Academic Writing Course Research Articles

Online Scaffolding Strategies: Case Studies of Asian EFL Learners in an Academic Writing Course

The article reported a case study investigating the scaffolding strategies of twelve Asian EFL learners in four small groups’ scaffolding strategies during two online collaborative writing (OCW) tasks in a composition course using Google Docs as a writing platform. Of interest was how EFL learners with different L1 scaffold each other while co-constructing OCW tasks, and also if scaffolding strategies used during OCW tasks influence writing performance. Data collection included pre-test and post-test writing, two OCW tasks on descriptive and argumentative essays, learners’ use of scaffolding and non-scaffolding negotiations during OCW tasks observed through Google Docs revision history, and student reflection. The findings showed that learners in small groups employed both scaffolding and non-scaffolding dialogues to jointly construct their OCW tasks by giving advice, providing suggestions, responding to questions or requests, asking questions, or clarifying ideas. Learners who contributed more texts directed their team and initiated both scaffolding negotiations and non-negotiations while performing group work. The study results also revealed that members who employed more scaffolding negotiations during their OCW processes likely produced a better quality of writing in their post-test. Nevertheless, these findings indicated that members in small groups benefited from both scaffolding and non-scaffolding negotiations as they helped in task revisions. The findings contributed to research that has investigated online scaffolding strategies in EFL learners’ collaborative writing tasks.

The Use of Social Media Text-Based Exercises to Promote University Students’ Knowledge of Non-Academic and Academic English Language

In this digital era, students tend to write more for non-academic purposes on social media platforms by using informal language. Consequently, they become familiar with the informal writing style and use non-academic language in academic writing. This research, therefore, aims to discover 1) what are the results of using the social media text-based exercises developed by the researchers in promoting university students’ knowledge of non-academic and academic English language, and 2) what are the students’ attitudes toward the use of social media text-based exercises. The instruments included four sets of social media text-based exercises, a pre-test, a post-test, and an open-ended questionnaire. Participants were 96 third-year English major students enrolling in the Academic Writing course, sections 1, 2, and 3 in the 1st semester, the academic year 2021 of a university in Thailand. The findings showed that the social media text-based exercises were effective in promoting the students’ knowledge of the non-academic and academic language. Questionnaire respondents expressed great attitudes toward the exercises. They believed the materials enabled them to analyze and identify distinct features of the registers in non-academic and academic writing. Additionally, they mentioned that learning through the exercises was interesting, enjoyable, and understandable. The study also provided suggestions for improving the exercises.

Academic writing centers and the teaching of academic writing at colleges: Literature review

Although colleges have offered academic writing courses, many students still struggle with this writing ability. Their poor writing skills are also associated with a lack of teacher guidance The tasks given by teachers are sometimes beyond their capabilities. Students are not accustomed to writing long academic papers. As a result, they do not enjoy writing essays, and they are not confident in their writing skills. This research is intended to collect and analyze articles related to Academic Writing Courses and the teaching of academic writing at colleges. The design used is a literature review, articles are collected using search engines such as JStore, Academic One file, Sciencedirect, and Proquest. The criteria for the articles used are those published in 2008-2021. Based on the articles collected the result is that academic writing centers (AWC) does not guarantee better grades for the students. Instead, it is time to help them fulfill their needs: i) Becoming self-directed; ii) Independent writers; iii) Building the confidence of writers; and iv) Helping writers with advanced writing tasks.

Adaptations to Emergency Remote Teaching on EFL Writing Course During the Covid-19 Pandemic

<p>Covid-19 pandemic forced lecturers and students to stay at home and manage online remote teaching systems. This current study explored the adaptations to emergency online teaching on EFL Academic Writing courses in the aspect of practices and perception from both lecturers and students at university. A mixed-method approach was selected using an exploratory sequential design. The participants were a lecturer and 51 university students who registered for the course at a private university in Jakarta. The instruments were the lecturer’s documents from 14 meetings and an online questionnaire sequentially. The data were then analyzed using descriptive as well as thematic qualitative data analysis. The findings showed that the lecturer’s adaptations consisted of digital learning platforms, material delivery, teaching methods/techniques, and writing activity and assessment. Some students assumed that attending online remote teaching was confusing, while others had no adjustments and called it a new and valuable experience. In general, they perceived positive perceptions toward teaching’s practices. WhatsApp mobile messenger with content materials in PDF format using Genre-based approach considers being very effective in managing Academic Writing courses for emergency remote teaching during the pandemic.</p>

