This classroom-based study provides insights into the nature of collaborative writing in a Malaysian tertiary ESL setting. It tracked the collaborative writing processes of three case study groups over one semester and elicited students' reflections on their collaborative experience. The study focussed on three case study groups formed by nine undergraduates who were enrolled in an academic writing course in a large public university in Malaysia. The individuals volunteered to be involved in the study and they self-selected their group members. Multiple research instruments were used for data collection. The primary data was comprised of audio and video-recordings of the case studies' collaborative writing sessions over three writing tasks. Interviews, journal entries, and a questionnaire supplemented the primary data. The use of various techniques ensured that data collection was sufficiently covered in breadth and in depth. Results showed that the collaborative writing process was a complex phenomenon. The nature of collaboration is influenced by group composition, role flexibility, and task complexity. The findings reveal that familiarity with group members is crucial for group cohesion; it provided a safe and comfortable working environment. Flexibility in role-taking also helped the groups to carry out their collaboration effectively. Leader, contributor, and gate-keeper roles were interchangeable across groups and across tasks except for the scribe role. It was found that as tasks increased in complexity, conflict also intensified. During negotiations and resolutions of conflicts, the students had considered cultural issues, such as sensitivity to face and group harmony. Other affective factors such as cooperation, willingness to share, team spirit, and tolerance aided the collaboration while apathy and domineering behaviour were detrimental. These multiple factors, which differed from one case study to another, shaped the distinctiveness of each group. Nonetheless, findings from the students' transcripts and personal reflections revealed that group collaboration changed and became more positive over time. This study provides a revised definition of collaborative writing. The three case study groups shared some common features, such as mutual interactions, sharing of expertise, conflict, and use of colloquial sentence particles. However, there were other features which were peculiar to each group, namely, self-questioning talk, use of local language, creative use of language, and humour. These features not only mediated the writing processes, but also expanded the students' knowledge construction and language acquisition. Based on the analyses, a number of implications have been drawn regarding the use of collaborative writing in the classroom. The study culminates with several recommendations for future research.

This study investigated common English language errors made by Oshiwambo, Afrikaans and Silozi First Language speakers. The study examined errors in a corpus of 360 essays written by 180 participants. Errors were identified and classified into various categories. The four most common errors committed by the participants were tenses, prepositions, articles and spelling. The study is important to educators and study material developers who should become aware of the kind of errors that their target learners make, so that they are in a better position to put appropriate intervention strategies into place. For learners, error analysis is important as it shows the areas of difficulty in their writing. The limitations and some pedagogical implications for future study are included at the end of this research paper. / English Studies / M. A. (TESOL)

Purpose and research questions- This research was based on students enrolled on courses at Rhodes University's Centre for Social Development, an Institute delivering Early Childhood Development courses in the Grahamstown area. Having provided the students with access to a career path and its courses, it was imperative to assist the students to develop a standard of academic literacy comparable to that of in-service education students, in the Intermediate and Senior Phases. This study was influenced by Gee's (2004) definition of literacy as 'mastery over a discourse'. Gee (1990) termed discourse as the socially accepted way of thinking, believing and being. The study therefore investigated the enablers which assisted students to produce academic texts. This was achieved by finding out how the students and the course facilitators construct academic literacy; in other words what their discourses were regarding academic literacy. In order to ascertain this information, the students and the course facilitators were asked what reading and writing the students had done prior to enrolling on the course, what they had brought to the course, what the students and the course facilitators thought comprised a successful academic assignment, and how the students were supported in their academic literacy during the course. Data was gathered through interviews with both students and course facilitators, analysis of course assignments, and assessment reports written by the course facilitators. This data was analysed, looking for discourses on similarities and contradictions. Critical Discourse analysis was used to investigate the discourses that the course facilitators and students were using. Findings: It was evident from the data that the autonomous view of literacy was predominantly used. The course facilitators and, to a limited extent, the students, saw literacy as a set of technical skills that needed to be mastered. The students and course facilitators did not take into account that literacy is a social practice, and that literacy occurs within a particular social context and cultural context. The course facilitators tended to hold a deficit discourse related to the perception of inferior education under Bantu Education, which was seen as an inhibiting factor to academic literacy and academic success. The discourse of second language was also an issue that both the course facilitators and the students noted which prevented students' academic literacy. Christie's (1985) Received Tradition of Literacy, which focused on the forms and functions of literacy, was a discourse that both the students and the course facilitators ascribed to. Conclusions and recommendations: The course facilitators' and students' discourses were very similar, both being embedded within the autonomous and deficit models of literacy. It is recommended that course facilitators become cognisant with the models of academic literacy and that they become aware of the various discourses evident on the course and articulate these discourses for themselves. Furthermore they should assist the students by clearly articulating and unpacking the course requirements regarding academic literary.

