Writing Course Research Articles

Measuring Critical Thinking Skills through Performance Assessment: The Profile of EFL Students’ Critical Thinking Skills

This study tries to find the profiles of EFL students' critical thinking skills in writing problem-solution expository essays within wetland themes. It employs a quantitative descriptive design by utilizing a validated writing test. The subjects of the study were 40 students of the English Language Education Study Program of the University of Lambung Mangkurat, Indonesia, who were enrolled in the Academic Writing courses. The essay produced by each student was measured based on the depth of cause-and-effect analysis, the logic of the argument given, the viability of the solution, and the validity of evidence used to support the argument. The findings reveal that the subjects’ critical thinking skill is categorized as medium since the mean score on the test of critical thinking is 11.38. Particularly, they have a high level of critical thinking in the aspects of analyzing the issue (3.03) and providing viable solutions (3.18). It indicates that they are able to distinguish the cause of a problem and the consequences as well and consider the causes and consequences when they propose a solution. However, their skill in providing argument is medium (2.85) whereas their skill in providing the evidence is low (2.33). These findings suggest that the subjects need to be trained in providing arguments and sufficient evidence through leading questions, discussion, and reading relevant sources. It implies that the study program needs to develop a teaching model that facilitates the students to practice their critical thinking skills.

The Impact of Performance-Based Assessment on Academic Writing Instruction

This study seeks to determine the positive impact of PBA, which synchronizes student achievement in the learning process with final grades. Performance-Based Assessment (PBA) is a pedagogical strategy used to achieve student targets in the following learning objectives, especially in Academic Writing courses that aim to make students competent novice writers. The Performance-Based Assessment teaching style allows students to write seminar-ready draft proposals at the end of the Academic Writing course. It was decided to adopt a single case study research design to get more thorough data about the respondents. This study used Performance-Based Assessment (PBA) in academic writing classes. This study shows that Performance-Based Assessment improves student learning, notably in Academic Writing, proving that PBA is a good teaching method.

The Effectiveness of Team Teaching in Improving Reading Skill among Thai EFL Undergraduates and Their Attitudes toward this Strategy

In the context of the learning process, team-teaching has been found to be a successful and pleasurable pedagogical strategy, particularly in improving reading proficiency. The primary objective of this study was to examine the efficacy of employing the team-teaching technique in enhancing the reading skill of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students. The study also sought to assess the potential impact of using the team-teaching technique on the English language reading skill of Thai EFL students. Additionally, it attempted to explore the attitudes of these students towards the utilization of team-teaching in their educational setting. The study used a quasi-experimental methodology to look into how team-teaching instruction affects students' ability to improve their reading skill. The descriptive research design was employed to elucidate the attitudes of the students. The sample for this study consisted of undergraduate students who were enrolled in an English Reading and Writing course. A total of 150 students participated in this study, and they were randomly assigned to two groups. The control group consisted of 70 students while the experimental group comprised the remaining 80 students. Two instruments were constructed in order to accomplish the objectives of the study. The assessment tools utilized in this study included a reading passage and a questionnaire. At a significance threshold of α = 0.05, the study's results showed that there were statistically significant differences, favouring the experimental group in the post-test, when compared between the control and experimental groups. The findings of the study also indicated the presence of statistically significant differences, with a significance level of α=0.05. Based on the findings of the questionnaire, the majority of students expressed a preference for utilizing the team-teaching technique as a means of studying. This approach was favoured due to its facilitation of knowledge exchange between students and instructors, as well as its ability to foster mutual respect for differing perspectives among students. The results of the study have significant ramifications for English teachers who use collaborative instruction.

Practical Used of Essay Writing Material based PjBL through Padlet in Higher Education

Mastering essay writing skill is crucial for students who majoring in English Language Department to enhance their language proficiency development, critical thinking, effective communication, and prepares them for academic and professional demands. Meanwhile, many problems still occur in mastering this skill. Hence, the requirement for innovation in teaching essay writing, especially for Essay Writing course is needed. This research used survey method to investigate the practical used of of Essay Writing material-based Project-based Learning through Padlet for teaching Essay Writing course. There were 50 students and 3 lecturers who were involved in the initial investigation of this study. Then, 3 students for limited trials, and 63 students involved in wide trials. The practicality result shows that the teaching material are categorized as Very Practical (85.8%) from teachers’ perspective and Very Practical (84.1%) from students’ perspective. Addressing that explanation about this research finding, it can be concluded that this Instructional Material based PjBL through Padlet is effective to be applied in higher education with independent students to enhance their creative, innovative and critical thinking in expressing ideas about authentic problem in their environment and world- wide environment.

