Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Academic writing skills are vitally important for South African learners in both high school and tertiary contexts. The importance of such writing skills is even more pronounced for English Second Language (ESL) speakers, as such learners often attend low-performing schools (that inculcate poor levels of academic literacy), and also face the challenge of writing in a non-native language. This study is an attempt to understand how a specially designed English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course can improve the academic writing of bilingual, economically disadvantaged high-school South African learners. The study analysed the effects of the EAP course on Grade 11 learners from two 'nofees' high schools located in Khayeltisha and Delft. Over a seven-week period Grade 11 learners from these schools attended the EAP course twice a week (after school hours on their school premises) and submitted a total of fourteen written assignments (seven rough drafts, and seven final drafts). These assignments required the learners to formulate essay-like responses to literary and philosophical texts. The learners shaped their responses by making reference to structured classroom discussions (led by the EAP course instructor), as well as standardised notes and assignment instructions. The conceptual frameworks that guided this study were mapped using a variety of sources and materials. Whilst Hyland's (2005, 2006) influential writings on EAP helped the researcher situate the study's academic writing skill's course within an EAP paradigm, recent theoretical and empirical advancements in cognitive science (in particular by Tooby & Cosmides 1992; Gallistel 2000; Wagner &Wagner 2003) helped to justify the specifically 'modular' approach to academic writing skills that the course favoured. Finally, testimonies about the function of creative fiction (see Pessoa 2010; Kafka 2013; Barnes 2012; Pinker 2011) played an important part in shaping the EAP course's approach to text-orientated academic writing skills. Importantly, this study also aimed to describe and analyse various factors that threatened the implementation of the academic writing skills course. In relation to attrition – a phenomenon which clearly presented the single greatest threat to the intervention – Bandura's theoretical writings on the structure of agency (2006, 2005, 2004, 2001, 1998, 1997, 1994) provided a rich source of justification for many of the conclusions that the study derived about the underlying factors that drove the high dropout rate. Another key aim of this study was to transmit writing skills that would boost levels of learner preparedness for matric and first-year university. To establish a link between the course and the writing requirements of certain matric and university subjects, the researcher compared the contents of the writing skills course to the contents of these subjects. This comparative analysis relied heavily on matric and first-year university source material (i.e. exam papers, memorandums, marking rubrics, departmental handouts, etc.). In terms of its findings, the study discovered many striking parallels between the Grade 11 learners at Khayelitsha and Delft. Firstly, in both experimental groups, a preintervention writing task revealed that – prior to the EAP course's inception – the overwhelming majority of the learners were not in firm possession of virtually any of the writings skills the EAP course aimed to transmit. Secondly, in both groups, it was found that the EAP course significantly improved the learners' academic writing skills. Although this improvement was not especially visible in the learners' grade-based results for the EAP course (due, mainly, to absenteeism and resulting missed assignments), a thorough qualitative analysis of the learners' preintervention, early and late EAP assignments demonstrated that – by the end of the course – most of the learners had gained fairly high degrees of proficiency in a range of critically important academic writing skills. Thirdly, qualitative data – derived from observations and interviews – established that the high rates of attrition and absenteeism that plagued both experimental groups was chiefly due to a single cause: weak levels of agency. On the basis of this study's findings, a number of recommendations can be put forward. Firstly, the many parallels between the two experimental groups suggest that the EAP course designed by this study could achieve comparable results in other South African township schools. Secondly, due to the difficulties that this study encountered in relation to high absenteeism and attrition rates, it is recommended that future implementations of the EAP course adopt a number of measures to improve learners' perceptions of their self-efficacy. Finally, it is recommended that future versions of the EAP course could include a 'matric study skills module'. / Sasakawa Foundation

