Writing-to-learn strategies have been administered in the past to enrich student learning. The purpose of this study was to see if K-W-L prompts in science journal writing could benefit student content knowledge within biology. Two high school biology classes were provided with learning journals. The journals given to the students during the treatment unit were provided with K-W-L question prompts to guide student learning while during the comparison unit students were given an open ended writing assignment. Pre and posttests were administered to determine student-learning gains. Student motivations and opinions of the treatment were collected through student interviews. The combined results were used to determine to what extent could K-W-L prompts in science journal writing influence comprehension of content knowledge. This study found there to be no difference in student learning gains when utilizing the K-W-L literacy strategy versus another free-writing activity. When scored, student K-W-Ls total scores did correlate to student success on unit tests. This opens up the potential for K-W-Ls to serve as an adequate tool for formative assessment. Here the K-W-L could be expanded to enrich student question asking, potentially aid students learning English, and potentially be used by students without teacher scaffolding.

This research explores the identity reconstruction of graduate students in additional language (AL) contexts. It addresses not only the issue of language proficiency in self-representation, but also more complicated factors that influence self-positioning and perceived social positioning in an additional culture, as well as ways of establishing the self in academic writing. The research is grounded in language learning theories in second language education and identity theories in linguistics, sociology, and cultural studies. Eleven graduate students participated in the study, among whom five were international students at a Chinese university and six were Chinese students at a Canadian university. Data were drawn from a questionnaire, writing samples, interviews, and email correspondence. Commonalities and divergences were found between groups and within groups. I developed a framework of writer identity for AL graduate students prior to the study and modified it in the discussion. Based on the data, I elaborated on the connections of personal identity and writer identity, and conceptualized for AL speakers a mediated space incorporating home culture and host culture but going beyond the overlap of the two, as well as a mediated self that is achieved through negotiation with the available options in their respective social context. / Thesis (Ph.D, Education) -- Queen's University, 2008-04-24 23:24:36.208

Cette recherche constitue une première étape dans l’élaboration d’un dictionnaire de collocations du lexique scientifique transdisciplinaire (LST), conçu pour aider des étudiants ou des chercheurs dans la rédaction de discours scientifiques ou universitaires, quel que soit leur domaine d’études. Elle a permis de concevoir deux modèles originaux d’articles de dictionnaire donnant accès aux collocations de termes nominaux et verbaux caractéristiques du LST. Les modèles d’articles sont ensuite appliqués à la description d’un échantillon de termes nominaux : analyse, caractéristique, figure, hypothèse, rapport et résultat; et verbaux : décrire et étudier. Les articles conçus dans ce mémoire offrent un accès convivial aux collocations du LST en situation de rédaction. Ils ont l’avantage de proposer une organisation cohérente de ce lexique sur les plans syntaxique et sémantique. En outre, ils permettent de présenter les termes du LST dans des contextes variés, ce qui peut contribuer au développement de la compétence lexicale. / This research is the first step in the development of a collocations dictionary of “lexique scientifique transdisciplinaire” (LST), which is similar to the academic vocabulary, a collocations dictionary conceived to help students or researchers in scientific or academic writing, regardless of their field. In this research, we first developed two original models of dictionary articles which provide access to collocations of nouns and verbs characteristic of LST. Secondly, the models are used to describe a sample of nominal terms: analyse, caractéristique, figure, hypothèse, rapport, and résultat; and verbal terms: décrire, and étudier. The models developed in this thesis offer a convenient access to LST collocations in writing context. The advantage of these models is to propose a coherent organization of the lexicon in syntactic and semantic terms. In addition, they are made to present the LST terms in different contexts, which may contribute to the development of lexical competence.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 327-342). / Also available by subscription via World Wide Web / xxi, 342 leaves, bound 29 cm

In this study an attempt was made to explore the challenges with regard to publications experienced by academic women at three selected Historically Black Universities (HBUs). Although based predominantly within a feminist qualitative metholodogical framework, both qualitative and quantitative research methods were used in this study. Based on the findings of the study, the recommendations illustrated participants' responses. Some of the recommendations illustrated participants' expressed need of staff development with a specific focus on training in publication skills / mentoring and support networks / assistance and support for their publishing venture at both institutional and departmental level and the development of strategies that would assist academic women in 'juggling' their personal and academic roles.

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.

