This paper shared challenges encountered in academic writing from the perspective of a novice researcher and experi⁃ences in attaining skills in developing a research article of proper quality.
Academic writing is social interaction between writer and reader,during which writers can employ discursive and non-discursive features to construct their identities.However,many student writers who are users of Engli...Academic writing is social interaction between writer and reader,during which writers can employ discursive and non-discursive features to construct their identities.However,many student writers who are users of English as an additional language(EAL)may find it challenging to construct their identities in academic writing.Properly constructed identity in academic writing can help EAL student writers develop a stronger sense of self,exercise their agency,and negotiate the academic discourse.Therefore,this paper reviews empirical studies on EAL student writers'identity construction when they write in English to investigate the features of identities that EAL student writers construct in texts and the factors that influence their identity construction.The findings show that,compared with expert writers and native-English-speaking(NES)counterparts,EAL student writers tend to present a weak authorial identity.Furthermore,EAL student writers tend to be more engaged with texts than with readers and lack commitment to their claims.The identities that EAL student writers construct in academic writing are also interwoven with EAL students'English proficiency levels,educational experience,disciplinary conventions,genre affordances,and audience awareness.The findings of this literature review can help teachers and educators raise EAL students’identity awareness and facilitate students in strategically constructing writer identities in academic writing.展开更多
This qualitative-dominant mixed study used content analysis, interviews, and survey to examine if first-year university undergraduates taking English language academic writing courses consider prior knowledge from hig...This qualitative-dominant mixed study used content analysis, interviews, and survey to examine if first-year university undergraduates taking English language academic writing courses consider prior knowledge from high school English language five-paragraph essay writing style helpful. Sample included 67 first year university undergraduates. All the 67 students considered prior knowledge of the high school five-paragraph essay writing style helpful. They believed that it facilitated a transfer of learning in the first-year university undergraduate academic writing course. However, only 15 out of the respondents, who reported that prior knowledge of the high school English language five-paragraph essay writing style was helpful, also reported that they are level-appropriate competent in the first-year university undergraduate English language academic writing courses after one academic year. As such, essay-writing in high school offers students some foundation-knowledge to succeed in academic writing in universities. Further findings showed that students often delve into essay or academic writing without proper planning. Thus, it is recommended that universities introduce a bridge course specifically to address academic deficiency in reading and writing for all first year undergraduates upon admission into the university.展开更多
Academic writings, whether they are BA dissertations or semester papers, are important carriers of one＇s ideas and findings of their own study and research spheres. In academic papers, the most important part is the ...Academic writings, whether they are BA dissertations or semester papers, are important carriers of one＇s ideas and findings of their own study and research spheres. In academic papers, the most important part is the choice of topics which determines the macro direction of the paper. Important as it is, it is difficult for the English majors to choose the most appropriate topics with idea-invested thesis statements instead of some factual statements. Therefore, in order to make clear of the status quo and underlying obstacles of topic choosing, this paper is to study on 98 samples from China University of Political Science and Law＇s junior English majors. By observing and analyzing their writings, the paper intends to fred out some possible and accessible methods to improve English majors＇ academic writing and offer some insights for teachers to make some adjustments in accordance with the status quo.展开更多
Scientific research aims to understand the reality that surrounds us.It is defined by Benoit Gauthier as:“an activity of objective quest for knowledge on factual questions”.By virtue of its goal of objectively advan...Scientific research aims to understand the reality that surrounds us.It is defined by Benoit Gauthier as:“an activity of objective quest for knowledge on factual questions”.By virtue of its goal of objectively advancing knowledge in a particular field,it requires rigor,precision and method.As heuristic practice is not a natural exercise,the skills required in the development of scientific work need to be taught to students who are often helpless in face of these requirements.It is therefore important for the faculty to support and,even more so,to train students in research.The Faculty of French and Francophone Studies at Beijing Foreign Studies University(BFSU)propose an Academic Writing course accessible to students of the fourth year of the bachelor program.This article first offers a description of the course in its components,both theoretical and practical.Then,it analyses the weaknesses observed by the professor during his teaching and some reflections are proposed in order to try to develop a more systemic approach to research at university aimed at allowing a greater empowerment of the students coupled with more comprehensive training.展开更多
Academic literacy is the fundamental quality that scholars should possess in order to get socialized in their disciplinary communities, of which academic writing is one of the most important aspects. This article atte...Academic literacy is the fundamental quality that scholars should possess in order to get socialized in their disciplinary communities, of which academic writing is one of the most important aspects. This article attempts to summarize some common features of academic writing and the skills and background knowledge that are essential for successful writing. The next part focuses on the possible challenges that academic writing may pose on Chinese overseas students as they try to meet the requirements of the Western discourse communities. In the last part, it provides some recommendations to those who intend to study abroad and concludes that for both native and non-native speakers the learning of academic writing is a lifelong process of endless confliction and negotiation.展开更多
