English-medium University Research Articles

“Now I always try to stick to the point”: Socialization to and from genre knowledge in an English-medium university in Kazakhstan

This paper investigates socialization to genre knowledge in a university in Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic where the Russian language remains prevalent while Kazakh is still being revitalized and elaborated for academic purposes. The authors conducted a survey of postgraduate students (n = 53) and alumni (n = 57) along with focus groups (n = 26) in a single discipline in order to identify the self-reported extent of genre knowledge development, and processes of development and application, in English, Kazakh, and Russian. Quantitative data show students have slightly higher genre knowledge in Russian than English or Kazakh, but alumni often see English genre knowledge as more important than Russian or Kazakh in their workplaces. Qualitative data show that socialization to English genre knowledge was so successful, at times respondents underwent a process of reverse socialization of practices from English to Russian or Kazakh. In other instances, respondents directly applied skills learned in English to both Kazakh and Russian in ways that suggested they were socializing Russian- and Kazakh-speaking peers to new practices. The results suggest an ecological approach to teaching and learning English for Academic Purposes is recommended to ensure students in multilingual contexts are able to develop and negotiate communication skills among multiple languages.

ОЦЕНКА АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА ДЛЯ АКАДЕМИЧЕСКИХ ЦЕЛЕЙ В УНИВЕРСИТЕТАХ С АНГЛИЙСКИМ ЯЗЫКОМ ОБУЧЕНИЯ (НА ПРИМЕРЕ УНИВЕРСИТЕТА УЗБЕКИСТАНА)

A number of English medium instruction universities in Uzbekistan increasing considerably. Most of these universities deliver English for Academic Purposes module (it is also called Academic English in some universities). This article highlights the importance of assessment in English for Academic Purposes modules delivered in Level 3 (Foundation Studies) in an English medium university in Uzbekistan. The paper critically evaluates an essay and explains why preference has been given to portfolio assessment.

Change and continuity in thesis and dissertation writing: The evolution of an academic genre

This paper examines the emergence of the doctoral thesis as a research genre and traces the development of thesis types and their macrostructures over time. We do this by examining the first doctorates that were awarded in English-medium universities and comparing them with doctorates that have been awarded more recently at the same universities. The data on which the study is based is a set of 100 PhDs. The study found there was change in Science-based doctorates where some of the early PhDs were written in ways that were less recognisable compared with how they are written today. There was continuity, however, in Humanities doctorates in that both the early and recent theses were all topic-based in a way that continues through to today. There was, in addition, a preference for particular thesis types at some of the institutions in particular areas of study. The findings contribute to our understanding of research genres and have implications for how we teach thesis and dissertation writing in different areas of study as well as what we advise students are appropriate choices to make as they are writing their theses and dissertations. The study is also of relevance to people working in the area of higher education more broadly and especially those with an interest in doctoral writing.

An investigation of novice ESL writers\u2019 cognitive processes and strategy use of paraphrasing

Source use competence is becoming increasingly important in English-medium universities, and inability to appropriately use reading sources leads to plagiarism which has serious punishable consequences. As one effective strategy to help academic writers to avoid plagiarism, paraphrasing is highly recommended for students to master. However, studies on paraphrasing are product-oriented, and few examined the processes and strategies of paraphrasing. The elusive construct of paraphrasing exerted a negative influence on the instruction and assessment of paraphrasing. Only specific paraphrasing strategies were examined in prior studies, and little has been done on more general strategies like cognitive and metacognitive strategies. Moreover, as for the studies of learner strategy and language performance, no consensus has been reached about the relationship between strategy use and language performance. Prior studies mainly adopted Purpura’s questionnaire (1997) with cognitive and metacognitive strategies excluding other important learner strategies, and prior studies mainly examined language performance in non-integrated tasks. Questionnaire and interview were employed in previous studies, but few has adopted think-aloud protocols to capture test takers’ online cognitive processes. To address the research gap, the present study purports to shed light on the cognitive processes and strategy use in the paraphrasing task with the method of think-aloud protocols and strategy use questionnaire. A total of 212 first-year non-English-major college students were recruited to respond to a seven-item paraphrasing task. Think-aloud protocol was conducted to capture test takers’ thinking processes while responding to the task. In addition, test takers’ strategy use in paraphrasing was elicited by a paraphrasing strategy use inventory. Findings of the study are as follows: test takers employed numerous strategies including cognitive, metacognitive, compensation, and affective strategies with a variety of sub-strategies; metacognitive strategies are significantly correlated with cognitive strategies; more proficient test takers used a smaller number of strategies and more metacognitive strategies. However, structural equation modeling analysis reported that all those strategies exert a negligible effect on participants’ paraphrasing performance. Other factors which might contribute to the language performance were analyzed, including language knowledge, test methods, personal attributes, and errors of measurement.

