Task 4: Read the following abstracts and decide whether you want to read the whole text or not. Explain the reasons.

A: Academic literacy and plagiarism: Conversations with international graduate students and disciplinary professors by Ali R. Abasi & Barbara Graves. Journal of English for Academic Purposes 7 (2008) 221-233

Abstract

In this study we examine how university plagiarism policies interact with international graduate students? academic writing in English as they develop identities as authors and students. The study is informed by the sociocultural theoretical perspective [Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher mental processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Wertsch, J. V. (1991). Voices of the mind: A sociocultural approach to mediated action. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.] that foregrounds the crucial role of appropriation in learning, and the Bakhtinian dialogism [Bakhtin, M. M. (1981). The dialogic imagination. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press; Bakhtin, M. M. (1986). Speech genres and other late essays. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.] that highlights intertextuality as a fundamental feature of language use. Relying on multiple data sources including text-based interviews, in-depth interviews with students and disciplinary professors, course syllabi, field notes, and institutional documents, we consider the social discourses that surround students as they interact with prior sources in order to understand how they construct their texts. We discuss how university plagiarism policies frame the professor-student relationship and influence student text production. We conclude by critiquing university plagiarism policies that serve to mystify academic writing, negatively affecting those students who are less familiar with the genre of academic writing. 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Academic literacy; Discourses; International students; Plagiarism

B: Analyzing Genre Exemplars in Preparation for Writing: The Case of an L2 Graduate Student in the ESP Genre-based Instructional Framework of Academic Literacy by An Cheng. Applied Linguistics 29/1: 50?71. Oxford University Press 2008

Some researchers believe that the ESP genre-based framework of writing instruction is effective in teaching discipline-specific English EAP writing to L2 learners, especially to advanced L2 graduate students. However, studies examining students? genre-based learning in such a framework are still underrepresented in current ESP genre-based literature. This study focused on a Chinese-speaking graduate student in electrical engineering who analyzed genre exemplars in preparation for writing. My analysis of the data reveals this student?s two prominent and interrelated ways of analyzing the discourse-level generic features in discipline-specific genre exemplars. They are (a) rhetorical, as evidenced in his consistent attention not only to the generic features, but also to the underlying rhetorical parameters, such as reader, writer, and purpose and

(b) evaluative, as shown in his increasingly sophisticated evaluation of the discourse-level generic features in the genre exemplars. The student?s rhetorical and evaluative reading of the genre exemplars highlights the potential power of genre as an explicit, supportive tool for building academic literacy.

C: COMMONALITY AND INDIVIDUALITY IN ACADEMIC WRITING: AN ANALYSIS OF CONFERENCE PAPER TITLES OF FOUR SCHOLARS by Dr. Joseph B. A. Afful, Mr. Isaac N. Mwinlaaru. ESP World, Issue 1 (27), Volume 9, 2010

Abstract

In the last two and half decades, scholars and researchers in Applied Linguistics and other allied fields have shown an increasing interest in titles of academic publications. The place of style at the level of the individual language user has, however, been under-researched. This study, therefore, investigates the extent to which titles of conference papers vary according to individual authors? preferences and disciplinary proclivities. A total of 78 conference paper titles of four scholars (two each from the disciplines of Education and Applied Linguistics) constituted the data set for the study. The titles of each scholar were analyzed, based on four variables, namely lexical density, length in words, structural organization, and syntactic encoding, using both quantitative and qualitative analytical approaches. The findings show that the titles of individual scholars within the same discipline vary considerably. Both similarities and differences between the two disciplines regarding the construction of titles are also observed.

The study concludes that, in general, titles maintain discipline-constrained and generic characteristics; yet, these titles are considerably characterized by individual preferences of the scholars. These findings of the study have Implications for the scholarship on the interface between individuality and disciplinarity, academic writing and further research.

Key words: commonality, conference paper title, discipline, individuality, lexical density

D: Communicative Competence and the Improvement of University Teaching: insights from the field by A. Abbas & M. Mclean. British Journal of Sociology of Education, Vol. 24, No. 1, 2003

ABSTRACT

The arguments in this article have been generated from involvement in a government-funded project designed to improve teaching. The authors reflect on their experience and use Jurgen Habermas?s theory of communicative competence to argue that initiatives designed to improve university teaching often work against their own intentions by closing down opportunities for open dialogue. They argue that improvement of teaching requires undistorted communication and demonstrate that this is made difficult: by the pressure to be seen to succeed; by over-specifying what constitutes good teaching; and, by divorcing research from development. At the same time, they suggest that academics could seize opportunities to open up dialogue about teaching.

Date: 2016-06-13; view: 958