A Diagnostic Study on the Academic Writing of International Students - Focusing on Linguistic Features of Dissertations -

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 403-421
Author(s):  
Min Suk Kang ◽  
Keyword(s):  
International Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Diagnostic Study ◽  
Linguistic Features

scholarly journals Metadiscourse in Academic Writing of Pre-University Arab Students at the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM)

2018 ◽  
Vol 150 ◽  
pp. 05086
Author(s):  
Muhamad Khairul Zakaria ◽  
Faridah Abdul Malik
Keyword(s):  
International Students ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Cultural Considerations ◽  
Academic Texts ◽  
Arab Students ◽  
English Language Teachers

There is lack of studies on the use of metadiscourse markers; especially amongst international students studying in Malaysia and Malaysia are receiving scores of international students particularly from the Middle East annually. This study involves a textual analysis of students’ academic writing where the metadiscourse markers in 50 Arab IIUM students’ academic texts were identified and analyzed. The findings of this study indicated that Arab writers had a greater inclination for the deployment of the interactive markers (Total counts = 919) than interactional ones (Total counts = 592) as there was a higher percentage of interactive metadiscourse (60.8%) usage than the interactional ones (39.2%). It might be useful for English language teachers to integrate cultural considerations within their syllabus with regard to metadiscourse markers in order to prepare relevant materials based on their students’ needs as well as to develop the students’ awareness of the importance of these linguistic features.

Markers of identification in Indigenous academic writing: A case study of genre innovation

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shurli Makmillen ◽  
Michelle Riedlinger
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Genre Studies ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Research Article ◽  
Rhetorical Genre ◽  
Academic Genres

AbstractThis study contributes to research into genre innovation and scholarship exploring how Indigenous epistemes are disrupting dominant discourses of the academy. Using a case study approach, we investigated 31 research articles produced by Mäori scholars and published in the journal AlterNative between 2006 and 2018. We looked for linguistic features associated with self-positioning and self-identification. We found heightened ambiguous uses of “we”; a prevalence of verbs associated with personal (as opposed to discursive) uses of “I/we”; personal storytelling; and a privileging of Elders’ contributions to the existing state of knowledge. We argue these features reflect and reinforce Indigenous scholars’ social relations with particular communities of practice within and outside of the academy. They are also in keeping with Indigenous knowledge-making practices, protocols, and languages, and signal sites of negotiation and innovation in the research article. We present the implications for rhetorical genre studies and for teaching academic genres.

scholarly journals Writing Gravity: International Female Graduate Students’ Academic Writing Experiences

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abir Aly Eldaba ◽  
Janet Kesterson Isbell
Keyword(s):  
International Students ◽  
Graduate Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Second Language Writing ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Critical Study ◽  
Graduate Degree ◽  
Writing Assignments ◽  
Marginalized Groups ◽  
Language Writing

In a critical study, researchers explored academic writing experiences of three international female graduate students at a southern U.S. university in order to understand their perspectives of themselves as writers across cultures, their experiences with academic writing, and their coping strategies for academic writing assignments. Findings revealed participants’ challenges and self-doubts about second-language writing abilities. Participants both challenged disconfirmation of their writing and at times were submissive as they negotiated a graduate degree program. The study demonstrates need for universities to recognize marginalized groups’ knowledge and ways of knowing and to create spaces to discuss new possibilities for academic writing experiences among international students.

Automatically Augmenting Academic Text for Language Learning

2018 ◽  
pp. 512-537
Author(s):  
Shaoqun Wu ◽  
Alannah Fitzgerald ◽  
Ian H. Witten ◽  
Alex Yu
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
British Library ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Lexical Bundles ◽  
English Writing ◽  
Design Considerations

