's instructions, by peers in both types of groups, and between the senior student and peers. On the basis of the research findings recommendations are made for teaching practice in EFL classrooms.</p>

scholarly journals Students and Tutors’ Perceptions of the Use and Functioning of University Tutoring

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadia Soledad Peralta ◽  
María Antonella Klug
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Orientation ◽  
Private University ◽  
First Year ◽  
Listening Skills ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Perceptions Of Students ◽  
University Life ◽  
The University

This article aims to study the functioning and perceptions of students and tutors of the university tutoring system in a private university institute in the city of Rosario. An exploratory-descriptive study was used, wich included a case study design. The university tutoring functioning was analized from the tutors’ perspective (with semi-structured interviews) and the first-year students’ perceptions (with the application of a questionnaire). The results indicate that, for tutors, the listening skills, the need for training, and the teamwork capacity are important. With regard to the students, it was found that more than half do not know about the tutoring, and that those who know about it manifest to have received the information from teachers and peers. Some of them consider that this space relates to the theoretical orientation and manifest preference toward the academic tutoring function, while others consider that tutoring enables them to carry out a comprehensive vision of university life.

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