The present thesis compares the use of result/inference discourse connectives in two corpora compiled by the author. The student corpus consists of 43 literary essays by Czech university students of English and American studies and the reference corpus contains 34 journal articles written by native expert writers. The main objective of the thesis was to determine to what extent students resemble professional writers in their use of result/inference connectives with respect to the frequency, position and scope of the connectives. The thesis revealed a strong overall overuse of result/inference connectives by students as well as overuse and underuse of individual connectives. It was also found that both types of writers generally prefer initial to non-initial placement of result/inference connectives; however, students more frequently use the connectives with the immediate scope.

The aim of this research was to examine how university literacy is constructed at a university in the Arabian Gulf and to evaluate the appropriateness of this construction where students of a low level of English are exposed to academic English (Right from the Start). Unpacking this construction is a complex task and to gain even a limited insight into the numerous Discourses, epistemologies and pedagogies constituting the construction of university literacy at Gulf universities, a stratified approach that probes the layers of ‘reality’ is necessary. Therefore, a critical realist approach is engaged, along with a variety of methods to probe the layers of the phenomenon. In terms of thesis organization, the traditional empirical structure common to the Social Sciences and the argumentative structure common to the Humanities are integrated. While the information obtained by a variety of methods is analysed and conclusions are reached, this material is also used along with additional literature to support the central contention that university literacy and academic English are possible ‘right from the start’, if the students’ literacy is examined from a certain perspective and if there is an appropriate pedagogy which promotes the desired literacies. This combination of thesis structures would be deemed appropriate in the critical realist ontological framework since the rigour of the thesis lies both in its “reliability” resulting from the empirical data and its focus on the ‘real’; and its “reflexivity” and “persuasivness” arising from the transparently ‘critical’ argument of the thesis (Cadman 2002). In order to conduct the empirical research, the lenses suggested by each of the major views of literacy as outlined by Lea and Street (1998) - namely the “study skills” view, the narrow “academic socialization view” and the “academic literacies view” are utilized in succession. However, the central argument is revealed as the manifestations of each ‘view’ of literacy in the specific context are examined, the research outcomes obtained by utilizing each view in succession are outlined and both are critiqued from the perspective of the “academic literacies” view. Corpus research is undertaken from a “study skills” perspective and the effect of the vocabulary taught to the students on their use of vocabulary in their writing is examined. Also, using the “study skills” lens, the students’ “global language development” in terms of changes or fluctuations in “fluency, accuracy and complexity” (Wolfe-Quintero, Inagaki et al. 1998) over a period of at least three semesters is examined. Utilizing a narrow “academic socialization lens”, studies conducted at the University on learning strategies and motivation and the comments made by respondents in interviews and on an electronic discussion board are compared to comments made by teachers and lecturers. Major flaws in these views of academic literacy are acknowledged and the way each view manifests itself in the Discourse(s) prevalent at this particular university is demonstrated. Finally, Discourses evidenced in the student interviews in particular, are unpacked and then compared and contrasted with those in the lecturer interviews as well as the curriculum and other university documents. The limitations of the study are examined and suggestions for further research and ways to address ‘problems’ associated with university literacy are given.

