scholarly journals Academic Writing: Difficulties and Possible Solutions for Engineering Students

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (10) ◽  
pp. 77-85
Author(s):  
L. M. Bolsunovskaya ◽  
I. E. Rymanova
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Reading Skills ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Writing Difficulties ◽  
Poor Reading ◽  
Know How ◽  
Expert Opinions ◽  
Remedial Strategies

Academic writing is considered to be the most challenging and difficult skill in terms of English as a Second Language. This study critically explores the obstacles in academic writing faced by students at Tomsk Polytechnic University, Russia. To investigate, a comprehensive questionnaire has been floated among professional teachers to get their expert opinions (about students’ obstacles in writing) in order to identify some problems and form effective remedial strategies eventually. This paper focuses on the two significant aspects of academic writing, namely language skills (LS) (Grammar etc.) and writing skills (WS) (writing itself as a skill). Equally relevant to the issue are organization, coherence, and connectivity. The authors claim that Russian learners have poor learning background in writing skills due to the lack of balanced syllabus and teaching technologies. Aside from this, only determining problems is not sufficient to take students out of writing phobia. Furthermore, it is necessary to point out the fact that poor reading skills also lead to this kind of disappointment. Most of Russian learners do not know how to initiate their composition (essays). This paper will prove to be an academic contribution to improve the writing skills among ESL/EFL Russian learners in general and students of Tomsk Polytechnic University in particular. The presented analysis should also be of interest to researchers in other countries (universities) in which the field of academic writing is emerging.

scholarly journals Metode Dan Strategi Pengajaran Membaca pada Pembelajaran Bahasa Arab Bagi Pemula

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 92
Author(s):  
Sitti Aisyah Chalik
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Reading Skills ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Learning Objectives ◽  
Basic Skill ◽  
Listening Skills ◽  
Speaking Skills

This paper discusses the methods and strategies of reading in Arabic lessons. As is well known that language skills include four aspects,  namely  speaking skills, writing skills, reading skills, and listening skills. At the beginner level, reading is a basic skill that must be mastered by everyone who wants to    learn Arabic as a foreign language and as is well known that Arabic is a Foreign Language for non-Arabs. Teaching Arabic which is a foreign language requires various methods and strategies appropriate so that learning objectives can be achieved effectively and efficiently.

scholarly journals EMPOWERING ACADEMIC WRITING SKILLS IN MILLENNIAL ERA: THE ROLE OF ENGLISH PROGRAM FOR BIDIKMISI STUDENTS

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sri Wahyuningsih
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Academic Literacy ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
State Institute ◽  
Islamic Studies ◽  
English Program

This study aims at exploring how BIDIKMISI students at the State Institute for Islamic Studies (IAIN) Kudusperceive the empowerment of their academic writing skills through English programs undertaken by the campus.The study anchors in a qualitative research. Personal interviews, observation and documentation were used togather data. The result reveals that the strategies and ways of empowering academic writing cover developingcognitive skills of students by giving them academic literacy, activities of problem solving, and innovation thatwill attract them to use writing as systems of representation and communication. Another way of empoweringacademic writing done by lecturers is by collaborating to other English lecturers particularly those who teachReading in enhancing the academic writing skills of students at IAIN Kudus. Thus, the role of English programsis considerably meaningful for the acquisition of English language skills of BIDIKMISI students particularly inacademic writing skills. Furthermore, they are able to elicit a number of materials and information related toacademic writing including writing foundations, writing stages, writing elements, accuracy in writing, researchingand writing, academic reality, and articles publication. Interestingly, they are pursued to do a research and writejournal articles. This study suggests that lecturers should actively use technology and social media in millennialera such as Facebook, Blog, Instagram, and Youtube to engage students in the process of teaching academicwriting.

scholarly journals Formation of Linguistic Professionalism for Students of Non- Specialized Departments at Taibah University: personification and processing in The Light of Introduction to Linguistic Skills: تكوين ملكة اللغة العربية لدى طلاب أقسام غير الاختصاص في جامعة طيبة: تشخيص وعلاج في ضوء مدخل المهارات اللغوية