Student Reflections on Learning in a Doctoral-Level Writing Course.

Programs to improve student writing have been deployed widely in nursing graduate education, but few operational indicators exist for measuring their value. The challenge of measuring outcomes reflects the complexity of what transpires when graduate students write. Better understanding is needed of what it means to students to "learn" from writing support. A full-semester writing course was implemented in a nursing science PhD program. In formative course assessment activities, students identified problems in early drafts of their work, which they subsequently learned to detect and resolve. In this article, students report what was learned. Writing skills, like clinical skills, are intertwined with intellectual maturation and sense of professional identity. Writing, like clinical learning, requires an investment of time and labor far beyond what is typical in didactic approaches to classroom-based graduate education. Our experience suggests a need to reconceptualize writing pedagogy in nursing.

Implementasi Model Pembelajaran Berbasis Proyek untuk Meningkatkan Hasil Menulis Prosa Fiksi Mahasiswa Program Studi Sastra Indonesia Universitas Jambi

The aim of this research is to enhance the activity and skills of pre-writers of fiction prose using a project-based learning model in the Indonesian Literature program at the Faculty of Education and Teacher Training, Universitas Jambi. The research method employed is Classroom Action Research (CAR) conducted in two cycles. Each cycle involves planning, implementation, observation, and reflection stages. Data are analyzed according to the assessment rubric. In Cycle I, there was an improvement in activity levels, with 87% of students achieving a good category and 13% achieving a very good category. The improvement in pre-writing scores was 60%, reaching a sufficient category for 40% and a good category for 40%. However, the analysis indicated that the target of exceeding 50% of pre-writing scores in the good category was not achieved in Cycle I, prompting the continuation to Cycle II. In Cycle II, both activity and pre-writing scores experienced significant improvement. Activity scores showed 33.3% of students in the good category and 86.7% in the very good category. Pre-writing scores increased to 33.3% in the good category and 66.7% in the very good category. Based on the research findings, it can be concluded that the implementation of the Project-Based Learning model in the Fiction Prose Writing course effectively enhances the activity and skills of pre-writers of fiction prose and is deemed suitable for application

Challenging Traditional EFL Writing Classroom Using Al Mediated Tool: A Paradigm Shift

Students usually find the traditional writing classroom cumbersome due to its teacher centered approach that hardly allows learners take charge of their own learning. As a result of not being actively engaged in the classroom and nature of writing requiring a rigorous practice, students lag behind in developing writing skills including the paraphrasing ones. In order to deal with this situation, this study employs QuillBot, an AI-mediated and learner-centered tool, in a group pre/post quasi-experimental research to mend EFL students' writing and paraphrase skillsSpecific focus areas include summarization, grammar and spelling, rewriting sentences, sequencing sentences, identifying correct sentences, and matching phrasal verbs. 25 EFL students enrolled in the Technical Report Writing course and using QuillBot, an AI-mediated tool, comprised the research sample. Through pre- and post-experimental assessments, researchers assessed how well the students' writing skills performed both before and after the experiment. The dependent-sample t-test affected the post-test results. It was shown that the AI-mediated tool QuillBot significantly enhanced the writing skills of EFL students. Furthermore, a semi-structured interview was carried out to cross-validate the information gathered from the written samples. The semi-structured interview included questions about the students' observations and experiences using the instrument. The researchers suggested using QuillBot in a writing class to help students master writing and paraphrasing techniques in light of the findings. The results of the present research into the AI-mediated tool QuillBot may have ramifications for addressing other EFL teaching and learning issues.

Students’ Ability in Writing English Argumentative Essay

Learning to write has a significant impact on determining the ability and quality of students in academic activities. One form of essay featured in academic writing is the argumentative essay. Writing an argumentative essay leads students to explore their opinions or arguments to convince the reader. Nevertheless, some studies show that college students face some difficulties in writing argumentative essays. Hence, the purpose of this study was to investigate the students’ ability to write argumentative essays in terms of essay structure. A qualitative case was used in this study. The data was taken from the final test of the Advance Writing course written by 36 fourth-semester students of the English Language Education Program. The research findings showed that most students’ ability to write an argumentative essay is well developed, with a result of 31%. The result indicated that the students knew how to write an argumentative essay based on its structure, but they still made some mistakes dealing with sentence structure and the credibility of the references used.