Ideational Metaphor Analysis on EFL Students’ Academic Writing

Over the last decade, research on the quality of EFL students' English academic writing has increased. However, research on EFL students' academic writing that incorporates grammatical metaphors is regarded scarce. As such, this study seeks to elucidate the occurrences of ideational metaphors in students' academic writing essays. The qualitative descriptive method was used in this study. This research involved a total of 25 undergraduate students from the University of HKBP Nommensen Medan, Indonesia, English Department, Faculty of Language and Arts, who studied Academic Writing course in the third semester. Students were required to submit a 350-word essay on the subject "Learning Challenges during the Coronavirus Pandemic." The research's data corpus totals 10,252 words. The results indicate that the students' writings contain 281 clauses comprising the ideational metaphor. It is deemed little in comparison to the corpus's overall data set of 10,252 words. Material processes dominate the incidence of ideational metaphors, followed by mental processes, relational processes, behavioral processes, and existential processes. This finding implies that the essay structure of EFL students is unlikely to have a large proportion of solid grammatical metaphor clauses. The pedagogical implication of this research is that EFL students, lecturers, teachers, and other educational practitioners interested in teaching English academic writing should be aware of grammatical metaphors in writing texts as a proxy for the quality of scientifically academic writing.

EFL Students' Perception on English Tenses Mastery in Improving English Academic Writing

This study seeks to uncover the perceptions of EFL students on English tenses mastery and their belief that English tenses mastery ensures better improvement in academic writing. The research was engaged in a mixed method. The quantitative descriptive method was utilized to study the students’ perceptions on English tenses mastery to improve their English academic writing in numerical form and percentage. The qualitative method was focused on the reasons for the students’ low competence and their belief that English tenses mastery can lead to the quality of writing. The data collection used Google form in multiple-choice and short answer forms. A total of 59 EFL students of the English Department of Universitas HKBP Nommensen who took the Academic Writing course participated in this research. The results show that: (1) most of the EFL students were familiar with all the names of the English tenses with a total of 62.7% (37 out of 59 respondents); (2) the most number of students (54.2 respondents) can employ some of the tenses in writing; (3) The main reason for the EFL students is unable to apply English grammar, particularly English tenses in writing practice was due to the lack of students’ English grammatical competence; (4) around 88.1% of the respondents (52 students) believed that mastering English tenses was the key to improve their writing skill. Accordingly, the teachers need to provide an effective method to advance the students’ competence in the use of the English tense in writing. For the researchers, the research findings provide basic evidence to investigate the issues in the future.

Investigating EFL students’ linguistic problems using Grammarly as automated writing evaluation feedback

A plethora of previous studies has shown that corrective feedback can benefit students to progress in their learning. Due to technological advancement, there is a need to investigate the profile of corrective feedback to students’ writing via automated writing evaluation (AWE), particularly in the Indonesian higher education context. Therefore, this research aims to employ an AWE platform, Grammarly, to investigate the Indonesian English as a foreign language (EFL) students’ writing profiles in spelling, grammar, punctuation, enhancement suggestion, sentence structure, and style check. This ex post facto study explored the assignment written by 54 fourth-semester English department students enrolled in an academic writing course at an Indonesian university. The students’ writing profiles were classified, identified, and categorized using the Grammarly platform. Descriptive statistics were used to obtain the average, standard deviation, and significant differences according to the writing profiles between male and female students. The result stated that grammar is the major problem possessed by students. Furthermore, teachers are expected to provide online corrective feedback for students in the Academic Writing course learning process.

