Exploring the Impact of Translanguaging on Chinese-speaking Students’Academic English Writing:Taking CET-4 as an Example

This qualitative research study attempts to discover the real thinking process of learners who are native Chinese speakers in Academic English Writing(AEW)through interviews.Introspecting an EFL learner’s thinking process in English writing is based on two theories:critical period hypothesis and translanguaging.The results of the study indicate that translanguaging has a positive impact on the English CET-4 writing of learners who lack proficiency in English.For those learners who lack proficiency in the second language,translanguaging is an effective auxiliary tool for them to complete AEW.

Identity Construction in Academic Writing of Student Writers Who Use English as an Additional Language:A Literature Review

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.

The Status Quo of Topics Choosing in English Majors＇ Academic Writings—— A Case Study of CUPL Junior English Majors

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.

Validity Study on the Test Paper of the Academic English Reading and Writing Course

The aim of this study is to conduct the validity analysis of the test paper of the academic English reading and writing course referring to the freshmen of non-English majors in a university of Technology in Shanghai.The validity is mainly analyzed from these three aspects:the content and construct validity,the reaction process,and the internal structure of the test paper.And the principles of language assessment in the design of the test paper are given in this study.The validity study was also conducted in a class with 42 freshmen,and the scores of them were analyzed through the internal correlation coefficient from Statistic Package for Social Science(SPSS)25.0.Finally,the validity of the test paper is concluded.

A Research on Errors in Paraphrasing in Academic Writing of English Majors

This paper seeks to identify errors made my English majors in academic writing so that preventive measures such as effective pedagogic strategies and learning activities can be devised and conducted to reduce these errors. In order to facilitate learners in horning their skills in paraphrasing, a practical strategy is proposed. It is hoped that by implementing strategies like this, ESL learners will be confident in using their own words to paraphrase academic texts with minimal errors.

Teaching Hong Kong English before Teaching Academic English:The Gateway to Effective Learning of College Writing

Owing to the negative view of Hong Kong English(HKE)in popular discourse,few English lecturers in Hong Kong universities directly acknowledge or discuss the variety in a non-linguistic course.This paper illustrates an action research study of how HKE may play a role in an academic writing course of a sub-degree program in Hong Kong.Focusing on 8 representatives from an academic writing course with 100 students,it employed the qualitative experiment method to examine whether students who had possessed basic linguistic knowledge of HKE from an additional tutorial would perceive HKE and academic writing differently from those who had not.Student representatives from each group were invited to a focus group to explore ideas about the two subjects discussed in class.Their conversations suggested that prior knowledge of the syntactic features of HKE might raise students’awareness of the grammatical differences between the variety and the standard.The analysis also suggested that introducing the linguistic view of HKE to students might render them optimistic about their variety,helping them identify the situations where the variety would be tolerant of and settings where Standard English would be expected.The study suggested that such an intervention might facilitate students’learning of Standard English for academic purposes and practices of English in actual professional communication.Upon the improvement or advancement,they will position themselves more powerfully in the dichotomy between the standard and non-standard.More formal research on a similar or relevant topic is required to validate the impact of understanding HKE on learning academic writing.

Teaching Hong Kong English before Teaching Academic English: The Gateway to Effective Learning of College Writing

Owing to the negative view of Hong Kong English(HKE)in popular discourse,few English lecturers in Hong Kong universities directly acknowledge or discuss the variety in a non-linguistic course.This paper illustrates an action research study of how HKE may play a role in an academic writing course of a sub-degree program in Hong Kong.Focusing on 8 representatives from an academic writing course with 100 students,it employed the qualitative experiment method to examine whether students who had possessed basic linguistic knowledge of HKE from an additional tutorial would perceive HKE and academic writing differently from those who had not.Student representatives from each group were invited to a focus group to explore ideas about the two subjects discussed in class.Their conversations suggested that prior knowledge of the syntactic features of HKE might raise students’awareness of the grammatical differences between the variety and the standard.The analysis also suggested that introducing the linguistic view of HKE to students might render them optimistic about their variety,helping them identify the situations where the variety would be tolerant of and settings where Standard English would be expected.The study suggested that such an intervention might facilitate students’learning of Standard English for academic purposes and practices of English in actual professional communication.Upon the improvement or advancement,they will position themselves more powerfully in the dichotomy between the standard and non-standard.More formal research on a similar or relevant topic is required to validate the impact of understanding HKE on learning academic writing.

