scholarly journals From Implicit Norms to Explicit Skills – Focusing on Danish Academic Vocabulary

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Sofie Jakobsen
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Academic Language ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
General Purpose ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Academic Vocabulary ◽  
Language Norms ◽  
To Come

Research shows that L1 as well as L2 and L3 students in Danish tertiary education struggle with acquiring the necessary academic language skills for studying in Danish. Research also shows a tendency for educators in the Danish setting to treat academic language norms as implicit norms, making it much harder for students to grasp the language-related demands of academia. This article argues that in order to make the demands and norms of academic language explicit to the students, irrespective of linguistic background, we need more research-based knowledge about Danish academic language. Furthermore, focussing on one particular aspect of academic language, namely academic vocabulary, can be a step towards more explicit approaches to academic language norms. Academic vocabulary is here defined as a non-technical, general purpose vocabulary with distinct academic functions used across a range of academic disciplines. To come nearer an understanding of how we can make the academic language norms more tangible and accessible to both students and staff, the article begins with a review of existing research on Danish academic language and academic vocabulary with a particular focus on Danish SLA research. This is followed by an analysis of Danish guidance literature on academic writing for students. The article concludes with suggestions for further research in relation to teaching Danish academic vocabulary.

Core academic language skills: An expanded operational construct and a novel instrument to chart school-relevant language proficiency in preadolescent and adolescent learners

2014 ◽  
Vol 36 (5) ◽  
pp. 1077-1109 ◽  
Author(s):  
PAOLA UCCELLI ◽  
CHRISTOPHER D. BARR ◽  
CHRISTINA L. DOBBS ◽  
EMILY PHILLIPS GALLOWAY ◽  
ALEJANDRA MENESES ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Academic Language ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Academic Vocabulary ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Learning Tasks ◽  
Academic Language Proficiency ◽  
Psychometric Analyses ◽  
School Learning

ABSTRACTBeyond academic vocabulary, the constellation of skills that comprise academic language proficiency has remained imprecisely defined. This study proposes an expanded operationalization of this construct referred to as core academic language skills (CALS). CALS refers to the knowledge and deployment of a repertoire of language forms and functions that co-occur with school learning tasks across disciplines. Using an innovative instrument, we explored CALS in a cross-sectional sample of 235 students in Grades 4–8. The results revealed between- and within-grade variability in CALS. Psychometric analyses yielded strong reliability and supported the presence of a single CALS factor, which was found to be predictive of reading comprehension. Our findings suggest that the CALS construct and instrument appear promising for exploring students’ school-relevant language skills.

The Role of Language Skills in Mid-Adolescents’ Science Summaries

2019 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 357-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paola Uccelli ◽  
Ziyun Deng ◽  
Emily Phillips Galloway ◽  
Wenjuan Qin
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Academic Language ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Receptive Language ◽  
Writing Studies ◽  
Writing Quality ◽  
Potential Growth ◽  
Development Of Language ◽  
Over Time

Mid-adolescence is a period of considerable potential growth in the language for academic writing. Yet, to date, few writing studies explore language development during this period and even fewer focus on longitudinal or diverse samples. In this study, we examined the development of language skills for academic writing in a socio-economically diverse sample followed from sixth to seventh grade ( n = 124). In each grade, participants wrote summaries of a science text. Subsequently, summaries were scored for writing quality (WQ) and analyzed for productive language skills (lexico-syntactic and discourse features). Participants completed a receptive academic language assessment and a test that measured reading comprehension of the source text. First, we examined if WQ or productive language skills changed over time. Next, we tested if Grade 6 productive and receptive language skills predicted Grade 7 WQ. Results revealed syntactic growth over time. Grade 6 use of connectives and receptive language skills emerged as predictors of Grade 7 WQ.