This chapter describes the automated FLAX language system (flax.nzdl.org) that extracts salient linguistic features from academic text and presents them in an interface designed for L2 students who are learning academic writing. Typical lexico-grammatical features of any word or phrase, collocations, and lexical bundles are automatically identified and extracted in a corpus; learners can explore them by searching and browsing, and inspect them along with contextual information. This chapter uses a single running example, the PhD abstracts corpus of 9.8 million words derived from the open access Electronic Theses Online Service (EThOS) at the British Library, but the approach is fully automated and can be applied to any collection of English writing. Implications for reusing open access publications for non-commercial educational and research purposes are presented for discussion. Design considerations for developing teaching and learning applications that focus on the rhetorical and lexico-grammatical patterns found in the abstract genre are also discussed.

scholarly journals Linguistic Markers and Stylistic Attributes of Hedging in English Academic Papers Written by Native and Non-Native Speakers of English

MANUSYA ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Amara Prasithrathsint
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Linguistic Markers ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
English Academic Writing ◽  
The Impact

Hedging means mitigating words so as to lessen the impact of an utterance. It may cause uncertainty in language but is regarded as an important feature in English academic writing. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the style of academic writing in English with particular reference to the significant role of hedging and the linguistic features that mark it. The data was taken from academic articles in the humanities written by native speakers of English, Filipino speakers of English, and Thai speakers of English. It is hypothesized that speakers of English as a foreign language use fewer and different hedging devices than native speakers of English. The result of the analysis shows that the prominent linguistic markers of hedging are the auxiliaries may, might, could, the verbs suggest, appear, seem, and the adverbs perhaps and often. They are divided into three groups according to their stylistic attributes of hedging; namely, probability, indetermination, and approximation. The use of hedging found in the data confirms what Hyman (1994) says; i.e., that hedging allows writers to express their uncertainty about the truth of their statements. It is also found that English native speakers use hedges most frequently. The Filipino speakers of English are the second, and the Thai speakers of English use hedges the least frequency. This implies that hedging is likely to be related to the level of competence in English including knowledge of stylistic variation, and that it needs to be formally taught to those who speak English as a second or foreign language.

scholarly journals Performance, Interaction, and Satisfaction of Graduate EAP Students in a Face-to-Face and an Online Class: A Comparative Analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 132-153
Author(s):  
Dmitri Stanchevici ◽  
Megan Siczek
Keyword(s):  
International Students ◽  
Student Satisfaction ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
American University ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Face To Face

Before arriving in a host country, international students may be motivated to complete some institutional requirements online. Many studies address computer-assisted instruction for second-language students, but few focus on fully online English for Academic Purposes (EAP) writing courses. This comparative case study, grounded in action research, examined the extent to which a fully online version of a graduate-level EAP course offered to international students at a North American university achieved comparable outcomes to a face-to-face version. A quantitative and qualitative analysis of study participants’ performance and course evaluations indicated that the outcomes and student satisfaction of both cohorts were comparable. However, an examination of the participants’ final research papers and online interactions revealed differences and challenges. Based on these findings, it is recommended that future online courses provide more instruction on source integration, library research, and building an interactive learning community. Overall, the findings suggest that when carefully designed, assessed, and refined, fully online courses hold strong promise in EAP academic writing contexts. Les étudiantes et étudiants internationaux tiennent parfois à remplir certaines exigences institutionnelles en ligne avant de se rendre dans leur pays d’accueil. L’enseignement assisté par ordinateur pour les apprenantes et apprenants d’anglais langue seconde fait l’objet de nombreuses études, mais peu d’entre elles portent sur des cours d’écriture d’anglais académique (EAP) complètement dispensés en ligne. Entièrement basée sur la recherche-action, la présente étude de cas comparative fait état du degré de comparabilité des résultats d’un cours d’anglais académique de deuxième cycle complètement présenté en ligne à des étudiantes et étudiants internationaux inscrits à une université nord-américaine et des résultats obtenus lorsque le même cours était dispensé en personne. Une analyse quantitative et qualitative des rendements des participantes et participants et du cours lui-même a indiqué que les résultats et le degré de satisfaction des étudiantes et étudiants des deux cohortes se valaient. L’examen des rapports de recherche finaux des participantes et participants et celui des interactions en ligne ont toutefois révélé des écarts et des défis. Sur la base de ces constatations, il est recommandé que les futurs cours en ligne fournissent davantage d’instructions sur l’intégration des sources, sur les recherches en bibliothèque et sur la construction d’une communauté d’apprentissage interactif. Dans l’ensemble, les constatations de l’étude suggèrent que, s’ils sont soigneusement conçus, évalués et peaufinés, les cours complètement dispensés en ligne sont très prometteurs dans des contextes d’écriture en anglais académique.

