scholarly journals EAP alignment in EFL writing courses towards developing student’s academic writing skills

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-144
Author(s):  
Melaku Bayu Workie ◽  
Zelealem Shitahun Haregu
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Basic Writing ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Efl Writing ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Descriptive Survey ◽  
Quantitative And Qualitative Methods

The objective of the present study was to assess the prevailing alignment of English for academic purposes (EAP) in EFL writing courses vis-à-vis the development of academic writing skills of students in public universities of Amhara National Regional State (ANRS) in Ethiopia. The study used a descriptive survey that involved quantitative and qualitative methods. A questionnaire, focus-group discussions, and syllabus and materials survey were used to gather primary and secondary data, respectively, for the study. The descriptive statistics were employed in analyzing the quantitative data. The qualitative data were analyzed and reported thematically. The results showed there were existed a comparable horizontal (cross-department) distribution pattern of common writing courses among the three universities; all learners in taking the common course 'Basic Writing Skills' in each university learnt with the same syllabus and material regardless of their fields of study. So, there was a poor alignment of writing courses with the target students' mainstream discipline (i.e., learning and discourse) both in terms of content and genre. 

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 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 Saudi Arabia EFL university students’ voice on challenges and solution in learning academic writing

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 576 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammed Abdullah Alharbi
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Efl Writing ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Writing Improvement ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
Before And After

The present study aims to investigate the difficulties faced by 74 English as a foreign language (EFL) undergraduate students in developing a well-written paragraph in academic writing by designing a writing course based on the students’ voices. The self-report survey (5-point Likert scale) was used as the pre- and post-questionnaire, and pre- and the post-tests task was used to track students’ writing improvement before and after taking a writing course. Pre-questionnaire and pre-tests showed that participants had difficulties in using the mechanics of writing (punctuation, spelling, grammar, topic sentences, and supporting sentences). The majority of the students’ responses in the post-survey shows that they believed their writing improved and encountered fewer difficulties in writing as compared to their views in the pre-questionnaire. The result of the post-tests indicates improvements in students’ writing samples. The study concludes that EFL writing courses should be designed on the basis of challenges faced by the students in order to get the best outcome from the course.

scholarly journals Educational Turning Point in Albania: No More Mechanic Parrots but Critical Thinkers

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 117
Author(s):  
Mirela Dubali Alhasani
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
University Graduates ◽  
Educational Transformation ◽  
Critical Writing ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Shed Light

<p>Since 2004 Albanian academics have been making efforts to establish the best Western practices of academic writing associated with critical thinking and writing skills for university students. In this article, I will shed light upon the special challenges and peculiarities the establishment of Academic Writing discipline has encountered in Albania over the years of educational transformation in the broad framework of democratic political transition. I argue that the socio-political indoctrination of the society during five decades of communist dictatorship has delayed the cultivation of critical thinking, reading and, consequently, critical writing skills for academic and occupational opportunities. Moreover, the research will not be limited only to causal factors of delay, instead, it will pave the way to recommendations that accelerate the successful acquisition and possession of such crucial academic writing skills for Albanian university graduates and academia in general.</p><p>First, I provide literature on definition of critical thinking and its improvement through writing courses; next I depict the typical political indoctrination of students during communist dictatorship tracing the legacy of mechanic reading and the huge lack of critical discourse even among the academic staffs themselves; later on I discuss the contemporary academic focus being placed upon the need of critical academic writing to prepare independent thinkers successful to face the democratic transition. Finally, and most importantly, I offer substantial suggestions and recommendations how to implement successfully the Western Academic writing tradition in the higher education curricula by taking into consideration Albania’s educational legacy.</p>

scholarly journals An Error Analysis of Research Project Abstracts Written by Thai Undergraduate Students

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Wirada Amnuai
Keyword(s):  
Error Analysis ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
English Language ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Word Choice ◽  
Writing Ability ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Sentence Level

Errors in writing are unavoidable while students are trying to develop their writing skills. There have been several studies on identifying writing problems or errors in students’ writing. It is believed that identifying students’ written tasks is an effective tool to explore the difficulties involved in learning language. This helps teachers’ awareness of the serious problems which occur in students’ writing and allows them to pay closer attention to their errors. The aim of the present research study is to pinpoint writing errors in English abstracts written by Thai undergraduate students. Forty abstracts of research projects were collected and analysed. The error analysis was conducted at the sentence level, word level, and mechanics aspect. The five most frequent error types ranking from the most frequent to least frequent were word choice, preposition, sentence construction, singular or plural forms and quotation marks. The findings of the present study have shed light on the students’ writing ability and give an insight into what the problems students face when writing their abstracts. Also, the errors found in the abstracts in the present study have pedagogical implications concerning English language learning, particularly with writing courses. The findings will be helpful for teachers to develop teaching materials to assist their students from committing errors when writing English abstracts and to improve academic writing skills.