Cette thèse s’inscrit dans le domaine des sciences du langage et se précise dans l’intersection des littéracies universitaires, de la didactique des langues et de la formation d’enseignants. La recherche porte sur la didactique de l’écriture dans les cursus de formation à l’enseignement de langues et a été menée en deux étapes, adoptant une double approche ethnographique et de recherche-action. D’abord, le travail de recherche montre que l’élaboration de dispositifs de formation en didactique de l’écriture doit tenir compte des histoires personnelles et de l’interprétation que font les participants des objets et des pratiques. En effet, ces phénomènes déterminent des systèmes d’idées qui, à leur tour, engendrent les conditions favorables ou non à la réalisation des actions didactiques. De là, l’importance d’explorer le rapport à l’écriture des acteurs de l’enseignement-apprentissage et d’interroger les pratiques d’enseignement mises en place dans les cours. Cette étude soutient aussi que pour faire évoluer la didactique de l’écriture, il est indispensable de promouvoir un travail d’équipe. La démarche de recherche-action a réussi à sensibiliser les professeurs au besoin de transformations dans la didactique de l’écriture au sein de la licence choisie comme terrain des études. Nous espérons que cette recherche nous permettra, dans l’immédiat, de mettre en place des projets et des recherches-actions poussées portant sur les littéracies universitaires. / This research is framed within the field of language studies at it touches upon three interrelated sub areas, namely, academic writing, language teaching and foreign language teacher education. The object of study is the teaching of academic writing to foreign language teaching trainees. The study was developed in two methodological stages: An ethnographic stage and an action-research one. In the first stage, it is stated that proposals for the teaching of academic writing must be preceded by the recognition of participants’ (teachers and students) relationship to writing and their concurrent interpretations of writing and its practices. This set of phenomena constitutes systems of beliefs that generate conditions that might be favorable or unfavorable for the implementation of pedagogical actions. Hence the importance of exploring participants’ relationship to writing and using this knowledge to examine existing teaching practices. In the second stage, it is argued that teamwork is essential in order to transform the teaching of writing in university education. A first action research cycle managed to raise teachers' awareness on the centrality of teamwork on such endeavor and to engage them on improving the teaching of academic writing. It is expected that this research will allow us, in the short-term, to spring new action-research cycle that influence the development of academic writing skills in college.

This study is a deliberation on students who advance from high school to a higher education institution, without demonstrating the attributes required on admission. They are granted formal access, despite being underprepared for tertiary studies. One of the qualities that they noticible lack is academic literacy. In the course of this investigation, academics had to relate what their perceptions were of the academic literacy of their students at higher education level. Initially, being literate meant the ability to read and write, but the term literacy has assumed a more varied form. The term multi-literacies is employed now, as there are several forms of literacy. These include, Information Technology, Technology, pictorial and numerical literacies, to name a few. Academic literacy constitutes more than one literacy, namely, operational or functional literacy, cultural literacy and critical literacy. These literacies are elaborated on and the role of language proficiency, together with the inter-relatedness between students' linguistic competence and their cognitive ability are discussed in depth. Alternatives are examined to assess how this problem of the lack of academic literacy can be circumvented and what mechanisms can be put in place in order that students can be assisted in their pursuit of academic literacy.

Esta dissertação tem como objetivo analisar o desenvolvimento das capacidades de linguagem necessárias para a produção dos gêneros résumé e note de lecture por meio de sequências didáticas elaboradas para um curso de escrita acadêmica. Buscamos, ainda, verificar se os alunos desenvolvem capacidades de linguagem no trabalho com o gênero résumé que podem transferir para a produção do gênero note de lecture. Finalmente, visamos a investigar se há influência, nas produções dos alunos, da atuação do professor na aplicação das sequências didáticas. Propomo-nos, assim, a contribuir com os estudos realizados sobre o ensino de gêneros textuais e com os estudos realizados sobre o desenvolvimento da escrita acadêmica em língua francesa. Esta pesquisa fundamenta-se no Interacionismo Sociodiscursivo (ISD) tal como desenvolvido por Bronckart (1999, 2006, 2008) e por outros pesquisadores que fazem parte