Graduate Students’ Perceptions on their Self-Efficacy in Writing Academic Papers

ABSTRACTIt is notable to note here that self-efficacy needs to be ingrained strongly within graduate students to show a higher enthusiasm, efforts, and persistence in accomplishing various demanding academic writing projects. Tangibly, there are still many graduate students who lack motivation and confidence when doing academic writings. As a result, their attitudes toward writing turn into negative actions crippling their self-efficacy. This study aimed to investigate graduate students’ perceived self-efficacy in academic writings. One research problem was formulated in this study namely, how do English Education Master Students maintain their self-efficacy to accomplish their academic writings? This study employed a mixed-method harnessing classroom survey and interview questions to gather data from English Education Master Students engaging in academic writings, Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta. Findings from this study revealed that graduate students are able to produce more qualified academic writing products when they are motivated continuously by their lecturer. Keywords: self-efficacy, perceptions, academic writings, graduate students, mixed method

The Impact of Product and Process Approach on Iranian EFL Learners’ Writing Ability and Their Attitudes toward Writing Skill

The purpose of the current study was twofold; its first aim was to determine the effect of using of two approaches namely; product and process on developing the fluency, accuracy, and using discourse markers (DMs) of EFL learners’ writing performance. Secondly, it attempted to investigate the effect of mentioned approaches on EFL learners’ attitude toward writing skill. The participants in this study were 60 Iranian learners who were divided into three groups; control and two experimental groups. The control group received no treatment and only received explicit recast feedback toward their writing performance. However, every experimental group received treatment through differential approaches. The findings of the study based on one-way ANOVA revealed that process approach significantly affected on EFL learners’ writing performance. Additionally, the results manifested the positive effect of process approach on EFL learners’ attitude toward writing skill. The current study suggested that in order to develop the EFL learners’ writing skill, the EFL instructors can insert the process based approach in syllabus design.

English Language Writing Centres in Japanese Universities: What do Students Really Need?

The installation of English language writing centres in Japanese universities is a relatively recent event—the first ones established with funding from the Ministry of Education in 2004. Because of the EFL writing context, setting up a writing centre requires consideration of students’ needs and cultural expectations of writing and writing centres. In general, writing centres that have been established in Japanese universities follow a structure similar to those in the US. This raises the question as to whether or not this is appropriate for the particular needs of EFL students and the obstacles they face. For this study, in order to explore students’ attitudes toward writing centres and the role they play in writing education, interview data was collected from students of English composition in two different departments at a university in Japan well known for its English language education: the English department, which does not have a writing centre, and the liberal arts department, which has one of the first writing centres established in Japan.