Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Often, one of the first areas to cave under the pressures of graduate school is a graduate student’s writing. Sometimes this is because a writer feels unprepared for the amount or types of writing or it is simply due to the fact that writing is a layered process that has not been fully explained to graduate students before. In any of these situations, there remains a need for graduate writing support that accounts for these varied experiences and the larger graduate school environment. In order to better understand these needs on the IUPUI campus and begin to address them, this study collected data from current IUPUI graduate students and a pilot Graduate Writing Group program through the University Writing Center. Through this research, two key themes arose as vital to addressing graduate writer needs and student success in graduate school: community and feedback. By encouraging consideration of these topics within graduate writing programming, support offered can encourage these areas for graduate writers. Community provides space for students not only to learn from each other but also share common experiences and struggles. Through these spaces, graduate students can gain insight into their writing, program, field, and themselves by recognizing what is a natural part of the graduate school process, what needs to change, and how they develop as a result. Quality and diverse feedback leads to deeper understanding of a student’s field, their voice, and their writing process. Without an understanding of these two elements of graduate writing, students remain more likely to struggle with the graduate school process and with the liminal space of being students and professionals.

This dissertation explores discipline-specific writing support spaces in an attempt to better understand disciplinary writing from various perspectives. Neal Lerner suggests that writing center scholarship would benefit from interdisciplinary work; therefore, I investigate spaces that are uniquely positioned in disciplines to identify disciplinary questions within writing center work. These spaces will allow writing center professionals to gain a better understanding of the intersections between writing in the disciplines and writing center work, and the writing center's role in student learning, from within the disciplines. We can then integrate these interdisciplinary frameworks into writing center scholarship to broaden perspectives and subsequently better accommodate students across disciplines. This scholarship could offer some clarity as we try to expand our scholarly purview in order to identify some of the questions writing center professionals should be asking. Through ten interviews from three different academic institution, this dissertation interrogates questions that have been embedded within writing center scholarship for decades. This dissertation shows the prominence of the generalist / specialist debate, the 'students can't write' narrative, and explores a situated learning theory in writing center practice. While there has been valuable research done in writing center research and scholarship in an attempt to move writing centers out of the margins, many writing centers still maintain a marginalized status to some faculty and administrators within their institutions. Unless we shift the perception of, and the narratives coming from, writing centers, we might be replaced by writing support centers that are not affiliated with writing centers. These writing support spaces, as shown in this dissertation, provide students a plethora of discipline-specific resources, often including research and communication. If writing centers do not distinguish themselves as a place that can help students across disciplines, writing centers might move from a marginalized position into having no position within the institution at all. For writing center scholars, professionals, and students, the findings of this dissertation mean that as writing centers attempt to accommodate students who write in the disciplines, our identity potentially becomes distorted. Therefore, we must pay special attention to the narratives we use in the writing center and subsequently circulate to our faculty. We have an opportunity to reconsider those narratives and offer a new theoretical framework for how we conceive of and define writing center work. If we do not adapt a situated learning theory in writing centers, we might consider other alternatives so that writing support spaces, such as those highlighted here, do not replace writing centers altogether. Those of us who are involved in writing center theory and practice have a responsibility to consider the alternative venues students might seek for help and to, as a community, identify best practices and theoretical frameworks as writing centers seek to accommodate disciplinary writers. / Ph. D.

This dissertation addresses two problems with advanced academic writing pedagogy. First, doctoral students must participate in academic discourse communities, yet they report being underprepared to do so (Boquet et al., 2015; Caplan & Cox, 2016). Second, studies (e.g., Curry & Lillis, 2004; Matsuda & Tardy, 2007; Tardy & Matsuda, 2009) suggest that L1 and L2 voices are not well integrated in the institution and that this lack of integration systemically privileges the dominant culture. The purpose of this research is to investigate the role relationships play in helping culturally and linguistically diverse doctoral students negotiate and acquire advanced academic discourse. I pose the overarching research question: Given a discipline-specific writing center for graduate students in a College of Education, what role does interaction play in helping students to participate in academic conversations? The two papers in this collection employ qualitative classification and discourse analysis to investigate writing-related interactions among peers. Data include audio-recorded writing consultations and interviews, post-session reports, field notes, and artifacts. Taken together, findings from this research highlight the role interaction can play in writing support, development, and research. This research has implications for developing writing pedagogy and support programs to facilitate productive academic socialization. In response, the researcher calls for more robust academic writing support in order to improve access and resources for diverse student populations and decrease attrition and time to degree for all students.

