Akademiese taalvermoë en nagraadse studie – ’n gevallestudie

2021 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-163
Author(s):  
Tobie Van Dyk ◽  
Henk Louw ◽  
Marlies Taljard ◽  
Elsa Meihuizen
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Academic Literacy ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Doctoral Level ◽  
Academic Texts ◽  
Performance Requirements ◽  
Context Specific

Academic language proficiency has a significant impact on students’ academic performance. According to existing literature underdeveloped language competence is a common problem amongst postgraduate students (Bammett, 1989; Grabe, 1991; Ellis, 1994; Cohen, 1998; Tercanlioglu, 2004; Brown, 2008; Young et al., 2013). Reasons for this situation include the fact that postgraduate students often have to write in a language other than their mother tongue or that they lack abilities in critical reading, the handling of sources, academic argumentation, and text structuring. Students at masters and doctoral level therefore often struggle with handling prescribed material and with producing well-written academic texts, and supervisors are challenged to act proactively in order to manage potential risks. This article is a report on the use of the Test of Academic Literacy for Postgraduate Students – TALPS (ICELDA, 2020) to determine the academic literacy needs of postgraduate students for the purpose of course development. TALPS was used in combination with needs reported by supervisors in order to identify performance requirements and gaps in students’ profi ciencies. In combination with guidelines for best practice available in the existing literature this knowledge was used for the creation of a short course in academic writing for postgraduate students. This context specific intervention focused on the writing of a literature review, text structuring, cohesion and coherence, academic argumentation, scholarly identity, and text editing. Exceptionally positive feedback from both students and supervisors and significant improvement in students’ writing testify to the success of this intervention.

scholarly journals Academic integrity at doctoral level: the influence of the imposter phenomenon and cultural differences on academic writing

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Cutri ◽  
Amarpreet Abraham ◽  
Yeni Karlina ◽  
Sweta Vijaykumar Patel ◽  
Mehdi Moharami ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Academic Integrity ◽  
Academic Literacy ◽  
Academic Misconduct ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Academic Skill ◽  
Doctoral Level ◽  
Imposter Phenomenon ◽  
Supervisory Practices

AbstractThis conceptual review seeks to reframe the view of academic integrity as something to be enforced to an academic skill that needs to be developed. The authors highlight how practices within academia create an environment where feelings of inadequacy thrive, leading to behaviours of unintentional academic misconduct. Importantly, this review includes practical suggestions to help educators and higher education institutions support doctoral students’ academic integrity skills. In particular, the authors highlight the importance of explicit academic integrity instruction, support for the development of academic literacy skills, and changes in supervisory practices that encourage student and supervisor reflexivity. Therefore, this review argues that, through the use of these practical strategies, academia can become a space where a culture of academic integrity can flourish.

scholarly journals Exploring the use of grammatical metaphor in Indonesian EFL learners’ academic writing

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nur Afifi
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Academic Literacy ◽  
First Year ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Efl Context ◽  
Academic Texts ◽  
Linguistic Resource ◽  
Grammatical Metaphor ◽  
Strategic Role

Grammatical metaphor is considered to be the key linguistic resource in the creation of academic discourse. In a pedagogical context, identification of grammatical metaphor in students’ writing can be used as a measurement of students’ academic literacy level to determine actions to improve the existing situation. In Indonesian EFL context, students’ grammatical metaphor deployment and development has not been much studied, despite its strategic role in improving students’ academic literacy. This paper presents a first step towards understanding Indonesian tertiary students’ linguistic strengths and weaknesses in academic literacy through the identification of ideational grammatical metaphor deployment and development. Using cross-sectional data from first year and third year students in a State Islamic College in a rural area of Indonesia, the students’ academic writing were analyzed for the deployment of experiential grammatical metaphor. The findings show that the two groups of different levels of participants deployed similar types of reconstrual of experiential grammatical metaphor. Process to Thing transcategorisation was the most frequent type of experiential grammatical metaphor reconstrual across the two groups, while Relator to Process was the most frequent logical grammatical metaphor reconstrual in both groups.  Third-year students surpassed the first-year group in the frequency and proportion of instances of grammatical metaphor deployment. This study has shown that the development of learners’ academic writing was limited. Thus, it was suggested that a more explicit pedagogy to expose students to grammatical metaphor and more basic lexicogrammar teaching to enable the students to write academic texts is warranted.

scholarly journals The Use of Passive Voice in Academic Writing

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-26
Author(s):  
Paulina Horbowicz ◽  
Dominika Skrzypek ◽  
Mikołaj Sobkowiak ◽  
Natalia Kołaczek
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Passive Voice ◽  
Academic Texts

Abstract The paper studies the use of the passive voice in academic texts written in Mainland Scandinavian languages (Danish, Norwegian and Swedish) by their native speakers and by adult Polish learners of those languages. The corpus consists of 37 MA theses written in Scandinavia and in Poland. A number of referring verbs were chosen for the purpose of the analysis. The results show that while there are discrepancies in the use of the passive voice in texts written by Polish and Scandinavian students, they cannot be unequivocally diagnosed as resulting from the grammatical and stylistic influence of the mother tongue.

scholarly journals Research student and supervisor evaluation of intertextuality practices

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (28) ◽  
pp. 39
Author(s):  
Jean Crocker ◽  
Philip Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Research Student ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Criminal Intent ◽  
Supervisor Evaluation

Intertextuality is essential in academic writing but it is governed by quite complex conventions. Different intertextuality practices can be judged evidence of academic com-petence or incompetence, or condemned as plagiarism. Learners can break the conventions with criminal intent, or from ignorance, or because their language proficiency prevents them from doing anything else. This paper reports the results of interviews with academic staff in a British university and their postgraduate students about intertextuality practices. The interviewees ahowed a wide range of – sometimes contradictory – attitudes to quotation, referencing, and copying. Several pointed out the developmental advantages of various types of copying.