The area of discourse acquisition and writing in higher education has become a much researched field. In South Africa the interest in discourse acquisition and writing has been partly in response to the change in student profile, particularly over the past ten years. While South African researchers and academics are increasingly focusing their interest in discourse acquisition and writing on the unique circumstances here, they rely on theories based on research done in very different social contexts. These theories are not necessarily universally appropriate. South Africa is currently undergoing a period of transformation in higher education aimed at greater access and equity for black students and academics. The accompanying sense of frustration and disillusionment among students and academics underlines the need to reappraise all aspects of higher education. Much of the research on discourse acquisition and writing is undertaken in arts programmes: vocational fields - such as engineering education - tend to be neglected. If the envisaged growth in science and engineering education is to be realised, it is essential that research in discourse and writing be undertaken in engineering programmes. This study investigates discourse acquisition as experienced by students in a South African engineering faculty. The experiences of six final year technikon students are investigated to gain a better understanding of what it means to acquire the discourse of engineering. The phenomenological method used requires that the researcher suspends or brackets a priori theoretical notions or pre-conceptions so that that which the students experience, rather than what the researcher expects in terms of theory, can emerge. What emerges from the students' experiences is partially congruent with established discourse and writing theories. However, some of the student experiences of discourse acquisition differ in significant ways from what is described in mainstream writing and discourse acquisition theory. The differences in the manner in which these students experience their acquisition of engineering discourse leads to a new understanding of the phenomenon. The students do not experience the alienation or struggle described in mainstream theoretic accounts of discourse acquisition. Students' approaches to writing are affected by their awareness of their multiple identities and the different locations in which they learn. Their approaches to writing are significantly different in some respects from descriptions in mainstream theories in some respects. The description of their experiences gives a different understanding of what it means to acquire the discourse of engineering, and may contribute to the reappraisal of engineering education in a contemporary South African context.

This study examines the role of academic literacies and academic-writing practices at two diverse South African senior secondary schools and the implications that these practices have for academic-literacy teaching in Higher Education (HE). As student academic writing is central to teaching, learning and assessment in HE, learner academic-writing standards at schools will often impact on academic success in HE. This is a concern for HE as research from South African schooling contexts have found that students from secondary schools are seldom equipped to cope with the demands of HE writing practices. In addition, the introduction of a new curriculum (National Curriculum Statement – NCS) based on the principles of the South African constitution and informed by the Bill of Rights, impacted for the first time on senior secondary schools in 2006, when it was implemented in grade 10, and HE received its first cohort of matriculants with an NCS educational background in 2009. Therefore, this study specifically explores teachers' writing practices within an NCS writing-practice design for grades 11 and 12, and assesses its current implications for academic-writing practices in HE. Critical ethnography was selected as the primary methodology as it is concerned with multiple perspectives and explores local-practice contexts. Therefore, it provides a holistic understanding of the complexity of writing practices by examining the participants' writing-practice perceptions, observing their teaching practices and analysing their written responses or feedback to first and final drafts. The data/study sample consisted of three grades 11 and one grade 12 English Home Language and English First Additional Language teachers as well as selected learners from two secondary schools in the Port Elizabeth district. The data was collected by means of classroom observations, teacher interviews and learner samples of academic writing. Although this study focused on the teaching of academic writing by the four teachers, literacy understandings were also explored by describing what literacy practices subjectively meant to the four teachers by determining the meanings they collectively and individually gave to dominant literacy practices in academic writing, especially feedback practices in text production. A detailed examination of the new NCS requirements suggest that it offers an understanding of knowledge as a social construct, advocates a multiple literacies approach to teaching and learning, and allows for a process approach to cognitively-demanding writing which takes cognisance of the rhetorical, social and cultural dimensions of literacy. Collectively, the ASs in LO3 reflect a process approach to writing, from planning, drafting, feedback, revision to presentation of the final text. It also considers the specific rhetorical dimensions of purpose, audience, and context. Therefore, these NCS writing practices should benefit learners advancing to HE. This study argues that if teachers in secondary schools were to adhere more closely to the NCS's LO3 and its ASs implementation guidelines, learners would be better prepared to cope with HE academic-writing requirements. Instead, the study found that the teachers tended to reduce writing practices to the mastery of discrete sets of technical skills with a focus on surface features of language like spelling and grammar. In addition, the study found that when the teachers' perceptions of the NCS and their own classroom-writing practices were explored, they tended to resist a social-practice approach to academic writing, and, as a result, mostly adapted LO3 of the NCS rather than adopting it as intended by the policy-makers. Similar to other South African studies, this study concludes that teachers remain largely rooted in their autonomous teaching practices favouring traditional methods with which they are familiar over curricula policies which could emancipate learners toward levels of achievement which would better prepare them for both HE and the world of work. In other words, teachers in the sample tend to conserve their traditional methodologies which are predominantly informed by deficit views of learners‟ problems, selectively including new policy requirements which create the impression of compliance, rather than fundamentally altering their approaches pedagogically in the classroom and their academic-writing practices in particular.

