The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the potential of Systemic Functional Linguistic (SFL) pedagogy to support English language learners (ELLs) in enhancing their meaning making potential as they engage in persuasive writing practices within academic contexts. The dissertation results from a teacher action research project in which the teacher researcher (the author) constructed qualitative case studies focusing on the teaching practice of a veteran ESL teacher (the researcher) and the persuasive writing practices of three middle school beginning level ELLs. Through data analysis methods drawing on SFL and intertextuality, the study illuminates connections between the SFL based teaching practice and the expanding linguistic repertoire of ELLs as they enact the genre of persuasive argument in the context of producing persuasive music reviews. Research methods are qualitative in nature and designed to attend to both the sociocultural context of teaching and learning as well as a linguistic analysis of written texts. Through a qualitative case study approach focusing on the literacy practices of three emergent bilingual middle school students and the reflective teaching practices of their veteran ESL teacher, the teacher researcher highlights how SFL pedagogy created space for urban middle school ELLs to participate in high interest language learning activities designed to increase their control over the semiotic resources needed to construct persuasive texts. The subsequent SFL and genre analysis of students' texts analyzes changes in the schematic structure and register variables of student texts aims to explore the intertextual connections between these changes and the SFL pedagogical practices described in the study. Data derive from multiple sources including student texts, videotaped interactions among classroom community members, field notes, lesson plans and instructional materials. The study offers important new directions in language teaching and learning as it demonstrates how SFL-based pedagogy can draw on the cultural and linguistic resources of ELLs to create a culturally relevant (Ladson-Billings, 1995) and permeable curriculum (Dyson, 2003) that both challenges the conceptualization of ELLs as students with a "deficit" and repositions them as skillful language users and text analysts.

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Good academic literacy skills are vital for success in the 21st century for students in higher education and for professional people in the workforce to be able to process and convey information and knowledge. The purpose of the current study was to gain insights into the construct of academic literacy skills and to identify indicators affecting the development of the academic literacy skills of first year students in higher education. To this end, a case study was done on a cohort of 20 first year male Emirati students attending an academic literacy skills course in an engineering higher education institute in the Arabian Gulf region. The study was guided by three research questions concerning the development of academic literacy skills which were defined as writing strategies, library research strategies and general study skills (Bury, Sheese & Katz, 2013). Data gathered comprised surveys, grade comparisons, written assignments, semi-structured interviews, classroom observations recorded using a video camera and instructor observations. The framework of Academic Literacies developed by Lea and Street (1998, 2000, 2006) was used for analysis with a focus on the supplementing constructs of study skills and academic socialization. To extract more detailed knowledge and further insights about the students’ academic literacy skills, a comparison was also made between the developmental indicators regarding successful and non-successful students’ written work and their approaches to completing assignments. The indicators revealed included the students’ lack of library research strategies, digital literacy skills and sense of ownership. Theoretical and practical implications for developing students’ academic literacy skills are provided in conclusion.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-22T17:26:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Marcia Pinho.pdf: 1039564 bytes, checksum: 618bf8e8247f56f2cc82a1541d03b32c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-03-30 / Although reading and writing are essential practices to foster learning and disseminate culture, they have been the subject of recurring debate and criticism in Brazil, not only as a result of low rates achieved in education statistics, but also because of the significant weaknesses faced by citizens in the exercise of social practices mediated by written texts. Despite the existing paradigm of universal basic education in Brazil, it is clear that the mere association of formal education with reading and writing does not ensure full mastery of such skills, which is crucial if citizens are to fully perform their roles as social protagonists. Given the above-mentioned context, the debate on literacy has gained increased relevance ever since it started spreading in the academic environment in the 1980s, when it approached the idea of functional literacy. It has gradually extended to all educational settings, from early childhood education programs to both graduate and undergraduate programs. This study particularly focuses on literacy in