Wissenschaftliches Schreiben ist eine sehr komplexe Aufgabe, die eine Vielzahl unterschiedlicher Aktivitäten umfasst. Viele Studierende haben jedoch Schwierigkeiten, die damit verbundenen Anforderungen selbständig zu bewältigen. Im Mittelpunkt des Interesses der vorliegenden Arbeit stand daher die Entwicklung und Evaluation interaktiver computerbasierter Trainingsaufgaben, die Studienanfänger beim Erwerb von Grundkompetenzen des wissenschaftlichen Schreibens unterstützen. Zentrale Anliegen dieser Arbeit waren: (a) die psychologisch begründete Entwicklung einer computerbasierten Schreibumgebung für das wissenschaftliche Schreiben, (b) die theoretisch und methodisch begründete (Weiter-)Entwicklung von Instrumenten zur Untersuchung der Bedingungen und Wirkungen der Schreibumgebung und (c) die empirische Überprüfung der lern- und motivationspsychologischen Wirkungen des Arbeitens mit der Schreibumgebung. Im ersten Teil der Arbeit wird aus theoretischen Überlegungen und Modellen zum Schreibprozess bzw. zum Textverstehen ein integratives Modell des wissenschaftlichen Schreibens abgeleitet. Auf dieser Grundlage wird eine prototypische Trainingsumgebung entwickelt und formativ evaluiert. Anhand der Ergebnisse der formativen Evaluation wird der Prototyp zur Schreibumgebung „escribo“ weiterentwickelt. Diese Schreibumgebung setzt systematisch empirisch bestätigte Schreibstrategien um. Somit werden die Schreibenden in ihrem Schreibprozess kognitiv und metakognitiv unterstützt und angeleitet. Zur Untersuchung individueller Einflussgrößen auf den Schreibprozess werden im zweiten Teil der Arbeit verschiedene Fragebögen, z.B. zu motivationalen Aspekten beim wissenschaftlichen Schreiben entwickelt. Weiterhin wird ein verhaltensorientierter Fragebogen zu Strategien beim akademischen Schreiben (FSAS) konzipiert und hinsichtlich seiner Struktur sowie Reliabilität überprüft. Die Ergebnisse einer empirischen Studie mit zwei Messzeitpunkten zur Wirkung der Schreibumgebung weisen darauf hin, dass das Arbeiten mit der Schreibumgebung einer Übungssituation überlegen ist: Zum Messzeitpunkt 1 z.B. schrieben die Versuchspersonen mit computerbasierter Schreibunterstützung besser verständliche Texte. Daraus lässt sich der Schluss ziehen, dass es unter folgenden Bedingungen möglich ist, wissenschaftliches Schreiben computerbasiert zu fördern: Der komplexe Schreibprozess muss aufgebrochen werden, um die Anforderungen des wissenschaftlichen Schreibens transparent machen zu können. Außerdem sollten empirische und theoretische Erkenntnisse systematisch genutzt werden, um angemessene Strategien gezielt fördern zu können. / Academic writing is a complex task that involves a variety of cognitive and metacognitive activities. However, many university students perceive academic writing as an ill-defined task which, as a consequence, leads to feelings of incompetence and frustration. Thus, the purpose of the research presented here was to develop and evaluate interactive web-based training exercises to support students’ acquisition of basic writing competences. The main concerns include the: (a) development of a psychologically sound computer-based writing environment for academic writing; (b) development and enhancement of theoretically and methodologically sound instruments to study conditions and effects of such a writing environment; and (c) empirical investigation of the effects of working with the writing environment on achievement and motivation. In the first part of the dissertation an integrative model of academic writing is derived from theoretical considerations and models of the writing process as well as text comprehension. On this basis, a prototype of the writing environment is developed and evaluated in a pilot study. The results of the pilot study were used to design the writing environment “escribo”. This writing environment systematically applies empirically proven writing strategies. As a result, students receive cognitive and meta-cognitive support in their writing. To investigate individual influences on the writing process, various questionnaires, e.g. on motivational aspects of writing, were developed in the second part of the research presented here. Furthermore, a behaviour-oriented questionnaire on strategies in academic writing (FSAS) was designed and assessed regarding its structure and reliability. An empirical study using two measuring values was carried out to determine the effects of the writing environment. Its results show that there is some evidence that working with the writing environment is superior to a situation without any support; in session 1, for example, students supported by “escribo” wrote texts with a better readability compared to students working without support. Therefore, it can be concluded that such a computer-based writing environment can foster the acquisition of basic competencies in academic writing. This holds true only, if the following prerequisites are met. Firstly, the complexity of the writing process has to be broken up in order to make the demands of academic writing transparent. Secondly, theoretical and empirical findings should be used systematically to foster adequate writing strategies.