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (33) ◽  
Author(s):  
Khadijah Mohammed Haji
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Conceptual Knowledge ◽  
Analytical Approach ◽  
Reading Skills ◽  
Statistical Data ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Arabic Language ◽  
Units Of Analysis ◽  
The University

The study aimed to determine the degree of inclusion of both Arabic language skills courses [1] and [2], skills that necessary to form linguistic professionalism among students of departments other than specialization at Taibah University and to present a proposed vision for developing both courses in the introduction of language skills. To achieve this, the study followed the descriptive analytical approach; so a list was built that includes 6 skills: Listening, speaking, reading, writing, grammar, and a branch of these skills include 119 skills. In the light of this list, a content analysis card was designed and after verification of its credibility and stability, it was applied in the second semester of the university year (1441H/2020) on The study’s community, which consists of descriptions and books of Arabic language skills [1] and [2], and the branches of analysis reached 10 branches, which included 275 units of analysis, and statistical data processing results have resulted in relative ratio differences in skills provided by two courses, and that they do not integrate skills needed to form Arabic Language Professionalism in non- specialized students; only two skills were received from listening, as same as syntax skills, and the number of speaking skills was limited to 5 skills, while 13 in reading skills, 15 in writing skills, and 36 in grammar skills. In the light of the outcomes, suggestions were provided to develop the two courses with the benefit of the introduction of language skills; balancing conceptual knowledge with language skills; focusing on linguistic practice in listening, reading, speaking and writing; and some of the recommendations and proposed research.

scholarly journals On the Rocky Road to Academia: Stumbling Blocks for Finnish Engineering Students with English as a Second Language

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 36
Author(s):  
Hanna Niemelä ◽  
Johanna Naukkarinen
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Situated Learning ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Textual Analysis ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Academic Education ◽  
Scientific Publications

Communication skills, especially academic writing skills in English, are vital for a successful career in the global scientific community. Finnish engineering students, however, seem to encounter problems when preparing their scientific publications in English as a second language (ESL) for international forums. Thus, these skills should be enhanced at all levels of academic education to promote students’ development as experts in their field. The paper describes challenges faced by engineering students in academic writing and seeks solutions to promote students’ learning process. In addition to communication issues, the paper enlightens the environment and conditions in which the engineering students operate. By an interpretive study, the paper examines texts written by Finnish engineering students. The qualitative textual analysis is based on Systemic Functional Linguistics. Further, the paper discusses learning of academic writing from the perspective of situated learning. Based on the textual analysis, the paper identifies challenges and problems in academic writing, namely unfamiliarity with publication practices, grammar and terminology problems, unawareness of academic discourse strategies, such as hedging and the use of cohesive devices, and challenges with handling feedback. To enhance students’ competences in academic communication within their discipline, guidance and training of communication skills should be integrated into relevant technical and academic contexts throughout the engineering studies. Thus, in addition to thesis writing, argumentation and writing skills and the use of databases can be enhanced for instance by writing course reports in the form of academic papers. Individual consultation also plays a key role in the situated learning process.

scholarly journals المبتدأ في اللغة العربية والإندونيسية دارسة مقارنة وتطبيقية في تعليم اللغة العربية والاستفادة منها لدى الطلاب المبتدئين الإندونيسيين

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdurrahman Hilabi ◽  
habibullah
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Reading Skills ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Arabic Language ◽  
Listening Skills ◽  
Novice Students ◽  
Speaking Skills

The main purpose of language learning is to explore and develop the ability of learners in using the language, either actively (orally) or passively (writing), as well as to comprehend Arabic language skills and skills, such as muthala'ah, muhadatsah, and insya '; Nahwu and Shorf. So get the language skills that includes four aspects of skills, namely: listening skills, reading skills, writing skills, and speaking skills. This skill is intended to realize a high goal, namely to equip students' competence to understand the correct and clear language expression. Grammatical rules are a means to teach novice students to read and express the correct sounds of this language. Indonesians who learn Arabic have many problems writing and speaking in Arabic, including novice issues and rules. Because essentially, all language skills are related to each other. This can be analogous to a child who wants to learn the mother tongue. So the language skills are closely related to the processes that underlie the acquisition of a person's language. Since language is a reflection of a person's mindset or thinking, he or she should master these skills well. Although it is to master the four language skills is very difficult. But it is not impossible to master the four language skills.