Writing feedback as an exclusionary practice in higher education

2014 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 262-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grace Chu-Lin Chang
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Academic Literacy ◽  
Written Feedback ◽  
Academic Literacies ◽  
Written Discourse ◽  
Academic Communities ◽  
Writing Feedback

This ethnographic research probes into feedback on academic writing received by Taiwanese students in Australian higher education institutions, and examines whether the feedback received helped students to participate in the written discourse of academic communities. Academic writing dominates the academic life of students in Australia and is the key measure of their academic performance. This can be problematic for international students who speak English as an additional language and who are expected to acquire academic literacies in English ‘by doing’. As a social practice, academic writing depends on participation in dialogue for students to be included in the community of academia. However, the findings show that few participants received any useful feedback. Some assignments were never returned; in other cases, the hand-written feedback was illegible, and often included only overly general comments that puzzled the participants. As a result, the learning process came to an end once the students handed in their assignments; feedback failed to promote further learning related to content, and particularly to academic writing. The article highlights the few instances where participants received helpful feedback that was accessible and constructive, and which can be considered best practice for the promotion of academic literacy.

scholarly journals Working With Younger-Arriving ESL Learners in High School English: Never Too Late to Reclaim Potential

2002 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 01 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hetty Roessingh ◽  
Pat Kover
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
English Literature ◽  
Literature Study ◽  
High School English ◽  
Academic Language Proficiency ◽  
Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency ◽  
Basic Vocabulary ◽  
Esl Learners

Younger-arriving ESL learners often come to high school ill prepared for the demands of English literature courses. Although they may have acquired the phonological and grammatical system of English with relative ease and developed a basic vocabulary, they lack the breadth and depth of vocabulary and the related concepts that are necessary to engage with the abstract nature and cultural embeddedness of literature study. In probing behind this linguistic facade, we have been able to help our students make gains in the development of cognitive academic language proficiency as reflected in standardized achievement measures of academic writing. The acquisition of the cultural capital necessary for success in literature studies, however, is more problematic. New questions arise about student identity and cultural understandings that are central to the success of ESL learners in high school.

scholarly journals The Relationship between Socio-Economic Status, General Language Learning Outcome, and Beliefs about Language Learning

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 89
Author(s):  
Mohsen Ghasemi Ariani ◽  
Narjes Ghafournia
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Measurement Errors ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Learning Outcome ◽  
Practice Test ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Beliefs About Language Learning ◽  
Iranian Students

<p class="apa">The objective of this study is to explore the probable relationship between Iranian students’ socioeconomic status, general language learning outcome, and their beliefs about language learning. To this end, 350 postgraduate students, doing English for specific courses at Islamic Azad University of Neyshabur participated in this study. They were grouped in terms of their socioeconomic status. They answered a questionnaire in which they indicated their beliefs about language learning in different contexts of language use. Besides, a general language test of proficiency (a Practice test of a TOEFL Test) was administered to all the participants to homogenize them in terms of general language proficiency or general language learning outcome. The quantitative data were subjected to a set of parametric statistical analyses, including descriptive statistics and factor analysis. The findings manifested a positive relationship between the students’ economic status and general language learning outcome. Besides, the findings manifested a significant relationship between the participants’ language learning outcome and their beliefs about language learning. The findings suggest if language instructors are equipped with the necessary information to assist language learners in coping with their negative beliefs, the process of language learning is not only accelerated, but also probable measurement errors may decrease.</p>

scholarly journals Language planning for "Mundurukú do Amazonas"

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 405-423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gessiane Picanço
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Language Planning ◽  
Local Schools ◽  
Ethnic And Cultural Identity ◽  
Language Revitalisation ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Indigenous Land

Mundurukú, a Tupian language of Brazil, exhibits two opposite scenarios. On one extreme, there is Mundurukú do Pará, the language of daily communication in the Mundurukú Indigenous Land, with fluent speakers found across all generations and still acquired by children as a mother tongue. On the other extreme, there is Mundurukú do Amazonas, formerly spoken in the Kwatá-Laranjal Indigenous Land, but whose inhabitants have shifted to Portuguese. A group of Mundurukú students from Amazonas decided to initiate a process of language revitalisation as a way to strengthen the community's ethnic and cultural identity. This paper reports the initial stages of language planning, and includes future actions to promote language use in the homes and communities, assessement of language proficiency, and definition of educational programs to teach Mundurukú in local schools.

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