A multidimensional analysis of student writing in Black South African English

2008 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 268-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bertus van Rooy
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Multidimensional Analysis ◽  
Sufficient Evidence ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Multidimensional Model ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Black South African ◽  
Processing Strategies ◽  
Reference Corpus

Evidence for the status of Black South African English (BlSAfE) as a variety of English is ambiguous. This paper examines 67 linguistic features of a corpus of BlSAfE student writing, the Tswana Learner English Corpus (TLE), in comparison to a Standard English reference corpus, the Louvain Corpus of Native English Speaking Students (LOCNESS), within the framework of Biber’s (1988) multidimensional model, to determine if evidence for indigenisation and systematicity exists. Linguistic features that occur more frequently in LOCNESS than the TLE suggest that LOCNESS is characterised by greater elaboration of information and information density, more syntactically complex subordination, more reference cohesion and more specialised meanings. The TLE shows evidence of greater involvement of reader and writer of the text, although some features of informality also occur in LOCNESS. Based on comparison of the coefficients of variation in the two corpora, it is concluded that they exhibit similar ranges of variation and that variety status cannot be denied to BlSAfE on the grounds of variability. The application of the multidimensional model shows that the reference corpus, LOCNESS, is similar to academic writing in four of the six dimensions, but differs in being more involved in style and more overtly persuasive. Superficially, the TLE appears to be quite similar to LOCNESS in terms of the various dimensions, but closer examination reveals a number of differences, which largely confirm the findings that were made on the basis of individual feature comparisons: The TLE carries a lower informational density, and information is more often presented in hypothetical ways. It shows a number of similarities with the style and the information processing strategies attributed to spoken registers, but it still remains very clearly distinguishable from spoken language. Many similarities between the corpora are observed, which should be attributed to the register features of student writing. The paper concludes that there is sufficient evidence to acknowledge BlSAfE as a variety of English, on the ground of the stylistic differences between the TLE and LOCNESS, particularly its greater interpersonal as opposed to informational focus, as well as discourse-functional differences in the use of linguistic forms.

scholarly journals Does educational integrity mean teaching students NOT to 'use their own words'?

2005 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ursula McGowan
Keyword(s):  
International Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Limited Range ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Educational Approach ◽  
English Grammar ◽  
High Incidence ◽  
The Face ◽  
Disciplinary System ◽  
Written Assignments

In the face of increasing evidence of plagiarism in higher education the maintenance of educational integrity relies on the capacity of universities to strengthen their systems for consistent detection of and penalties for deliberate plagiarism, cheating and other fraudulent practices. However, there is a danger that the resolve to do so may be weakened if these systems become overloaded by the detection of a high incidence of unintentional plagiarism. The focus of this paper is on international students for whom English is an additional language (EAL) and whose plagiarism is most easily recognised, as many set out on their degree courses with no experience in a Western academic environment, an unsteady command of English grammar and a relatively limited range of vocabulary. The advice to 'use their own words' in order to avoid accidental plagiarism may be more confusing than helpful for them. This paper proposes that far from trapping students in their existing repertoire of words, the teaching, assessment and feedback advice provided within university courses should explicitly support their students' development of the formal language that is valued in academic writing. It is suggested that the basis for doing so is an understanding of the essential differences between informal, spoken language and the more formal style required in written assignments. An educational approach that successfully removes innocent plagiarists from the disciplinary system could become a means for assuring a university's educational integrity. Keywords: plagiarism, 'own words', spoken and written language, re-usable language, international students, English as an Additional Language (EAL).

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