Paraphrasing is taught to postsecondary students to help them avoid plagiarism in their academic essays, but it can be challenging for native speakers (L1) as well as nonnative speakers (L2) of English. To examine these challenges I analyzed 35 paraphrases written by 4 English-Canadian students and 5 Japanese international students at an English-medium community college in Ontario. I evaluated paraphrase quality through a modified replication of Keck’s (2006) analytic method, and I analyzed paraphrase appropriateness through a set of criteria I developed and verified with a second rater. I then analyzed 6 concurrent and post-task reports of 3 L1 and 3 L2 students, who used a variety of paraphrasing strategies. All participants wrote relatively inappropriate paraphrases which did not always correspond with perceived appropriateness. L1 students tended to copy directly from the original text excerpts more often than the L2 students did. Implications for teaching and further research are discussed.

<p>This study explores second and third year students' and teachers‟ views on factors that hinder or facilitate the mastery of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) in the Science and Engineering Technology Higher Institutions of learning in Rwanda (KIST) and seeks to establish the extent to which the current programme meets the needs of the students. This is done by highlighting a whole range of teacher and student perspectives on the EAP programme. Two key requirements invite students to write their academic assignments in the form of research proposals and research project reports. In order to help them perform well in their field subjects, KIST introduced a department of English with a General English Programme under the umbrella of the then School of Language Studies (SORAS) in 1997. The department‟s first assigned mission was to teach English to students in all departments in a bid to support and encourage them to cope with their field specific courses which are taught in English. Rwanda‟s National Council for Higher Education (2007), on language teaching and learning, states that the trio, that is Kinyarwanda (the Mother Tongue and national language) and English and French (as foreign languages), should be taught at primary, secondary and higher education levels in order to reconcile the divide between Rwandan returnees (who had lived abroad for many decades) and locals. It is in this context that KIST, one of the institutions of higher learning, adopted the bilingual policy to cater to students‟ needs to learn both French and English as media of academic communication. However, after Rwanda‟s integration into the East African Community and the Commonwealth, English has been officially adopted as the medium of instruction in all schools and higher institutions of education. That is why there was a sudden language shift in 2006 from French to English as a medium of instruction at KIST. French and Kinyarwanda are now merely taught as subjects. The motive behind the move was to cater for Rwanda‟s needs to fully participate in the economic community of East African Community in general and in the global economy in particular. The move drastically affected students‟ ability to read and write English in their respective disciplines. The move also affected lecturers of other speciality areas. To avert the obvious challenges emanating from this sudden shift in language policy, the Institute introduced the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programmes under the then KIST School of Language Studies (SOLAS) and the KIST Language Centre. However, appropriate instructional materials for such courses have not been easily available. Given this situation, English teachers have had to create their own materials rather than the existing generalised and pre-packaged language teaching materials. As a result, students‟ specific needs for induction into a scientific writing community at tertiary level have rarely been met. It is against this background that the study seeks to investigate factors that are facilitating and the mastery of EAP. The study operates on post-colonial/post-structuralist theoretical perspectives. These were founded on the analytical framework that is guided by thematic and/or conceptual underpinnings of language policy in the post-colonial Africa. Thus, English Language Teaching (ELT), developed into English as a second and additional language that is multi-semiotic and multi-modality in EAP and science genres, focusing mostly on its academic literacy, identity, ideology, power and agency, as well as its investment in language teaching and learning and the scientific community practice. Using a combination of ethnographic principles/practices like participants‟ observations, oneto- one interviews, focus group discussions and documentary review in data collection, the study utilises thematic/conceptual analysis to draw its conclusions. Drawing from the above conceptual perspectives, therefore, as well as from the methodological approach, this thesis emphasises the fact that the inability of students to successfully master EAP is caused by various factors, including the choice of English language learning materials. Contradictory approaches to language learning and to academic literacy practices create further challenges to the Rwandan students‟ advancement in English mastery. These same practices also serve to limit the students‟ ability to learn this language and complicate their access to local and global cultural exposure that is necessary for their socio-economic development of Rwanda. The study also reveals lack of appropriate discursive competence and multi-semiotic repertoires as some of the major factors inhibiting students‟ academic progress. This is partly explained by the nature of the English language learning and teaching materials that is in use which neither provides general nor disciplinary specific academic and learning opportunities in English. Similarly, a range of structural and professional constraints on &bdquo / agency‟ exists for teachers of English in Rwanda as an additional language to the students, including lack of induction into scientific discourses or the EAP community of language practice. The overall lack of power and agency by teachers also contributes to constraints and constrictions in English language learning practices for these students in Rwanda. The study, however, observes that this situation is not only peculiar to KIST, as it is also common in almost all tertiary institutions in Rwanda. Specific recommendations are made in the study to improve the quality of English language learning and teaching in general and EAP in particular at KIST as an institution of higher learning, through the establishment of a clearer language policy and training opportunities for staff to update and develop required language skills in EAP, especially with regards to writing skills in sciences and engineering. The government of Rwanda, under the umbrella of Rwanda Education Board (REB) and the contribution of English language experts at the Institute, should provide a clearer direction of the language policy and curriculum that addresses Rwandan students‟ specific needs. KIST, as an institution of higher learning, should value and facilitate the teaching and learning of English in general and the teaching of EAP in particular, bearing in mind its assigned mission. The management of the Institute should encourage interaction between EAP and subject area lecturers to discuss and agree upon, text types to be used by EAP lecturers in teaching. KIST management should also provide room for regular interactions with English lecturers to listen to their views and offer them further language training opportunities in order to update and develop the required skills in EAP, especially with regards to writing skills in science and engineering.</p>