published_or_final_version / Applied English Studies / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

Many students when they arrive at university do not possess the “cultural capital” (Bourdieu 1977) which is favoured by the institution. The purpose of the English Language for Academic Purposes (ELAP) course and the drafting-responding process is to help students to begin to acquire the “cultural capital” required to succeed at university. The research reported on in this thesis examined the drafting-responding process as it is used to develop students’ writing in the ELAP course at Rhodes University. The process involved students submitting drafts of their essays on which they received constructive and formative feedback from their ELAP tutor. This feedback was then used to revise their essays before a final version was submitted for assessment. The research took the form of a case study with an essentially interpretive orientation. I examined the drafts (with the tutor’s comments) and final versions of seven students’ ELAP essays. Additional data was obtained by interviewing the students and the tutor. Underpinning my beliefs regarding the role of writing in learning as well as my orientation to research is an understanding of knowledge and learning as being socially constructed. All writing is embedded in and dependent on, not only the immediate social circumstances, but also the broader social and cultural context. In analysing and discussing the data in this research I used Halliday’s (1985) definition of context, in which he draws a broad distinction between the immediate context of situation and the broader context of culture The research findings showed that the drafting-responding process can help students with the process of developing the academic literacy they need in order to write essays within specific situational contexts, in this case, the context of the ELAP course. In addition, at a broader level, it can help students to begin the process of being initiated into the culture of the university as a whole.

Responding to Student Writing: Strategies for a Distance-Teaching Context identifies viable response techniques for a unique discourse community. An overview of paradigmatic shifts in writing and reading theory, 'frameworks of response' developed to classify response statements for research purposes, and an overview of research in the field provide the theoretical basis for the evaluation of the empirical study. The research comprises a three-fold exploration of the response strategies adopted by Unisa lecturers to the writing of Practical English (PENl00-3) students. In the first phase the focus falls on the effect of intervention on the students' revised drafts of four divergent marking strategies - coded correction, minimal marking, taped response and self assessment. All the experimental strategies tested result in statistically-significant improvement levels in the revised draft. The benefits of self assessment and rewriting, even without tutorial intervention, were demonstrated. The study is unique by virtue of its distance-teaching context, its sample size of 1750 and in the high significance levels achieved. The second phase of the research consisted of a questionnaire that determined 2640 students' expectations with respect to marking, the value of commentary, their perceptions of markers' roles and their opinions of the experimental strategies tested. Their responses were also correlated with their final Practical English examination results. The third phase examined tutorial response. The framework of response, developed for the purpose, revealed that present response strategies represent a regression to the traditional product-orientated approach to writing that contradicts the cognitive and rhetorical axiological basis of the course. There is thus a disjunction between the teaching and theoretical practices. The final chapter bridges this gap by examining issues of audience, transparency, ownership, timing of intervention and training. The researcher believes that she has successfully identified practical and innovative strategies that assist lecturers in a distance-teaching context to break away from old response blueprints. / English Studies / D.Litt. et Phil. (English)

Case studies have been frequently used by Public Administration students enrolled for master’s degrees by coursework and mini-dissertation. There are apparently various meanings of and a lack of clarity about the concept “case study” when used in the titles of South African Public Administration master’s dissertations. The purpose of this study was to analyse case studies reported on in South African Public Administration master’s dissertations in order to determine the characteristics of these studies. The study examined case studies in South African Public Administration master’s dissertations completed between 2005 and 2012. It began by reviewing the various components of a case study, then went further to analyse the way in which case studies were applied in the field. The study defined case study as a research process determined by a combination of the following components: a specific strategy for selecting the unit of analysis (the case), a specific research design, research purpose, the methods of data collection and data analysis, and a specific nature of the expected outcomes of the study. The major findings of the study were that most case studies in the analysed dissertations have used interventions (60,9%) as their case. About (43,5%) of the analysed dissertations were evaluative in nature. There is, however, an uneven distribution in terms of the case study design used by a significant proportion of the dissertations (83%) employing the single-case design as opposed to the multiple-case design (17%). The results presented in relation to case selection strategies used show that typical cases were the most investigated. Moreover, a number of the dissertations seemed to be more aligned towards qualitative methods, although mixed methods were mostly used. These dissertations preferred interviews as sources of evidence. Meanwhile, pattern matching appeared to be the dominant technique used to analyse case study evidence in these dissertations. Hypothesis generating was also identified as the outcome in most of the dissertations. / Public Administration and Management / M. Admin. (Public Administration)