This research considers the perceptions of an academic writing task held by a lecturer and first year students in the Philosophy department at the University of Zululand. The research takes as its starting point the following premises: that language is inextricably linked to learning; that each academic discipline has a particular discourse which students have to acquire in order to participate as accepted members of the academic community; that learning proceeds most effectively when teaching starts with what is known and moves into the unknown; and that learning takes place through experience and involvement, rather than transmission. The research suggests that many first year students bring with them to university an understanding of the nature of learning and of knowledge which makes it difficult for them to understand the implicit rules of the discourse of analytical philosophy. My investigation uncovered several of these rules in the study guide written for the course, but it appears that students were not able to discover them and, as a result, experienced great difficulty in fulfilling the assignment task in a way which promoted their understanding of the content. The research also shows that the lecturer's expectations of the task were far removed from the manner in which the students implemented the task. It is argued that the students appear to have reverted to their established writing strategies which consisted of simply repeating what the 'authority' has said. From this it is argued that unless rules of the discourse are made explicit to students, and students understand the content of the course, they will revert to copying and relying on other sources to tell them what to write. One way of making these rules explicit and encouraging students to integrate new knowledge with previous knowledge which they bring with them to university is through providing well-structured writing tasks, and where necessary, developing clearly defined assessment procedures. Writing is the principal means of mediation between the lecturer, who is trying to offer students entry into the discipline, and the student apprentice trying to make sense of the discipline and find his or her own 'voice' within that discipline.

No contexto atual, o estabelecimento de acordos entre universidades brasileiras e estrangeiras assume importante papel no conjunto de medidas que visam à internacionalização das universidades no Brasil. Uma das iniciativas se refere à realização, na área de Letras, do Programa de Licenciaturas Internacionais para a França (PLI/França CAPES), que permite que estudantes de Letras Francês/Português de universidades brasileiras realizem uma parte de seus estudos em universidades francesas, mais especificamente, na Universidade Paris-Sorbonne. A partir dos dados obtidos com estudantes brasileiros na universidade francesa no período 2013-2015, identificamos as dificuldades encontradas para a realização de leitura e produção escrita literária em língua francesa, mais especificamente na produção escrita do commentaire linéaire. A partir desta constatação, esta pesquisa se desenvolveu com base nas etapas metodológicas definidas na didática do ensino de língua francesa, Francês para Objetivo Universitário (FOU) (Mangiante, Parpette, 2004, 2011, 2012) segundo as quais é necessária a preparação linguística, cultural e metodológica de estudantes estrangeiros que planejam realizar estudos na França. Baseando-nos também no referencial teórico sobre a leitura presentes em Eco (1979), Albuquerque-Costa (2004), Giasson (2007), Kleiman (2004, 2008, 2013), Pietraróia (1997, 2001), Pietraróia; Albuquerque-Costa (2014), Jouve (1993, 2002, 2012) os objetivos desta pesquisa são 1) desenvolver a compreensão de textos literários; 2) identificar as estratégias de leitura de textos literários; 3) analisar as características e as etapas de produção do commentaire linéaire solicitado no meio acadêmico francês para Letras. Nosso corpus de pesquisa foi constituído a partir dos dados obtidos no Curso de Extensão Lecture en Français: como se preparar para o intercâmbio? ministrado para estudantes de Letras Francês/Português da Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho/Assis. Os resultados obtidos apontam para a necessidade de preparação linguística, metodológica e cultural voltada para o desenvolvimento de um processo de leitura e produção do commentaire linéaire por meio de estratégias do estudo e compreensão dos textos literários. A contribuição desta pesquisa situa-se no âmbito da formação de professores e pesquisas na área da didática das línguas estrangeiras, em Francês para Objetivo Universitário (FOU), formação que, como pudemos observar, é essencial para estudantes que se preparam para programas de intercâmbio com a França. / At the present context, the cooperation between Brazilian and French universities assumes an important role in the range of measures that aims Brazilian universities internationalization. One of the initiatives refers to the holding, in Language Teaching studies, of the Programa de Licenciaturas Internacionais (PLI/França CAPES), which allows Brazilian students to make part of their studies in French universities to obtain Undergraduate Certification in Paris-Sorbonne. From data collected with Brazilian students in French universities in the period of 2013-2015, we identified difficulties in reading and writing in French literature, especially in commentaire linéaire writing. From this observation, this research was developed based on methodological steps defined in French teaching, French for Academic Purposes (FOU) (Mangiante, Parpette, 2004, 2011, 2012), according to the linguistics, cultural and methodological preparation required to students that plan to study in France.. Based on reading activities from theoretical frame of Giasson (2007), Kleiman (2004, 2008, 2013), Pietraróia (1997, 2001), Pietraróia; Albuquerque-Costa (2014), Jouve (1993, 2002, 2012) and Eco (1979), our research goals: 1) identify Reading strategies in literature; 2) develop literature texts comprehension; 3) analyze commentaire linéaires characteristics and production steps. Our research corpus was composed of data obtained during the Course Lecture en Français: como se preparar para o intercâmbio? offered to UNESP/Assis French Letters students. The results point the needs of linguistics-methodological preparation to develop a reading and writing process by literature reading strategies. This research contribution stands in teaching education and in the foreign languages teaching studies, in French for Academic Purposes (FOU), essential to students preparing to exchange programs in France.

