Abstract
Incidents and anecdotal evidence accrue of learners’ resorting to plagiarism in their essays and research papers. There seem to be three possible reasons that plagiarism is common among students writing in English as a second language. First is the desire to cut corners. Second, there are differences in cultural practices. Third, the learners have a lack of skills and/or language proficiency. We wanted to begin to document the actual situation in Japan. Therefore, we decided to conduct an ethnographic type of study in which we would seek evidence from a variety of sources. Although we focused our attention on written assignments of learners within the classroom context, specifically examining plagiarising the work of others, we also examine the broader social context.
Highlights
Incidents and anecdotal evidence accrue of learners’ resorting to plagiarism in their essays and research papers. Applebome (1997) reports on term papers for sale flooding the net. Howard (1995), in order presumably to cope with the ubquitiousness of plagiarism in academic writing programs in U.S universities, makes a case for taking a positive perspective on such techniques as “patchwriting” by novice writers
We decided to focus our attention on written assignments of learners within the classroom context, focusing on plagiarizing the work of others, we examine the broader social context so that we can understand the problems of helping English as foreign learners (EFL) learners develop academic writing skills
First of all, we briefly review some relevant studies on the problem of plagiarism by learners of English
Summary
Incidents and anecdotal evidence accrue of learners’ resorting to plagiarism in their essays and research papers. Applebome (1997) reports on term papers for sale flooding the net. Howard (1995), in order presumably to cope with the ubquitiousness of plagiarism in academic writing programs in U.S universities, makes a case for taking a positive perspective on such techniques as “patchwriting” by novice writers. Incidents and anecdotal evidence accrue of learners’ resorting to plagiarism in their essays and research papers. Applebome (1997) reports on term papers for sale flooding the net. Howard (1995), in order presumably to cope with the ubquitiousness of plagiarism in academic writing programs in U.S universities, makes a case for taking a positive perspective on such techniques as “patchwriting” by novice writers. One of us acted as a tutor at a major university in the United Kingdom where an estimated 90% of the essays written by three students were plagiarized. A writing class at a Japanese university and one in Slovakia could not function unless the students did the writing in class, as most would copy from each other if work was assigned for homework
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