scholarly journals Beliefs and Practices Concerning Academic Writing among Postgraduate Language-Teacher Trainees

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-49
Author(s):  
Carl Edlund Anderson ◽  
Liliana Cuesta-Medina
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
English Language ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Writing Difficulties ◽  
Language Teacher ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Teacher Trainees ◽  
Grounded Theory Approach ◽  
Remedial Strategies

This paper reports on the initial stages of a larger study on plurilingual rhetorical communicative competences.  Experiential evidence indicated a mismatch between the academic writing competences desired from and those displayed by the participants—adult bilingual (L1 Spanish, L+ English) English-language teacher trainees in a postgraduate program at Colombian university.  We examined participants’ beliefs and practices concerning academic writing to identify the sources of their challenges and develop the evidential basis for identifying appropriate remedial strategies.  This was a mixed methods study, in which we analyzed data from semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, and student artifacts through the grounded theory approach and descriptive statistics.  The results suggest that participants’ challenges with rhetorical aspects of academic writing stem from a lack of training.  However, participants were relatively successful with aspects of writing in which they had been trained: discrete language skills and purely descriptive prose.  We conclude their academic writing difficulties are fundamentally non-linguistic and hypothesize they would face similar academic writing challenges even if writing in their L1.  There is an urgent need to address these challenges, not only because rhetorical competences are increasingly important in a knowledge-driven society but also because teachers need to be able to train their own students in such competences.

scholarly journals Developing speaking competences in technical English for Spanish civil engineering students

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Romero de Ávila Serrano Vicente ◽  
Sarai Diaz García ◽  
Laura Asensio Sánchez ◽  
Jose Antonio Lozano Galant ◽  
Amparo Moyano Enríquez de Salamanca ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Civil Engineering ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Reading And Writing ◽  
Self Confidence ◽  
Training Activities ◽  
Regular Classes

Traditionally, Spanish schools of civil engineering provide their students a class on “Technical English” in order to develop their language skills. However, this class does not cover all the skills that the student would need in the labor market and mainly focuses in the reading and writing skills, and in a lower degree in the speaking and listening ones. This paper proposes a series of innovative and informal training activities (cine-forum on technical civil engineering topics and role playing on real professional situations) that allow Spanish civil engineering students to develop English skills that can rarely be worked in the classroom (i.e. speaking, negotiating and conversing), encouraging debate, participation, and fostering their self-confidence to speak about technical-English topics in public. Although the students’ level of English is much lower than expected, they all agree on the importance of technical English for their future career. The results also show the students’ lack in skills that are difficult to train in regular classes (speaking and talking). Consequently, this situation would require to provide complementary activities like the ones suggested in this project in order to develop these skills and increase the students’ demand for engineering classes taught in English.

scholarly journals Academic Writing in English in the Structure of Higher Education in Russia

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-91
Author(s):  
E. I. Shpit ◽  
V. N. Kurovskiy
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
English Language ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Basic Knowledge ◽  
Favorable Conditions

Intensification of research work at engineering universities of Russian Federation leads to the increase of publication activity of graduate and PhD students in high-impact English language journals. However, the level of academic writing skills still remains rather low. On one hand, it results from the fact that the majority of applicants to engineering institutions have only basic knowledge of a foreign language. On the other hand, the curriculums of most Russian universities do not include developing academic writing skills as a stand-alone discipline or a part of the “Foreign Language” discipline. This paper aims at considering the main constituents of academic writing in a foreign language, such as the current state policy in higher education, the content of academic writing for engineering specialties, the publication process participants, the available resources for developing and improving the required skills in the realities of university language education; as well as identifying the external factors which create favorable conditions for developing academic writing skills of engineering students.

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