Exploring Doctoral Writing Self-Efficacy and Apprehension in a Dissertation Writing Course

Aim/Purpose: This study explored changes in writing self-efficacy and writing apprehension among online doctoral students throughout their first dissertation writing course. By examining the facilitators and obstacles to online doctoral student writing success, we concluded that receiving specific, concrete, and iterative feedback is instrumental for the growth of doctoral students’ confidence during the early stages of the dissertation process. Background: Previous scholarship has recognized that the dissertation writing process is a key contributor to attrition rates in doctoral programs. However, there is limited research on how online doctoral students experience writing apprehension and self-efficacy during this crucial stage. Drawing upon self-efficacy theory as a framework, our study sought to fill this gap by investigating changes in these constructs among 53 participants as they composed their first two chapters. Methodology: This convergent mixed methods study employed both quantitative surveys and qualitative reflections collected before and after the completion of a one-term dissertation writing course intervention. We examined participants’ self-perceptions of their mechanics skills, essentials efficacy (overcoming difficulties), relational-reflective efficacy (connecting with others), and relationship building. Contribution: This study contributes to existing research on online doctoral student dissertation writing experiences by revealing the importance of specific, concrete, and iterative feedback in fostering students’ writing confidence. Findings: Our findings revealed small effect sizes in participants’ overall confidence levels related to their academic writing self-efficacy but no statistically significant changes. Nonetheless, qualitative data indicated positive experiences of growth in terms of scholarly proficiency development, which contributes to existing literature gaps. Recommendations for Practitioners: Faculty working with online doctoral students who are writing their dissertations should provide specific, concrete, and iterative feedback to support the growth of students’ writing confidence during the early stages of the dissertation process. Recommendation for Researchers: Future researchers on this topic should expand the scope of their focus beyond just the first term or course and conduct longitudinal studies that encompass different phases of dissertation work in order to gain a more comprehensive understanding of changes in writing self-efficacy and apprehension among online doctoral students. Impact on Society: By providing specific, concrete, and iterative feedback to doctoral students during the dissertation writing process, faculty can empower them towards disciplinary mastery and expertise, enabling successful completion of the program and equipping them with expert knowledge to make a meaningful impact in their respective fields and industries. Future Research: Future research should expand the scope of the focus on doctoral student writing apprehension, anxiety, and self-efficacy to include other stages of the dissertation research and writing process, perhaps also examining these writing constructs and how they vary given student characteristics.

Peer Review in Advanced Legal Writing Course

Peer Review in Advanced Legal Writing Course

EXPLORING PRONOUN USAGE ERRORS IN ENGLISH WRITING: A CASE STUDY OF THAI UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

This research examines the errors in the use of personal pronouns in English writing by third and fourth- year students from the Faculty of Engineering, Rajamangala University of Technology Rattanakosin. The study focuses on 85 students who registered for the English Writing course in the second semester of the 2022 academic year. The objectives of the research are to identify the errors in pronoun usage among the students and provide recommendations for improving their English writing skills based on grammatical principles. The research findings reveal three main types of errors. The most common type of error is "misformation" which refers to cases when students construct incorrect pronoun patterns. This type of error accounts for 66.66% of the total errors and ranks first among all types. The second most prevalent error is "omission," which involves instances in which students skip or omit pronouns. This type of error occurs 25% of the errors and ranks second in frequency. The third type of error is "addition," which occurs when students add unnecessary pronouns. This type of error represents 6.94% of the errors and ranks third. The analysis of pronoun errors in the English writing of Thai students provides valuable insights into common issues in pronoun usage and offers suggestions for enhancing their writing skills.