As more international students who are not expert users of English come to the United States to study at university, the field of teaching English for Academic Purposes grows. There are many important skills these international students must learn to become successful university students in America, but writing for academic purposes is of particular importance for these students to join the academic conversation in their respective disciplines. Corpus research has identified the grammatical features which are frequently found in different registers, and from this work it is known which structures are important in different types of academic writing. Grammatical structures frequently found in the academic register must be taught to these university-bound students. However, many English Language Learners (ELLs) are infrequently using, or inaccurately using, some of these grammatical features in their writing when compared to L1 writers. This study focuses on three of those under-used, and/or inaccurately used structures: passive voice, reduced relative clauses, and modal would. At an Intensive English Language Program (IELP) in the Pacific Northwest, an experimental group of advanced ELLs were given extended instruction--extra time and practice--on these three features. The control group received the standard amount of time and practice students typically receive at this IELP. 25 essays from the experimental group and 44 essays from the control group were tagged for presence, accuracy, and appropriacy of the three grammatical features (passive voice, reduced relative clauses, and modal would). The experimental and control group essays were compared to see if the treatment instruction had a significant effect on the frequency, accuracy, and/or appropriacy of these features. Results from an independent t-test on the frequency of passive voice showed no significant difference between the experimental group essays and the control group essays. Results from a Mann-Whitney U test on the frequency of reduced relative clauses and modal would showed no significant difference between the two groups. In regard to accuracy and appropriacy, a Mann-Whitney U test found no significant difference between the experiment group and control group. The analysis of the two groups showed that students in the treatment group did use passive voice on average more than students in the control group, but it was not enough to be significantly different. The frequency of reduced relative clauses and modal would was low, yet accuracy and appropriacy of these features was very high for both groups. These findings reveal that different, or perhaps more focused, approaches must be taken beyond extra time and practice to increase ELLs' use of passive voice, reduced relative clauses, and modal would in their writing.