The Academic Writing Challenges Faced by Saudi Students Studying at a University in New Zealand

This study focused on academic writing challenges and its requirements, explored student perceptions and suggested ways in which their needs could be better met. The current study examined the obstacles of academic writing facing Saudi students in a New Zealand university. The study adopted a qualitative method approach in which 10 volunteer students were interviewed to learn their views and perceptions of academic writing skills in English and the questionnaire was used to collect students' demographic information. Also, what can be done to better prepare students for academic study at English medium universities. The students' attitude was not positive, which elicited the problem. The results revealed that the attitude of Saudi students towards learning and using the English language was not positive due to problems in teaching English, which resulted in students not prepared for the requirements of studying through the English language. It is also hoped that the results and recommendations issued by this study will benefit Saudi students, government departments in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as well as English medium universities that accept students.

NEEDS ANALYSIS: THE POTENTIAL ROLE IN EAP PRE-SESSIONAL COURSE DESIGN

The purpose of this research is to analyse the potential role of needs analysis in the process of English for Academic Purposes pre-sessional course design for English-medium university student candidates in Indonesia. Based on relevant literature about the nature of needs analysis related to learners’ descriptions and their context, the contribution of needs analysis on course design/implementation is discussed. The paper considers learning-centred approaches as an appropriate way to define learners’ needs in the process of negotiating the meaning, deciding what will be achieved, and how the learners learn, especially for English-medium university student candidates in Indonesia. By having these steps, the EAP course could be developed in accordance with learning objectives of every group of learners. Finally, a plan of conducting a needs analysis through questionnaires implemented for the learners before designing the programme is described. The result of the needs analysis conducted could benefit some institutions, instructors, and the learners in designing their EAP courses.

‘I FEEL LIKE I GO BLANK’: IDENTIFYING THE FACTORS AFFECTING CLASSROOM PARTICIPATION IN AN ORAL COMMUNICATION COURSE

This paper reports on a case study of seven undergraduate students’ classroom participation in an English-medium university in an EFL context, with a focus on their perceptions about the factors affecting their involvement in interactional opportunities in a specific speaking course. Results suggest that student participation in a foreign language learning setting is a complicated and dynamic process strongly influenced by multiple factors. Students’ participation in the language practices of the classroom and their agentive choices for L2 speaking appear to be contingent on the various individual (psychological and social) factors and contextual and classroom-oriented factors. Therefore, this current piece supports the importance of a holistic understanding of multiple factors to arrive at an in-depth picture of students’ involvement, engagement, and participation.

Learning to Design Research: Students’ Agency and Experiences in a Master of Education Program in Hong Kong

Purpose: Learning to do research has been understudied in the context of professional development in postgraduate programs. This exploratory study investigated the agency and experiences of five Chinese students who learned to design their research project in a Master of Education program at an English-medium university in Hong Kong SAR. Design/Approach/Methods: We obtained the data from semi-structured interviews and documents to establish data triangulation. Findings: The findings revealed that (1) the students’ agency in research design and proposal writing was associated with their personal/professional backgrounds, (2) their English proficiency affected their agency in the proposal writing, (3) the supervisors’ feedback would stimulate students’ agency in changing/refining their research design, and (4) ineffective supervision and learning resources would impede students’ achievement of agency on their way to creating a robust research design. Originality/Value: This study adds empirical evidence to the field of research training through the lens of learner agency. It demonstrates the applicability of using the ecological framework of agency in theoretically interpreting the contextual facilitators and constraints in making postgraduate students active agents.