This thesis examines how composition studies have been, and continue to be, shaped by the cultural values of exclusion; this field is "continually magnif[ied] and reproduc[ed] in the complex social conditions connected with those values in fundamental ways much like educational systems in general."

With an increase of Swedish upper-secondary students’ motivation to enrol in university studies (Statistics Sweden, 2020a, 2020b), teachers must ensure that learners are adequately equipped to meet the expectations of higher education. However, in a national report, Skolinspektionen (2015) states many students fail to meet the standards of academic writing when undertaking the diploma project. To ensure learners become eligible for graduation and prepared for university studies, teachers need to be able to instruct pupils and to design effective scaffolding for diploma project writing. Therefore, the following study investigates the applicability of a genre-based model as atool for analysing relevant student-produced researchers papers written by EFL students, and to what extent the same genre-pedagogical analytical framework may be suitable as a tool for helping teachers to develop scaffolding for diploma projects written in English (and other languages). To address questions, a direct content analysis employing John Swales’ CARS model (1990) of rhetorical moves as a conceptual framework as a point of departure was performed on six EFL teacher-student research papers from the English and Education program for upper-secondary teachers of English at Malmö university. The analysis demonstrated that while several moves were executed in the pre-service teachers’ papers, some moves were absent. Additionally, several unconventional moves were identified, which can be attributed to the specific genres of the independent and degree projects. Hence, Swales’ CARS model is applicable for analysing student-produced research papers following the IMRAD structure. However, further investigation is encouraged into the genre-specific features of the student papers and the subsequent adaptation of the model to reflect the student-paper genre more closely. Consequently, to employ the model for designing scaffolding for diploma projects, teachers need to develop a critical understanding of moves employed within and across disciplines and teach them explicitly as part of pupils’ training and assessment in the writing process. Finally, further research targeting how teachers design and implement explicit genre-based writing scaffolding is called for.

Magister Educationis - MEd / Writing is an important skill throughout learners’ schooling trajectory because it is through writing that learners need to situate meaning and sense-making across the curriculum. Writing proficiency becomes even more important when learners access tertiary studies. Yet studies suggest that most students struggle with academic writing. Various authors suggest that writing has not been taught appropriately especially in secondary schooling contexts in South Africa and that writing becomes even more daunting for Second Language speakers of English when they reach tertiary education. There is abundant literature on students’ challenges with academic writing and ways to address academic writing challenges but the use of digital storytelling in relation to academic writing development is recent and distinctively underexplored in the literature.

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.