Although many aspects of English as a second language (ESL) academic writing instruction have been well researched, Leki, Cumming, and Silva (2008) note that, "There have been surprisingly few research-based descriptions of L2 writing classroom instruction" (p. 80). Although research related to the use of critical and feminist pedagogy in ESL is increasing, Kumaradivelu (2006) notices that it is still not clear how the critical awakening “…has actually changed the practice of everyday teaching and teacher preparation” (p. 76). The purpose of this study was to provide an individual response to the gaps identified by both sets of authors by investigating how critical and feminist theories could be utilized to develop an orientation to interactions in the everyday practices of an ESL academic writing classroom. In order to achieve this purpose, an autoethnographic study of an eight-week ESL academic writing course in an Intensive English Program (IEP) was conducted. The participants in this study included the teacher-researcher and seven learners. The data collected included the following: lesson plans, instructional materials, teacher field notes, teacher reflexive journal, transcripts of everyday class interactions, transcripts of multiple interviews with learners, learner written reflections, and learners’ written assignments for the course. Analysis of findings revealed that the critical and feminist theories selected for the course were realized even though there were some internal and external obstacles. Learners experienced positive shifts in their feelings about the topic of academic writing and their own abilities as academic writers. Learners’ written texts also reflected positive shifts with respect to the teacher’s goals for learners. These findings suggest that critical and feminist theories can be enacted in everyday classrooms and can be helpful with regard to improving teachers’ and learners’ experiences of everyday ESL academic writing classrooms.

This study mainly aimed at investigating the academic writing needs and writing self-efficacy beliefs of graduate students studying at an English-medium university, Ankara. Furthermore, such areas that have a crucial role in determining writing needs as the frequency of writing tasks, usefulness of written sources, perceived importance of academic writing, and role of Turkish while writing were explored. In this study, quantitative data via &ldquo / Academic Writing Needs Assessment Survey for Graduate Students&rdquo / were collected from 213 graduate students enrolled at Graduate School of Social Sciences. Descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, and multiple regression analyses were employed to analyze the data. The results of descriptive statistics indicated that the graduate students need a wider vocabulary repertoire in order to cope with the challenges of academic writing and they are mostly assigned longer research papers. In addition, using journal articles published in the area of specialization during writing was the most common method and more than half of the graduate students stated that when stuck with finding the right word, they first look for a Turkish word first. The exploratory factor analysis produced two factors and the regression analyses were carried out. The results yielded that the predictors accounted for 24% of the variance in productivity-related academic writing needs, and 22% of the variance in accuracy-related academic writing needs. For the productivity-related academic writing needs, writing self-efficacy and academic status made a significant contribution and for the accuracy-related academic writing needs, writing self-efficacy and English proficiency exam score were significant.

