Learning support needs and solutions in university academic writing contexts

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Learning support needs and solutions in
university academic writing contexts

• Clare Furneaux
• The University of Reading
• England

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Imagine you were going to Studying in a Chinese
University

• What would you want to know about the writing
  context into which you are going?
• What learning support would you like to receive?

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Establishing Academic Writing (AW) needs

• Read the literature
• L1 L2 research
• L1 L2 advice
• Predict own experience of AW
• Horses mouth academic staff
• Horses mouth students on the course

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Pedagogy

• But how does pedagogy work? Through shielding a
  learner from distraction, by fore fronting
  crucial features of a problem, by sequencing the
  steps to understanding, by promoting negotiation,
  or by some other form of scaffolding the task
  at hand.
• Bruner 1997 69

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Scaffolding

• The creation of a pedagogic context in which
  combined effort results in a successful outcome
• Crucially scaffolding involves simplifying the
  learners role rather than the task
• Daniels 2001107

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Transmission of culture

• Depends on
• Concordance between a learners capabilities and
  what the culture offers
• Some person in the culture who identifies what a
  learner needs and delivers it.
• Tomasello et al 1993

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Example context

• British University
• Post-graduate programme (MA TEFL)
• Campus-based and distance study
• Wide range of student backgrounds
• All with ELT experience
• Assessment 3-hour essay exam papers
• 4,000 word assignments
• 15,000 word dissertation

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What does the academy expect?

• a range of reading no set book
• synthesis of reading not beads on a string
• display of knowledge (knowledge telling)
• plus
• your own voice (knowledge transforming)
• criticality being able to evaluate
• Bereiter and Scardamalia 1987.

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What does the academy expect? (2)

• task fulfilment
• answering the question
• meeting genre norms
• drawing on teaching and learning experience
• well-structured text
• a thesis
• autonomy

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Student concerns on starting

• All what does AW at this level mean?
• I was worried that I might be rusty. (UK
  student)
• Non-UK what does AW mean in this academic
  context?
• I was not at all confident very worried about
  my writing. (Japanese student)
• At a loss. (Argentinean)
• I thought I was very brilliant in writing and
  then when I got here (Syrian)

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Non-UK contd

• I felt confident when I started knowing that I
  had done well at Dutch University and use English
  writing most of the time in my work. However it
  was a false sense of confidence, as Reading
  University uses a different style in academic
  writing than I was used to. (Dutch)
• I was worried as I felt I didnt have enough
  experience in this kind of writing. (Canadian)

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On-going concerns

• Plagiarism
• Sometimes if Im trying to avoid plagiarism and
  then I change things and I change them a lot and
  I start doubting whether it is correct whether
  the English is correct or if I am saying the
  same thing because sometimes things are so subtle
  that if I change them I fear I might not be
  saying what the author was really saying

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On-going concerns (2)

• Using sources
• I have to justify what I say with a reasonable
  source, on the other hand I have to say the same
  things using different words So then I got angry
  and say So what does this mean? That I cant
  think for myself? I may be saying many things
  which have already been written by somebody else
  - I am not that well read so how am I going to
  check who said this?

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On-going concerns (3)

• I try to forget about creativity and try to stick
  to what is written the ideasI dont know what
  would happen in Spanish if its a question of
  insecurity with the language or worry that Im
  changing the whole idea.
• The problem is I felt not knowledgeable enough to
  know if this was obvious in the field or if it
  was just my thought.

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On-going concerns (4)

• Being critical
• Maybe its a cultural thing Im reading a book
  I think Im not the appropriate person to tell
  that this idea is ok, this idea is not so much
  convincing because ok this is a very well-known
  writer
• Drawing on own experiences
• Im trying to talk about theories but Im not
  trying to apply that to my teaching
  experienceIm not trying to add something of my
  own,

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On going concerns (5)

• Structuring writing
• Time meeting deadlines
• Interpreting feedback
• Exam pressure no planning time

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Threats to sense of identity Fatima

• For my diploma project at home I got something
  like 85 and it was brilliant and then there was a
  contest of essay writing organised by the
  American embassy and I was the first prize
  winner I thought that I am very genius but I am
  not

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Threats to sense of identityFatima (2)

• During the first term I worked very very hard. I
  was reading all the time proof reading the
  essays many timesWhen I got that feedback the
  problem is that Im reading books but Im not
  being criticalI wasnt satisfied I thought that
  I had a wrong idea about my abilities I wasnt
  assessed in a good way back home There, I know
  that the supervisor will be happy if she sees
  that I have read many books.

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Threats to sense of identityFatima (3)

• Now I can identify my problems but I cant do
  anything about it. Thats why I gave up thats
  why Im not doing much work because I think the
  problem is with my mind not with my writing
  abilitiesIf its my nature, because Im telling
  you even when Im reading something and there is
  something faulty with it, Im not trying to
  criticise that writing.

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Threats to sense of identityFatima (4)

• Asked about her strengths in AW
• No strengths at all come on, Clare! I am very
  disappointed with my marks and then when my
  father talks to me and they say Are you still
  number one? Oh my god, come on, forget it!