Exploring Malaysian ESL Students’ Unguided Written Reflections of an Online Poetry Engagement Activity

Self-reflection has become a popular practice in teaching and learning as it provides a space for self-assessment with numerous benefits to both learners and educators. As part of their Creative Writing course requirement, a group of Malaysian ESL students participated in an online poetry engagement activity. While a traditional instructor observation method was employed for grading students’ performances, little is known about the utilisation and integration of professional and positive attitudes toward this task from students’ perspectives. The purpose of this case study was to utilise unguided written reflections to shed light on matters of concern and importance from the students’ perspective and describe experiences related to the tasks’ intended learning outcomes. Purposive sampling was used to recruit study participants who met the sampling criteria. This approach can enhance the depth and richness of the data collected, as it ensures that the gathered are particularly relevant to the research questions. They were invited to write and submit an unguided self-reflection of the online poetry engagement activity. Inductive thematic analysis was then used to organise and elicit meaning from the collected data. Results indicate that the unguided reflections emulated academic writing convention with introductory statements at the beginning, descriptions and explanations of experiences as the body of writing, and ended with gratifications. The findings also indicated the participants’ achievements of the ethics and professional learning outcome. The findings suggest the inclusion of reflective writing for course tutors and programme administrators to improve assessment quality and reliability, especially for learning outcomes that focus on applying and developing generic skills.

Analysis of Stylistic and Grammatical Errors in PhD Students´ Research Paper Manuscripts

The ability to publish research papers is a must for scientists nowadays. Ideally, at the very beginning of their career, young researchers, PhD students, should be instructed in writing research papers and should get feedback on their texts. In this study, the first manuscripts from 22 doctoral students, non-native English speakers, 223 pages were analysed for errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation, and style. For each type of error and each student, the average per page was calculated. The most frequent errors were identified in using articles, formal features, missing information, and the use of inappropriate words. Individual students showed significantly different levels, which reflected their previous language training and the approach (responsibility) to completing the task. The results will be used to modify the course in Academic Writing (more attention paid to the most frequent errors) and individual work with students. Keywords: academic writing, scientific writing, research paper, PhD student, error

基于重庆红色资源的英语写作课程思政改革探索

基于重庆红色资源的英语写作课程思政改革探索

A Case Study of Utilizing ChatGPT as an Assistant Writing Partner in a PBL College Writing Course

Objectives This study presents a case study of utilizing ChatGPT in a project-based writing course, and explores its applicability and effectiveness. Through the course, an examination was conducted on the roles, strengths, and weaknesses of ChatGPT as a writing assistant tool by investigating students’ vivid responses, evaluations, and their perception of the effectiveness and satisfaction with the use of ChatGPT in the course.
 Methods To achieve this, a project-based writing course model utilizing ChatGPT was designed and implemented for 227 students enrolled in a “Basic College Writing” course at a four-year university, quantitative and qualitative data were collected through online surveys, weekly reflective journals uploaded by students to the LMS, course evaluations, and descriptive responses. A mixed-methods research approach was employed to analyze the data, allowing for an examination of the effectiveness and benefits and limitations of utilizing ChatGPT as an assistant writing partner.
 Results The findings revealed that students perceived knowledge utilization as the most effective aspect in the project-based writing course using ChatGPT, followed by communication and social skills, self-directed learning abilities, writing self-efficacy and problem-solving skills. While students recognized ChatGPT as a useful tool for idea generation and improving writing depth, they encountered difficulties in verifying its information, highlighting the need for fact-checking and responsible use. Additionally, the instant feedback feature of ChatGPT was highly valued for creating a psychologically safe writing environment.
 Conclusions This study exhibited that the project-based writing course utilizing ChatGPT has a positive impact on students’ overall writing learning experience. It was found to be effective in providing personalized support, timely feedback, and access to wide range of knowledge, thereby fostering creative and critical thinking in a college writing course, However, both instructors and students should remain attentive to the limitations of ChatGPT and ensure its ethical and responsible use through ongoing vigilance.

Developing Academic Writing Learning Module to Improve Writing Skills of Graduate Program Students

Academic writing is one of the skills needed by students, especially postgraduate students. However, there were still many writing problems experienced by Islamic Education Management Postgraduate students of IAIN Curup batch 2020. Therefore, it was necessary to develop a learning model for Academic Writing course. This study aims to investigate the development of a learning model in the Academic Writing course. This study used 4D development research model (Define, Design, Develop, and Disseminate). The result of the study shows that the learning model in the Academic Writing course was carried out into these stages: prewriting stage, drafting stage, responding stage, revising stage, and evaluating stage. By carrying out the academic writing course, there were improvements in the writing skills of the postgraduate students. In the prewriting stage, it was observed that the students had already the skills needed to be possessed in the pre-writing stage. Then in the writing stage, the students had possesed skills in processing or analyzing data, and the students also had been able to revise their writings. This research produced a learning module for the Academic Writing course that has been refined from the modules used so far. The contribution of learning academic writing is in the academic writing course which teaches writing systematics, rules for writing, reference management, how to submit articles to nationally reputable journals, paraphrasing. The results of this course can be seen from student articles which have been published in many accredited journals Sinta 3 and Sinta 4.