No description available.

Studien belyser fem svensklärares uppfattningar om textskapande i den egna skrivundervisningen i årskurs 4-6. Vidare uppmärksammas även lärarnas uppfattningar angående stöttning av elever i skrivsvårigheter.  För att främja utvecklingen av elevers textskpande behöver lärare göra medvetna val i sin skrivundervisning. Lärare behöver dessutom vara medvetna om vilken typ av stöttning olika elever är i behov av. Den sociokulturella teorin utgör teoretisk ansats i studien. Studien är kvalitativ med en fenomenografisk ansats och metod för datainsamling är semistrukturerade intervjuer. Urvalet består av fem svensklärare i årskurs 4-6. Resultatet visar att lärare använder sig av olika undervisningsstrategier för att främja elevers textskapande. Flera av de identifierade undervisningsstrategierna   känns igen ifrån tidigare forskning om skrivutveckling. Resultatet visar dessutom att lärare använder sig av genrepedagogik för att öka elevers förståelse för olika texttyper. Respondenterna stöttar elever i skrivsvårigheter genom digitala hjälpmedel, återkoppling och genom att höja deras motivation. En dragen slutsats av studien är att respondenterna är väl medvetna om sin skrivundervisning och gör medvetna val för att möjliggöra lärande. Ytterligare en dragen slutsats är att lärare använder sig av olika undervisningsstrategier även för elever som inte är i skrivsvårigheter. Det är ibland svårt att skilja på vilka strategier som används till alla och vilka som används specifikt till elever i skrivsvårigheter. / This study illustrates perceptions about writing lessons and text creation of five teachers in the Swedish subject. Further, the essay illustrates teachers’ perceptions about writing difficulties and students in writing difficulties. To present students the opportunity to develop their writing skills, teachers need to make conscious choices before their writing lessons. Further, teachers need to be aware of how they can adjust their support for every student needs. Simple View of Writing and The Sociocultural Theory is two theories that is recurrent the whole essay. The term scaffolding has also a central part of this essay. A qualitative study with a phenomenological approach has been made. The material has been collected with help of semi-structured interviews with five teachers of the Swedish subject in grade 4-6. The result shows that teachers use several different teaching strategies to facilitate students text creation. Several of the identified teaching strategies can be recognized in earlier research concerning writing development. Furthermore, the result illuminates the usage of genre pedagogy as a means to increase the students understanding of different types of texts. The result shows that the respondents support students with usage of digital aid, feedback and through increase their motivation.  A conclusion that can be drawn is that the respondents are aware of their writing lessons and make conscious choices to enable learning. Another conclusion that can be drawn is that the teachers use different teaching strategies for students without writing difficulties as well. One may find it difficult to separate the strategies used for the class in general from the ones used specifically for students with writing difficulties.