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Threats to sense of identity Maria

• I had a crisis actually last week I thought that
  I had at least no, I HAVE! a critical mind
  but then I said Why is it that I cannot reflect
  what I know - all my insights - in a paper with a
  better mark?

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Threats to sense of identity Maria (2)

• I dont know how it happened that for example I
  read something which either I didnt think it was
  that thoughtful and even the English was not that
  good and I say And they did better than me so
  how come?

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Threats to sense of identity Maria (3)

• And then I thought if I am not the person, the
  critical person I think I am because I understand
  things but I then cannot explain and this was
  something I didnt know what to do. I say Well,
  I have a wrong perception of myself.
• Part of my crisis is that people come to me for
  advice and I think that if I am that good I
  should be doing better.

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Fore-fronting crucial features current practice

• Study skills guidance specific to the programme
  and to assignments online, on paper,
  face-to-face.
• Clear assignment rubrics, which include
• Statement of task criteria.
• Feedback on specifics and according to task
  criteria.

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Example Criteria for Written Language module
task

1. Demonstration of a range of relevant reading and
   understanding of issues
2. Ability to evaluate reading and relate it to your
   experiences as a writer and a teacher of L2
   writing
3. Depth and breadth of discussion of the chosen
   topic
4. Coherence of assignment, especially overall
   organisation and division into sections and
   paragraphs
5. Presentation, especially correctness of
   referencing and bibliography, and quality of
   writing

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Pass level coverage / understanding of topic, and
breadth of reading

• The essay contains several key points, but may
  also reveal one or two important gaps and contain
  irrelevant material. Reading for the essay is
  limited to lecturer-provided material and a few
  major secondary sources and possibly one or two
  primary sources. There may be at least one major
  error of understanding, and several minor ones,
  but overall, the writer understands the relevant
  background material for the essay. The ability
  to make links between sources will usually be
  limited at C level, but there will be some
  evidence of it.
• Grading criteria document extract

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Assignment submission checklist

• Presentation
• Is your assignment divided up into sections and
  sub-sections, with clear headings?
• Are all appendices numbered and labelled?...
• Referencing
• In the text, are all verbatim quotations
  acknowledged as such (by either indenting or
  putting in inverted commas)?
• Are all verbatim quotations given authors name,
  date and page reference?...

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Resources students have

• Other people
• Academic writing advisors
• Language teachers
• Module tutors
• Personal tutor

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Resources students have (2)

• Peers
• on same course
• in same academic discipline
• with AW experience in English
• as linguistic advisor

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Resources students have (3)

• Texts
• articles/books
• other students writing

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Tomokos Ah-Ha! moment

• Something interesting happened while I was
  working on my essays I gave Sarah (EL teacher)
  my previous one and she pointed out my typical
  not mistake, but my style which is not very
  academic. I use my words a bit wordy and typical
  Japanese style and she pointed out.. Dont
  overuse however and this is typical Japanese
  structures, just bring that point first, just
  few comments over coffee

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Tomokos Ah-Ha! moment (2)

• And on that night I just looked at my essay for
  Reading and Testing and then it looked like as if
  my student wrote it. It was mine butit was 12
  oclock at night and I started correcting and I
  couldnt stop until like 7 in the morning. I just
  all in one go and I changed most of the sentences
  and the next night I did it again for Testing.

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Tomokos Ah-Ha! moment (3)

• And then there was just so much irrelevant
  expressionand then I just kept cutting down and
  I think my writing became much better compared to
  the first term, still I want to improve.
• No one before pointed out my style, they said
  Its ok, its understandable, but that wasnt
  enough and we did look at some sentences I
  dont know it wasnt me holding the pen and
  correcting, but I could see the mistakes and all
  the expressions. Before that I underlined some
  words I wasnt happy with but I didnt know how
  to rephrase but that night all the words just
  came out and I just got it its amazing.

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References

• Bereiter, C. Scardamalia, M. 1987.
  ThePsychology of Written Composition. Hillsdale,
  NJ Erlbaum.
• Bruner, J. 1997. Celebrating divergence Piaget
  and Vygotsky. Human Development 40 63-73.
• Daniels, H. 2001. Vygotsky and Pedagogy. London
  Routledge Falmer.
• Hyland, K. 2002. Teaching and Researching
  Writing. Harlow, UK Pearson.
• Tomasello, M., Kruger, A.C. and Ratner, H.H.
  1993. Cultural learning, Behavioural and Brain
  Sciences 16/3 495-552

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Study strategies students have developed
autonomously

• Colour coding parts of drafts
• Annotating drafts with reminders/alerts
• Noting down useful chunks of language from
  reading
• Making personal glossary of useful jargon
• Planning and note taking using questions
• Reading examples of good/bad essays, with
  explanation of strengths/weaknesses

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Scaffolding

• Shielding a learner from distraction
• preparing him/her for feedback/grading
• making tasks and task criteria clear
• clarifying reading requirements

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Scaffolding

• Sequencing the steps to understanding
• More class/online time to explain assessment
  process in general and re specfic tasks
• Formative feedback on drafts?

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Scaffolding

• Promoting negotiation
• With tutors on assignment tasks
• With peers on drafts