undergraduate programs, and aims to analyze the linguistic features of texts produced by undergraduate students by identifying the strategies revealed in observable socio-cognitive criteria of textuality on the textual surface. Hence this study drew upon the following theoretical references: the scenario of higher education in contemporary society, its perplexities and challenges; the concept of reflexivity in teacher education, coupled with cognitive strategies related to metacognition and metalanguage; the socio-cultural approach to literacies, as well as specificities of academic literacies; text linguistics from the knowledge-based socio-interactional perspective, focusing on the textuality mechanisms of written texts; finally, studies on social cognitive text processing. This study takes a quali-quantitative and interdisciplinary approach to reveal recurring linguistic features in texts written by students majoring in Pedagogy at the Catholic University of Pelotas, Brazil. Their texts were produced during an event on academic literacy coordinated by this researcher in 2011 and later analyzed for linguistic evidence of textuality - particularly the rates of cohesion and coherence, which were verifiable in the communicative modalities of these students, in accordance with their intended use. The analysis showed the prevalence of cognitive strategies related to the linguistic structure of colloquiality. There was little impact of metalinguistic mechanisms connected to self-reflexivity, hence compositional structures which are typical of beginning writers were highly observed, with little occurrence of strategies such as textual self-monitoring and overt concern with interlocutor s understanding, to the detriment of textual coherence development. This research expects to contribute to the processes of continuing teacher education and academic-pedagogic planning within teaching institutions. It also aims to contribute to future studies in the areas of university pedagogy, academic literacy, teacher education or other specific approaches that may rely on similar objects of study and/or the methodological framework adopted by the present study / A leitura e a escrita, enquanto práticas fundamentais ao aprendizado e à propagação da cultura, têm sido alvo de recorrentes debates e críticas no cenário nacional, seja em função da precariedade de seus índices nas estatísticas educacionais, ou pelas expressivas fragilidades enfrentadas pelos cidadãos no exercício de práticas sociais mediadas por textos escritos. Ainda que se conviva com o paradigma da universalização da escolaridade básica no país, nota-se que a mera vinculação com a educação formal não assegura o domínio pleno da leitura e da escrita para o desempenho fecundo de seu protagonismo social. Nesse contexto, a discussão do letramento, amplamente difundida no ambiente acadêmico a partir da década de 80, ao se aproximar da ideia de alfabetização funcional, tem sua pertinência ampliada, passando a abranger todos os contextos educacionais, da educação infantil aos programas de pós-graduação, passando pela educação superior, sobre a qual se detém o presente estudo. Tendo como referência a abordagem de letramentos, a pesquisa tem como objetivo geral analisar a caracterização linguística das produções escritas de alunos de nível superior, por meio da observação das estratégias sociocognitivas reveladas nos critérios de textualidade observáveis na superfície textual. Para tanto, são privilegiados estudos sobre o cenário da educação superior na contemporaneidade, suas perplexidades e desafios; o conceito de reflexividade na formação docente, associando-o às estratégias cognitivas ligadas à metacognição e à metalinguagem; a concepção sociocultural dos letramentos, bem como as particularidades dos letramentos acadêmicos; a linguística textual na perspectiva sociointeracional de base cognitiva, enfocando os mecanismos de textualidade das produções escritas; e, finalmente, os estudos sobre processamento sociocognitivo de textos. A partir de uma abordagem quali-quantitativa e interdisciplinar, a investigação procura desvelar características linguísticas recorrentes nas manifestações escritas de alunos concluintes do curso de Pedagogia da Universidade Católica de Pelotas, produzidas durante um evento de letramento acadêmico coordenado pela pesquisadora no ano de 2011, analisando-se os indícios linguísticos de textualidade particularmente os índices de coesão e coerência verificáveis nas modalidades comunicativas desses estudantes, em conformidade com as suas finalidades de uso. As análises demonstram a prevalência de estratégias cognitivas próprias à coloquialidade, com pouca incidência de mecanismos ligados à autorreflexividade, de forma que se sobressaem as estruturas composicionais típicas de escritores iniciantes, nas quais se percebem escassas estratégias de automonitoramento textual, além de não revelarem preocupação explícita com a compreensão do interlocutor, em prejuízo, portanto, da construção da coerência textual. Considerando-se as recorrências linguísticas verificadas, bem como os questionamentos educacionais suscitados por esses achados, a pesquisa pretende contribuir também com futuros estudos correlatos nas áreas de pedagogia universitária, letramento acadêmico, formação de professores ou outras abordagens específicas que se possam valer de semelhantes objetos investigativos e/ou da estrutura metodológica adotada pelo estudo ora realizado .

