This thesis was a critical analysis of students academic second language writing at Sokoine University of Agriculture. Student writing in English as a second language in higher education has excited much interest in the English as a Second Language writing research and discussion in Tanzania. The interest was motivated by frequent criticisms from examiners regarding students literacy performance in the English as a Second Language writing in the post primary and higher education where the language of instruction is English as is configured in the Tanzanian language policy.

This thesis was a critical analysis of students academic second language writing at Sokoine University of Agriculture. Student writing in English as a second language in higher education has excited much interest in the English as a Second Language writing research and discussion in Tanzania. The interest was motivated by frequent criticisms from examiners regarding students literacy performance in the English as a Second Language writing in the post primary and higher education where the language of instruction is English as is configured in the Tanzanian language policy.

vi, 221 leaves

In terms of structure, style, content and intended audience, Genre Analysis 58, this thesis presents a rhetorical analysis of the plenary address as a genre. Four examples of the opening plenary were analyzed because they represent the opening plenary lecture-keynote speech type, the most common presented at conferences: Mina Shaughnessy and the teaching of writing, Keynote address, Literacy after the revolution and The uneasy partnership between grammar and writing instruction.

This thesis investigates the interrelationship between the two dominant themes, isolation and human ephemerality found in two of Virginia Woolf's books, To the lighthouse and The Waves.