do mesmo quadro teórico (SCHNEUWLY e DOLZ, 2004; MACHADO, 2009) que se concentram na questão dos gêneros textuais no ensino-aprendizagem de línguas. Visando a alcançar nossos objetivos, elaboramos os modelos didáticos dos gêneros résumé e note de lecture, a partir da análise de 20 textos de cada gênero, e duas sequências didáticas para ensiná-los em um curso de escrita acadêmica intitulado Gêneros textuais acadêmicos: produção de textos orais e escritos em francês para participação no contexto universitário. As produções iniciais e finais de cada gênero, realizadas pelos alunos participantes do curso, foram analisadas segundo o modelo de análise de textos do Interacionismo Sociodiscursivo (BRONCKART, 1999) e através de uma comparação com seus respectivos modelos didáticos. Com nossas análises, observamos que ao trabalhar com os gêneros résumé e note de lecture em sala de aula, os alunos puderam desenvolver capacidades de linguagem necessárias para a produção desses gêneros e, além disso, verificamos que capacidades desenvolvidas através da sequência didática do résumé podem ser transferidas para a produção da note de lecture. Dessa forma, nossa pesquisa traz contribuições para os estudos sobre gêneros desenvolvidos no grupo ALTER-AGE-CNPq, para os estudos que vêm sendo realizados sobre a escrita acadêmica e para as pesquisas que têm sido desenvolvidas no âmbito do Laboratório de Letramento Acadêmico da FFLCH-USP. / This dissertations goal is to analyse the development of language capacities that are necessary to write the genres résumé and note de lecture through didactic sequences elaborated for a course of academic writing. We also intend to verify if the students develop language capacities when working with the genre résumé which could be transferred to the genre note de lecture. Lastly, we aim at investigating if the teachers application of didactic sequences influences the students written productions. We intend therefore to contribute with the research on genre teaching and on the development of academic writing in French. This research is based on the Socio-Discursive Interactionism (SDI) as developed by Bronckart (1999, 2006, 2008) and by other researchers from the same theoretical framework (SCHNEUWLY; DOLZ, 2004; MACHADO, 2009) whose focus is the study of textual genres in the teaching and learning of languages. In order to achieve our goals, we elaborated the didactic models of the genres résumé and note de lecture based on 20 texts of each genre and two didactic sequences for the sake of teaching them in a course of academic writing entitled Academic textual genres: oral and written texts in French in an academic context. The first and last written productions of each genre done by the students enrolled in the course were analysed according to the model of textual analysis proposed by the Socio-Discursive Interactionism (BRONCKART, 1999) and compared to their didactic models. We observed that the students could develop the language capacities that are necessary to write the genres résumé and note de lecture when working with these genres in the classroom. Moreover, we verified that the language capacities developed through the didactic sequence of the résumé could be transferred to the note de lecture. Consequently, our research brings contributions to the studies about genres developed by the group ALTER-AGE-CNPq to the studies about academic writing and to the studies that have been held under the Academic Literacy Laboratory at FFLCH-USP.

Although academic writing skills are central in the core content of the Swedish nationalcurriculum for English, Swedish upper-secondary school pupils struggle withcomposing academic texts. Both international and national research have formulatedseveral models for effectively constructing ESL (English as a second language)academic writing modules. However, these models in the school are often notimplemented or misinterpreted in the Swedish school. Therefore, to find a best practiceexample that can be implemented in the English upper-secondary classroom, this studyinvestigates the research-based design of a beginner ESL academic writing course atMalmö University with focus on constructive alignment and instructor feedback. Thedata included three data sets: i) lectures and other course materials, ii) ten studentpapers across three drafts, 30 draft submissions in total, and iii) instructor feedback onthe first two drafts. All data was subjected to different types of content analysis. Afeedback classification system synthesized from previous research was specificallydeveloped for the data analysis of instructor feedback. The main findings were that theacademic writing course investigated was in-fact constructively aligned providing thestudents with qualitative academic writing instruction; therefore, it may arguably serveas a model for academic writing interventions also in the school. Furthermore, themulti-dimensional feedback classification system developed for this study may guideeducators’ reflection over their feedback practices.