Esta dissertação teve por objetivo estudar o desenvolvimento das capacidades de linguagem ligadas à escrita acadêmica em francês dos alunos da graduação em Letras (habilitação em língua francesa) ao longo de um semestre, por meio da análise de suas produções textuais. Para tal, tivemos como objetivos específicos a produção do modelo didático (SCHNEUWLY; DOLZ, 2004) do gênero textual artigo científico em francês da área de estudos literários e, a partir dele, a elaboração de uma sequência didática (SCHNEUWLY; DOLZ, 2004) visando a ensinar as características do gênero textual em questão para os alunos inscritos na disciplina de graduação Monografia. Com vistas a entender de que forma a atuação do professor, no momento da aplicação da sequência didática (SD), contribui para o desenvolvimento das capacidades de linguagem dos alunos, as aulas da SD foram filmadas e transcritas. Além disso, analisamos a influência dos comentários realizados pela professora-pesquisadora às primeiras versões dos artigos no desenvolvimento das capacidades de linguagem dos alunos. Para desenvolver nossa pesquisa, adotamos o quadro teórico-metodológico do interacionismo sociodiscursivo (ISD) (BRONCKART, 1999/2012, SCHNEUWLY; DOLZ, 2004 e MACHADO, 2009), que tem suas bases nos estudos de Vigotski (1998; 1997; 2010; 2011; 2013) sobre o desenvolvimento humano. Servimo-nos dos conceitos de instrumento e zona de desenvolvimento proximal (VIGOTSKI, 1997; 2010; 2011; 2013) para entender o desenvolvimento das capacidades de linguagem dos alunos; de modelo didático (DI PIETRO et al., 2004) e sequência didática (DOLZ; NOVERRAZ; SCHNEUWLY, 2004) para realizar a didatização do gênero textual; de gestos didáticos (SCHNEUWLY, 2009) para compreender como se deu a atuação da professora na aplicação da sequência didática. Apoiamo-nos, igualmente, em alguns estudos ligados à escrita acadêmica e às dificuldades de escrita encontradas pelos universitários e pós-graduandos. Para tanto, usamos a noção proposta por Bazerman (2009; 2013) de que os gêneros textuais funcionam como frames para o desenvolvimento de tipos de pensamentos ligados às disciplinas; e, com base nas categorias de análise do ISD e nas pesquisas realizadas por Matencio (2003) e Pollet (2004) sobre as dificuldades de produção textual encontradas em textos de universitários e pós-graduandos quanto à inserção de vozes de outros autores, elaboramos as categorias de retextualização para realizar as análises dos textos produzidos pelos alunos. As produções dos alunos foram analisadas, primeiramente, de acordo com o modelo da arquitetura textual (BRONCKART, 1999/2012; 2006) para verificar se houve desenvolvimento das capacidades de linguagem e se ele poderia ser atribuído à sequência didática, à atuação da professora e/ou ao comentário da professora-pesquisadora. Em nossas análises, pudemos constatar que houve desenvolvimento das capacidades de linguagem dos alunos ao longo do semestre, especialmente, das capacidades de ação e discursivas, sendo grande parte desse desenvolvimento ligado às atividades dos módulos da sequência didática, aos gestos didáticos regulação local e institucionalização usados pela professora ao aplicar a sequência didática e ao comentário da professora-pesquisadora. / This dissertations goal was to study the development of language capacities of Language Studies undergraduate students related to academic writing in French throughout a semester by analyzing their written works. To this end, our specific objective was to create a didactic model (SCHNEUWLY; DOLZ, 2004) of the textual genre academic paper in French at the department of literature studies in order to elaborate a didactic sequence (SCHNEUWLY; DOLZ, 2004) aiming at teaching the characteristics of that textual genre to the students enrolled in the course Monografia. Aiming at understanding how the teachers performance contributes to the development of the students language capacities when applying the didactic sequence (DS), the classes were recorded and transcribed. Furthermore, we analyzed the influence of the remarks given by the researcher-teacher to the first versions of the papers in the development of the students language capacities. In order to develop our research, we adopted the socio-discursive interactionism (SDI) theoretical and methodological framework (BRONCKART, 1999/2012, SCHNEUWLY; DOLZ, 2004 e MACHADO, 2009), which is rooted in Vigotskis (1998; 1997; 2010; 2011; 2013) studies on human development. We employed the concepts of instrument and zone of proximal development (VIGOTSKI, 1997; 2010; 2011; 2013) to understand the development of the students language capacities; of didactic model (DI PIETRO et al., 2004) and didactic sequence (DOLZ; NOVERRAZ; SCHNEUWLY, 2004) to accomplish the didactization of the textual genre; and of fundamental teaching gestures (SCHNEUWLY, 2009) to comprehend how the teachers performance in the application of the didactic sequence took place. We also rely on studies related to academic writing and writing difficulties experienced by undergraduate and graduate students. To do so, we used the idea proposed by Bazerman (2009; 2013) that the textual genres work as frames to develop the kinds of thoughts related to the courses; and based on the SDI analyses categories and on the research accomplished by Matencio (2003) e Pollet (2004) about the difficulties of writing experienced by undergraduate and graduate students regarding the insertion of other authors voices, we elaborated categories of retextualization to accomplish the analysis of the students texts. The students texts were first analyzed according to the textual architecture model (BRONCKART, 1999/2012; 2006) in order to verify if there was development of the language capacities and if it could be attributed to the didactic sequence, to the teachers performance and/or to the remarks given by the researcher-teacher. In our analysis we could observe the development of the students language capacities throughout the semester, specially of the action and discursive capacities, a great part of which connected to the didactic sequence activities, to the fundamental teaching gestures of local regulation and institutionalization used by the teacher when applying the didactic sequence and to the researcher-teacher remarks.