Ce travail de recherche se donne pour objectif de formuler des éléments de réflexion indispensables à une initiation à l'écrit de recherche universitaire, pour venir en aide aux étudiants locuteurs non natifs. Plusieurs questions ont sous-tendu cette étude : quel rôle pourraient avoir les études descriptives des écrits scientifiques dans une familiarisation réussie à l'écrit de recherche ? Quel est l'intérêt d'une initiation aux fonctions rhétoriques basée sur la phraséologie transdisciplinaire et fondée sur une approche dite par genre ? Est-il possible de soumettre des éléments d'aide dont pourraient profiter tous les étudiants quelles que soient leurs disciplines ?Une étude exploratoire autour d'une fonction rhétorique particulière qu'est "le positionnement" a permis de comprendre dans quelle mesure des éléments d'ordre linguistique, en l'occurrence les collocations transdisciplinaires, pourraient aider les étudiants à moins appréhender cette exigence d'un écrit essentiellement polyphonique et argumentatif ou encore à se positionner davantage. / This research formulates some thoughts that are essential to initiate students, non native speakers, to academic writing and help in mastering it. Several questions have guided this study : What role might have the descriptive studies of scientific writing in a successful familiarization with academic writing? What is the point of an introduction to rhetorical functions based on transdisciplinary phraseology and on a so-called genre approach? Is it possible to submit support elements that would be beneficial to all students regardless of their disciplines? An exploratory study of a particular rhetorical function that is "positioning" has allowed us to understand the extent to which linguistic elements, namely transdisciplinary collocations could help students to less apprehend the requirement of an essentially polyphonic and argumentative writing or to further show their positioning in their academic writings.

Nos últimos anos, os estudos de língua japonesa acadêmica mulplicaram-se, dando forma a um novo domínio de pesquisa. Apesar dos avanços no conhecimento de japonês acadêmico, há uma lacuna quanto às categorias de documentos encontradas em periódicos acadêmicos do Japão. Pesquisas passadas privilegiaram documentos do tipo ronbun (artigo), deixando de lado a existência de outras categorias relevantes de publicação. O presente estudo dirige-se a essa lacuna. A fim de identificar as principais categorias de documentos de revistas acadêmicas japonesas, examinaram-se instruções aos autores de periódicos do Japan Science and Technology Information Aggregator, Electronic (J-Stage), base eletrônica de acesso aberto do Japão. Como resultado, seis categorias foram identificadas: ssetsu (teoria compreensiva), shiry (material), kaisetsu (explicação), gencho ronbun (artigo original), shohy (crítica de livro) e tanp (relatório curto). O modo pelo qual as revistas do J-Stage descrevem essas categorias foi retratado mediante a compilação de conteúdo de instruções aos autores. Além disso, as categorias foram caracterizadas quanto à estrutura e ao propósito fundamental aparente por meio do exame de uma amostra de documentos publicados em revistas do J-Stage. Traços linguísticos gerais de documentos de periódicos acadêmicos japoneses foram ainda descritos com base em orientações encontradas em instruções aos autores. / In recent years, the body of research on academic Japanese has grown considerably, and a new research domain has emerged. Despite the advances in knowledge of academic Japanese, there is a gap concerning publication categories found in scholarly periodicals from Japan. Past studies focused on documents of the ronbun (article) type, ignoring the existence of other relevant categories. The present study addresses this gap. In order to identify the main publication categories from Japanese scholarly journals, instructions to authors from periodicals found in the Japan Science and Technology Information Aggregator, Electronic (J-Stage)an open-access, electronic database from Japanwere examined. As a result, six categories have been identified: ssetsu (general theory), shiry (material), kaisetsu (explanation), gencho ronbun (original article), shohy (book review), and tanp (short report). The way by which journals from J-Stage describe these categories was depicted by the compilation of descriptions extracted from instructions to authors. Furthermore, the six categories were characterized in terms of structure and visible fundamental purpose by means of an analysis of a sample of documents published in journals from J-Stage. Additionally, general linguistic features of Japanese journal documents were described based on directions found in instructions to authors.