Rater Negotiation Scheme: How writing raters resolve score discrepancies

Abstract In practices of direct assessment of writing ability, the variability of human decision-making during scoring poses great challenges to the validity of assessment (Kane, 2006). The variables causing differences in individual raters’ scoring interpretations have been widely investigated (e.g. Eckes, 2012; Wolfe et al., 2016). However, the issue of how raters negotiate to resolve discrepancies has not received attention although rater negotiation is a widely used score resolution method. As it has been emphasized by scholars interested in the argumentative behavior of raters (e.g. Trace et al., 2017), a systematic analysis of score negotiations will enable us to analyze the dependability of score negotiations. The purpose of this study is twofold: to present a thorough analysis of the argumentative structure of rater discrepancy resolution discussions with a view to understanding their underlying dynamics, and to investigate whether the elements of the argumentative structure of negotiations differ from research settings to authentic score resolution practices. In line with this aim, rater negotiations following a written test at the language school of an English-medium university were analyzed within the framework of Argumentation Theory by Toulmin (1958) and Walton (2005, 2016). The negotiation data were obtained from 99 recorded rater discussions among 30EFL teachers, and transcribed, coded and categorized into argumentative discussion moves. A Rater Negotiation Scheme (RNS) was developed through a recursive data analysis and categorization process, and it was validated through field-testing in authentic settings. The findings have implications both for research on rater negotiations and arguments on the reliability of the method.

When Macao’s English-medium university meets Mainland students’ mindscape

With the globalization of higher education, the tertiary institutions in Macao have adopted English as the main medium of instruction in order to strengthen their competitiveness, having attracted a large number of Mainland Chinese students. However, little has been known about their experiences and perceptions of English use in Macao, especially in English-medium universities. In this regard, this paper takes an integrated approach of language survey and interviews, examining how Mainland Chinese students use English in different settings and perceive their English use in Macao by looking into the students studying at the University of Macau. It is found that Mainland Chinese students use English mainly in the academic-related settings inside campus, yet rarely use English in non-academic-related settings. Also, English is infrequently used due to the dominant use of Putonghua. Moreover, the paper discusses the implications for how English-medium programmes help improve Mainland Chinese students’ English learning and use, along with the practical suggestions for the universities and Macao government.

Exploring Learner Perception, Experience and Motivation of Using a Mobile App in L2 Vocabulary Acquisition

In recent years, the widespread growth of mobile-assisted language learning using apps has made English vocabulary learning increasingly accessible. This study investigated students' perceptions of a vocabulary learning app developed by the researcher as a tool to help them to improve their L2 receptive vocabulary. The app, containing 20 levels, works with both iOS and Android. The participants were 14 undergraduate students at an English-medium university in Hong Kong. A qualitative methodology of semi-structured interviews captured a holistic overview and revealed students' perceptions of the app. The results suggested that Hong Kong university students have a strong motivation for acquiring an L2 vocabulary. Participants also indicated a preference for mobile applications using gamified features. The study highlights directions for future research into apps for English language learning.

Advising Lessons Learned From Learner Reflections

This short article presents the findings from action research conducted with sixty EFL students at an English-medium state university in Turkey over a period of eight weeks. The study was aimed at eliciting student needs as to the cognitive, interactional, and learner-related aspects of the language learning process by employing task-based learning applications. The tasks, both online and face-to-face in class, focused on productive skills and were designed with a consideration of task features including complexity, conditions and difficulty (adapted from Robinson, 2001), helping students observe their progress. Content-wise, they were based on themes studied in the course materials. Advising strategies and tools were incorporated in the design, delivery and flow of the lessons as well. The needs identified upon the completion of the study were utilized to draft future advising policies and practices aiming to equip students with academic survival skills. To collect data on learner reflections regarding the process, thirty students were asked to complete an open-ended self-report questionnaire, while the rest participated in a focus group discussion. Both groups reflected on their task-based learning experiences with respect to the cognitive, interactional and learner-related factors involved to provide insights for potential advising policies and practices.

“What kind of paper do you want from us?”: developing genre knowledge in one Kazakhstani university postgraduate school

Drawing on the Academic Literacies perspectives of Lea and Street and key genre theorists, this mixed-methods case study explored multilingual student experiences of academic literacy practices in one postgraduate social-science school in an English-medium university in Kazakhstan. Two questions guided the research: (1) To what extent and in what ways do students develop genre knowledge in their school EMI contexts?; (2) Which pedagogical approaches and strategies do students identify as beneficial in supporting genre knowledge development? The study found students developed genre awareness for research-related literacy practices, involving field-, tenor- and mode-related genre knowledge. The study also found student capacity to apply genre knowledge successfully across a range of text genres. Another finding was that challenge and success in genre knowledge development was a function of the extent of explicit feedback from instructors and peers and explicit assignment expectations. Each of our findings are consistent with the critique and recommendations of Lea and Street (1998; 2006) on the importance of a situated approach to developing student academic literacy practice that accounts for the larger institutional contexts and epistemological traditions in which those practices have meaning. These findings have important value for discussions and debates on student academic literacy learning and practice in higher education in Kazakhstan, across Central Asia and in other countries where policies for internationalization and research universities are rapidly transforming higher education literacy practice in the current era of globalization.