O número de estrangeiros interessados em aprender o português tem aumentado na última década, em consequência do crescimento da economia brasileira e do aumento da presença de multinacionais no Brasil. Esse fato se mostra pelo aumento do número de inscritos no exame de proficiência de português CELPE-Bras e de estudantes estrangeiros que ingressam nas universidades brasileiras. A maioria destes estudantes são de língua espanhola e precisam escrever seus textos acadêmicos em português. A proximidade das línguas portuguesa e espanhola apresenta-se tanto como um elemento positivo quanto como um obstáculo, pois oculta as diferenças e impede o domínio da língua portuguesa, mantendo, na fala e na escrita em português, interferências do espanhol. O maior número destas interferências acontece no nível lexical. Uma das alternativas para tratar os problemas em textos de aprendizes de uma língua é o emprego de ferramentas computacionais de pós-processamento e de suporte ao processo de escrita. No entanto, o número de recursos e ferramentas disponíveis para auxiliar a escrita de português como língua estrangeira é muito reduzido, diferentemente do cenário para a língua inglesa. Esta pesquisa propôs a criação de recursos e ferramentas de suporte à escrita no nível lexical como primeiro passo para a melhoria da qualidade linguística dos textos em português produzidos pelos nativos do espanhol. A Linguística de Córpus foi utilizada como metodologia para viabilizar a análise de erros de aprendizes. As ferramentas de auxílio utilizam léxicos bilíngues compilados por meio de técnicas de tradução, baseadas em alinhamento de córpus paralelos. Dado o número insuficiente de erros previamente anotados para suportar a detecção automática de erros, esta pesquisa propôs métodos baseados em modelo língua e na geração artificial de erros. A geração de erros artificiais se apresentou como um método eficiente para predizer erros lexicais dos aprendizes. As contribuições obtidas com a metodologia baseada em tradução automática para gerar auxílios à escrita entre línguas próximas, considerando a análise de erros lexicais extraídos de córpus de aprendizes, foco desta pesquisa, são: (i) do ponto de vista teórico, o levantamento e quantificação dos principais problemas causados pelas marcas do espanhol, deixadas nos textos acadêmicos em português escritos por nativos do espanhol; (ii) do ponto de vista de geração automática de recursos linguísticos, léxicos bilíngues de cognatos e falsos cognatos; léxico bilíngue de marcadores discursivos; léxico de expressões formulaicas que aparecem nos textos científicos e léxico bilíngue de verbos relacionados com pesquisa científica em português e, (iii) do ponto de vista da criação de subsídios para a área de auxílio à escrita científica, o projeto e avaliação de auxílios para suportar a escrita científica em português por nativos do espanhol. / In the last decade, as a result of Brazilian economic growth and the increased presence of multinationals in the country, the interest of foreigners in learning Portuguese rose. This fact is also noted by the number of students enrolled in the Portuguese proficiency exam, CELPE-Bras and the number of foreigner students entering at the Brazilian Universities. Most of these students are Spanish speakers and need to write the dissertation or thesis in Portuguese. The similarity between Portuguese and Spanish is considered as a positive element that often becomes an obstacle, because similarity and closeness frequently conceal differences and hinder learners from mastering the Portuguese, keeping interferences from their native Spanish both when speaking and writing in Portuguese. The largest number of this interference occurs at the lexical level. One alternative to deal with errors of second language learners is the use of computational post-edit tools and tools to support the writing process. However, the number of resources and tools available to help improve Portuguese writing as a foreign language is very small, unlike the scenario into English. This research proposed the creation of resources and writing support tools at the lexical level as a first step to improving the linguistic quality of the texts produced by Portuguese native Spanish. Corpus linguistics was used as a methodology to enable the learners error analysis. The writing support tools use bilingual lexicons compiled through translation techniques based on alignment parallel corpus. Given the insufficient number of errors previously annotated to support automatic error detection, this research proposed methods based on language model and artificial generation of errors. The generation of artificial errors introduced himself as an efficient method for predicting lexical errors of learners. The contributions obtained with the methodology based on automatic translation to generate written supports between similar languages, considering lexical error, extracted by the analysis of learners corpus, focus of this research are: (i) the theoretical point of view, the survey and quantification of the main problems caused by the Spanish marks, left in the academic texts written in Portuguese by native Spanish; (ii) the automatic generation of language resources point of view, bilingual lexicons of cognates and false cognates; bilingual lexicon of discourse markers; bilingual lexicon of formulaic expressions that appear in scientific texts and bilingual lexicon of verbs related to scientific research in Portuguese and, (iii) the point of view of creating subsidies for the area of support scientific writing, design and evaluation of aid to support scientific writing in Portuguese by native Spanish speakers.