A New Perspective on an Old Subject:Mobile-assisted Language Learning in English Academic Writing in Hong Kong Universities

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.

A Genre-Based Approach to Developing Learning and Teaching Academic Writing Skills With Relation to the Omani Technical Context

Teachers are supposed to apply the Genre-Based Approach(GBA)to teach academic writing in the Foundation Year Program(FYP)in the colleges of technology.However,students in these colleges find it difficult to produce a formal piece of academic work(Al-Husseini,2004).Students seem to face lot of writing problems and so the author conducted this study to have a better understanding of what is happening.He carried a questionnaire study to reveal the causes of difficulties in academic writing.The author restricted his focus on research to lack of practice in applying these skills in students’writing as that is more relevant in the technical colleges’context.The study proved that the absence of practicing learning and teaching academic writing due to the insufficient use of the GBA,partly discourage the adequate mastering of these skills.Following the GBA to tackle such problem might be useful.As a consequence,the author considers this research study’s results as an additional evidence for the value of the GBA in developing the learning and teaching of academic writing skills to FYP Omani students in the technical colleges.

High-frequency Grammatical Errors in Academic Writings by Chinese Students in International School

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.

Teaching Writing to Adult English Language Learners： Lessons From the Field

For the past several decades, it has been clear that the ability to write texts for academic and professional purposes （＂academic writing＂ in this article） is key to the success of adults in U.S. society--in school, in university courses, on tests that they need to take to progress through learning and into work, and in the workforce. Academic writing has specific features and involves approaches that are different from much of the writing that is done with adult learners, particularly those learning English as an additional language （e.g., described in reviews by Hinkel, 2015; Leki, Cumming, ＆ Silva, 2008; and a survey by Rosenfeld, Courtney, ＆ Fowles, 2004）. However, a recent survey of adult educators, conducted by the authors, found that academic writing has not been a focus in many adult education programs, and teachers receive limited professional development in this area and instructional support in implementing it. This article describes the importance of academic writing at all levels of adult education, the key features of academic writing, and the current state of writing instruction in adult education programs. It then describes the motivation for, design, and outcomes of a survey of and interviews with adult educators across the country on their preparation for and instructional practices with academic writing （conducted in 2014 and 2015）. Finally, it describes approaches that can be used in adult education programs to meet the writing proficiency needs of students at all levels and next steps that the adult education field might take.

Main Problems and Countermeasures in Writing English Major Papers

According to the Degree Regulations of the People’s Republic of China,our country implements a three-level Bachelor’s,Master’s,and Doctoral degree system,graduates at all levels must pass the course examination and thesis defense before they can obtain a degree certificate.It can be seen that writing academic papers is a very important skill.For English majors,academic papers need to be written in English to illustrate their academic achievements.However,judging from the current papers of English majors,there are prominent problems in thesis writing,such as:blind selection of topics,empty content,scattered research,and improper attitudes of students.This study mainly adopts the literature method,on the basis of reading academic writing-related literature and English majors’paper,the author finds out the commonalities of English major students’academic writing and puts forward effective countermeasures.This study will provide new strategy for English majors to improve their thesis writing ability,avoid making general mistakes,and to a certain extent,reduce the tutoring pressure for essay instructors,so as to improve the academic writing quality of English majors.

Personal voice in College English writing: Should it be developed or not?

Academic writing in College English Teaching is considered to be one of the most importanttopics. More important ly, the issue of personal voice in ESL writing attracts many second language researchers' attention recently. Through reviewing the supportive or opposite perspectives about using personal voice in writing, the paper aims to explore the barriers to expressing personal voice. The most significant part is to give some pedagogical implications for teaching academic writing.

Plagiarism and English Writing

Plagiarism is one of the main problems Chinese English majors face in thesis writing. This paper talks about the reasons behind it and then comes up with some ways for college English teachers to help their students better understand and avoid plagia?rism.