"December 2008". / Thesis (DAppLing)--Macquarie University, Division of Linguistics and Psychology, Dept. of Linguistics, 2009. / Bibliography: p. 299-327. / Introduction -- Literature review -- Study 1 -- Study 2 -- Conclusions. / The aim of this case study was to identify the beliefs of eight pre-service teachers about thesis writing and professional development while and after writing their BA thesis through diary and survey inquiry. This research was conducted in the teaching area of the major in Modern Languages (LEMO) from the Autonomous University of Puebla (BUAP). The methodology used to identify trainee beliefs was applied in two periods: during the process to include reflection in action, and after the process obtaining reflection on action as suggested by Schön (1983, p. 26). Thus, the participants wrote their electronic dialogue diaries while taking the two Research Seminars and writing their thesis. In this diaries they expressed their thoughts and feelings, sent them to the teacher and the teacher answered them also via e-mail. Then, when the Research Seminars had finished, they answered the questionnaire called Thesis and Professional Development Questionnaire (TAPDQ), which was especially designed for this research taking insights from Eraut (1995), Fullan(1995), Burns et al (1999), Schmekes (2004) and Viaggio (1992). This questionnaire contains Likert scales and some open questions. The findings of these studies reveal that participants were aware of their lack of expertise in thesis writing and they looked for strategies to overcome this problem. Also, the findings suggest that the participants were benefited from the constructivist methodology employed in the Research Seminars. Most of the participants reported having acquired skills, knowledge, having improved their attitude and having become better students after writing their thesis. This doctoral thesis begins exploring an area that has not been explored on ELT teacher cognition at least as reported in the research reviews done by Borg (2003, 2006) and Reyes & Rodríguez (2007). It aims to contribute to get a better understanding the thesis writing processes in teacher education programmes in public universities in Mexico. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / xvii, 359 p

This study uses the framework of systemic functional grammar to conduct the stylistic investigation of extracts from two texts of literary criticism written by F.R. Leavis and Paul de Man. The aims of the study are: i) to identify the characteristic features of the type of text known as professional literary criticism, and interpret the ideological significance of the textual features thus identified; ii) to identify the characteristic features of two specific registers of literary criticism, liberal humanist criticism and deconstruction, and interpret the relationship between linguistic and ideological variation -as exemplified in the texts which are analysed- and power. The features which make systemic functional grammar a powerful tool in stylistic analysis are identified, and a review of the applications of systemic grammar to text analysis is presented. A model of the relationship between text and context is presented, and its key terms and their relationship (discourse, ideology, genre, register, language) are discussed. The analysis of extracts from literary critical texts is conducted according to the three main features of the context of situation as identified in systemic grammar: field (subject matter of the discourse), tenor (participants in the discourse) and mode (medium of the discourse). Finally, the study considers the implications and applications of the conclusions drawn, particularly those that relate to the academic institution within which literary critical texts are produced and read. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (Linguistics)