Metadiscourse Use in L2 Student Essay Writing: A Longitudinal Cross-Contextual Comparison

Abstract This paper investigates developmental patterns of metadiscourse use in Chinese students’ EAP writing in an English medium university, in comparison with English majors’ EFL writing in mainstream state universities and L1 student writing in UK universities. Taking a longitudinal and cross-contextual perspective, the study explores corpora of L1 and L2 student writing gathered from three sources: EAP essays written by Chinese undergraduate students at an English Medium Instruction (EMI) university; argumentative essays written by English majors in the Written English Corpus of Chinese Learners (WECCL); and academic essays of English L1 students from the British Academic Written English (BAWE) corpus. Hyland’s (2005a) model of metadiscourse was adopted to identify interactive and interactional devices in each corpus, and results were compared between different levels as well as across the corpora to reveal developmental features. Findings show marked differences in metadiscourse use between Chinese EMI students’ EAP essays and English major students’ EFL essays in mainstream state universities, whereas a similar pattern of use occurred in EAP essays and English L1 student academic essays. Significant changes were also found between different year levels in two L2 essay corpora. The findings suggest that metadiscourse use in L2 writing had developmental trajectories distinctive to different institutional contexts, with EAP instruction in the EMI institution having mixed effects on Chinese students’ awareness and use of metadiscourse in essay writing.

Negotiating the Teaching-Research Nexus: A Case of Classroom Teaching in an MEd Program

This paper reports a case study of the manifestation of the teaching-research nexus in a research-active professor’s classroom teaching of a research methods course targeting a cohort of Master of Education (MEd) students in early childhood education (ECE). The study was conducted at a research-intensive English-medium university in Hong Kong where excellence in both teaching and research is emphasized. Data were gathered through classroom observation and interviews with the focal participant. Data analyses showed that in teaching the research methods course the focal professor aimed to train the students to become critical ‘consumers’ and novice ‘producers’ of research through a ‘PBL-triple’—problem-based, practice-based, and project-based—approach, and his identity as a prolific researcher also influenced his class teaching. Our study contributes to the literature by providing a new perspective on research-teaching relationships from the classroom.

Plurilingual pedagogies at the post-secondary level: possibilities for intentional engagement with students’ diverse linguistic repertoires

ABSTRACTThis paper draws draw on conceptualisations of language as heteroglossic to examine whether and how multilingual practices and plurilingual pedagogies are enacted as instructional strategies in two multilingual English-medium universities in western Canada. Multilingual educational contexts have the potential to comprise ‘translanguaging spaces’ [Li, W. (2018). Translanguaging as a practical theory of language. Applied Linguistics, 39(1), 9–30. doi:10.1093/applin/amx039], wherein educators and students mobilise a range of semiotic resources for teaching and learning purposes. From a monolingual paradigm, such practice is often seen as interference or deficit; however, from a multilingual paradigm, this practice is seen as legitimate and unrestricted, with students free to use their linguistic resources as they wish to their own benefit. To conceptualise and analyse engagement with multilingual practice, we draw on Cenoz and Gorter’s [(2017). Minority languages and sustainable translanguaging: Threat or opportunity? Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 38(10), 901–912. doi:10.1080/01434632.2017.1284855] distinction between ‘spontaneous’ and ‘intentional’ translanguaging. To assist faculty to observe, act and reflect on implementation of plurilingual pedagogies, we propose a three-dimensional matrix comprising axes of (1) faculty- and student-initiated; (2) planned and spontaneous engagements with plurilingualism; and (3) plurilingualism as either a scaffold or a resource for curriculum, pedagogy and assessment.