This research investigates four categories of high-frequency grammatical errors from 45 students’academic writings via script analysis.A group of 36 students responded to a questionnaire focusing on their beliefs reg...This research investigates four categories of high-frequency grammatical errors from 45 students’academic writings via script analysis.A group of 36 students responded to a questionnaire focusing on their beliefs regarding these grammatical constructions.The participants are enrolled in an international school in Suzhou City.A total of 646 sentences were analyzed,among which295(45.7%)are inaccurate.Of the 364 errors found,most of them(64.0%)fall into the category of Subject-verb agreement,followed by subordinate clauses(28.6%);errors in English existential construction and the passive voice are a few.Also,the usage rate of subordinate clause is 42.7%,of which a large proportion was incorrect.展开更多
Voice is an important topic in academic writing research.Despite increasing research interest,voice has remained a contentious topic.In the article:On the Use of the Passive and Active Voice in Astrophysics Journal Pa...Voice is an important topic in academic writing research.Despite increasing research interest,voice has remained a contentious topic.In the article:On the Use of the Passive and Active Voice in Astrophysics Journal Papers:With Extensions to other Languages and other Fields,an interesting hypothesis has been put forward:“Writers of methods sections in this field tend to use we+active when they have made a unique procedural choice or have introduced some technical innovation.On the other hand,the passive seems to be used when authors are simply following established or standard procedures.”Based on the existing research,this paper chooses to study the active and passive forms in the methods section of research articles,and we examine the frequency of the active and passive verb forms in the methods section of two linguistics journal articles.And to verify an old hypothesis:The we+active is used for new stuff,while the passive is preferred for old stuff,this paper will examine the we+active forms and passive verb forms the in methods section in two linguistic journal articles.展开更多
The goal of this short paper is to bring English academic writing(EAW)and mobile-assisted language learning(MALL)together to examine to what degree the latter can be effectively employed to support the former in the H...The goal of this short paper is to bring English academic writing(EAW)and mobile-assisted language learning(MALL)together to examine to what degree the latter can be effectively employed to support the former in the Hong Kong higher education context.It utilizes the perspectives generated from the literature,together with professional interpretation,to illustrate the affordances of MALL in EAW in the community.It is suggested that MALL can be employed to integrate academic English into the students’daily lives,through which they can implicitly build the knowledge of academic register outside of the classroom and ultimately use it in the classroom.展开更多
This paper explores effective human-AI collaboration in academic writing using Large Language Models(LLMs).Focusing on the two critical stages of ideation and revision,the article argues that higher education institut...This paper explores effective human-AI collaboration in academic writing using Large Language Models(LLMs).Focusing on the two critical stages of ideation and revision,the article argues that higher education institutions must develop specific pedagogical strategies to guide students in leveraging the benefits of LLMs while mitigat-ing risks such as academic integrity issues,over-reliance,and bias.The core of these strategies is to emphasize the primacy of human agency,critical thinking,and ethical responsibility.The ultimate goal is to transform AI from a potential pitfall into a powerful tool that enhances scholarly skills and depth of thought,rather than being used as a simple text generator.展开更多
AI-mediated academic writing calls for new pedagogical approaches to the application of prompt engineering for writing courses.Whereas previous studies mainly inform students of prompt engineering techniques,little is...AI-mediated academic writing calls for new pedagogical approaches to the application of prompt engineering for writing courses.Whereas previous studies mainly inform students of prompt engineering techniques,little is known about how prompt engineering functions from the perspective of meaning negotiation between the human and generative AI.This paper explores the integration of the Pan-indexical process of linguistic signs into a prompt-based teaching model(PBTM),emphasizing its potential to facilitate meaning negotiation in prompt engineering during the early stage of AI-mediated academic writing.The PBTM consists of four key components:encyclopedic knowledge,contextual information,evaluative critical thinking,and iterative design.The application of PBTM lies in the early stage of idea development of academic writing and is organized around four major steps:crafting the initial prompt;refining the prompt with contextual information;engaging in evaluative critical thinking;iterative progression toward a desired response.This paper suggests that the Pan-indexical process of linguistics signs can be employed to AI-mediated pedagogical approaches to enhance students’ability in optimization of prompts through a deeper understanding of meaning negotiation between the students and generative AI to support their academic writing process.展开更多
This paper reports on an inquiry into the construction of stance in finite reporting that-clauses. The data were drawn from two corpora of academic papers from a journal in the discipline of Applied Linguistics writte...This paper reports on an inquiry into the construction of stance in finite reporting that-clauses. The data were drawn from two corpora of academic papers from a journal in the discipline of Applied Linguistics written by different language users： native speakers of English and Chinese writers using English as L2. By drawing on Sindair＇s distinction between ＂averral＂ and ＂attribution,＂ as well as Martin and White＇s notion of extra-vocalization, this paper sets up a framework for analyzing the sources in reporting clauses in order to examine how the writers construe their stances as visible, hedged or concealed. The study found that for self-sourced reports, the L2 writers are inclined to avoid direct self-mention which shows the greatest writer visibility, but instead use hidden averral with internal attribution. As for other-sourced reports, L2 writers prefer reporting verbs which are strong in the strength of attitude to make a much more definite and stronger claim, while native writers tactically use the moderate verbs and boosting expressions to construct more flexible stances. These discrepancies are likely to result from the disciplinary characteristics which are both community-based and context-situated.展开更多
文摘This paper shared challenges encountered in academic writing from the perspective of a novice researcher and experi⁃ences in attaining skills in developing a research article of proper quality.