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.

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 EFL Students’ and Lecturer’s Perceptions on Collaborative Writing

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (11) ◽  
pp. 83
Author(s):  
Ade Ismail ◽  
Ninuk Lustyantie ◽  
Emzir Emzir
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Understanding ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Qualitative Method ◽  
Collaborative Writing ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Research Data ◽  
Positive Perception ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Efl Students

The study aims to explore in-depth students' and lecturer’s perceptions of collaborative writing. There are four perceptual focuses; conceptual understanding, forms of cooperation, writing skills, and classroom atmosphere. This study used a qualitative method involving 31 students who took academic writing courses and an English Lecturer. The research data were collected through questionnaire and analyzed descriptively. The results showed that students and lecturer had a positive perception of the collaborative writing model in terms of understanding concepts, forms of cooperation, writing skills, and a pleasant learning classroom atmosphere. One of the most dominant aspects of students' perceptions about collaborative writing is the development of cooperation between them in the learning process (Storch 2018), which improves their writing abilities and skills (Zhang 2018).  

scholarly journals Strategies for Teaching Academic Writing to Saudi L2 Learners

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Syed Sarwar Hussain
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
English Language ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Writing Strategies ◽  
King Saud University ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Study Participants

Of all English Language skills, writing poses the greatest challenge for students due to the demands of style, structure and vocabulary. Even if second language learners (L2 learners) can speak the language well enough for everyday activities - shopping, traveling, and so on, producing an academic write-up that is precise, accurate, objective and fully referenced is still quite a task. This study aimed to determine the academic writing strategies used in ESP classrooms. Along with this, the study determined the perceived proficiency of L2 learners in academic writing, based on their ESP test course. The study also reports the needs of L2 learners in academic writing, and how English for Academic Purposes (EAP) instructors can help to improve the writing skills of L2 learners. The study participants consisted of 60 L2 learners from various departments in King Saud University. A questionnaire was used to gather the responses of participants. The data was analyzed using SPSS 20.0 software. The results are displayed in descriptive statistics - frequencies and percentages. Inferences were made from the quantitative data, which formed the bases of discussion of the results of the study. The study found that L2 learners consider their academic writing skills to be adequate. This was reported as perceived proficiency since previous studies have reported discrepancies between the perception of teachers and students. L2 learners also revealed that they need to improve on grammar, vocabulary and punctuation as well as the use of academic writing strategies. The study revealed that majority of the respondents use strategies such as outlining and brainstorming. L2 learners performed above average when they use these writing strategies. However, L2 learners want EAP instructors to improve on core ESP topics including grammar, vocabulary and the use of writing strategies. Still, others want EAP instructors to improve on their teaching methods, as well as create an all-inclusive environment for students.

scholarly journals The Success of an EAP Programme in Tertiary Education: Using a Student-Centric Approach to Scaffold Materials in an EAP

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. p213
Author(s):  
Misty So-Sum Wai Cook
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Curriculum Design ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Content Development ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Language Writing ◽  
Scaffold Materials ◽  
The Impact

Researchers and practitioners who focus on academic writing in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses have reported on the need to equip students with the necessary knowledge and skills to deal with academic writing across different disciplines in tertiary education (Rinnert & Kobayashi, 2005; Shi, 2011; Thompson, 2013). Previous research (e.g., Crosthwaite, 2016) has predominantly measured students’ progress in an EAP by comparing students’ pre- and post-course scores of individual language/writing skills. Much less has been reported on the effectiveness of a detailed EAP curriculum design that scaffolds skills in stages. This study contributes to the current EAP research by examining holistically the impact of a 12-week EAP course that adopts a reading-to-write, student-centric approach to scaffold progressively difficult writing skills/knowledge to help students acquire academic writing skills by focusing on three core skills: language, text organisation, and content development. The data of this study show students’ perceptions of their writing abilities and the significant improvement in academic writing skills before and after completing the course.

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