Exploring General Versus Academic English Proficiency as Predictors of Adolescent EFL Essay Writing

2021 ◽  
pp. 074108832098636
Author(s):  
Claire W. Jo
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Academic Language ◽  
English Proficiency ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Academic English ◽  
Essay Writing ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Proficiency Assessment ◽  
Essay Quality

Language learning is context-dependent and requires learners to employ different sets of language skills to fulfill various tasks. Yet standardized English as a foreign language assessments tend to conceptualize English proficiency as a unidimensional construct. In order to distinguish English proficiency as separate context-driven constructs, I adopted a register-based approach to investigate academic English proficiency (i.e., specific set of language skills that support academic literacy) and general English proficiency (i.e., wide range of language skills undifferentiated by context that are measured by traditional assessments) as separate predictors of overall essay quality. In the study, students completed a general English proficiency assessment and an academic language proficiency assessment, and essays were coded for academic writing features at the lexical, syntactic, and discourse levels. Beyond the contribution of academic writing features and general English proficiency, academic English proficiency emerged as a significant contributor to essay quality. Findings suggest that academic English proficiency scores more precisely identified a subset of academic language skills that is relevant to essay writing. The article concludes by discussing implications for strategic writing instruction that articulates the key expectations of academic writing used in and beyond school contexts.

An evaluation of public policy student placements: outcomes of a Malta-based study

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Marie Thake
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Course Content ◽  
Mandatory Requirement ◽  
Practical Implications

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to evaluate short-term, unpaid placements offered to students reading for a degree in public policy. They provide added value to their tertiary education experience. Elective placements were offered in 2012 and became a mandatory requirement for students reading for a three-year bachelor of commerce degree in public policy in 2018. To date, no research has been carried out on these placements and this may serve as a model for a post-evaluation assessment.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from students who undertook placements, embedded in the public policy undergraduate programme. A document analysis of selected student and placement provider's reports was carried out to complement the students' responses to an online questionnaire.FindingsPlacements are of value to students as they served as an introduction to the working world. They enable students to establish connections with the course content and carry out research. They were exposed to real-life situations, developing their knowledge, acquiring soft skills and learning new tools, sought after by employers. These placements were valued as a route to graduate employment tailor-made to the degree's requirements. Students were able to embark on a soul-searching, introspective discovery and journey which made them mature and shed light in the direction of future work prospects.Research limitations/implicationsPlacements give students the opportunity to gain insights into real-work environments and are able to link theories learnt in the class-room with real-life situations. Placements have positive implications on students adjusting to their work life easily after graduation. The limitations are that the sample size was small and that the reflective reports which were randomly selected may not have necessarily been representative of the full complement.Practical implicationsThe practical implications are that the placements system and process can easily be implemented and replicated in other academic disciplines and universities as a compulsory component of their studies.Social implicationsPlacements gave students the opportunity to reflect on their learning, develop non-technical skills and enhance their confidence levels. They were also able to network and communicate with different employees.Originality/valuePlacements provided exposure to relevant organisations and personal enrichment in terms of acquiring skills, autonomy and independence. Students with placement experience are also more likely to secure future employment, relevant to their undergraduate degree.

AKADEMSKI VOKABULAR: DA LI SU STUDENTI (U)OPŠTE OBRAZOVANI? O POTREBI ZA UKLjUČIVANjEM AKADEMSKOG VOKABULARA U KURIKULUME ZA SRPSKI JEZIK U SREDNjOJ ŠKOLI I NA UNIVERZITETU

Lipar ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol XXI (73) ◽  
pp. 203-216
Author(s):  
Jovana Milovanović ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Academic Language ◽  
School Curriculum ◽  
The Other ◽  
Academic Vocabulary ◽  
High School Curriculum ◽  
Language Competence ◽  
Entrance Exams ◽  
University Level ◽  
Comparison Of The Results ◽  
The Given