文摘Academic writing is social interaction between writer and reader,during which writers can employ discursive and non-discursive features to construct their identities.However,many student writers who are users of English as an additional language(EAL)may find it challenging to construct their identities in academic writing.Properly constructed identity in academic writing can help EAL student writers develop a stronger sense of self,exercise their agency,and negotiate the academic discourse.Therefore,this paper reviews empirical studies on EAL student writers'identity construction when they write in English to investigate the features of identities that EAL student writers construct in texts and the factors that influence their identity construction.The findings show that,compared with expert writers and native-English-speaking(NES)counterparts,EAL student writers tend to present a weak authorial identity.Furthermore,EAL student writers tend to be more engaged with texts than with readers and lack commitment to their claims.The identities that EAL student writers construct in academic writing are also interwoven with EAL students'English proficiency levels,educational experience,disciplinary conventions,genre affordances,and audience awareness.The findings of this literature review can help teachers and educators raise EAL students’identity awareness and facilitate students in strategically constructing writer identities in academic writing.
文摘This qualitative-dominant mixed study used content analysis, interviews, and survey to examine if first-year university undergraduates taking English language academic writing courses consider prior knowledge from high school English language five-paragraph essay writing style helpful. Sample included 67 first year university undergraduates. All the 67 students considered prior knowledge of the high school five-paragraph essay writing style helpful. They believed that it facilitated a transfer of learning in the first-year university undergraduate academic writing course. However, only 15 out of the respondents, who reported that prior knowledge of the high school English language five-paragraph essay writing style was helpful, also reported that they are level-appropriate competent in the first-year university undergraduate English language academic writing courses after one academic year. As such, essay-writing in high school offers students some foundation-knowledge to succeed in academic writing in universities. Further findings showed that students often delve into essay or academic writing without proper planning. Thus, it is recommended that universities introduce a bridge course specifically to address academic deficiency in reading and writing for all first year undergraduates upon admission into the university.
文摘Academic writings, whether they are BA dissertations or semester papers, are important carriers of one＇s ideas and findings of their own study and research spheres. In academic papers, the most important part is the choice of topics which determines the macro direction of the paper. Important as it is, it is difficult for the English majors to choose the most appropriate topics with idea-invested thesis statements instead of some factual statements. Therefore, in order to make clear of the status quo and underlying obstacles of topic choosing, this paper is to study on 98 samples from China University of Political Science and Law＇s junior English majors. By observing and analyzing their writings, the paper intends to fred out some possible and accessible methods to improve English majors＇ academic writing and offer some insights for teachers to make some adjustments in accordance with the status quo.
文摘Scientific research aims to understand the reality that surrounds us.It is defined by Benoit Gauthier as:“an activity of objective quest for knowledge on factual questions”.By virtue of its goal of objectively advancing knowledge in a particular field,it requires rigor,precision and method.As heuristic practice is not a natural exercise,the skills required in the development of scientific work need to be taught to students who are often helpless in face of these requirements.It is therefore important for the faculty to support and,even more so,to train students in research.The Faculty of French and Francophone Studies at Beijing Foreign Studies University(BFSU)propose an Academic Writing course accessible to students of the fourth year of the bachelor program.This article first offers a description of the course in its components,both theoretical and practical.Then,it analyses the weaknesses observed by the professor during his teaching and some reflections are proposed in order to try to develop a more systemic approach to research at university aimed at allowing a greater empowerment of the students coupled with more comprehensive training.
文摘Academic literacy is the fundamental quality that scholars should possess in order to get socialized in their disciplinary communities, of which academic writing is one of the most important aspects. This article attempts to summarize some common features of academic writing and the skills and background knowledge that are essential for successful writing. The next part focuses on the possible challenges that academic writing may pose on Chinese overseas students as they try to meet the requirements of the Western discourse communities. In the last part, it provides some recommendations to those who intend to study abroad and concludes that for both native and non-native speakers the learning of academic writing is a lifelong process of endless confliction and negotiation.
