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 UNIVERSITY STUDENTS� NEEDS OF WRITING COURSE MATERIALS: A CASE OF INDONESIA

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 31
Author(s):  
Ilham Ilham ◽  
Bachrudin Musthafa ◽  
Fazri Nur Yusuf
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
English Language ◽  
Private University ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Teaching Writing ◽  
English Department ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
Grammar Knowledge

The aim of this study is to explore the target needs (i.e. necessities, lacks and wants) of the students to inform academic writing courses materials. A case study design was employed as this design to provide in-depth data information. To collect the data, questionnaire and interviews were used. Twenty-three undergraduate students of English department at a private university in Mataram West Nusa Tenggara who take academic writing course in the 2019-2020 academic year participated in the study. The result of the study showed that the students need to learn the types of writing texts, vocabulary and construct sentences into paragraph, have good skills in writing different genres since they are lack of grammar knowledge and vocabularies, and improvement on the aspect of teaching writing. This finding may promise implications for updating the current curriculum and materials as practiced for tertiary level English department students in an attempt to keep up with the latest changes in the methodologies of English language teaching. This study recommends that lecturers and universities should conduct a need analysis regularly and updated the curriculum with such insightful needs.

scholarly journals The Indonesian Undergraduate Students’ Competence in Writing Introduction of Thesis Proposals: A Discourse Analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Setyo Karjono
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
English Language ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Word Choice ◽  
Syntactic Form ◽  
Final Project ◽  
Thesis Writing

Writing thesis proposal requires several competences. At the sentence level, it includes the control of word choice or diction and syntactic form. Beyond the sentence, it deals with the organization of the ideas and information into cohesive and coherent paragraphs. In practice, many students encounter difficulties in writing proposals especially the introduction section. The focus of this study was in the discourse analysis type, concerning the thesis writing which covered the organization, the unity, and coherence of paragraphs, and the syntactic form. Subjects of this research were students of a private university in Yogyakarta, Indonesia who were writing their theses as their final project. All data sources were from the undergraduate students' initial thesis writings especially the Introduction section proposed by the students from the three fields of study: English Language Teaching, Linguistics, and Literature. Findings show that: (a) Mostly the students’ proposals addressed well organization though using somewhat developed explanations, exemplifications, or details; (b)  They also displayed unity and coherence, though the connection of ideas was occasionally obscured; (c) The student’ proposals also  demonstrated inconsistent competence in syntactic structure and word choice; (d) Mostly, the student’ proposals accomplished the score level 3 for their academic writings because they did not fully meet some points of academic writing criteria. Considering the organization, unity and coherence are the most appropriate variety for the undergraduate students’ writings, the study suggests that students should be exposed to a more standard guidance or rubric of thesis writing

scholarly journals Lexical Bundles in Academic Writing by Undergraduate and Graduate Students of English Language Education Program

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (02) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Try Retno Sugiarti ◽  
Nevita Indah Fitrianasari ◽  
Terry Sulistyorini
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Education ◽  
English Language Education ◽  
Significant Component ◽  
Writing Ability ◽  
Lexical Bundles

Studies related to the ubiquity of lexical bundles used by undergraduate and graduate students in writing their academic writing, more specifically skripsi and thesis, seems to be limited. As an important defining feature of academic discourse and a significant component of fluent linguistic production, its existence in writing not only can contribute coherence in a text but also can determine the writing ability of a writer, either professional or novice one (Hyland, 2012, p. 166; Cortes, 2004, p. 397). Therefore, it is necessary to conduct this study in order to know the most frequent forms, structures, and functions of lexical bundles used by undergraduate and graduate students in composing their skripsi and thesis. It was revealed that (1) graduate students use more varied bundles rather than undergraduate students; (2) both students tend to use the same structure of noun phrase with of fragment bundles; (3) undergraduate students tend to use research-oriented bundles, while graduate students prefer to use more text-oriented bundle.

scholarly journals DESIGNING ICT COMPETENCES – INTEGRATED SYLLABUSES OF WRITING COURSES (DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT STUDY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM SYLLABUSES)

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 116-123
Author(s):  
Syarifah Syifa ◽  
Darmahusni
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
English Language ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Design And Development ◽  
English Language Education ◽  
Study Program ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Education Study

