scholarly journals Teaching Hong Kong English before Teaching Academic English: The Gateway to Effective Learning of College Writing

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernie Chun Nam MAK
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Professional Communication ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
Standard English ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
Relevant Topic ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Hong Kong English

Owing to the negative view of Hong Kong English (HKE) in popular discourse, few English lecturers in Hong Kong universities directly acknowledge or discuss the variety in a non-linguistic course. This paper illustrates an action research study of how HKE may play a role in an academic writing course of a sub-degree program in Hong Kong. Focusing on 8 representatives from an academic writing course with 100 students, it employed the qualitative experiment method to examine whether students who had possessed basic linguistic knowledge of HKE from an additional tutorial would perceive HKE and academic writing differently from those who had not. Student representatives from each group were invited to a focus group to explore ideas about the two subjects discussed in class. Their conversations suggested that prior knowledge of the syntactic features of HKE might raise students’ awareness of the grammatical differences between the variety and the standard. The analysis also suggested that introducing the linguistic view of HKE to students might render them optimistic about their variety, helping them identify the situations where the variety would be tolerant of and settings where Standard English would be expected. The study suggested that such an intervention might facilitate students’ learning of Standard English for academic purposes and practices of English in actual professional communication. Upon the improvement or advancement, they will position themselves more powerfully in the dichotomy between the standard and non-standard. More formal research on a similar or relevant topic is required to validate the impact of understanding HKE on learning academic writing.

scholarly journals The Effect of Comprehensive Explicit Instruction Approach on Arab EFL Students’ Academic Writing Performance

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 80
Author(s):  
Wisam Chaleila ◽  
Basem Khalaila
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Design Research ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
Explicit Instruction ◽  
Writing Performance ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Instruction Approach

While recent literature has focused extensively on the widely embraced approach of explicit instruction, there is a considerable paucity of research concerning plausible practical frameworks that can demonstrate how such particular approach is implementable in EFL classes. To address the specific writing deficiencies of EFL students, the current study proposes an innovative, comprehensive, practical framework that derives from Fisher & Frey’s explicit instruction approach. As such, an experimental three-stage of pretest-posttest design research took stock of the impact of a modified approach on EFL students’ academic writing performance. The research targeted 44 tertiary Arab-Israeli students enrolled in a two-semester academic writing course. The results of the study revealed that the writing performance of the students improved considerably after being exposed to the modified comprehensive explicit instruction program.

scholarly journals ENHANCING PROFESSIONAL COMPENENCE OF PHARMACEUTICAL STUDENTS IN THE ACADEMIC ENGLISH COURSE

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (18) ◽  
pp. 84-89
Author(s):  
Oksana Kovalenko ◽  
Olga Afanasenko
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
English Language ◽  
Professional Competence ◽  
Academic Language ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Academic English ◽  
Academic Texts ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
Measurement Tools ◽  
Selection For

The paper presents the ideas on integration of English language academic writing into the training of Mater of Pharmacy students. The academic literature demonstrates a powerful didactic potential for the development of both language and professional competence of students majoring in pharmacy. This fact is evidenced by the empirical study that demonstrates the finding reflected in students’ graduation academic project performance. As a measurement tools we employed assessment rubrics of the graduate project, content analysis and questionnaire on teachers’ feedback. The participants of the study were students from the Pharmacy faculty and teachers of English for Academic Purposes in cooperation with teachers of pharmacy. Together they outlined the criteria for the texts selection. According to the results, students mastered not only academic writing skills, but also the skills of information processing and evaluation, critical thinking, presentation of information and academic integrity. The paper also presents methodological recommendations on academic texts selection for pharmaceutical students and forms of teachingacademic writing to students of non-linguistic specialties. The results of the study allow to draw the conclusion academic writing course will enhance professional competence and reduce students’ misinterpreting of academic language.

Legally Minded Technical Communicators: A Case Study of a Legal Writing Course

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 393-414
Author(s):  
Godwin Y. Agboka
Keyword(s):  
Technical Communication ◽  
Professional Communication ◽  
Legal Literacy ◽  
Legal Writing ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
Technical Communicators ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Technical And Professional Communication

Understanding the law and its impact on the practice of technical communication has been an important scholarly thread in technical and professional communication (TPC) for more than two decades. Technical communicators recognize the impact of their work on stakeholders as well as the potential liability issues associated with composing technical communication documents. While this scholarship is widespread, relatively few pedagogical resources are available to prepare students for success in a litigious world or to guide instructors in teaching legal writing. This article offers a case study of a legal writing course that prepares TPC students to develop legal literacy and succeed in the workplace.

scholarly journals Academic Writing Within An Online Learning Environment: Assessing The Impact Of Peer Evaluation On Lesson Planning, Execution & Assessment

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-126
Author(s):  
Karen Sanderson Cole ◽  
Danielle Watson
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Learning Environment ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Learning Strategy ◽  
Lesson Planning ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Peer Evaluation ◽  
Online Learning Environment ◽  
The Impact

Peer evaluation, as a learning strategy, is commonly used among educators in an attempt to promote higher performance goals and improved teaching and learning outcomes through the sharing of complementary proficiencies for a familiar intent. It is commonly viewed as a technique for raising the bar' through exposing educators to alternative perspectives. Within the online learning environment, there is a high degree of isolation among educators involved in the delivery of the same course. Although individuals interact in established teacher forums about administrative issues, a forum is not provided where interaction about teaching content, delivery and conceptualization of critical concepts can be explored and discussed. As such, the provision of a forum for collaboration among peers involved in different aspects of course delivery within the online learning environment is believed to address the issue of isolated instruction while also providing support and evaluation as to the effectiveness of teaching strategies employed. The aim of the research is to investigate the impact of an established peer partnership between 14 colleagues working in pairs geared towards assessing feedback and discussions on lesson planning, execution and assessment processes. It seeks to ascertain its usefulness as a strategy to be incorporated into the teaching of English for Academic Purposes within an online learning environment. The study seeks to provide actionable direction for peer evaluation and collaboration, as a teaching and learning tool, through the mapping, assessing and evaluation of the processes involved.