O número de estrangeiros interessados em aprender o português tem aumentado na última década, em consequência do crescimento da economia brasileira e do aumento da presença de multinacionais no Brasil. Esse fato se mostra pelo aumento do número de inscritos no exame de proficiência de português CELPE-Bras e de estudantes estrangeiros que ingressam nas universidades brasileiras. A maioria destes estudantes são de língua espanhola e precisam escrever seus textos acadêmicos em português. A proximidade das línguas portuguesa e espanhola apresenta-se tanto como um elemento positivo quanto como um obstáculo, pois oculta as diferenças e impede o domínio da língua portuguesa, mantendo, na fala e na escrita em português, interferências do espanhol. O maior número destas interferências acontece no nível lexical. Uma das alternativas para tratar os problemas em textos de aprendizes de uma língua é o emprego de ferramentas computacionais de pós-processamento e de suporte ao processo de escrita. No entanto, o número de recursos e ferramentas disponíveis para auxiliar a escrita de português como língua estrangeira é muito reduzido, diferentemente do cenário para a língua inglesa. Esta pesquisa propôs a criação de recursos e ferramentas de suporte à escrita no nível lexical como primeiro passo para a melhoria da qualidade linguística dos textos em português produzidos pelos nativos do espanhol. A Linguística de Córpus foi utilizada como metodologia para viabilizar a análise de erros de aprendizes. As ferramentas de auxílio utilizam léxicos bilíngues compilados por meio de técnicas de tradução, baseadas em alinhamento de córpus paralelos. Dado o número insuficiente de erros previamente anotados para suportar a detecção automática de erros, esta pesquisa propôs métodos baseados em modelo língua e na geração artificial de erros. A geração de erros artificiais se apresentou como um método eficiente para predizer erros lexicais dos aprendizes. As contribuições obtidas com a metodologia baseada em tradução automática para gerar auxílios à escrita entre línguas próximas, considerando a análise de erros lexicais extraídos de córpus de aprendizes, foco desta pesquisa, são: (i) do ponto de vista teórico, o levantamento e quantificação dos principais problemas causados pelas marcas do espanhol, deixadas nos textos acadêmicos em português escritos por nativos do espanhol; (ii) do ponto de vista de geração automática de recursos linguísticos, léxicos bilíngues de cognatos e falsos cognatos; léxico bilíngue de marcadores discursivos; léxico de expressões formulaicas que aparecem nos textos científicos e léxico bilíngue de verbos relacionados com pesquisa científica em português e, (iii) do ponto de vista da criação de subsídios para a área de auxílio à escrita científica, o projeto e avaliação de auxílios para suportar a escrita científica em português por nativos do espanhol. / In the last decade, as a result of Brazilian economic growth and the increased presence of multinationals in the country, the interest of foreigners in learning Portuguese rose. This fact is also noted by the number of students enrolled in the Portuguese proficiency exam, CELPE-Bras and the number of foreigner students entering at the Brazilian Universities. Most of these students are Spanish speakers and need to write the dissertation or thesis in Portuguese. The similarity between Portuguese and Spanish is considered as a positive element that often becomes an obstacle, because similarity and closeness frequently conceal differences and hinder learners from mastering the Portuguese, keeping interferences from their native Spanish both when speaking and writing in Portuguese. The largest number of this interference occurs at the lexical level. One alternative to deal with errors of second language learners is the use of computational post-edit tools and tools to support the writing process. However, the number of resources and tools available to help improve Portuguese writing as a foreign language is very small, unlike the scenario into English. This research proposed the creation of resources and writing support tools at the lexical level as a first step to improving the linguistic quality of the texts produced by Portuguese native Spanish. Corpus linguistics was used as a methodology to enable the learners error analysis. The writing support tools use bilingual lexicons compiled through translation techniques based on alignment parallel corpus. Given the insufficient number of errors previously annotated to support automatic error detection, this research proposed methods based on language model and artificial generation of errors. The generation of artificial errors introduced himself as an efficient method for predicting lexical errors of learners. The contributions obtained with the methodology based on automatic translation to generate written supports between similar languages, considering lexical error, extracted by the analysis of learners corpus, focus of this research are: (i) the theoretical point of view, the survey and quantification of the main problems caused by the Spanish marks, left in the academic texts written in Portuguese by native Spanish; (ii) the automatic generation of language resources point of view, bilingual lexicons of cognates and false cognates; bilingual lexicon of discourse markers; bilingual lexicon of formulaic expressions that appear in scientific texts and bilingual lexicon of verbs related to scientific research in Portuguese and, (iii) the point of view of creating subsidies for the area of support scientific writing, design and evaluation of aid to support scientific writing in Portuguese by native Spanish speakers.

