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The oral academic discourse of international college students.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the oral participation of freshman International Students (ISs) in college content classes. The research questions were: (i) how much do ISs speak in different academic situations; (ii) what discourse moves do ISs make, especially initiation moves; and (iii) what are the exchange patterns into which IS discourse moves are organized. The naturally occurring discourse of eight freshman undergraduate ISs studying in a variety of fields was tape-recorded in four academic situations (lectures, laboratory sessions, freshman composition classes, and student/teacher writing conferences). Analysis of the transcripts showed that the amount of IS talk varied across the four situations, and among the eight students. The frequency of student moves also varied among the students and across situations, with student questions the most frequent move in lectures, student offer moves in labs, offered responses in composition classes, and nominated responses in conferences. The most frequent exchange patterns in lectures, labs and conferences were 2-part exchanges, but the 3-part exchange was the most frequent in composition classes. Longer exchange patterns also varied across the situations. The findings contribute to studies in SLA, Interlanguage variation, discourse and interaction analysis. There are also implications for the teaching of English for Academic and Specific Purposes.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/186056
Date January 1992
CreatorsTapper, Joanna.
ContributorsRoen, Duane, Johnson, Donna M., Philips, Susan U.
PublisherThe University of Arizona.
Source SetsUniversity of Arizona
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext, Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic)
RightsCopyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.

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