Do secondary school-leaving English examination results predict university students’ academic writing performance? A latent profile analysis

Secondary school-leaving English examination results are often regarded as indicators of students’ competence to study in English-medium universities, which is usually demonstrated through source-based academic writing. In English as a second or foreign language (ESL/EFL) contexts, many English-medium universities require local undergraduates to enrol in an academic writing course, unless they received outstanding English results in secondary school-leaving examinations. This study investigates the relationship between ESL undergraduates’ secondary school-leaving English examination results and their academic writing performance through latent profile analysis. Results show that students can be grouped into four classes of academic writing performer (AWP), namely Complex-AWP, High-AWP, Medium-AWP and Low-AWP. Surprisingly, the Complex-AWP group had the highest means in structure, argument and language, but the lowest in citation. Secondary school-leaving English examination results can generally predict students’ class membership in language, argumentation and, to some extent, structure, but not citation. An important implication is that students with high English proficiency do not necessarily do well in all aspects of academic writing. This study can inform university senior management on how to set policies about who needs an academic writing course and provide appropriate training in various aspects of academic writing for university students with diverse English proficiency.

Morningness-eveningness and tertiary academic achievement: an exploration of potential mediators, including sleep factors, mind wandering, and metacognitive beliefs

ABSTRACT Correlates of academic achievement can vary by subject and by assessment type, although consistent associations have been found with some variables, including morningness-eveningness. In the present study, 153 second-year undergraduate Business School students at an English-medium university in China completed questionnaire measures of morningness-eveningness, mind wandering, sleep quality, conscientiousness, affect and metacognitive beliefs. Positive correlates of grades in three English for Academic Purposes assessments (coursework, speaking, and exam) included English level, morningness and self-discipline. Negative correlates of achievement included mind wandering, negative affect, rise time and poor sleep quality, and also maladaptive metacognitive beliefs, which were most strongly associated with exam performance. Significant predictors of achievement included English level and aspects of sleep quality. Exploratory mediation analysis investigated potential mediators between morningness-eveningness and achievement. Morningness-eveningness was found to have indirect effects on achievement through sleep-related factors, mind wandering, conscientiousness, negative affect, and metacognitive beliefs. These results contribute to the understanding of academic achievement in different subjects and assessment types, and identify possible indirect effects in the association between morningness-eveningness and academic achievement.

A Comparison of Lexical Richness in L2 Written Productions

Indeed research has shown that vocabulary acquisition is one of the chal-lenges of a language learner; even more so for productive vocabulary. Thus this study intends to investigate the lexical richness of 2 groups of EFL learners. This was done through a content analysis of 139 essays of entry-level university students and 140 essays of third-year university students studying at an English medium university. Both these groups of students scored at least a band 6 or 550 in TOEFL. Specifically, the objective of this study is to find out if there are differences in the lexical richness of these two groups of essays in the type-token ratio. This study also intends to find out if there are differences between the two different groups of essays in the use of the 1,000, 2,000, word levels, the AWL as well as the use of the words not-in-the-list. The RANGE programme developed by Nation, Heat-ley & Coxhead (2002) was used to carry out the above procedure. Findings of the study showed that the two groups of essays show a statistically significant difference in the use of the 1,000, 2,000, word levels and the AWL by the two groups of learners. There was also a difference in the not-in-the-list category. This research has pedagogical implications for the teaching of vocabulary in the language classroom with a specific focus on the development of lexical richness in EFL learners’ written production.

L2 doctoral students’ experiences in thesis writing in an English-medium university in New Zealand

Drawing upon Bakhtin's (1981) theory of dialogism, this study explores how two Chinese international doctoral students reflect upon their experiences of voice evolvement in thesis writing under the influences of their epistemological development in New Zealand. Through Reinharz's (1997) framework of self, we scrutinise each participant's data from their first PhD thesis draft, a retrospective written report, and two rounds of semi-structured interviews. Results reveal that, by interacting with others (e.g., supervisors, theorists) in the context where the thesis is produced, the participants' epistemology has developed. This epistemological development itself is the process in which students forge their own philosophical views in relation to knowledge and knowing as individual researchers and members of an academic community with shared disciplinary attributes. The philosophical views further inform their writers' voice as the representation of their individual and social selves that are embodied in thesis writing. Results also indicate that Chinese international doctoral students bring valuable cultural assets for potential intercultural communication between Chinese and Anglophone disciplinary scholarships. For these students who write their theses in English as a second or additional language (L2), such interchanges create a space for them to (re)examine the different ideologies that promote their learning.