文摘This research investigates four categories of high-frequency grammatical errors from 45 students’academic writings via script analysis.A group of 36 students responded to a questionnaire focusing on their beliefs regarding these grammatical constructions.The participants are enrolled in an international school in Suzhou City.A total of 646 sentences were analyzed,among which295(45.7%)are inaccurate.Of the 364 errors found,most of them(64.0%)fall into the category of Subject-verb agreement,followed by subordinate clauses(28.6%);errors in English existential construction and the passive voice are a few.Also,the usage rate of subordinate clause is 42.7%,of which a large proportion was incorrect.
文摘Voice is an important topic in academic writing research.Despite increasing research interest,voice has remained a contentious topic.In the article:On the Use of the Passive and Active Voice in Astrophysics Journal Papers:With Extensions to other Languages and other Fields,an interesting hypothesis has been put forward:“Writers of methods sections in this field tend to use we+active when they have made a unique procedural choice or have introduced some technical innovation.On the other hand,the passive seems to be used when authors are simply following established or standard procedures.”Based on the existing research,this paper chooses to study the active and passive forms in the methods section of research articles,and we examine the frequency of the active and passive verb forms in the methods section of two linguistics journal articles.And to verify an old hypothesis:The we+active is used for new stuff,while the passive is preferred for old stuff,this paper will examine the we+active forms and passive verb forms the in methods section in two linguistic journal articles.
文摘The goal of this short paper is to bring English academic writing(EAW)and mobile-assisted language learning(MALL)together to examine to what degree the latter can be effectively employed to support the former in the Hong Kong higher education context.It utilizes the perspectives generated from the literature,together with professional interpretation,to illustrate the affordances of MALL in EAW in the community.It is suggested that MALL can be employed to integrate academic English into the students’daily lives,through which they can implicitly build the knowledge of academic register outside of the classroom and ultimately use it in the classroom.
文摘This paper explores effective human-AI collaboration in academic writing using Large Language Models(LLMs).Focusing on the two critical stages of ideation and revision,the article argues that higher education institutions must develop specific pedagogical strategies to guide students in leveraging the benefits of LLMs while mitigat-ing risks such as academic integrity issues,over-reliance,and bias.The core of these strategies is to emphasize the primacy of human agency,critical thinking,and ethical responsibility.The ultimate goal is to transform AI from a potential pitfall into a powerful tool that enhances scholarly skills and depth of thought,rather than being used as a simple text generator.
基金supported by a fund from Social Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province(Award reference:23SWB-22)a fund from Social Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province(Award reference:24SWC-03).
文摘AI-mediated academic writing calls for new pedagogical approaches to the application of prompt engineering for writing courses.Whereas previous studies mainly inform students of prompt engineering techniques,little is known about how prompt engineering functions from the perspective of meaning negotiation between the human and generative AI.This paper explores the integration of the Pan-indexical process of linguistic signs into a prompt-based teaching model(PBTM),emphasizing its potential to facilitate meaning negotiation in prompt engineering during the early stage of AI-mediated academic writing.The PBTM consists of four key components:encyclopedic knowledge,contextual information,evaluative critical thinking,and iterative design.The application of PBTM lies in the early stage of idea development of academic writing and is organized around four major steps:crafting the initial prompt;refining the prompt with contextual information;engaging in evaluative critical thinking;iterative progression toward a desired response.This paper suggests that the Pan-indexical process of linguistics signs can be employed to AI-mediated pedagogical approaches to enhance students’ability in optimization of prompts through a deeper understanding of meaning negotiation between the students and generative AI to support their academic writing process.
基金funded by the Humanities and Social Sciences Planning Project of China's Ministry of Education(No.12YJA740050)the provincial(Ji Lin)Philosophy and Social Sciences Foundation Project in China(No.2013BS99)
文摘This paper reports on an inquiry into the construction of stance in finite reporting that-clauses. The data were drawn from two corpora of academic papers from a journal in the discipline of Applied Linguistics written by different language users： native speakers of English and Chinese writers using English as L2. By drawing on Sindair＇s distinction between ＂averral＂ and ＂attribution,＂ as well as Martin and White＇s notion of extra-vocalization, this paper sets up a framework for analyzing the sources in reporting clauses in order to examine how the writers construe their stances as visible, hedged or concealed. The study found that for self-sourced reports, the L2 writers are inclined to avoid direct self-mention which shows the greatest writer visibility, but instead use hidden averral with internal attribution. As for other-sourced reports, L2 writers prefer reporting verbs which are strong in the strength of attitude to make a much more definite and stronger claim, while native writers tactically use the moderate verbs and boosting expressions to construct more flexible stances. These discrepancies are likely to result from the disciplinary characteristics which are both community-based and context-situated.