<p>The research findings are grouped according to the three themes identified which includes the relevance of the module, the effectiveness of the teaching and learning approaches and methods, and the integration of generic and discipline specific academic literacy. The researcher hopes this study will help illuminate perceptions of part-time students&rsquo / about the Academic Literacy for Commerce course and also how it can be improved to better serve the needs of part-time students.</p>

The growing number of language minority students graduating from a U.S. high school and entering college has motivated many studies. These students are often referred to as Generation 1.5, a term that loosely indicates they arrived in this country at an early age and had most of their education in U.S. K-12 settings. The studies that have focused on this population often group refugees with other immigrants. Although refugees may not have arrived in this country at an early age, those coming from war torn countries as teenagers have often had their formal education interrupted in their home countries with the result that schooling in the U.S. comprises most, if not all, of their education. The purpose of the current study was to investigate how refugee students experience academic literacy practices in their first year of college, the challenges they face in this process, and the resources and strategies they use to cope with postsecondary reading and writing demands. In order to carry out this investigation, a qualitative year-long multiple-case study (Duff, 2008) was conducted. Participants were seven refugee students attending a small liberal arts college. Data collection involved interviews with the focal participants and faculty, class observations, and written documents. Findings revealed that all seven participants were successful completing their first year in college, passing all the classes they registered for. At the same time, the day-to-day struggle to keep up and cope with reading and writing assignments presented these students with several challenges resulting from their still developing English language proficiency, lack of background knowledge, and unfamiliarity with academic genres, to name a few sources of difficulty. These challenges were offset by the motivation showed by the seven participants and their ability in developing coping strategies and drawing upon the resources made available to them. Repeated use of resources and uncritical acceptance of support, however, sometimes yielded undesirable results. The findings indicate that many of the strategies used by the participants involved peers, tutors, and professors who, within the supportive college environment, offered these students the assistance they needed.

Among scholars of applied linguistics and composition studies, the notion of academic literacy has generated discussions regarding L2 students' intellectual growth and academic performance in the college context. Several studies provide a detailed account of how students adapt their literacy practices in response to their perceived needs for task completion; however, as the notion of academic literacy has gradually been linked to concerns of disciplinary enculturation, a situated process of becoming involved in disciplinary discourse, there has been a call for attention to the disciplinary discourse communities into which students are initiated through literacy tasks. Although some previous studies have forged early linkages and integrated disciplinary discourse into the notion of academic literacy, the empirical data comes from graduate students (Casanave, 2002; Prior, 1998) or L1 students (Hass, 1994; Herrington, 1985; Sternglass, 1997). The study reported in this dissertation, however, investigates the situated and enculturating literacy practices of L2 students in undergraduate settings. Also, as compared to previous studies that describe the literacy strategies in or students' views of disciplinary discourse, the present study attempts to schematize the connection between literacy practice and disciplinary enculturation, drawing on the notion of genre and its framework. This study has a clear focus of analysis by discussing the literacy practice of two L2 students as they engage in genres, mostly written work, in class, herein referred to as genre practice or genre-mediated literacy practice. This study follows the L2 students' learning throughout their undergraduate college experience, providing an analysis of their genre practice across disciplines from their first year to graduation, and at the same time tracing the factors that contextualize their genre practice, such as previous genre encounters, class work, writing assignment guidelines, cultural norms, individualized perceptions of disciplinary expectations, etc. Through careful textual analysis and interviews, this study focuses on the L2 students' developing academic literacy as mediated by discipline-specific genre practice in three different learning contexts: writing in general education courses, writing in business writing courses, and writing in courses in their majors. The results of the study show that both students' genre practices varied, depending on how genre was cued, interpreted, and performed, by social affordances such as lectures, class readings, class discussions, and interactions with peers and instructors. The study shows the students' genre practice taking shape in the way they were situated in disciplinary discourse, while at the same time their understanding of disciplinary discourse was mediated by their engagement in genre. In addition, by looking at the students' genre practice in four different knowledge dimensions—formal, rhetorical, procedural, and subject matter (see Tardy, 2009)—this study documents a detailed process of constructing discipline-specific literacy. Despite its context-dependent, individualized positioning in disciplinary discourse, this study captures a series of patterns of literacy practice cutting across the two L2 students' approach to genre and highlights the issues inherent in classroom-based instructional settings. The theoretical and pedagogical implications of this study suggest the need to reexamine the role of writing for discipline-specific literacy, both to enhance college writing instruction and to advocate for writing across the curriculum.

