Search

This study explores Chinese English-major students' intertextual competence and factors shaping their ability to paraphrase in academic writing. Multiple instruments were employed to collect data from 212 English-major students at different academic levels from nine universities in mainland China. The data were analyzed to determine how a range of personal and contextual variables related to their ability to paraphrase an academic text. Two groups of variables were found to be associated with their performance on the paraphrasing task. The first group comprised knowledge and attitudinal variables, including previous training on plagiarism, knowledge of blatant plagiarism, inability to recognize plagiarized texts, and condemnatory attitudes toward plagiarism. The second group consisted of ability measures or their proxy variables, namely English proficiency, instructional context and inadequate academic ability as a perceived cause of plagiarism. The observed relationship between the two groups of variables indicated that the effects of knowledge and attitudinal variables depended on or were mediated by the ability variables. These findings call for a multipronged and coordinated pedagogical approach to developing students' intertextual competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linguistic expressions of interest as emotive responses are not uncommon in academic discourse but have hardly attracted any research attention. This paper reports on a study designed to examine how the deployment of such expressions in academic writing is mediated by an academic author's disciplinary background and gender. Drawing on a semantic frame developed for interest markers found in a corpus of 640 research articles sampled from four disciplines, corpus-based quantitative analyses were conducted on the incidence of the various elements of the Interest frame. Text-based interviews were also conducted with 16 disciplinary informants to explore considerations behind their use of interest markers. The corpus analyses found that although discipline and gender did not reliably predict academic authors' overall use of interest markers, they were robust predictors of several frame elements. The analyses of the interview data revealed that the observed quantitative differences were related to disciplinary knowledge-making practices, knowledge/knower epistemological orientations prevailing in the disciplines, gender-preferential discursive practices and an author's relative status in academia. • We examined linguistic expressions of interest in 640 research articles. • These articles were authored by male and female academics from four disciplines. • We developed a semantic frame with four frame elements to study these expressions. • Disciplinary background influenced the use of Trigger, Explanation and Degree. • Gender differences were found in the use of Explanation, Degree and Experiencer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Retraction of published research is laudable as a post-publication self-correction of science but undesirable as an indicator of grave violations of research and publication ethics. Given its various adverse consequences, retraction has a stigmatizing effect both in and beyond the academic community. However, little theoretical attention has been paid to the stigmatizing nature of retraction. Drawing on stigma theories and informed by research on retraction, we advance a conceptualization of retraction as stigma. We define retraction stigma as a discrediting evaluation of the professional competence and academic ethics of the entities held accountable for retraction. Accordingly, we identify seven core dimensions of retraction stigma, consider its functional justifications at both social and psychological levels, and distinguish its various targets and stakeholders. In view of the central role of retraction notices, we also discuss how retraction stigma is communicated via retraction notices and how authors of retraction notices may exercise their retraction stigma power and manipulate the stigmatizing force of retraction notices. We conclude by recommending retraction stigma as a theoretical framework for future research on retraction and pointing out several directions that this research can take. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. Synergising CDA and stance analysis to examine marketisation discourse of Ghanaian HEIs. 2. Prominent use of boosters and attitude markers in vision and mission statements. 3. Competitive climate and social trends motivating rhetorical choices. 4. Neoliberal ideologies and agendas are discursively manifested in university rhetoric. 5. Differences between institutional types shape marketisation strategies. A key manifestation of market forces permeating higher education is the marketised discourse in universities' vision and mission statements, promoting institutional brands and offerings. This study set out to explore how 59 Ghanaian universities marketise themselves in their vision and mission statements. Drawing on critical discourse analysis (CDA) and a metadiscourse model of stance, a textual analysis revealed six key marketisation strategies: (1) trumpeting excellence, global aspirations and partnerships; (2) highlighting niche specialisations; (3) declaring commitment to knowledge creation and dissemination; (4) pledging positive societal impact: (5) promising holistic and quality education; (6) emphasising ethical, value-based education. In comparison with the public universities, the private and technical universities adopted a more assertive marketing language replete with boosters, attitude markers and hedging expressions. Thus, the identified discoursal differences align with university types and market orientations. These findings offer important implications for higher education development, policy-making of educational stakeholders and further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there has been much research detailing how English as a foreign language (EFL) students attending English for academic purposes (EAP) courses struggle with a wide array of challenges when adjusting to university English-medium instruction, how these students use feedback to self-regulate their academic English learning and what contributes to or hinders this remain unknown. This study investigates Chinese university students' feedback behaviour and preferences in academic English course settings and their associations with English language self-efficacy within the context of recent feedback research in higher education. Apart from a dominant preference for teacher evaluative feedback, the students were found to be more likely to act on teacher feedback than to proactively seek feedback. English language self-efficacy was also shown to have significant influence on both feedback