Teaching Teamwork: Online Technical Writing Courses with Engineering Students

Using a pragmatic approach, this case study aims to incorporate communication skills in team teaching in light of the literature, describes how communication and teamwork principles play out in online third-year technical writing courses with ethnically diverse international students and faculty from engineering and other STEM majors at an institute of technology in the USA (n = 48). The data were collected using weekly assignments for the semester-long course; and student evaluations of course outcomes. The findings showed that because students wrote weekly short analyses and received weekly feedback, they most often improved their writing skills, such as editing their writings according to American English rules, and transferred learning of rhetorical principles from one setting (analyzing other people’s writing) into another setting as they learnt to work as a team of productive writers.

Comparing Hybrid and Flipped Modalities in Remote and Face-to-Face Learning in a Japanese University L2 Academic Writing Course

Teachers throughout the world are interested in the eff ectiveness of online and fl ipped class methods of instruction. During the Covid-19 pandemic, these platforms went from cutting edge to becoming the central teaching platform. Online classes in particular can be effective in teaching reading and writing. In 2013, a hybrid online class was introduced into the academic writing program at the Graduate School of Law at Nagoya University as a way to assist Master’s students with their writing needs. Between 2012 ‒ 2023, the same writing courses underwent three phases of development: hybrid, flipped, and fully remote. As part of an action research study, the process included stages of planning, implementing, observing, and refl ecting on the design of each of the learning platforms. For the planning and implementing phases, the paper compares the quality measures of the instructional designs. Surveys on student perspectives were used to help with the observing and reflecting phases. Student survey results indicated that, even during the peak of the pandemic, learners were satisfi ed with all three platforms as they developed.

The Project-Based Learning Practices in the Teaching of Writing Course

The qualitative research aimed to observe Project-Based Learning (PjBL) implementation in writing courses viewed from the project types and the teaching-learning activities. Several activities in project-based learning implementation could be modified to meet various students’ needs, unexceptionally in the same subject. The various patterns of PjBL often resulted in the bias of its implementation among teachers who wanted to conduct this teaching model. The participants were the lecturers who taught the Professional Writing course in the fourth semester. Data were collected using observation of classroom activities, semi-structured interviews, and documentation. The collected data were analyzed using thematic analysis, emphasizing identifying, analyzing, and interpreting patterns of meaning within qualitative data. The findings show that the project types are different in the form of the final output: business plans and video essays. The other findings find that there is a variety of teaching-learning activities, but they have identical project-based learning patterns, namely (a) preparation, (b) planning, (c) creating a project, (d) monitoring and revising, and (e) evaluation. PjBL provides some advantages for students. Thus, it is suggested that all EFL (English as a Foreign Language) lecturers implement those five project-based learning patterns in their classes.

A Quantitative Study on Undergraduate Students’ Deeper Learning in Peer-Feedback and Self-Feedback Tasks in an English as a Foreign Language Writing Course

Deeper learning competencies, such as critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and self-management, are receiving increasing attention in education. In writing instruction, feedback-providing tasks have the potential for promoting deeper learning. This study develops and applies a self-report scale to explore the level of deeper learning among undergraduate students in China in providing peer feedback and self-feedback in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing course. The scale includes three dimensions: involvement, use of deeper learning strategies, and deeper learning outcomes. The research found a generally moderate level of deeper learning in various feedback-giving tasks. Significant and positive correlations were found between the three dimensions of deeper learning as well as between deeper learning, anticipation toward feedback-giving tasks and overall course evaluation. At the same time, it was found that students may be more active in deeper learning from the perspectives of their use of deeper learning strategies and the perceived learning outcomes than from the perspectives of participation in discussion as well as time and effort spent on the tasks.