published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

<p>This study has been prompted by the negative remarks that lecturers make concerning the academic performance of students and the number of years they spend at the Eastern Cape Technikon before completing their diplomas. The aim of this study was to identify the kinds of strategies that English Second Language (ESL) students use to cope with English language writing tasks.</p> <p><br /> Academic writing requires a conscious effort and much practice in composing, developing, and analyzing ideas. Black students at tertiary institutions in South Africa face additional difficulty, especially when they have to deal with writing in English which is an unfamiliar language to them. This presents them with social and cognitive challenges related to second language acquisition. Since the black students do not often consider the social contexts in which L2 academic writing takes place, models of L1 writing instruction and research on composing processes are often found wanting in their L2 writing pedagogy. In this study, I argue that language proficiency and competence is the cornerstone of the ability to write in the L2 in a fundamental way. L2 writing instructors should take into account both strategy development and language skill development when working with black students. This is critical in South Africa considering the apartheid legacy and the deprived social conditions under which black students often live and acquire their education. Therefore, using critical discourse analysis and aspects of systemic functional linguistics, this study explores errors in written cohesion and coherence in relation to L2 writing strategies used by black students at the Eastern Cape Technikon. The study focuses on errors in the form of cohesive devices of referring expressions using topic development used by students. The aim was to explore the strategies used by black students to write coherent academic texts. Further, the study intends to scrutinize the grammatical devices of reference, through analyzing the forms of cohesive devices and theme development. A focus on the writing process as a pedagogical tool enables me to explore the relationship between the quality of students‟ academic writing and coping strategies used, and come up with a model of L2 writing (coping) strategies for academic writing at the Eastern Cape Technikon. I investigate the L2 writing process adopted by competent and non-competent black students in the process of producing coherent academic texts by comparing strategies that the two groups of students adopt.</p>

Uses Edward Corbett's theory of style to help define Chopin's style and expose her rhetorical strategies (sentence and paragraph length, diction, tropes, scheme, etc.) in the short story "The Story of an Hour ." Examines the controversy over using literature to teach composition and provides an analysis of the reasons for and against using literature in composition classes. Finally, defends the use of literature in writing classrooms.

Contempory writing theories do not explain many of the writing behaviors exhibited by basic writers in the classroom. Many theorists (Emig, Fitzgerald, Rose, and Perl) have identified similar and distinct writing behaviors which have also been identified by instructors of basic writers. This study focuses on two college-level basic writing students by using the results of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and identified writing behaviors of theorists; these case studies shed light on writing processes in relationship to personality. The results suggest a correlation between writing behaviors and personality types which affects the writing and the teaching of the writing processes. / Department of English

In recent years, many composition teachers and theorists have turned to the process approach to writing in an attempt to better understand both the act of writing and the writers themselves. Even though various theorists have made headway in the analysis of students' writing processes, further research is needed to explore whether college basic writers are aware of their own writing processes and whether this awareness can lead to discovery of the self as a writer and to diminished writing anxiety.One way for students to become aware of their composing processes is through process journals, in which they write about their actions in creating and revising their papers. Using process journals as an independent variable, this project studied differences among three groups of basic writers at Ball State University: those who wrote process journals frequently, infrequently, and not at all. I evaluated effects of process journals on self-reported awareness of process, as measured by a Writing Skills Questionnaire, and on writing apprehension, as measured by the Writing Apprehension Test (WAT). To measure changes among groups over two semesters, I analyzed students' questionnaire responses using mean scores and two Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) tests.Results showed that process journals did have a significant impact on students' attitudes about themselves as writers and on their awareness and control of writing processes. This study did not find, however, that process journals significantly decreased students' writing apprehension scores. In addition, it did not find Ball State University's basic writing students to be highly apprehensive writers. Although further research is needed to verify these results and expand the scope of research in process journals, the initial findings here suggest that process journals can be an important part of many students' writing experiences. / Department of English

Learning communities have emerged as an efficient and effective paradigm for improving undergraduate education, especially for entering freshmen. The academy has become increasingly interested in learning outcomes and student retention, especially as they are related to the assessment of various approaches to educating the whole student. Learning community pedagogy has developed through rigorous research. However, little is known about the impact of this pedagogy upon college students' cognitive development and writing aptitude. Cognitive development theory has been most significantly influenced by the work of William G. Perry, Jr. Though no theory exists which would address the stages of writing development in university students, many composition theorists suggest a correlation between cognitive development and writing aptitude. This study measured cognitive development and writing aptitude in learning community students and non-learning community students, matching them for SAT scores, high school grade point averages, gender, and ethnicity. The research questions of interest were: 1) How does participation in a learning community affect students' cognitive development; and 2) How does participation in a learning community affect students' writing aptitude? The participants were pre- and post-assessed for cognitive development, using the Measure of Intellectual Development (MID). Additionally, participants were preand post-assessed for writing aptitude, using a diagnostic essay and exit exam. Results of this study indicate no statistically significant differences in cognitive development and writing aptitude for learning community students and non-learning community students as measured by the Measure of Intellectual Development (MID) and the diagnostic essay and exit exam. These findings may have been influenced by the small sample size. It is suggested that this research be replicated, ensuring a larger sample size, to determine the efficacy of this pedagogy on these variable sets.