Magister Educationis - MEd / Literacy development in South African higher education is increasingly challenged by several issues in dialogue and language of tuition. Despite the widening of access to South African universities, research shows that a large majority of entry-level university students are still failing in their chosen programme of studies. Almost all universities in the democratic South Africa incorporate academic development programs in first-year modules as an awareness raising attempt to scaffold novice students into the vocabulary of their various disciplines. However, these development programs sometimes fail to address the language needs of some of the students who have had more than seven years of schooling in their first languages (IsiXhosa and Afrikaans). My study seeks to explore how additional language IsiXhosa and Afrikaans students understand and construct written knowledge in one literacy development course using English medium of instruction. I further explore lecturers’ and tutors’ perspectives of the demand of sounding a scholarly voice in academic writing by entry-level students in their new roles as scholars in the University of the Western Cape (UWC). Literature indicated gaps when it comes to students’ and lectures’ perceptions on the construction of voice in academic writing in a language that the students are not comfortable in. My choice to use an interpretive frame made my study a qualitative one. I used a case study approach in which qualitative data was collected from one-on-one in-depth interviews with fourteen participants, documents analysis and field notes collected during interview process. A constructivist view of knowledge further guided my study to support the view of knowledge being socially constructed in the process of enquiry. My findings were categorised according to the research questions and themes that emerged from my analysis. The four themes from my presentation guided the findings. The findings of this study indicated that, IsiXhosa and Afrikaans students in the study used their first languages as resource to understand, formal English in essay of assignments. The lecturers’ perspectives of voice showed differences in the students’ perceptions who were mostly overwhelmed with the proactive life of academia and the language they are required to write in. In this context, the lectures’ views of competence mismatched with students’ views who felt their views were stranded in the language of discomfort (English). / 2021-04-30

Within postgraduate studies, learning is assessed through the examination of modules making up a taught programme and the writing of a dissertation. However, research, nationally and internationally, has shown that although students are generally able to complete the modules making up a postgraduate programme successfully, often difficulty arises in the writing of the dissertation which begins with the conceptualising and writing of the research proposal. It seems that students are considered poorly equipped for postgraduate study, which puts their academic success and completion of their studies in jeopardy, particularly those for whom English is not a first language. Since 1994 with wider access to higher education, a concern has arisen about National figures for postgraduate throughput rates, which on average, are quite low. This current research originated with concern about the unpreparedness of some postgraduate students in a specific master‟s programme in a Faculty of Education at a South African university and about offering them the foundations for the development of their academic research writing, an aspect so vital to achieve success at this level. It seems that programmes which incorporate academic writing are put into place in some honours programmes (see Henning, Gravett & van Rensburg, 2005; Thomson, 2008 for South African programmes) but once the student progresses to master‟s or doctoral level, this does not seem to be the case. The main aim of this study was to obtain insight and understanding of the demands of academic writing at postgraduate level and to develop an effective intervention to assist in the development of proficient academic research writing. Thus, the development of an academic research writing intervention deemed most appropriate for postgraduates in education was designed and developed to assist students during the first stages of their research, that of conceptualising, writing and successfully defending the research proposal. The premise is that during this first year of study, acquiring and developing academic literacies, in order to become competent academic writers would provide the scaffolding1 for the move into the second phase of the research process, that of academic research writing. Design Research was considered most appropriate for this research as it is interventionist, iterative, process-focused, utility-oriented and theory-driven (Van den Akker, Gravemeijer, McKinney & Nieveen, 2006, p.5) and in addition, requires the involvement of practitioners (Plomp, 2013, p. 20). The sample for this study was drawn from a specific master‟s programme in education and consisted of students, the supervision team and the academic research writing practitioner. A mixed methods approach was used where data comprised quantitative data (questionnaire, evaluations and assessments) and qualitative data (personal writing, evaluative writing, interviews and assessments). Findings emerging from the context of this particular master‟s programme point to a set of design principles that inform the development of a model for academic research writing which appears promising for supporting the postgraduate student effectively. It is hoped that the findings emerging from the research will fill a gap in the literature and add to the body of knowledge on postgraduate academic research writing. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / lk2014 / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / PhD / Unrestricted