THE IMPLEMENTATION OF AUTONOMOUS ONLINE LEARNING TO ENHANCE ACADEMIC WRITING COMPETENCE DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Autonomous learning during covid-19 pandemic situation becomes the best strategy to perform an effective learning process. Particularly, autonomous learning in academic writing course requires great deals of students’ willingness to manage their time and ability. This paper is a content analysis which aims to analyze the implementation of autonomous learning strategy. Descriptive qualitative method was used to investigate and describe how 20 higher education students managed their time and ability as well as to find out the obstacles. In collecting the data, the researchers used questionnaire and interview. Students had implemented autonomous learning in various ways. They practicedwriting independently by completing the tasks and assignments given by the lecturer. They also used internet to find sources such as online translator, education websites, and explanation videos on YouTube. Some obstacles were occurred during autonomous online Academic Writing due to some reasons; such as; 1) poor internet connection, 2) lack of competence in understanding academic writing materials through online learning which needs more effort such as creating group discussion among classmates, 3) weakness in building keywords when they tried to search terms used in Academic Writing course.

От многообразия подходов к жанру в преподавании английского языка как иностранного до интегрированной кросс-культурной модели жанровой педагогики: теоретический обзор

The purpose of the review is to define and synthesize major trends of genre approaches development in the Anglo-American and worldwide pedagogical contexts of teaching English as a foreign language as well as present this relatively new field for the Russian pedagogy and focus on its most important concepts and methods. The novelty of the research is threefold. First, the genre approach is manifested in the new model of genre pedagogy that is based on three leading schools - the Sydney School of Genre Pedagogy, English for Specific Purposes (ESP), the New Rhetoric. Second, the review deals with new methods suggested by the proponents of these schools - the curriculum cycle (the Sydney School of Genre Pedagogy), the move-step structure (ESP), the rhetorical planning wheel (the New Rhetoric). Third, the hypothesis of the effectiveness of the genre approach allows us to talk about its possible implementation in the teaching practice of ESP and Academic Writing courses. The result of the review is the model of genre pedagogy suggested by the proponents of the three schools. The model foregrounds professional genres and communicative practices, synthesizing explicit and implicit methods of teaching genres in the modern context of computer-mediated communication that is based on the student-centered approach and the development of the learner autonomy.

The Effect of Online Learning on Academic Writing Course During Covid-19 Pandemic

Since the outbreak of Covid 19 in Indonesia, all universities, including Universitas Muhammadiyah Makassar, had made a decision for lecturers and students to learn from home (LFH) since March 16, 2020. This decision certainly has an impact on the change of the learning process which is used to face-to-face in the classroom then drastically changed and become online learning. This study aims at investigating the effectiveness of online learning on the Academic Writing course in the English Education Study Program. Pre-experimental design is the method where the sample is purposively chosen. The data is collected by giving pre-test and post-test and questionnaire. The study reveals that students get better writing skills after learning online. It can be seen that the pretest is 50.6 becomes 75.8 in the posttest. Meanwhile, after calculating the t-test it is also found that the effectiveness of online learning on Academic Writing Course through Google Meet is 55%. It is then concluded that online learning using Google Meet on Academic Writing Course has a positive effect on students' writing skills.

Grammatical Errors on Descriptive Academic Writing

Generally, errors committed by EFL students in learning English at any level of study. This research focuses on university students who are taking Academic Writing course in the third semester. This research is aimed at identifying the types of errors and the dominant one committed by students in descriptive academic writing exercises. The method of the research was qualitative approach. The instrument that the researchers used in this research was through essay writing. There were 24 students were taken as subjects of the research. To analyse the data, the researchers used Error Analysis Method (EAM) based on Surface Structure Taxonomy and percentage error analysis. The findings showed that many students committed errors involving grammatical items in line with omission, addition, misinformation and misordering and the dominant was misordering error. The researchers assume that there were some factors that affects students’ errors such as lack of knowledge and competence in English grammar. In conclusion, error analysis method is such a suitable way to identify students’ errors using simple present tense in descriptive academic writing exercises.