CARVALHO, Ednúsia Pinto de. A atenuação retórica em artigos de pesquisa: um estudo contrastivo com base em corpora. 2011. 127f. Tese (Doutorado em Linguística) – Universidade Federal do Ceará, Departamento de Letras Vernáculas, Programa de Pós-graduação em Linguística, Fortaleza-CE, 2011. / Submitted by nazareno mesquita (nazagon36@yahoo.com.br) on 2012-08-14T15:00:20Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2011_tese_EPdeCarvalho.pdf: 1630146 bytes, checksum: 3c417235cc5090a6cb9de83fc915f723 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maria Josineide Góis(josineide@ufc.br) on 2013-11-14T14:12:48Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2011_tese_EPdeCarvalho.pdf: 1630146 bytes, checksum: 3c417235cc5090a6cb9de83fc915f723 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-11-14T14:12:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2011_tese_EPdeCarvalho.pdf: 1630146 bytes, checksum: 3c417235cc5090a6cb9de83fc915f723 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / This thesis investigates, from a rhetoric-contrastive perspective, the uses and functions of rhetoric mitigation metadiscursive marks (here hedging devices) in research articles produced by Brazilian and German authors and understood as specialized texts (HOFFMANN, 1998), inserted in the expert-expert communicative context (PEARSON, 1998). To achieve this goal, the present study aims at answering the following questions: (a) how often are hedging strategies employed in the introduction and conclusion sections? (b) what is the relationship between the number of hedges in each subcorpus and the rhetorical characteristics of each analyzed section? (c) how often do the lexico-grammatical items performing the role of hedges appear in each subcorpus? The starting point for the investigation was the assumption that texts belonging to the same genre but written in different languages present striking rhetorical distinctions. Such differences in academic writing can be described by the use of hedges as discourse-pragmatic elements which characterize the "modus dicendi" of a given knowledge area; in the present case, Medicine. A corpus of 120 research articles from national and international medical journals was built, including texts written in German and Portuguese; the articles were collected from the CAPES periodics website. This corpus consists of 60 Medicine articles written in Portuguese and 60 articles written in German, divided into two subcorpora, namely, Corpus 1: Medicine-German and Corpus 2 : Medicine-Portuguese. The former is made of two subcorpora, (i) German Medicine Introduction (MAI) and (ii) German Medicine Discussion (MAD); the latter is also subdivided into two parts, (i) Portuguese Medicine Introduction (MPI) and (ii) Portuguese Medicine Discussion (MPD). The data were analyzed and processed in accordance with the Corpus Linguistics methodological principles, in an instrumental application of its methods. The data were treated with the help of a linguistic analysis software called WordSmith Tools (SCOTT, 1997), version 3.0, especially the Wordlist and Concord tools. In order to investigate and analyze the uses and functions of the hedges, from the Interactional Metadiscourse (HYLAND, 2005) and Intercultural Rhetoric (CONNOR, 2008) perspectives, given the corpora collected, we have proposed a classification model, in accordance with the taxonomies proposed by Hyland (2005), Cabrera (2004) and Martín-Martín (2008). The results of the analysis have pointed to the occurrence of a largest number of hedges, in both languages, in the discussion section of the articles, followed by the introduction section. Both present a high number of occurrences of indetermination devices (epistemic expressions, such as modal verbs, lexical verbs, semi-auxiliary verbs, and modal adjectives / adverbs) and disagentivization (impersonal expressions, passive voice).We can therefore conclude that the authors of the Medicine research articles, both those in Portuguese and in German, employ the same amount of hedges in order to achieve the communicative purposes of the research paper genre, given the position the authors occupy in the academic community and the interpersonal relationship they wish to establish with the audience. This research contributes to minimize the gap in the studies on hedging under a contrastive perspective, based on corpora of scholarly texts in Portuguese and German in the Medicine area. / Esta tese investiga sob uma perspectiva retórico-contrastiva, os usos e as funções das marcas metadiscursivas de atenuação retórica (hedges), em artigos de pesquisa, considerados, aqui, textos especializados (HOFFMANN, 1998), pertencentes ao contexto comunicativo: especialista-especialista (PEARSON, 1998), produzidos por autores (as) brasileiros (as) e alemães (as). Para cumprir tal objetivo, a pesquisa intenciona responder aos seguintes questionamentos: (a) qual a freqüência das estratégias de atenuação retórica utilizadas nas seções introdução e conclusão? (b) qual a relação existente entre o número de marcas metadiscursivas de atenuação retórica em cada subcorpus e as características retóricas de cada seção em análise? (c) qual a freqüência dos itens léxico-gramaticais que realizam as marcas metadiscursivas de atenuação retórica em cada subcorpus. Para tanto, parte-se do pressuposto de que textos pertencentes a um mesmo gênero discursivo, porém escritos em línguas distintas apresentam diferenças retóricas marcantes. Tais diferenças no discurso acadêmico escrito podem ser descritas pelo uso das marcas de atenuação retórica como elemento discursivo-pragmático caracterizador de um “modus dicendi” de uma determinada área do conhecimento, no caso, a