scholarly journals An Investigation of Transfer of Learning in an English-for-Specific-Academic Writing Course: Teaching for Transfer

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 172-184
Author(s):  
Kalthoum Kassab
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Repeated Measures ◽  
Transfer Of Learning ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Learning Transfer ◽  
Far Transfer ◽  
Near Transfer ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Transfer Principles

Despite its importance, transfer of learning is still an under-explored area of research in EAP contexts. The few EAP studies that investigated this phenomenon were mostly conducted in EGAP contexts. Studies conducted in ESAP contexts and informed by learning transfer theories are still rare. The present study aimed to investigate the impact of a teaching-for-transfer ESAP writing course on students’ ability to transfer their new learning to their subject-specific courses in a Tunisian university. The ESAP course design drew on SFL genre theories and teaching-for-transfer principles. Perkins and Salomon’s (1988) hugging and bridging strategies were blended into instruction in order to maximize the chances for learning transfer to occur. In addition, elements of Barnett and Ceci’s (2002) transfer taxonomy were used to distinguish between near transfer and far transfer. A longitudinal quantitative research design, using repeated measures, was followed. Students’ authentic written exams from the ESAP writing course and from three content subjects were analyzed in order to investigate the impact of instruction on learning transfer overtime. Results showed that near transfer occurred quite frequently while far transfer occurred in a constricted manner. The findings suggest that an ESAP writing course that blends teaching-for-transfer principles increases the chances for learning transfer to occur. However, the success of such courses depends on the close collaboration between the writing teachers and the disciplinary lecturers.

‘Maybe complicated is a better word’: Second-language English graduate student responses to syntactic complexity in a genre-based academic writing course

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (Spring) ◽  
pp. 95-114
Author(s):  
J. Elliott Casal ◽  
Xiaofei Lu
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Student Perceptions ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Research Writing ◽  
Targeted Instruction ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
Learner Perception ◽  
Potential Benefits

This practice-oriented exploratory study reports student perceptions and potential benefits of introducing syntactic complexity-focused activities in an advanced English for Academic Purposes writing course. Syntactic complexity, seen by many as a multidimensional construct and generally defined as the range and sophistication of structures used, is here operationalized through four approaches. The pedagogical site was a six-week mixed-discipline writing course with an emphasis on second-language English research writing. Attention to syntactic complexity was integrated into a previously established corpus- and genre-analysis based pedagogy, and data is comprised of a learner-perception survey and interview and instructor observational journals. Emphasis was placed on reflection on complexity in academic writing, rather than the production of complex structures. The findings suggest benefits for targeted instruction of syntactic complexity in all four categories, with particular benefits to student writer confidence and intentionality resulting from increased awareness of the affordances and appropriateness of complexity overall.

Revisiting English prosody

2009 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 218-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Lim
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Traditional View ◽  
Standard English ◽  
Dynamic Nature ◽  
Tone Language ◽  
Tone Languages ◽  
Languages In Contact ◽  
Contact Situation ◽  
Hong Kong English

Many New Englishes are spoken in what can often be considered multilingual contexts in which typologically diverse languages come into contact. In several Asian contexts, one typological feature that is prominent in the multilingual contact situation (the “ecology”) is tone. Given that tone is recognized as an areal feature and is acquired easily by languages in contact, the question that arises is how this is manifested in the prosody of these New Englishes. Recent work has shown that contact languages, including English varieties, evolving in an ecology where tone languages are present do indeed combine aspects of tone languages. This paper attempts to go a step further, in suggesting not only that such varieties should not be viewed as aberrant in comparison to “standard” English but recognized as having their own prosodic system partly due to substrate typology, but also that in the consideration of New Englishes — here, Asian (but also African) Englishes — the traditional view of English as a stress / intonation language need to be revisited and revised, to consider some New Englishes as tone languages. Singapore English (SgE) is presented as a case in point, with the presence of tone demonstrated in the set of SgE particles acquired from Cantonese, at the level of the word, as well as in the intonation contour which moves in a series of level steps. A comparison is then made with Hong Kong English, another New English in a tone-language-dominant ecology, with a consideration of typological comparability as well as difference due to the dynamic nature of SgE’s ecology.

scholarly journals Academic Writing: Critics of the Traditional EAP Approach

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 92-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. A. Sheypak
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Analytical Approach ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Cultural Relativism ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Rhetorical Tradition ◽  
Critical Studies ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
Critical Revision ◽  
Russian Universities

Through the analysis of the positions taken in the discussion on Academic Writing, the article shows that the experience of Academic Writing adopted from Anglo-Saxon educational practices in many Russian universities is based on the traditional EAP (English for Academic Purposes) methods which have been systematically criticized for text-centricity and cultural universalism. The critical revision of the traditional EAP methods requires implementing a discourse analytical approach and cultural relativism in Academic Writing course. A review of critical studies on Academic Writing concludes that the criticism of the traditional EAP methods is developed on the basis of concepts worked in the Russian rhetoric tradition by researchers of the Bakhtin circle. The article points out that in the Russian educational context the EAP experience is to be implemented through a discourse analytical approach that has been adopted in the EAP practices in response to criticism. The concepts developed in the Russian rhetorical tradition are required to apply a discourse analytical approach in the Academic Writing course in Russian universities.

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