Faculty of Humanities
School of Human and Community Development/Psychology
9503776d
Kajeean@educ.wits.ac.za / This study investigated English Second Language (ESL) students’ experiences of academic
writing in a tertiary institution. It focused particularly on ESL students’ interpretations of
what is expected in academic writing. Consequently, ESL students’ expectations were
compared and contrasted to the academic writing expectations of a group of academics in the
same institution. The study aimed to explore how the concepts of Basic Interpersonal
Communicative Skills (BICS) and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) were
manifest in the students’ expectations and writing. The main aim was to identify the BICS
and CALP distinction in ESL students as explanatory of their ability to write academically. In
other words, the assumption was that ESL students experience difficulty with writing because
they achieve surface fluency in terms of BICS but do not seem to develop sufficient levels of
CALP to cope with the demands of the curricula in academic study. The sample consisted of
thirty first year ESL Psychology students and six academics who taught on the first year
Psychology course. ESL student volunteers were organized into focus groups, while
academics were asked to participate in semi-structured, individual interviews. The
participants’ responses were recorded and subsequently analyzed using thematic content
analysis. It was found that academic writing was conceptualized in terms of structure and
content. Through this distinction, ESL students recognized that, although they are able to
operate at surface levels of language proficiency they find it problematic to operate at deeper
levels of cognitive academic language proficiency. This in turn explained why they found it
difficult to perform higher order academic tasks that go beyond the rote recall of content to
analysis, synthesis, evaluation and application of concepts and theory. Further findings were
extrapolated that lie at the level of the ESL student and the tertiary institution. It was found
that academic writing expectations needed to be communicated to students by academics in
more distinct terms. The internalization of academic discourse by ESL students, and students
in general, seemed to require further facilitation by academics in the tertiary community of
practice. Furthermore, the study raised the issue of English Second Language as a label
impacting on ESL student’s confidence, self-esteem and overall attitude towards transcending
challenges associated with academic writing.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/1701 |
| Date | 14 November 2006 |
| Creators | Kajee, Anisa |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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