How scientific concept develops: Languaging in collaborative writing tasks

This qualitative case study explored the extent to which learners' L2 writing concepts changed across different collaborative writing tasks, and how languaging helped learners make meaning between scientific and spontaneous concepts. Four first-year MA students from a Chinese university formed a study group and engaged in collaborative writing tasks as required by an Academic English Reading and Writing course. Multiple sources of data were collected, including audio-taped group discussions, group writings, individual reflections, and course-related documents. Data analysis demonstrated the microgenetic evolving trajectories of the rhetorical modes of “maintaining the flow of information”. The participants progressed from spontaneous knowledge of those concepts to a scientific system through languaging about a text containing these conceptual features. Learners' conscious usage of scientific terms, constant revisiting to their prior knowledge, and critical reading of the academic text highlight the mediating role of languaging in empowering the dynamic interaction between scientific reasoning and spontaneous thinking. This study suggests that the integration of stylistic analysis tasks, peer collaboration, and rhetorical concepts may facilitate the transformation of students’ thinking patterns as well as the development of their L2 academic literacies.

Specifying Learners’ Professional Needs in Academic Writing

The article examines the controversial procedure of analyzing the learner’s professional needs. Needs analysis is generally regarded as an invaluable tool for constructing a course syllabus. It might be really informative if the target situation analysis and present situation analysis are combined. Speaking about academic writing teaching for Russian non-academic students at the Bachelor Degree level, one should admit that students have no or limited experience of functioning in an academic area in English. Consequently, their responses to the questionnaires as one of the frequently used methods of target situation analysis are merely assumptions; and the answers could not be taken as objective and valid. The author presents a system of analyzing students’ needs within the framework of Academic Writing course: namely, distinguishes the stages that precede or follow teacher-student talks about their expectations, provides more objective practice of examining learners’ needs, and discusses ways of improving question-answer sessions/ interviews. Needs analysis practice that develops learners’ professional needs involves task-based learning, reflexive activities, and teaching to ask good questions. Bringing into life the analogy between customer development theory in management and needs analysis practice in education, it is possible to work out a fruitful strategy. Conducting needs analysis pertains equally to specifying and developing students’ needs in academic communication.

Process-Genre Approach in Teaching Writing to Language Preparatory School Students at a Private University in Iraq

Although voluminous studies have been conducted about product, process and genre approach in writing, only few studies have been observed to measure the effects of process-genre approach on students` writing performance in an Academic Writing course at a university level in Iraq. In this respect, this study investigated the effects of process genre-based approach on Academic Writing score of language preparatory school students over 12 weeks using pre-test and post-test. Considering this aim, 30 students were divided into two groups as control or experimental group through purposive sampling method. Experimental group students were exposed to process-genre approach, whereas control group students were engaged in product approach. Each student wrote an expository essay about 1 topic which was related to IELTS Writing Task 1 biweekly amounting to 5 topics during the study. Quantitative data were analyzed by IBM SPSS 23 through independent samples t test and paired samples t test both of which confirmed that the students in experimental group progressed more significantly than the students in control group. Furthermore, findings of the quantitative data were complemented by qualitative data with students` genuine opinions in the interview. Findings of this study may offer some novel ideas about integrating approaches to increase students` success and enthusiasm in Academic Writing courses on a global scale.

Teaching press release as a hybrid genre in the Academic Writing course (English language, science majors)

Science media discourse is dynamically developing in the 21st century, and the genre of a press release is gaining its popularity in the modern context of mediatization of science. Despite that, a press release remains to be underestimated both in media linguistics and in applied linguistics, English for specific purposes (ESP), and academic writing. The purpose of the article is to describe the process of teaching a press release within the framework of genre pedagogy. The first objective is to explore the hybrid nature of a press release by addressing the headlinesecondary headline-lead structure in English and Russian in the deconstruction stage. In the independent construction stage, the English-language press releases of Russian students are analyzed with a special emphasis on framing elements structure. The results showed the following trends. Students ignored secondary headlines, avoided hedges, and chose the favorite expressive means of the Russian tradition — alliteration and personification, thus demonstrating the influence of the Russian language and culture. In the process of writing leads, students used two major strategies. The first strategy was in telling a story of a research event and “forgetting” the scientific component. Another strategy was a different one — foregrounding the scientific component of the text. Students overexplained the topic and problem, making a lead similar to the Introduction of the research article. In both cases, hybridization of a press release seemed to be lost. The research has proven the fact of the significant role of a press release for the Academic Writing course. Undoubtedly, it is a good way to introduce the modern sociocultural context of mediatization of science as well as the variety of genres and their interdiscursive nature. In practice, however, the student writing demonstrates an influence of the Russian tradition in headlines and neglecting the hybrid nature of the genre in leads.