This article discusses reception and production of academic vocabulary among native speakers of Serbian language. Academic vocabulary is one of the key elements of academic language competence, and a modest lexicon and underdeveloped academic language competence can cause problems in both comprehension and production. In this research, we used a vocabulary test consisting of 12 items taken from general culture entrance exams used at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade. The participants are BA students of French language at the Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade, years 1-4. The participants were instructed to provide a synonym or a definition for each item, as well as a sentence containing the given word. The aim of this research is to highlight issues in comprehension of academic vocabulary and establish the influence of factors such as word etymology or university level on the success of the participants. We analysed the results and classified them in three categories: correct, incorrect and unanswered. The majority of participants successfully identified just half of the given words (in order of success: poliglota 95,76%, bestseler 92,37%, pacifista 66,10%, suveren 58,47%, prototip 57,63%, elokventan 56,78%). The success level for the other half of the items from the test was below 50% (in order of success: erudita 49,15%, hipokrizija 39,83%, nepotizam 22,03%, skrupulozan 18,64%, šprahfeler 10,17%, eksproprijacija 8,47%). The influence of etymology was analysed through a comparison of the results for six items of French/Latin origin with the results for the other six items which did not originate from Romance languages. This analysis shows that the participants had similar results in both groups of items, with three words from each group having above 50% of correct answers (suveren, elokventan, pacifista; poliglota, bestseler, prototip). Lastly, we examined success levels from year 1, year 2, year 3 and year 4 students and determined that the median of correct answers for each year does vary, but that there is no strong linear progression (median year 1=5, year 2=6, year 3=7, year 4=6). The results indicate a lack of knowledge of academic vocabulary and difficulties in identifying and manipulating this type of lexis. We believe it is necessary to integrate academic language skills, including academic vocabulary, in high school curriculum and introduce Serbian language as a subject at university level.

scholarly journals The co-Evolution of Equitable Tertiary Education in a Global Networked Society: The Case of the OERu

2019 ◽  
pp. 442-450
Author(s):  
Danielle Dubien ◽  
Niki Davis ◽  
Wayne Mackintosh
Keyword(s):  
Underserved Populations ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Learning Technologies ◽  
Open Approach ◽  
Digital Learning ◽  
Cultural Economic ◽  
Sustainable Services ◽  
To Come

The continuing evolution of ubiquitous learning technologies and networks is reshaping models of learning with increasing potential for underserved populations of learners who cannot afford tertiary education. This paper presents a case study of innovative highly networked organisation called the “Open Education Resource universitas” (OERu). As the theme of EDEN 2019 conference has recognised, “Technology is with us everywhere which validates the horizontal-holistic approach for imperative questions of the period. For the transforming education landscape, challenges come increasingly from the socio-cultural-economic, structural and policy fields. Education has to be visionary to reach efficiency gains, new sources – and to offer sustainable services, reflecting the complexity of modern societies.” The OERu is on the far left of such visionary developments with a radically open approach to its equitable mission to expand higher education to come within the reach of all of students who are likely to remain underserved.Established in 2011, the OERu as an educational organisation is co-evolving with cutting edge technologies such as, micro-learning, alternative digital credentials, and implementation of an open source Next Generation Digital Learning Environment (NGDLE) (Brown, 2017). Its strategy is to evolve by scaling up with partners worldwide. Innovations already documented include a successful small mOOC (Davis Mackintosh, 2013). This case study plots the OERu in Niki Davis’ (2018) Arena Framework to clarify the complexity of the evolution of this organisation. The findings aim to support the OERu and its partners to fulfil their vision of providing affordable access to education.

scholarly journals Doubling down on serendipity

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine E. Snow
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Doctoral Student ◽  
To Come ◽  
Minority View ◽  
The Relationship

The lessons I have learned over the last many years seem always to come in pairs – a lesson about the findings that brings with it a lesson about life as a researcher...Lesson 1. Even as a doctoral student, I believed that the sorts of social interactions young children had with adults supported language acquisition. In 1971, when I completed my dissertation, that was a minority view, and one ridiculed by many. I was, unfortunately, deflected from a full-on commitment to research on the relationship between social environment and language development for many years by the general atmosphere of disdain for such claims. In the intervening years, of course, evidence to support the claim has accumulated, and now it is generally acknowledged that a large part of the variance among children in language skills can be explained by their language environments. This consensus might have been achieved earlier had I and others been braver about pursuing it.[Download the PDF and read more...]

scholarly journals Socially relevant curriculum

Teachers Work ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1and2) ◽  
pp. 10-26
Author(s):  
Janette Patricia Kelly-Ware
Keyword(s):  
Student Teachers ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Space And Place ◽  
Online Discussion Forum ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Age Appropriate ◽  
Central Argument ◽  
Socially Relevant

