Responding to Student Writing: Strategies for a Distance-Teaching Context identifies viable
response techniques for a unique discourse community. An overview of paradigmatic shifts in
writing and reading theory, 'frameworks of response' developed to classify response statements
for research purposes, and an overview of research in the field provide the theoretical basis for
the evaluation of the empirical study.
The research comprises a three-fold exploration of the response strategies adopted by Unisa
lecturers to the writing of Practical English (PENl00-3) students. In the first phase the focus falls
on the effect of intervention on the students' revised drafts of four divergent marking strategies
- coded correction, minimal marking, taped response and self assessment. All the experimental
strategies tested result in statistically-significant improvement levels in the revised draft. The
benefits of self assessment and rewriting, even without tutorial intervention, were demonstrated.
The study is unique by virtue of its distance-teaching context, its sample size of 1750 and in the
high significance levels achieved.
The second phase of the research consisted of a questionnaire that determined 2640 students'
expectations with respect to marking, the value of commentary, their perceptions of markers'
roles and their opinions of the experimental strategies tested. Their responses were also
correlated with their final Practical English examination results.
The third phase examined tutorial response. The framework of response, developed for the
purpose, revealed that present response strategies represent a regression to the traditional
product-orientated approach to writing that contradicts the cognitive and rhetorical axiological
basis of the course. There is thus a disjunction between the teaching and theoretical practices.
The final chapter bridges this gap by examining issues of audience, transparency, ownership,
timing of intervention and training. The researcher believes that she has successfully identified
practical and innovative strategies that assist lecturers in a distance-teaching context to break
away from old response blueprints. / English Studies / D.Litt. et Phil. (English)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/16094 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Spencer, Brenda |
| Contributors | Kilfoil, W. R. (Wendy Ruth), 1952- |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (336 leaves) : illustrations |
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