The development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has greatly affected the field of education. ICT allow for a higher quality lessons through collaboration with teachers in planning and preparing resources. ICT also develop some writing skills: spelling, grammar, punctuation, editing and re-drafting. ICTs appear as a strategy to improve learners’ difficulties and provide students’ growth in the writing skills. Therefore, this research aims to design ICT competences – integrated writing syllabuses for English Language Education Study Program (ELESP) by analyzing the existing writing syllabuses from five universities in Indonesia. The analysis involved the ICT Competences proposed by UNESCO, Digital Media Descriptors of English Profiling Grid (EPG) and other ICT based – theories. The researcher employed Design and Development Research (DDR) as a research design and qualitative research as the research method. The used stages of DDR in this study are conducted need analysis; stating the objectives, developing the preliminary syllabus, evaluate the preliminary syllabus and revising a syllabus prototype. The data sources of this research are 14 existing syllabuses of writing courses of undergraduate English Language Education Study Program. The result of the research revealed that the ICT competences are mostly integrated in the component of Teaching Method and Media in the syllabuses. The highest level of ICT competences applied in the existing syllabus is Knowledge Deepening level. Although, the integration or infusion of ICT competences were explicit and implicit mentioned in the syllabuses of writing subjects. The research then provide the procedure of ICT integration and the design the ICT competences integrated – writing syllabuses; Basic Writing, Professional Writing, Creative Writing, and Academic Writing. The proposed syllabus implemented the skill-based syllabus. Keywords: ICT Competences, Writing Skills, Syllabus Design, DDR, ICT UNESCO Framework

scholarly journals Academic Literacy: The Analysis Of First-Year Ukrainian University Students’ Errors In Essay Writing

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1Sup1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Oksana Nikolenko ◽  
Maryna Rebenko ◽  
Natalia Doronina
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Academic Literacy ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
First Year ◽  
Word Choice ◽  
English Grammar ◽  
Word Spelling ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Impact

Ukrainian undergraduate students face challenges in demonstrating high-level proficiency in most of their academic writing. As an integral part of academic achievement, writing skills are essential for success at the various levels of students’ future career paths. Thus, academic literacy has raised considerable attention to teaching English as a second language. This study explores the writing competence level of 90 first-year students of Computer Science and Cybernetics Faculty at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and analyzes essay errors that are identified, classified and explained. The study describes the main categories of errors and reveals the causes of their production. It is evaluated that the major types of errors committed in students’ writing are: word choice, word spelling, verb tense, articles, and prepositions. We consider that the main reasons for errors are the native language interference, the lack of English academic writing knowledge and insufficient English grammar and functional use practice. Focusing on the importance of encouraging students to develop their academic literacy, we defined the approaches and strategies that can help teachers and language learners to overcome difficulties in writing. After defining the essay errors, the students were given a set of tips on academic writing proficiency and presented with contrastive L1-L2 comparisons, which resulted in significant improvement of the required academic writing skills. Finally, we measured the impact value of error difference aimed at describing the relationships between pre-analysis and post-analysis writing. Learning academic writing literacy may be an appropriate way to arise overall disciplinary literacy with the students.

British Council’s English for Academic Purposes (EAP) Students’ Manual: A Critical Analysis of the Coursebook Taught at Pakistani Universities for Academic Purposes (EAP) Students’ Manual: A Critical Analysis of the Coursebook Taught at Pakistani Universities

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Teaching Principles

English for Academic Purposes course focusing on the academic language needs of students is a subfield of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). It is a type of specialized course to integrate specific subject matter, language content, and material based on learners’ needs. The study aims to evaluate the British Council’s English for Academic Purposes (EAP) coursebook in terms of content, sequencing, learners’ autonomy, motivation, feedback and focus on language skills. Furthermore, the study tries to provide a general perception of the usefulness and effectiveness of the coursebook for undergraduate students. The EAP Students’ Manual coursebook is used as a primary source for the data collection. The researcher has chosen Nation & Macalister (2010) model of language teaching principles to analyze and discuss the data. The study found the coursebook a useful, effective and an appropriate source of English language learning in terms of the investigated aspects of the book. The findings report that the coursebook provides practice and practical usage in all domains of the academically required English language skills. It helps the students to build language competency and to be more independent learners. In addition, it provides an opportunity to the learners to think in the target language, use the language more practically and learn it in a natural type of environment. The study concludes and suggests that the content needs to be supplemented with English language audios and videos presenting the students relevant documentaries and helping material in order to make the coursebook and the learning process more useful, effective, interesting and motivating. Furthermore, the study recommends that while choosing /designing a coursebook for a certain course, it needs to be evaluated following the various criteria and language-teaching-principles suggested by different language researchers.