The problem with which this investigation is concerned is that of determining the relative effectiveness of the Christensen Rhetoric Program and of a traditional write-revise approach in freshman English composition classes.

A Faculty Orientation and Design for Writing Across the Curriculum is a case study of the work done to introduce the concept of writing across the curriculum at an urban community college. Emphasizing the related processes of learning, thinking, and writing, the researcher describes private interviews and analyzes transcriptions of small group meetings designed to discuss ways to encourage increased quantity and improved quality of writing in vocational and university-parallel courses on the campus. The focus of the study is the transcription of the faculty meetings where teachers reveal their methodologies and educational philosophies as they discuss ways to provide increased writing opportunities to large classes of open-door students. The culmination of the orientation project is a faculty booklet of ways to increase writing. The researcher concludes that although a writing "program" is not in place as a result of the year's work, essential groundwork for such a program is laid.

The purpose of this study was to observe the differences in English achievement, critical-thinking ability, and attitude toward subject attributable to two scheduling approaches -- "Concurrent" and "Intensive"--in the teaching of first-semester freshman English composition to community college students. Further, the study was initiated in order to provide factual information as a basis for administrative and instructional judgments affecting future planning for accelerated scheduling at the experimental institution. Two classes of first-semester freshman English composition, meeting three hours weekly for fifteen weeks, comprised the control group (Concurrent); two classes of first-semester freshman English composition, meeting nine hours weekly for five weeks, comprised the experimental group (Intensive). The same form of three criterion instruments was administered to both groups before and after the experimental treatment. The instruments were the Cooperative English Expression Test, the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal, and the Purdue Attitude Scale, Part A -- Attitude Toward Any Subject. Three instructors were involved in the experiment during the fall and spring semesters of the 1973-74 school year. Conventional methods of instruction, using the same course of study, were duplicated in all situations. Statistical analyses utilized in the study were analysis of covariance and multiple linear regression. It was felt that Intensive scheduling was superior to Concurrent as a means of promoting student-faculty harmony. Also, the frustrations experienced within the traditional classroom situation could be lessened by granting greater freedom from the constraints of hourly schedules and competing classes. With tensions reduced, English proficiency could be increased. Acting upon these suppositions, three hypotheses--related to each of the criterion measures-- were formulated. All hypotheses stated that the adjusted post-test scores for the experimental groups would be significantly greater than the adjusted post-test scores for the control groups. The results of the experiment, however, showed no significant difference for any of the hypotheses at the . 05 level of confidence; thus, all were rejected. Within the limitations of this study, it was evident that any difference in the effectiveness of the two scheduling approaches for first-semester freshman composition was negligible. But of significance was the observation that a quality instructional program could be effectively adapted to scheduling variations. In general, the successful implementation of any such variation was dependent upon careful course planning and widespread publicity. Furthermore, attitudes toward a subject did not seem to be materially altered as a result of differences in scheduling format. Pertinent to the improvement of the English discipline, the study revealed a strong correlation between critical-thinking ability and skill in English expression. It appeared, however, that class attendance was more important in the improvement of English skill--especially in accelerated classes--than it was in the improvement of critical-thinking ability. In conclusion, the possibilities of an expanded academic program should be fully investigated as a scheduling option for the community college. In this connection, continuing research should examine the effects of various combinations of grouping plans upon learning. Related goals and objectives should be formulated and program particulars transmitted to students. Available data, defining the type of student most likely to benefit from scheduling options, should be utilized in an effort to create a more favorable total situation.

A research report submitted to the Wits School of Education, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts by combination of coursework and research. Johannesburg, 2015 / Achievement rates in higher education in South Africa for black students remain low after 20 years of democracy. Writing academic English according to existing conventions is a complex skill. One aspect of this skill is producing dense, cohesive text. The writing of a group of IsiZulu speakers at Wits is analyzed to find out how Hallidayan (1976) cohesion is operating therein: how does this language group use conjunctions, lexical cohesion, referencing, ellipsis and substitution when writing in English? In addition, it explores whether differences in how IsiZulu and English are structured create problems with cohesion for these undergraduates when writing in English. Furthermore, it aims to uncover if the rhetorical structure of IsiZulu influences the organization and the cohesion of their English texts. From this analysis, it is evident that there are elements of referencing, conjunction use and lexical cohesion which are well developed in their writing. At the same time, evidence of speech-type syntax in the data points to areas where further development is possible. This knowledge has led to suggestions on how academic literacy input could facilitate writing skills development for this language group. The investigation has also established the dominance of English rhetorical organisation in both the English and IsiZulu writing of this cohort. It has also shown that these students experience rhetorical conflict when instructed not to use repetition as a meaning-making strategy in their writing. Both a pragmatic and a critical response to these findings has been provided. The pragmatic response is a set of suggestions on how to develop language skills in the area of cohesion. The critical response is a proposal for an alternative style of academic textual organisation with stronger links to IsiZulu oral rhetoric practices. Key words: Cohesion in IsiZulu, cohesion in English, IsiZulu rhetoric, English rhetoric, academic literacy, transformation in tertiary education