Socially relevant curriculum and the importance of opening up spaces for negotiation and meaning making to occur are increasingly common ideas in my academic writing. This article reports on student teachers making meaning in an online discussion forum in the aftermath of the terrorist massacre at Christchurch mosques in Aotearoa New Zealand last year. Dominant discourses and critical questions are highlighted for teachers in early childhood and tertiary education settings about religion, racism and cultural otherness. The central argument is that these issues are highly pertinent to us all: they speak to the things that matter in all of our lives at this time, and in this space and place. Cultural otherness, anti-racism, spirituality and religion are fundamental to contemporary socially relevant curriculum. Courageous teachers committed to a more socially just world need to facilitate learning about these issues in ‘age-appropriate’ ways.  

A statute is divided into: Vocabulary • sections; Repeal— abolition of all or part of a • sub-sections; previous statute. • paragraphs; Amend— changing part of a previous • sub-paragraphs; statute. • Parts; • Schedules (at the end). Parliament can enact laws about anything—but a law may prove impossible to enforce. Legend records that one particular King of England, Canute, was humbled when he attempted to demonstrate his sovereign power by seating his throne on the beach and ordering the tide not to come in! For come in it did, much to his embarrassment. When approaching a statute as a new law student the most difficult task is understanding, at a basic macro- (wide) level, what the statute as a whole is striving to do and at the micro- (narrow) level what each section is saying. As proficiency is gained in handling statutory rules it will be found that it is not usually necessary to deal with the entire statute. The overall statute can be briefly contextualised and only relevant sections need to be extracted for detailed consideration, analysis, or application. However, ‘sections’, those micro-elements of statutes, will be all the more confidently analysed because, at any given moment, it is known how to relate any aspect of the statute to its general layout. Often, initial understanding eludes the law student. Doubts concerning the meaning of parts of the statute do not occur at the level of sophisticated analysis. They occur at the basic level of combining English language skills and legal skills to obtain foundational understanding. If doubts remain at this level, there can be no possibility of attaining sophisticated analysis! 3.4.4 Case study: breaking into statutes 3.4.4.1 Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 To explore methods of breaking into statutes and understanding statutes at the macro- and micro-level the rest of this chapter will deal with a real statute, the Unfair Contract Terms Act (UCTA) 1977. Figure 3.10, below, builds on the abstract general layout of Figure 3.8, above, by customising it to fit UCTA 1977. This statute will continue to be used for demonstration purposes for the rest of the chapter. The full text of the statute can be found in Appendix 1. Study Figure 3.10, below, carefully. Note which parts are linked and which are not by following the lines and arrows. Reading the summarised headings constructs a basic overview of what the statute is about. Before considering how to break into statutory language in such a way as to be able to confidently précis whole sections for the purposes of such a layout, it is important to study the layout until it is familiar and comprehensible. There are no shortcuts; this takes time.

2012 ◽  
pp. 58-59
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Detailed Consideration ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
To Come ◽  
Law Student ◽  
Micro Elements ◽  
Basic Level ◽  
Sophisticated Analysis

scholarly journals Working in the Space Between

1970 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Hemelryk Donald ◽  
Vera Mackie
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Postcolonial Theory ◽  
Cultural Theory ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Analytical Techniques ◽  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Shadow Economies ◽  
The University

All of the contributors to this special issue have reflected on the stakes involved in negotiating differences in language and culture. In their research and professional practice they inhabit the ‘space between’: the space between languages, the space between cultures, and the space between academic disciplines. While many of our contributors are located in the Australian university system, we also have contributors from outside that system, as well as contributors who are theorising disparate sites for the negotiation of difference. The most exciting aspect of the papers presented here is the ability to move between the spheres of cultural theory and the everyday. Analytical techniques originally developed for literary and cultural analysis are brought to bear on the texts and practices of everyday life. The loci for these investigations include the classroom, the police station, the streets, local government and the university itself. The practices examined include translating and interpreting, language teaching, academic writing, literary production and critique, language planning and small business and shadow economies. The academic disciplines drawn on include theoretical and applied linguistics, discourse analysis, language teaching pedagogy, policy studies, cultural studies, literary studies, political science, gender studies and postcolonial theory.

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