Orientador: Matilde Virginia Ricardi Scaramucci / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-27T16:52:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Vicentini_MonicaPanigassi_M.pdf: 6305430 bytes, checksum: a8299defea0fd6bb1fec0846eb1a63f8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015 / Resumo: O Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio passou a ser um mecanismo único de acesso ao ensino superior em 2009 e, como tal, tornou-se um exame de alta relevância para aqueles que almejam uma vaga no ensino superior público. Essa nova condição dá ao exame potencial para exercer efeitos no ensino que o precede. Esse impacto é um fenômeno denominado pela literatura de "efeito retroativo". O fenômeno é de grande interesse de pesquisadores da área de avaliação, na medida em que permite entender melhor a relação de exames com práticas de ensino e com a aprendizagem, com implicações para o aprimoramento dos exames. Apesar de alguns estudos sobre efeito retroativo terem sido realizados em contexto brasileiro, há uma lacuna no que se refere ao efeito retroativo da prova de redação do ENEM no processo de ensino e aprendizagem. Dessa forma, esta dissertação procurou suprir essa lacuna, investigando a influência desse exame nas práticas de ensinar de duas professoras de terceiro ano do ensino médio, sendo uma delas do ensino público e a outra do ensino privado. Escolhemos o terceiro ano por ser de conhecimento geral que essa etapa do ensino básico é diretamente influenciada pelos vestibulares. Com a proposta de uma pesquisa qualitativa de cunho etnográfico, observamos práticas de sala de aula, fizemos anotações de campo e entrevistamos professoras e alunos, triangulando esses dados com a análise de documentos oficiais do exame. Nossos resultados mostram existência de efeito retroativo nas percepções, atitudes e práticas da professora da escola privada; no contexto da escola pública, entretanto, esse efeito se dá apenas nas percepções e atitudes da professora, ou seja, em seu discurso, mas não em sua prática. Fatores diversos são responsáveis por esses resultados (WATANABE, 2004). Enquanto na escola privada, fatores relativos ao teste propriamente dito, tais como sua natureza, formato e habilidade avaliada favorecem a existência do efeito, o mesmo não acontece na escola pública. Fatores pessoais, tais como as crenças e o grau de conhecimento sobre o exame, também são determinantes na ocorrência de efeitos. A dimensão de valor, ou seja, avaliar um efeito como positivo ou negativo, questão bastante complexa dentro dos estudos sobre efeito retroativo, é igualmente abordada neste trabalho, mostrando que esse julgamento depende de quem faz a apreciação (ALDERSON, 1992). Professora e alunos da escola privada, por exemplo, avaliam positivamente a abordagem de ensino para o ENEM utilizada na escola, ao passo que, a nosso ver, o treinamento de estratégias para a realização do exame é negativo. Nossos resultados confirmam a hipótese levantada em outros estudos de que um mesmo teste exerce efeitos distintos, de maior ou menor intensidade, em alguns professores e alunos e não necessariamente em outros. Este trabalho, além de cumprir com o objetivo de contribuir com a área de estudos sobre efeito retroativo e de colocar o ENEM em discussão, aponta para a necessidade da ampliação do número de pesquisas sobre efeito retroativo no contexto da prova de redação do exame / Abstract: The Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio ¿ a Brazilian high school examination known as ENEM ¿, which was officially a nationwide achievement test, became an entrance examination in 2009. Along with that, it has also become a high-stakes test for those who seek admission to the Brazilian public universities. This new status provides great potential for ENEM to cause washback on the process of teaching and learning. This impact is of great concern to testing and assessment researchers since the study of washback can lead to debates about teaching and learning and to refinements of the examinations. Although some washback studies have been conducted in the Brazilian context, there is a lack of studies regarding the washback of ENEM¿s writing test on teaching and learning. Therefore, this research has sought to fill this gap by investigating the washback of the writing test on the teaching practices of two third-grade high school teachers, one from a public school and the other from a private school. We chose the third year of high school because it is known that, in Brazil, this stage is directly influenced by entrance examinations. We have run a qualitative study based on ethnographic instruments such as classroom observations, field notes and interviews with the teachers and with some of their students. Our findings reveal the existence of washback on the private-school teacher¿s perceptions, attitudes and practices; in the public school, however, washback is present only on the teacher¿s perceptions and attitude, that is, in her discourse, but not in her practice. Different factors mediate the process of washback being generated (WATANABE, 2004). While in the private school, test-related factors, such as its nature, format and skills being tested facilitate the existence of washback, the same does not happen in the public school. Personal factors such as teachers¿ beliefs and the extent to which teachers know the test also determine the occurrence or absence of washback in both contexts. The dimension of value, which means, the evaluation of washback as positive or negative, a complex matter in the studies of washback, is also addressed in this research. The study confirms that the value depends on the people who the evaluation is for (ALDERSON 1992). The private school teacher and her students, for instance, agree on the beneficial effect of teaching to ENEM, whereas this study sees the same approach as strategy coaching and, therefore, harmful. Our results also confirm the hypothesis that the same test can cause different effects, of higher or lower intensities, in some teachers and students, but not in others. In addition to contributing to the area of study and to putting ENEM into discussion, this dissertation points out to the necessity of more washback research about the writing test in ENEM / Mestrado / Linguagem e Educação / Mestra em Linguística Aplicada

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This project addresses writing instruction by teaching journal writing, interactive writing, and poetry instruction to Koreans in the English-as-a-foreign language situation. Writing and indentity construction and writing conferences are also addressed. The curriculum is designed for EFL teachers in Korea at the target-teaching level grades 3-6.