Medicina. Para a investigação dessas marcas de atenuação, selecionamos um corpus composto por 120 artigos de pesquisa em Medicina de periódicos nacionais e internacionais, coletados, no site de periódicos da CAPES, escritos em língua alemã e em língua portuguesa. O referido corpus de estudo compõe-se de: 60 artigos em Medicina escritos em português e 60 artigos escritos em língua alemã, divididos em dois subcorpora, a saber, Corpus 1- Medicina Alemão, composto por dois subcorpora: (i) Medicina Alemão Introdução (MAI) e (ii) Medicina-Alemão Discussão (MAD) , Corpus 2- Medicina Português, com dois subcorpora: (i) Medicina Português Introdução (MPI) e (ii) Medicina Português Discussão (MPD). Na análise e tratamento dos dados, utilizamos os princípios metodológicos da Lingüística de Corpus, aplicando seu caráter instrumental. Para avaliar os dados dessa pesquisa, utilizamos o programa computacional de análise lingüística, WordSmith Tools (SCOTT, 1997), versão 3.0, as ferramentas Wordlist e o Concord. Para investigar e analisar os usos e as funções das marcas metadiscursivas de atenuação, sob uma perspectiva do Metadiscurso Interacional (HYLAND, 2005) e da Retórica Intercultural (CONNOR, 2008), tendo em vista os corpora em análise, propomos um modelo classificatório, em conformidade com as taxonomias propostas por Hyland (2005), Cabrera (2004) e Martín-Martín (2008). Conforme os resultados, a seção de discussão concentra o maior número de ocorrências das marcas de atenuação retórica nas duas línguas, seguida da seção de introdução. Ambas apresentam um elevado número de ocorrências das estratégias de indeterminação (as expressões epistêmicas, como verbos modais, lexicais, semi-auxiliares) e os adjetivos/advérbios modais,) e desagentivação (as expressões impessoais, voz passiva). A partir desses resultados, conclui-se que os autores tanto em português como em alemão nos artigos de pesquisa na Medicina fazem uso na mesma proporção de estratégias de atenuação para atender aos propósitos comunicativos do gênero textual-artigo de pesquisa, como também pela posição que ocupam na comunidade acadêmica e pela relação interpessoal que desejam estabelecer com a audiência. Essa pesquisa contribui para minimizar a lacuna existente com relação aos estudos sócio-retóricos das marcas metadiscursivas de atenuação, sob uma perspectiva contrastiva, em corpora escritos em português e alemão de artigos acadêmicos na Medicina.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:07:10Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ElzaMSAA_DISSERT.pdf: 1423297 bytes, checksum: 18074795f024e1a2eba513c710426efd (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-12-05 / Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte / Esta pesquisa parte de reflex?es desenvolvidas no interior do Grupo de Pesquisa do Texto e do Discurso GETED do Departamento de Letras da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) e insere-se no campo da Teoria da Enuncia??o. Refletimos sobre a produ??o escrita no ensino superior, mais especificamente, tomando como objeto de an?lise as formas reflexivas da l?ngua utilizadas na escrita de disserta??es de mestrado. Centramos este estudo nos pressupostos te?ricos de Authier-Revuz (1998, 2004), no que se refere ? heterogeneidade enunciativa e nos seus exteriores te?ricos. Nesse sentido, fizemos um recorte no corpus, inicialmente constitu?do por 8 (oito) disserta??es de mestrado e selecionamos 4 (quatro) defendidas nos anos de 1979, 1989, 2000 e 2011, para representar o que pretendemos analisar. Essas disserta??es foram selecionadas do acervo da Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ci?ncias Humanas USP e dos programas de P?s-Gradua??o, dispon?veis no Portal Dom?nio P?blico CAPES. Nosso intuito ? analisar marcas da modaliza??o auton?mica na utiliza??o e apropria??o do discurso outro sobre os conceitos de varia??o e de mudan?a na escrita dos pesquisadores em forma??o. Para tanto, empregamos o termo utiliza??o com o sentido de fazer uso do discurso do outro na escrita do trabalho de pesquisa e relacionamos ao conjunto de formas marcadas, que tem na cadeia discursiva um estatuto outro que justifica a auton?mia. J? o termo apropria??o , usamos com o sentido de tomar como seu, uma vez que no processo de modaliza??o do discurso, o enunciador se vale de palavras porosas, ou seja, palavras que aparecem no discurso de um, carregadas do discurso do outro. Buscamos responder ? seguinte quest?o: quais as marcas de utiliza??o e de apropria??o do discurso do outro na escrita do pesquisador em forma??o? Dessa forma, temos como objetivos: a) verificar, no corpus selecionado, como o discurso sobre os conceitos de varia??o e de mudan?a s?o utilizados na escrita das quatro disserta??es j? mencionadas; b) analisar como o pesquisador em forma??o mostra, em sua escrita, os diferentes modos de se apropriar desses conceitos. Por meio da an?lise, foi poss?vel observar que quando o pesquisador se utiliza dos conceitos, a escrita se apresenta marcada por estrat?gias lingu?sticas que demonstram o discurso do pesquisador se constituindo a partir da teoria e do objeto investigado. E, na apropria??o, esse processo se apresenta de duas formas: como processo dial?gico e como processo reflexivo. No primeiro, tem-se a constitui??o do discurso do pesquisador se realizando, como forma de di?logo entre os interlocutores, e no segundo como forma de reflex?o, realizada por meio de um coment?rio, de uma metaenuncia??o . Nessa ?ltima, o pesquisador pode ou n?o transmudar seu discurso. Acreditamos, portanto, haver tr?s processos de escrita: aquela traduz algo j? dito, aquela que experimenta algo j? dito e aquela que transmuda - que produz um novo, que cria, que inventaria