Needs Analysis and Teachers' Perceptions: A Study of the English Undergraduate Students

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
English Language ◽  
Needs Analysis ◽  
Learning Needs ◽  
English Learning ◽  
Visual Aids ◽  
Analysis Model ◽  
Classroom Activities ◽  
Teaching Aids

Needs Analysis in the context of language-learning-teaching is an important process to design a certain course and syllabus. It helps course designers to set objectives, choose content, method of instruction, appropriate teaching aids, and classroom activities for different courses. This paper reports the perceptions of the researchers on the English language learning needs of the English undergraduate students of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University Sheringal, Pakistan. The data is based on the researchers’ personal experience and first-hand observation of the population as the researchers have been teaching in the target context for about a decade. Furthermore, the researchers have always been in discussion with their students and colleagues about the target students’ English learning needs, preferred learning styles, motivation in learning English, interest, strengths/weaknesses, and attitude toward English learning in the target setting. Learners’ assignments, exam answer sheets, and presentations have also been used is a source of data collection. A needs analysis model proposed by Hutchinson and Waters (1987) has been applied in order to analyze the data. The results show that the students lack well grammatical sentences, have poor spellings, capitalization problems, limited vocabulary, unaware of collocations, poor/slow reading comprehension, and lack of effective presentation skills. Furthermore, most of the students have a lack of involvement in classroom activities and feel shy about speaking the English language. It was reported that the provision of authentic material, interesting activities, suitable audio-visual aids, relevant texts, language labs, and other logistic arrangements can better help them in learning the English language. The findings demonstrate that the students wished to have a learner-centered-course that helps them excel in their academic life and learning the English language.

British Council’s English for Academic Purposes (EAP) Students’ Manual: A Critical Analysis of the Coursebook Taught at Pakistani Universities

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Teaching Principles ◽  
Language Needs

English for Academic Purposes course focusing on the academic language needs of students is a subfield of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). It is a type of specialized course to integrate specific subject matter, language content, and material based on learners’ needs. The study aims to evaluate the British Council’s English for Academic Purposes (EAP) coursebook in terms of content, sequencing, learners’ autonomy, motivation, feedback and focus on language skills. Furthermore, the study tries to provide a general perception of the usefulness and effectiveness of the coursebook for undergraduate students. The EAP Students’ Manual coursebook is used as a primary source for the data collection. The researcher has chosen Nation & Macalister (2010) model of language teaching principles to analyze and discuss the data. The study found the coursebook a useful, effective and an appropriate source of English language learning in terms of the investigated aspects of the book. The findings report that the coursebook provides practice and practical usage in all domains of the academically required English language skills. It helps the students to build language competency and to be more independent learners. In addition, it provides an opportunity to the learners to think in the target language, use the language more practically and learn it in a natural type of environment. The study concludes and suggests that the content needs to be supplemented with English language audios and videos presenting the students relevant documentaries and helping material in order to make the coursebook and the learning process more useful, effective, interesting and motivating. Furthermore, the study recommends that while choosing /designing a coursebook for a certain course, it needs to be evaluated following the various criteria and language-teaching-principles suggested by different language researchers.

The Use of Multimedia and its Impact on Bangladeshi EFL Learners at Tertiary Level

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 150
Author(s):  
Farzana Sharmin Pamela Islam
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Tertiary Level ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact

As 21st century is the era of modern technologies with different aspects, it offers us to make the best use of them. After tape recorder and overhead projector (OHP), multimedia has become an important part of language classroom facilities for its unique and effective application in delivering and learning lesson. Although in many parts of Bangladesh, a South Asian developing country, where English enjoys the status of a foreign language, the use of multimedia in teaching and learning is viewed as a matter of luxury. However, nowadays the usefulness and the necessity of it are well recognized by the academics as well as the government. The study aims to focus on the difference between a traditional classroom void of multimedia and multimedia equipped classrooms at university level by explaining how multimedia support the students with enhanced opportunity to interact with diverse texts that give them more in-depth comprehension of the subject. It also focuses on audio-visual advantage of multimedia on the students’ English language learning. The study has followed a qualitative method to get an in-depth understanding of the impact of using multimedia in an English language classroom at tertiary level. For this purpose, the data have been collected from two different sources. Firstly, from students’ written response to  an open ended question as to their comparative experience of learning  lessons with and without multimedia facilities; and secondly, through  observation of English language classes at a private university of Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh. The discussion of the study is limited to  the use of multimedia in English language classroom using cartoons, images and music with a view to enhance students’ skills in academic writing, critical analysis of image and critical appreciation of music. For this purpose, cartoons in English language, images from Google and music from You Tube have got focused discussion in this paper.

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