Lin Hin-Sze. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 154-160). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.v / LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES --- p.ix / CHAPTER / Chapter 1 --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Background --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Dilemma --- p.3 / Chapter 1.3 --- Purpose --- p.4 / Chapter 1.4 --- Plan of Development --- p.5 / Chapter 2 --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.7 / Chapter 2.1 --- Feedback on Writing --- p.8 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- Written Comments --- p.9 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- Spoken Feedback --- p.13 / Chapter 2.1.3 --- Writing Conferences / Chapter 2.2 --- Revisions --- p.20 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Revisions: Definitions and Its Role --- p.20 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- The Development of Coding System in Revision Research --- p.24 / Chapter 2.3 --- Research Gap --- p.27 / Chapter 2.3.1 --- "Studies Based on Attitude, Perception and Impression" --- p.28 / Chapter 2.3.2 --- Studies Examining the Actual Discourse of Writing Conferences --- p.29 / Chapter 2.3.3 --- Studies Relating Conferences and Students' Revisions --- p.31 / Chapter 2.3.4 --- Studies Examining Second Language Learners --- p.32 / Chapter 2.3.5 --- Lack of Research Studies in EFL Contexts --- p.33 / Chapter 3 --- METHODOLOGY --- p.35 / Chapter 3.1 --- Settings --- p.35 / Chapter 3.2 --- Participants --- p.37 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- The Writing Tutors --- p.37 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- The Student Subjects --- p.38 / Chapter 3.3 --- Data Sources and Data Collection --- p.39 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Questionnaires --- p.40 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- Writing Conference Interactions --- p.40 / Chapter 3.3.3 --- Tutors' Reports --- p.41 / Chapter 3.3.4 --- Students' Forms --- p.41 / Chapter 3.3.5 --- Students' Texts --- p.41 / Chapter 3.3.6 --- Interviews --- p.43 / Chapter 3.4 --- Data Analysis --- p.43 / Chapter 3.4.1 --- Conference Data Analysis --- p.44 / Chapter 3.4.2 --- Analysis of Revisions of Writings --- p.45 / Chapter 4 --- DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF WRITING CONFERENCES --- p.47 / Chapter 4.1 --- Introduction --- p.47 / Chapter 4.2 --- The Coding System --- p.48 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- Development of an Integrated Coding System for Writing Conference Interactions --- p.48 / Chapter 4.2.1.1 --- "Davis, Hayward, Hunter and Wallace (1989)" --- p.48 / Chapter 4.2.1.2 --- Sperling (1989) --- p.49 / Chapter 4.2.1.3 --- Newkirk (1995) --- p.50 / Chapter 4.2.1.4 --- Walker & Elias (1987) and Walker (1992) --- p.51 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- Application --- p.56 / Chapter 4.2.3 --- Evaluation --- p.61 / Chapter 4.3 --- An Overview of the Results and Findings --- p.61 / Chapter 4.4 --- The Structure of Writing Conferences in the EFL Context --- p.62 / Chapter 4.4.1 --- The Overall Structure --- p.62 / Chapter 4.4.2 --- Inform --- p.63 / Chapter 4.4.3 --- Elicitation --- p.67 / Chapter 4.4.4 --- Reread --- p.72 / Chapter 4.4.5 --- Elaboration --- p.74 / Chapter 4.4 --- The Function of Writing Conference Talk in the EFL Context --- p.76 / Chapter 4.5.1 --- The Higher Frequency Categories --- p.77 / Chapter 4.5.1.1 --- Marker --- p.78 / Chapter 4.5.1.2 --- Explanation --- p.81 / Chapter 4.5.1.3 --- Knowledge on Revision --- p.86 / Chapter 4.5.2 --- The Low Frequency Categories --- p.89 / Chapter 4.5.2.1 --- Preliminary --- p.89 / Chapter 4.5.2.2 --- Requests --- p.91 / Chapter 4.5.2.3 --- In-conference Revisions --- p.91 / Chapter 5 --- STUDENTS' REVISION BEHAVIOR --- p.93 / Chapter 5.1 --- Overview of Results and Findings --- p.93 / Chapter 5.2 --- Comparison Across the Papers --- p.96 / Chapter 5.3 --- Types of revisions --- p.99 / Chapter 5.3.1 --- Surface Changes --- p.100 / Chapter 5.3.2 --- Meaning Changes --- p.102 / Chapter 5.4 --- Types of revision operations --- p.106 / Chapter 5.4.1 --- The Most Frequently Employed Operation 一 Addition --- p.110 / Chapter 5.4.2 --- The Least Frequently Employed Operations --- p.113 / Chapter 6 --- THE LINK BETWEEN WRITING CONFERENCES AND REVISIONS --- p.119 / Chapter 6.1 --- Students' Revision Activities --- p.119 / Chapter 6.1.1 --- Revision that Can Be Traced back to Conferences --- p.119 / Chapter 6.1.2 --- Suggestions in Conferences that Did Not Result in Actual Revision --- p.121 / Chapter 6.1.3 --- Revision that Cannot Be Traced back to Conferences --- p.128 / Chapter 6.2 --- The Structure of the Successful Conferences --- p.132 / Chapter 6.2.1 --- Tutors' and Students' Talk --- p.133 / Chapter 6.2.2 --- The structural categories --- p.136 / Chapter 6.3 --- The Function of Conference Talk in the Successful Conferences --- p.137 / Chapter 7 --- CONCLUSION --- p.143 / Chapter 7.1 --- Discourse Analysis of EFL Writing Conferences --- p.144 / Chapter 7.1.1 --- Allocation of Talk --- p.144 / Chapter 7.1.2 --- The Focus of Writing Conferences --- p.145 / Chapter 7.2 --- Students Revising Processes and the Relationship with the Writing Conferences --- p.146 / Chapter 7.3 --- "Strengths, Weakness and Limitations of the Study" --- p.148 / Chapter 7.4 --- Implications and Recommendations --- p.151 / Chapter 7.5 --- Contribution to this Field --- p.151 / REFERENCES --- p.154 / APPENDICES --- p.161 / Appendix 1 Exempt Protocol For Using Human Subjects in Research --- p.162 / Appendix 2 Consent Form for Student Subjects --- p.166 / Appendix 3 Consent Form for Writing Tutors --- p.167 / Appendix 4 Transcripts of Writing Conferences --- p.168 / Appendix 5 Initial and Subsequent Drafts of Students' Writings --- p.273

<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>

This thesis juxtaposes Plato's allegory of the cave with Jacques Derrida's concept of the always already aspect of meaning, a concept derived from Ferdinand de Saussure's work. This theoretical investigation examines the implications of universal Signified forms of word meanings for postmodern composition theory.

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published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education