Word prediction has been offered as support for children with spelling difficulties. The literature however has shown wide-ranging results, as the use of word prediction is at the cost of time and fatigue due to increased visual-cognitive demands. Spelling support with word prediction is through word completion, keystroke reduction and the interactive process between spelling and reading. The research project was a cross-over within-subject design using 80 Grade 4 – 6 children with spelling difficulties in a school for special needs. The research task took the form of entering 30 words through an on-screen keyboard, with and without the use of word prediction software. The subjects were divided into four groups, who completed the research task in combinations of one of two equivalent wordlists and the presentation order of the typing method used. The Graded Word Spelling Test, administered before the study began, served to investigate whether there was a relationship between the children’s current spelling knowledge and word prediction efficacy. The results indicated an increase in spelling accuracy with the use of word prediction, but at the cost of time and the tendency to use word approximations, which decreased as grade and age increased. Children’s current spelling knowledge could not serve as an indicator of who would be most likely to benefit from word prediction use. The cross-over design counter-balanced the effects of the inequalities in the two wordlists and the effects of practice and fatigue noted in the presentation order. Further research into the impact that more extensive training and practice would have on word prediction efficacy and the usefulness of word prediction in more functional writing is necessary. / Dissertation (M (Augmentative and Alternative Communication))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (CAAC) / unrestricted

No description available.

Cette recherche, qui relève du domaine de l'apprentissage des langues assisté par ordinateur, se penche sur diverses aides logicielles pouvant faciliter l'activité scripturale en Français Langue Étrangère. Le cadre théorique s'inspire de la linguistique textuelle (Adam, notamment), des travaux portant sur les processus rédactionnels des apprentis-scripteurs, particulièrement en L2 et de l'approche par tâches dans la didactique des langues. Le terrain est constitué d'étudiants thaïlandais de la Section de Français à l'Université de Chiang Maï en Thaïlande, dont le niveau en français se situe entre B1 et B2. Le dispositif d'écriture a été organisé à partir d'une plateforme d'apprentissage en ligne Moodle permettant, d'une part, la présentation de contenus et, d'autre part, la pratique du feedback entre pairs via le forum de la plateforme. Nous avons également expérimenté, dans notre recherche, une aide logicielle à la rédaction, ScribPlus. Cette application, version Internet de logiciels hors-ligne des années 1990 (Scrivere con Word Prof, Gammes d'écriture), vise à développer des compétences de production textuelle chez les apprentis scripteurs par une série d'incitations débouchant sur la génération d'une ébauche de texte. L'ensemble du dispositif (Moodle, ScribPlus, consignes, textes supports) a fait l'objet d'une première mise œuvre et d'un recueil de données; celles-ci ont été analysées dans le but d'améliorer le dispositif. Il a ainsi été possible de faire une seconde expérience en modifiant certains paramètres, notamment les incitations de ScribPlus et le lien lecture-écriture. Les analyses, de nature essentiellement qualitative, se sont fondées sur le système d'incitations de ScribPlus, sur des entretiens semi-directifs avec les étudiants, sur les productions écrites et les feedbacks laissés sur le forum de ces derniers. Leur but était de dégager les apports et les limites du dispositif d'écriture afin de proposer un certain nombre d'améliorations. Cette recherche relève donc de la recherche-action, voire de la recherche développement. / This study falls within the field of computer-assisted language learning and examines various software aids that can facilitate writing activities in French as a Foreign Language. The theoretical framework draws on both textual linguistics (in particular, Adam) and work focusing on learners' writing processes, particularly among second-year undergraduates, as well as on the task-based approach in language learning theory. The research field is composed of Thai students in the French Section at Chiang Mai University in Thailand, with a B1 to B2 level in French. The set of writing aids was organised using the online learning platform Moodle, allowing, on the one hand, the presentation of content and, on the other, peer feedback via the platform's forum. Within this study, the writing aid software Scribplus was also tested. This application, which is an Internet version of 1990s off-line software programs (Scrivere con Word Prof, Gammes d'écriture), aims to develop learners' competence in textual production by using a series of prompts that lead to the generation of a draft text. During an initial phase, the whole set of aids (Moodle, Scribplus, instructions, textual materials) was implemented and data was collected; these data were then analyzed with a view to improving the system. A second experiment was then possible, in which certain parameters were changed, in particular Scribplus's prompts and the reading-writing link. These analyses were mainly qualitative and based on Scribplus's prompting system and on semi-structured interviews with the students, as well as on their written productions and the feedback that they left on the forum. The aim was to identify the benefits and limitations of the set of writing aids in order to suggest a certain number of improvements. This research can therefore be qualified as action research, or even as development research.