This study investigates the types, frequencies and functions of hedges and boosters employed in L1 and L2 argumentative paragraphs written by Turkish learners of English with pre-intermediate level of proficiency. It aims to uncover whether or not Turkish learners of English writing in L1 and L2 display any transfer in their employment of hedges and boosters. The extent to which the academic writing teaching materials result in any measurable change in the employment of hedges and boosters is also pursued. To this end, the data that is comprised of 104 (52 Turkish and 52 English) argumentative paragraphs written as a response to a TOEFL essay prompt are collected. The analysis of the data is done manually and each paragraph is coded and formatted in CLAN CHILDES. Later, PASW is used to run the descriptive statistics and calculate the frequency and percentages of hedges and boosters. The results show that the types, frequencies, and meanings of hedges and boosters are culture and language-specific and they are topic and genre dependent. Research v findings also reveal that the participants in this study often express appropriate degree of certainty and pragmatic vagueness while writing in L1 and L2. However, there are some cases in which the evidence of rhetorical transfer are observed with respect to functions of certain hedges. The findings further indicate that there is a parallelism between the teaching materials used in academic writing classes and the types, frequencies and functions of hedges and boosters produced in L2 paragraphs.

Thesis (M.A.)--Indiana University, 2009. / Title from screen (viewed on February 1, 2010). Department of English, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Advisor(s): Ulla Connor, Thomas Upton, Aye Nu Duerksen. Includes vitae. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 146-152).

This study aims to develop a method for more clearly understanding the topics that applicants choose when writing their college or university application essay. As such, the purpose of this dissertation is two-fold. First, to analyze the unstudied volume of advice and guidance available to applicants on the World Wide Web, this study will analyze the guidance that is available to motivate and guide applicants as they embark on writing their essay. Second, this study examines the college application essay and will create a categorization of the application essay topics on which a select group of applicants chose to write. The purpose is not to evaluate the applicant or their demographics, nor is it to suggest “best practices” for college applicants to follow when writing their essays. Furthermore, as an examination of popular media and of narrative expression, this analysis does not attempt to reveal a causal link between media and the resulting narratives. Instead, this inductive analysis develops a baseline theory that begins a discussion of the application essay and the multitude of information that might guide its creation. The motivation for this study is grounded in the following: 1) many colleges and universities employ selective practices in their admissions process and they consider the application essay to be a helpful tool in selecting from among otherwise academically eligible students; 2) applicants consider the essay to be one of the most challenging and unfamiliar aspects of the application; and 3) a multi-million-dollar industry has developed to assist students with college and university applications. This research supports prior studies that indicate that the writing of college application essays (or personal statements) is in fact as Paley (1996) suggests an exercise in a rhetorical conundrum. Applicants emerge from the angst and confusion of how to approach and what to write about in their college application essay to produce a work that reveals personal characteristics that they think are important to college admissions officers and that they hope, will ultimately, result in admission to their institution of choice. / text

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

English Language Teaching (ELT) can be considered an ideological enterprise especially at a time when the spread of English and the ELT profession are related to post-colonial and capitalist interests (Phillipson, 1992, 1997, 2000, 2006; Pennycook, 1994, 1997a; Canagarajah,1999b). In this context, nonnative English-speaking teachers (NNESTs) face particular challenges related to the prevailing ideologies of English, which has consequences in terms of roles, status, power, and access. This dissertation is a critical discourse analysis of the theses written by twenty in-service teachers of English as a Foreign Language in Colombia on completion of a one-year graduate program, during which they were acquainted with theories, approaches, and methodologies in the field of ELT. The objective is, through a close analysis of the language feature of the texts, 1) to identify ideologies of English, teaching and learning, and 2) to describe the identities the teachers construe for themselves in their writing. The analysis is text-driven and it uses categories from different functional approaches. The analysis of the texts shows that the writers engage in ideological discourses regarding the English language, the social and economic consequences of knowing English, and the cultural aims of foreign language teaching. Their discourses convey conceptions of teaching, learning and research that are influenced by acritical interpretations of the literature available to them. This does not seem to contribute to solving their practical problems and is likely to contribute to the maintenance of the students' established roles in their communities. The teacher-authors are faced with the challenge of dealing with the contradicting interests of their own ideals of education, the constraints of the conventions of the discourse community they are trying to enter, the institutional pressures to be updated with newer trends in applied linguistics and obtain visible results, and the needs of the country to find a place in the globalized economy. The study points to the need to encourage more critical interpretations and applications of the theories and approaches emanating from the traditional academic centers which in turn should also take interest in examining the pattern of the unilateral flow of knowledge and its consequences.

<p>The purpose of this study was to investigate plagiarism among undergraduate students at a higher education institution in South Africa. There is evidence from previous studies that plagiarism is increasing world wide among higher education students. The emergence of the Internet has made plagiarizing worse as students can easily copy and paste information from the World Wide Web. This study investigated the occurrence, causes and trends of plagiarism among students in the Faculty of Applied Science at a higher education institution. It also examines student awareness of institutional policies and guidelines regarding plagiarism.</p>