Orientador: Raquel Salek Fiad / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-25T18:48:10Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Pasquotte-Vieira_ElianeAparecida_D.pdf: 3192754 bytes, checksum: e8a96418111cab8ad4b08a2677fd8dac (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / Resumo: Situada na Linguística Aplicada e com o objetivo de refletir a partir de uma perspectiva discursiva e etnográfica sobre a integração dos sujeitos a práticas letradas acadêmicas, esta tese está fundamentada, por um lado, nas proposições teóricas de Bakhtin (2006 [1929-30]; 2003 [1952-1953]; 1993 [1919-1921]; 1976 [1926]) sobre enunciação, dialogismo, alteridade, construção de sentidos, posicionamentos discursivos, gêneros discursivos e, consequentemente, sobre a relação sujeito e linguagem como um fenômeno social, histórico e essencialmente dinâmico; e, por outro, nos aportes teórico-metodológicos dos "Letramentos Acadêmicos", segundo estudos desenvolvidos ao longo dos últimos 15 anos por autores britânicos, como Lea (1999), Lea & Street (2006 e 1998), Lillis (2008, 2003, 2001 e 1999), Lillis & Scott (2007), Street (2010 e 2009). Dessa maneira, esta tese se constrói segundo uma perspectiva etnográfico-linguística, desenvolvida mais especificamente a partir do que Lillis (2008) tem entendido como "história do texto", ou seja, uma concepção teórico-metodológica que considera simultaneamente para a análise tanto o texto quanto dados de outras naturezas que estão ao redor do texto, num contexto específico que o envolve. Assim, a partir de um estudo de caso, esta tese se constrói sobre uma discussão teórico-analítica que privilegia dados diversificados, provindos de um exame de qualificação de dissertação de mestrado em Agricultura e Ambiente, com o objetivo específico de refletir sobre a "história do texto" da mestranda [S] a partir do processo dialógico que envolveu (a) a versão escrita de sua dissertação entregue para o exame de qualificação, (b) as notas escritas dos professores da banca sobre essa dissertação, (c) os comentários orais dos professores e da mestranda durante o exame de qualificação e (d) os fragmentos extraídos de uma entrevista concedida pela mestranda após o exame. Para investigar essa "história do texto", a análise dos dados ocupou-se de três categorias para sua delimitação: (i) os posicionamentos sócio-históricos ocupados pelos sujeitos ? no sentido bakhtiniano ? no momento em que o exame de qualificação ocorreu, (ii) as interlocuções e (iii) as relações de poder ali estabelecidas. Verificou-se que o diálogo ocorrido durante o exame de qualificação constituiu-se num importante processo de negociação que, através da alteridade, levou a mestranda a (re)significações sobre a prática acadêmico-científica de escrita da dissertação de mestrado e a (re)posicionamentos como um sujeito discursivo. A conclusão é de que esse processo dialógico de negociação é fundamental às práticas letradas acadêmicas, as quais emergem bem mais de sujeitos discursivos do ponto de vista bakhtiniano do que de sujeitos envolvidos apenas com o desenvolvimento de habilidades de escrita ou com a socialização do saber acadêmico. Esta tese busca, dessa forma, contribuir com os estudos dos Letramentos Acadêmicos à medida que, por esse prisma, é possível deslocar o discurso do déficit e da crise da escrita existente nas esferas acadêmicas para uma perspectiva que toma os letramentos acadêmicos como práticas letradas situadas socioculturalmente e, por isso, sempre demandam processos de integração segundo uma perspectiva discursiva e de negociação dialógica / Abstract: This thesis is situated in Applied Linguistics and reflects from a discursive and ethnographic perspective on the integration of subjects in academic literacy practices. For this reason, this work is founded, on the one hand, on Bakhtin¿s concepts (2006 [1929-30], 2003, [1952-1953], 1993 [1919-1921], 1976 [1926]) of enunciation, dialogism, process of meaning, speech subjects, speech genres, and consequently on the relationship between subjects and language as a social, historical and dynamic phenomenon. On the other hand, this work is developed on the basis of the theoretical and methodological contributions from the "Academic Literacies" studies, which have been conducted over the past 15 years by British authors as Lea (1999), Lea & Street (2006 and 1998), Lillis (2008, 2003, 2001 and 1999), Lillis & Scott (2007), Street (2010 and 2009). Hence, this thesis is underpinned by a linguistic ethnographic perspective, based more specifically on what Lillis (2008) has understood as "text history", that is, a theoretical and methodological framework for the simultaneous analysis of the text and of other data from the situated context "around the text". As a case study, this thesis is founded on a theoretical and analytical discussion that emphasizes diversified data stemming from a qualifying exam of a masters dissertation in Agriculture and Environment, with the specific aim to reflect on the "text history" of the masters student [S], across the dialogic process involving (a) the written version of her dissertation for the qualifying exam, (b) the written notes from the professors of the Qualifying Committee on this dissertation, (c) the oral comments from the professors and [S] during the qualifying exam and (d) extracts from the interview with [S] after the exam. For the investigation about this "text history", the data analysis has focused on three categories: (i) the socio-historical placements of the subjects ? in Bakhtin¿s sense of the term ? during the qualifying exam, (ii) the interlocutors in dialogue, and (iii) the power relations established among the subjects in the place and time in which the dissertation qualifying exam took place. It was found that dialogue during the qualifying exam constituted an important negotiation process because, through the alterity, [S] was building her (re)meanings on the academic-scientific practice of writing of the masters dissertation and her (re) placements as a speech subject. The conclusion is that the dialogic process of negotiation is crucial to academic literacy practices because these practices emerge more from speech subjects from the Bakhtin¿s viewpoint, than of subjects that have worked only with writing skills or socialization of academic knowledge. Thereby, this thesis aims to contribute to Academic Literacies studies considering that the dialogic perspective is able to move the debate about the writing deficit and the writing crisis in the academic spheres to a place where academic literacies have been taken as socially and culturally situated practices. These practices require constant processes of integration according to a discursive perspective and dialogic negotiation / Doutorado / Lingua Materna / Doutora em Lingüística Aplicada