Writing, an important academic skill for university students to acquire, becomes more important in a distance education institution where assessment is primarily on written work. Successful teaching and learning practices for Open Distance Learning (ODL) incorporate multiple forms of interaction when using technology within a constructivist approach. The study seeks to understand students’ perceptions of wikis within a process writing approach, and the suitability of Web 2.0 technology for tasks designed to teach academic writing. A participatory action research design was selected as it merges social action and research to solve educational problems while increasing human understanding of the phenomena. The findings show that students may be open to using wikis within their actual learning environment. Of significance was the issue of the early integration and engagement of students into online learning communities. The challenges experienced in the study can be addressed adapting Chickering and Ehrmann’s (1996) principles to frame the development of online learning. / Teaching Practice Unit / M.A. (TESOL)

Writing for an academic purpose is not an easy skill to master, whether for a native English speaker (L1) or an English language learner (ELL). In order to better prepare ELL students for success in mainstream content courses at the university level, more must be known about the characteristics of student writing in the local context of an intensive English program. This information can be used to inform ELL writing instructors of which linguistic features to target so that their students produce writing that sounds appropriate for the academic written register. Two corpora of 30 research essays each were compiled, one of L1 student writing done in various departments at Portland State University, and the other of ELL writing produced in an advanced writing course in Portland State University's Intensive English Language Program. The corpora were compared for the frequencies of 13 linguistic features which had been previously found in significantly different frequencies in L1 and ELL essays (Hinkel, 2002). The tokens of each feature in each essay were counted, and the frequency rate was calculated in each case. The results of the Mann-Whitney U test found 6 features with significantly different frequency rates between the two corpora. The following features were more frequent in L1 essays than in ELL essays: modal would, perfect aspect, passive voice, reduced adjective clause, and it-cleft. In addition, the type/token ratio was found be significantly higher in L1 essays than in ELL essays. An analysis of how each of the significant features was used in the context of ELL and L1 essays revealed the following: Both student groups were still acquiring the appropriate use of modal would; the majority of students in both groups did not utilize it-clefts; the lower type/token ratio in ELL essays meant that these students used a more limited vocabulary than did L1 students; and ELL students were still acquiring the accurate and appropriate uses of perfect aspect, passive voice, and reduced adjective clauses, whereas L1 students used these features grammatically and for the standard uses. To apply these findings to the ELL writing classroom, instructors should help students raise their awareness of these six features in their own academic writing by leading students in identifying grammatical and ungrammatical uses of these features and providing practice in differentiating between uses which are standard to the register of academic writing and uses which are appropriate only in conversation. Two sample activities are included to illustrate how to implement these recommendations.

This study explored the development of new texts by fluent non-native speakers of Chinuk Wawa, an endangered indigenous contact language of the Pacific Northwest United States. The texts were developed as part of the language and culture program of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon for use in university-sponsored language classes. The collaborative process of developing 12 texts was explored through detailed revision analysis and interviews with the materials developers and other stakeholders. Fluent non-native speakers relied on collaboration, historical documentation, reference materials, grammatical models, and their own intuitions and cultural sensibilities to develop texts that would be both faithful to the speech of previous generations and effective for instruction. The texts studied were stories and cultural information developed through research-based composition, translation from interlinear and narrative English in ethnographic sources, and editing of transcribed oral narrative. The revision analysis identified points of discussion in the lexical development and grammatical standardization of the language. The preferred strategy for developing new vocabulary was use of language-internal resources such as compounding although borrowing and loan translation from other local Native languages were also sometimes considered appropriate. The multifunctionality of the lexicon and evidence of dialectal and idiolectal usage problematicized the description of an “ideal” language for pedagogical purposes. Concerns were also expressed about detailed grammatical modeling due to potential influence on non-native speaker intuitions and the non-utility of such models for revitalization goals. Decisions made in the process of developing texts contributed to the development of a written form of Chinuk Wawa that would honor and perpetuate the oral language while adapting it for the requirements of inscription. The repeated inclusion of discourse markers and the frequent removal of nominal reference brought final versions of texts closer to oral style, while inclusion of background information and the avoidance of shortened pronouns and auxiliaries customized the presentation for a reading audience. The results of this study comprise a sketch of one aspect of the daily work of language revitalization, in which non-native speakers shoulder responsibility for the growth of a language and its transfer to new generations of speakers.