<p>The research findings are grouped according to the three themes identified which includes the relevance of the module, the effectiveness of the teaching and learning approaches and methods, and the integration of generic and discipline specific academic literacy. The researcher hopes this study will help illuminate perceptions of part-time students&rsquo / about the Academic Literacy for Commerce course and also how it can be improved to better serve the needs of part-time students.</p>

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Student Preparedness for Academic Writing examines perceptions of student preparedness for academic writing in the first-year literary studies course, English 178, located in the English Department at Stellenbosch University. The research was conducted during 2011 and 2012 making use of a survey which was completed by the 2011 first-year English 178 class, and also utilising a series of interviews with students, tutors and lecturers in 2012. Preparedness for English 178 is framed in terms of Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of socially constructed habitus. In addition to the thought of Bourdieu the thesis draws on the writings of Peter Elbow, Arlene Archer and Pamela Nichols, among others, to analyse and frame the quantitative and qualitative information yielded by the study. The dissertation assesses multiple interlocking elements that comprise student preparedness and finds striking discrepancy between student perception of their preparedness and that of the lecturers and tutors. While tutors, lecturers and the report of the National Benchmark Test all suggest that at least half of all first-year students are poorly prepared for academic writing, only about 21% of students perceive themselves to be poorly prepared. Possible reasons for the difference in views between students and other sources are explored. The thesis concludes by asking if the English 178 course at Stellenbosch University truly tests the students’ academic writing abilities and if the course is balancing its “obligations to students [with the]… obligation[s] to knowledge and society” (Elbow 327). / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie verhandeling ondersoek persepsies van studentevoorbereidheid vir akademiese skryf in die eerstejaars-letterkundekursus, Engels 178, gesetel in die Departement Engels aan die Universiteit Stellenbosch. Die navorsing is gedurende 2011 en 2012 gedoen deur gebruik te maak van ’n vraelys wat deur 2011 se Engels 178-eerstejaarsklas voltooi is, asook van ’n reeks onderhoude met studente, tutors en lektore in 2012. In hierdie verhandeling word voorbereidheid vir Engels 178 in terme van Pierre Bourdieu se konsep van sosiaal gekonstrueerde habitus beskryf. Benewens Bourdieu se denke word daar ook na die werke van onder andere Peter Elbow, Arlene Archer en Pamela Nichols verwys om die kwalitatiewe en kwantitatiewe inligting wat uit die studie voortgekom het, te ontleed en te situeer. Die verhandeling assesseer die veelvuldige ineengeskakelde elemente wat studentevoorbereidheid omvat, en bevind ’n opvallende teenstrydigheid tussen studente se persepsie van hulle eie voorbereidheid en lektore en tutors se persepsie van studente se voorbereidheid. Terwyl tutors en lektore se ervaring en die Nasionale Normtoetsverslag alles daarop wys dat ten minste die helfte van alle eerstejaarstudente swak voorbereid is vir akademiese skryf, beskou slegs ongeveer 21% van studente hulself as swak voorbereid. Moontlike redes vir die verskil in beskouings tussen studente en ander bronne word ondersoek. Die verhandeling sluit af met die vraag of die Engels 178-kursus aan die Universiteit Stellenbosch werklik studente se akademiese skryfvaardighede toets, en of die kursus wel ’n ewewig handhaaf tussen verpligtinge teenoor studente en ’n verantwoordelikheid teenoor kennis en die samelewing (Elbow 327).