This thesis examines conceptions of gender revealed by people when assessing texts. The research questions are: What associations can be discerned between gender conceptions and ideas about the quality of texts? What features of content and style are perceived as female or male? The study seeks to develop a method for comparing different people’s assessments of the same text. The material was collected by means of questionnaires in which 114 informants were asked to assess three anonymous student texts and then guess the sex of the writer. The material has been analysed quantitatively by correlating the assessments of the texts with the guesses about the sex of the author, and qualitatively, as the informants’ freely worded assessments of the texts were analysed for content and form with the support of assumptions about how assessments are expressed in text. The result shows that the assessments do not significantly correlate with assumptions about the sex of the writer, although there is a tendency to regard textual flow as feminine. Informants rarely bring up gender spontaneously when assessing texts. The properties of a writer that are mentioned are instead intellectual capacity, ambitions, social background and self-confidence. But when informants are asked to guess the sex of the author and state reasons for their answers, dichotomous stereotypes appear, such as that men’s texts are characterized by individualism, a focus on facts, self-confidence, simplicity, and slovenly and terse language, whereas women are assumed to write altruistically, focusing on experiences, with care and complexity, and in a polished and narrative style. This thesis argues that writing is increasingly perceived as a female domain, and discusses the results of text assessment on the basis of Nicky Le Feuvre’s (2009) theories of the effect of feminization processes on the gender order.

Cette recherche a pour but de mettre en évidence les difficultés de parcours des étudiants chercheurs jordaniens pendant leurs recherches universitaires en France. Elle traite les grands thèmes relatifs à l’écriture académique universitaire. Elle aborde les difficultés d’écriture académique des étudiants jordaniens en deux parties : la première traite l’apprentissage en amont de l’exposition à la langue cible, relatif à la scolarité dans le système éducatif jordanien. La deuxième est en aval de l’apprentissage de la langue cible, elle est relative à la qualité de l’apprentissage de la langue cible et de son enseignement dans un contexte où l’étudiant est en contact avec la langue depuis son arrivée dans son institution d’accueil. Nous explorons le système éducatif jordanien et ses rapports au système social, en expliquant comment la nature de l’enseignement des langues étrangères en Jordanie, « en amont », peut être un obstacle « en aval », lors d’un contact direct avec la langue, la société et les communautés natives – communautés différentes et natif entendu au sens concret du terme. Nous essayons de mettre en évidence les problèmes et les difficultés auxquels se heurtent les étudiants-chercheurs jordaniens. Cette démarche commence par une tentative de définition de l’écrit académique, tout en décomposant les notions et les facteurs de cet écrit, pour cerner avec précision les difficultés des étudiants jordaniens dans l’écrit académique. Le questionnement autour de la notion de l’écrit académique nous guide à travers l’analyse du corpus pour mieux cibler les vraies lacunes de l’écrit académique de ces étudiants-chercheurs. / The aim of this essay is to define the difficulties met by Jordanian student researchers during their academic research in France. This thesis deals with the main themes relative to academic writing. Its objective is to differentiate in two parts the problems encountered by Jordanian students in academic writing: firstly, problems relative to learning the target language in the Jordanian education system. Secondly, those relative to learning the language in France and linked to the quality of learning and teaching, and to the contact established by the student when he arrives in a French institution. We will have beforehand explored the Jordanian education system, its links to the social system, and explained how the quality of teaching foreign languages in Jordan can be an obstacle when there is a direct contact with the language, the society and native communities [different communities] and native in the concrete meaning of the term. This thesis attempts to show the problems and the difficulties encountered by Jordanian student researchers, starting with a definition of academic writing and an analysis of its notions and factors. This analysis will help us to target the shortcomings of the academic writing of these student researchers.