英语学术论文写作教育的缺失——基于中国留学生批判性信息素质考察的研究

Reflections on the Teaching of English Academic Writing——From Critical Information Literacy of Chinese Overseas Graduate Students

以往有关英语学术论文写作教育的研究着重讨论体裁而忽视了对学生批判性信息素质的培养问题。然而,批判性信息素质对学术论文写作意义重大,尤其是文献综述部分。本研究整合了信息素质与Halliday的体裁理论,考察了在澳大利亚的中国研究生在文献评述中体现的问题。研究发现,除了英语作为外语对写作的干扰外,中国学生不能有效提炼所读文献的主要思想用以构建新概念;不能有效整合所选信息为自己的研究主题服务;不能在语篇中与读者建立恰当的学术交流关系;不能客观评述他人观点并推导出自己的论点。

Most researches on the teaching of English academic writing have been focused on their genre issues,so the need to cultivate students’ critical information literacy has been largely overlooked.However,critical information literacy plays a vital role in academic writing,particularly in literature reviews.Consequently,the present study,by integrating information literacy framework and Halliday’s genre theory,explores how international Higher Degree Research students make use of information in their research writing.The participants are currently studying in Australia and this study examined the documents that they produced in preparing the literature review for their thesis.The research this paper draws upon finds the students’ lack of competency in synthesising the main ideas from the information selected to construct new concepts;in using the selected information effectively to accomplish their specific purpose;in communicating their presentation appropriately to the reader,and in evaluating and incorporating the information selected into their research context,in addition to their linguistic incompetency as a result of their second-language English speaking background.