The Effects of Product Approach on Language Preparatory School Students` Writing Score in an Academic Writing Course

The Effects of Product Approach on Language Preparatory School Students` Writing Score in an Academic Writing Course

Peer Response Activities in the Process of Writing an Argumentative Essay by Chinese and Korean Students in an Online-based Academic Writing Course

Peer Response Activities in the Process of Writing an Argumentative Essay by Chinese and Korean Students in an Online-based Academic Writing Course

Improving Language Preparatory School Students` Writing Skills through Process Approach

An increasing number of studies has been conducted about the approaches to improve learners` writing in an Academic Writing course. However, no approach stood out as the most efficient one. In this respect, process based approach and product based approach were compared in this study. The study was conducted on language preparatory school students at a prestigious private university in Erbil over 17 weeks. Simple random sampling method was employed to choose the sample from the population. Experimental and control group students were equal as 20. Experimental group students took instructions based on the steps of process approach, whereas control group students followed the steps of product approach. Each student was required to write about 8 topics regardless of being in control or experimental group. The students took two exams as pretest and posttest to make comparisons through SPSS 23. Independent samples t test p value was measured as .004 which was significant. Also, paired samples t test p value was .000 which was also highly significant in experimental group. These results reveal that the students who followed a process based approach instruction outperformed the students who got a product approach based instruction. Similarly, the questionnaire and interview analysis as a part of qualitative data uncovered that the students` satisfaction rate was higher once they followed a process based approach writing instruction. Findings of this study suggest that process approach can be integrated into Academic Writing curriculums without having any hesitation.

The Effects of Direct Written Corrective Feedback (WCF) on Language Preparatory School Students` IELTS Independent Writing Section Score

A wealth of research has examined the effects of varied types of Written Corrective Feedback (WCF) in Academic Writing courses. However, there has been an ongoing discussion on adopting one of them. In this regard, this study investigated the effects of direct feedback on IELTS Academic Writing Section Score of Foundation English students` over 24 weeks using pre-test and post-test. Considering this aim, 40 students were separated into two groups as control or experimental group through systematic sampling method. Experimental group students were exposed to direct feedback, whereas control group students were engaged in metalinguistic feedback. Each student wrote 6 essays related to IELTS Writing Task 2 regardless of being in control or experimental group. Quantitative data were analyzed by IBM SPSS 23 through independent sample t test and paired sample t test. Independent sample t test and paired sample t test post test results were recorded as .001 respectively, indicating that there were highly significant differences in experimental group. On the other hand, control group progressed to an extent, but it was not as significant as the experimental group. Likewise, the questionnaire and interview analysis show that direct feedback was supported by more students when compared to metalinguistic feedback. Findings of this study may have some insightful points for educators who have been covering or managing Academic English courses at universities globally.

Feasibility of using comparative judgement and student judges to assess writing performance of English language learners

This study aims to identify how feasible it is to use comparative judgement (CJ) and student judges to assess the writing performance of English language learners. For this purpose, 35 paragraphs written by the students who were enrolled in a freshman Academic Writing course at a semi-private university located in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus were selected and uploaded to http://www.nomoremarking.com website. Ten instructors of the Academic Writing course and 112 students taking the course volunteered to participate in the study. Then, the students were taken into 5 groups according to their writing performance level. In total, around 350 comparisons were done by each group. The results suggested that it could be feasible to use CJ to assess short writing performance like paragraphs if the instructors were experienced and trained. Moreover, instructors liked CJ and described it as a more practical, easier, fairer, faster, more enjoyable way of marking student papers. The students also liked CJ and it was also found that students who were high achievers in paragraph writing might be used to mark student papers through comparative judgement as long as they were trained.