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The study aims to investigate academic writing at the University of Namibia and intends to explore whether a critical, meaningful and experiential pedagogy in EAP that enhances voice and agency in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) can be engendered in the Namibian EAP classroom. Moreover, it aims to investigate the experiences and perceptions of first year EAP students regarding the current EAP pedagogy at the University of Namibia. The study aspires to generate an understanding of the components students find difficult when they engage in academic essay writing. It provides a holistic and profound understanding of what critical, meaningful and experiential pedagogy is and wish to propose the process-genre writing approach as tool to a critical, meaningful and experiential pedagogy to teaching academic writing. The study draws it theoretical underpinning from critical pedagogy as postulated by Freire (1973) and Canagarajah (1999). This research supports the premise that the English language classroom is a cultural space where various agendas are negotiated and contested and explores the complexity of language pedagogy in the English classroom (Canagarajah, 1999). Moreover, this study is based on the premise that pedagogies are not received in their own terms but are rather appropriated on different levels in terms of the needs, interests and values of the local communities (Canagarajah, 1999, p.121-2). As research design, the study adopts an exploratory design using both qualitative and quantitative data. Besides, the study uses SPSS analysis and written error analysis methodologies. While the former provides an understanding of EAP students’ perceptions and experiences regarding the current EAP pedagogy at the University of Namibia, the latter examines the components that EAP students find difficult when they engage in academic essay writing. As instruments, the study uses a semi-structured questionnaire and academic essay administered to 200 EAP first year student- participants. The findings indicate that the current EAP pedagogy at the University of Namibia does not promote experiential, meaningful and critical learning nor does it enhance voice and agency in the EAP classroom, thus a critical, meaningful and experiential EAP pedagogy that enhances voice and agency can be engendered in the Namibian EAP classroom. The findings also indicate that EAP students find the use of APA referencing skills and the use of discourse markers the most difficult when they engage in academic essay writing. Furthermore, the literature that I reviewed for this study critically exposed how practices in EAP and institutional policies stifle voice and agency in the EAP classroom. The entire process of this study has generated some insights that can advance our understanding of a critical, meaningful and experiential pedagogy in EAP and academic writing. These insights are: (1) A need to enhance EAP educator’s critical awareness, (2) We must minimize students’ text-appropriation, (3)A need to re-conceptualize and decriminalize the concept of plagiarism in EAP, (4) A new approach to teaching APA referencing in EAP academic writing, (5) A need to renegotiate voice and agency in academic writing, (6) Writing is a process not an event, (7) We need to move towards an appropriate critical, meaningful and experiential pedagogy in EAP. The study proposes the process-genre academic writing approach as a pedagogy towards a critical, meaningful and experiential EAP pedagogy in teaching academic writing. All in all, the study upholds the premise that a critical, meaningful and experiential EAP pedagogy that enhances voice and agency can be engendered in the Namibian EAP classroom.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate several potential indicators of successful academic writing and their connection to assignment grades as a possible path toward better teaching of academic writing at the upper secondary level in Sweden. These indicators are referencing (REF), academic vocabulary (AV), and reporting verbs (RV). Our research questions were to examine to what extent the final grades on independent research synthesis papers at Malmö University relate to the use of these three indicators. To that end, we quantitatively assessed the indicators’ relationship to grades (U/G/VG) on 28 4th-year teaching students’ independent research synthesis papers. We examined REF from two perspectives: quality of sources and source integration. AV was assessed by examining the percentage of words in student texts that appeared in the Academic Vocabulary List (AVL). We assessed RV as an indicator by calculating the frequency of RVs in student texts and which types of RVs they favored, as measured by the ARGUE/SHOW/FIND/THINK framework of RV usage. We found very small positive connections between AV percentage, RV frequency, and grades, but small negative connections between measures of reference quality and grades, and found that there were no meaningful differences in RV usage between the three different groups. However, we found that measures of source integration related strongly to the grades on the papers. Numerous factors could explain our findings, notably the small sample size, our unique RV master list, and the rigorous supervision process of these papers at Malmö University. To establish any conclusive results, further research is required.

Thesis (M. A. (English Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2020 / This study evaluated the application of the ‘process approach’ to writing in secondary schools in Limpopo Province; The initial plan was to involve two rural and two urban schools. However, the urban schools did not cooperate as initially promised when preparations were made. It is for this reason that the sample was made up of two rural and two peri-urban schools. The study investigated English writing as a basic language skill that second language learners needed to acquire, in a process writing context. Related literature was reviewed to develop knowledge in the area of writing as a process. An exploratory research design was employed and a qualitative approach was followed to mainly collect in-depth data in a Grade 12 English language classroom. The Grade 12 learners and their teachers were interviewed and observed in their writing classrooms. The process that learners followed when engaged in writing an assigned essay was scrutinized in line with what is required by Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) in order to confirm the teachers’ responses and the observations made during writing lessons. Thematic analysis was used for the data emanating from interview responses, an observation checklist and the learners’ essay marking rubric. The study revealed that the method of teaching writing and the learners’ writings resembled the process approach. This implies that teachers and learners implement process writing even though the teachers do so to a varying degree due to overcrowded classrooms and a lack of resources experienced more in rural schools than in the peri-urban ones