非英语专业大学生对师生共建写作评分标准感知的质性研究

本研究采用质性方法分析了非英语专业大学生对师生共建写作评分标准的感知及其影响因素。研究对象为某高校38位修读“学术英语”的大一学生。研究数据包括他们填写的叙事框架和对其中6位学生的回溯性访谈。研究发现,全部学生都赞同该评估模式,认为它不仅是一种有效的教学手段,也是一种有效的评估手段,能实现“以评促学”与“以评为学”,值得在课堂中推广;在教学应用上应注意搭建各类评估脚手架、控制评分标准不同等级之间的限定词以及加强对语言能力相对较弱学生的指导。

高校学术英语教师的自我认知研究

在高校实施学术英语教学方向的大学英语教学改革当中,教师不但需要具备学科教学知识等核心知识,也需要增强对自我的认知,即提升教师自我知识。通过对学术英语教师及教研专家的深度访谈,研究了学术英语教师的自我知识类型及表征,即包括对自身需求、兴趣和能力等方面的认知,认为学术英语教师应该对自身的需求、兴趣、能力等具备明确的认识,以在教学中扬长避短,为促进学术英语教师知识、教学能力与身份认同的提升提供自主发展动力。

学术英语的学科与体裁特性

随着我国高等教育国际化的持续深入,学术英语教学与研究的规模和需求日益增长。然而现有文献在识解学术英语内涵和教学定位方面存在诸多不确定性,对学术英语特性的认识不足在一定程度上制约了课程设置和教学内容的合理安排。本文通过文献及数据论述学术英语在话语修辞方面的学科和体裁特性,认为学术英语并不仅是通用英语在词汇和语法上的延伸,也与专业英语有所不同,它是以目标话语共同体为导向,深刻蕴涵了学科和体裁特性的语言特征、体裁资源和话语实践,其教学核心是目标话语共同体的话语修辞而非话语内容。了解学术英语的学科和体裁特性有助于增强教学针对性,提高学生掌握参与学科知识建构与表述的话语能力,深化学生对学科本体论、认识论和方法论的理解,从而使他们更好地加入学科话语共同体,构建学术身份。

新文科背景下本科生学术英语能力培养路径研究——以研究型大学学术英语课程为例

在新文科建设背景下,大学英语教学肩负重要使命,提升学生的学术英语综合能力,培养高水平复合型人才,是研究型大学公共英语课程的培养目标之一。该研究围绕学生对学术英语能力的需求进行问卷调查,并对相关教师进行访谈。从结果中可以看出,无论是学生还是教师都认为,学生的学术英语基础能力和用英语开展学术科研的能力都亟待提高,学生的学术视野也有待进一步拓展。鉴于此,笔者提出以支架教学为理念,以任务教学为途径,以形成性评估为手段的一体化教学模式,并探讨该模式在学术英语课程中的具体应用,以期为新文科背景下本科生学术英语能力培养路径研究与学术英语课程教学模式探索提供参考。

基于ESP理念的通用学术英语在大学英语教学中的构建

通用学术英语(EGAP)作为专门用途英语(ESP)的分支,不局限于特定学科或职业,主要解决学术英语中的共性问题,培养学生一般性的学术英语能力。文章以ESP教学理念为基础,探索将通用学术英语课程作为从通用大学英语到专业英语的衔接性课程,构建于大学英语课程体系中。提出将通用大学英语与通用学术英语相互融合互为补充、确立以需求分析为基础的通用学术英语教学目标和教学内容、设计以学生为中心的教学活动和加强通用学术英语课程师资队伍建设等作为通用学术英语在大学英语教学中的构建原则,旨在为转型期的大学英语教学提供理论和实践依据以及可借鉴的经验。

学术英语写作常见问题分析与以内容为依托的学术英语写作教学

学术英语写作是研究型大学公共英语课程体系中的重要部分,也是教学中的一大难点。学生对学术英语写作普遍感到难度大、提高慢。作者对学生学术英语写作中的常见问题进行归纳和分析,剖析其产生的原因,阐释以内容为依托的教学模式的内涵与意义,讨论这一教学模式在学术英语写作教学中的应用和实践效果,以期为学术英语写作教学提供参考。