behaviour and preference. In the light of these results, this paper argues for a pressing need to extend the notion of feedback in academic English courses from viewing it as information transmission or 'telling' to recognising it as an iterative process whereby students make sense of information from various sources and use it to enhance their academic English learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ever-intensifying globalization and marketization of higher education are placing increased pressure on doctoral students to publish during candidature. This paper reports a study of Chinese nursing doctoral students' endeavors to publish in English. Drawing on Activity Theory, the study employed a multiple-case study design and collected multiple types of data from six doctoral students and one supervisor from a major research-intensive university in mainland China. Thematic and activity systems analyses of the data revealed a tension concerning the students' dual role as student and expert scholarly writer. The tension was manifested in the students' developing, but still limited grasp and use of some conceptual tools needed to publish their work. The analyses also showed that the students dealt with this tension by relying on mediating resources, such as cultural artifacts and social others that facilitated not only their publishing efforts, but also their socialization into the academic culture and community. These findings point to a deep-seated structural tension in doctoral education that, while constraining doctoral students' scholarly publishing endeavors, could also enable them to acquire the skills of the trade to publish and to be socialized into their disciplinary communities. • Doctoral students seeking to publish face challenges arising from their dual role. • They are expected to be student and expert scholarly writers at the same time. • A tension exists between their developing, yet limited, grasp of conceptual tools. • Cultural artifacts and social others mediate students' overcoming of the tension. • The tension-ridden process brings along learning and socialization opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teachers’ instructional practices surrounding written assignments have been little researched, despite writing remaining the primary means of assessment in higher education, including postgraduate professional development programmes. In this paper, we report a study that explored what a sample of lecturers in a Master of Education programme at an English-medium university in Hong Kong did to support students’ assignment writing. We integrate perspectives provided by the relevant higher education literature, the academic literacies approach and North American rhetorical genre studies to shed light on the findings derived from our analyses of interview and documentary data. We showed that our lecturer participants both engaged in direct instruction on assignment writing and provided indirect support. Our study contributed to the existing literature and raised questions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plagiarism is a major problem for universities worldwide and has been a constant cause of concern in higher education. Previous research has focused on Chinese students' attitudes toward, knowledge of, and engagement in plagiarism in Chinese and overseas educational contexts, and there is also a growing body of research on Chinese teachers' understandings of and stance on plagiaristic practices. However, little research attention has been given to institutional policies on plagiarism in the Chinese context, though similar research has been conducted in other settings. This paper reports on a study that examines the plagiarism policies made publicly available by eight major universities of foreign studies in mainland China. Both the structure and content of these universities' policy documents are analyzed to identify institutional understandings of, attitudes toward, and sanctions on plagiarism. The analysis reveals that despite inter-institutional variations, the policy documents are dominated by moralistic and regulatory discourses and are characterized by the conspicuous lack of an educative approach to plagiarism. We argue that such an institutional approach to plagiarism is unlikely to be effective because it largely fails to support students’ acquisition of academic literacy and legitimate intertextual practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informed by Vygotsky's conceptualization of the Zone of Proximal Development, this case study investigated the benefits of peer feedback on second language (L2) writing for students with high L2 proficiency and the factors that may influence their learning in peer feedback in the Chinese English-as-a-foreign-language context. Specifically, the study examined whether, what, and how higher-proficiency (HP) English learners can learn when they collaborate with their lower-proficiency counterparts. Analyses of multiple sources of data -- video-recordings of peer feedback sessions, interviews, stimulated recalls, and drafts of student texts -- revealed that while group peer feedback in the writing classroom can provide learning opportunities for HP students, their learning can be influenced by several factors, including their beliefs about peer feedback, motives and goals for peer feedback, and medium of group discussion. Implications are drawn from these findings for peer feedback practice and research in L2 writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automated writing evaluation (AWE) systems can provide immediate computer-generated quantitative assessments and qualitative diagnostic feedback on an enormous number of submitted essays. However, limited research attention has been paid to locally designed AWE systems used in English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom contexts. This study explored the precision of feedback provided by a Chinese AWE programmePigaiand students’ uptake of such feedback. Data comprisingPigaifeedback, students’ revised submissions, incorporatedPigaisuggestions and proportions of ‘good’, ‘neutral’ and ‘bad’ revisions were collected from 210 drafts by 30 undergraduate students in an EFL writing class. Results show that (1) the precision rates of AWE feedback differed across categories of feedback (ie grammar, collocations and mechanics); (2) students were selective in their utilisation of AWE feedback and able to adjust their uptake of AWE suggestions according to the accuracy of the feedback. Survey and interview data demonstrated that the students were cognisant of the strengths and limitations of the AWE system as a source of feedback for improving their writing. These results indicate that AWE feedback can usefully supplement peer and instructor feedback in the EFL writing classroom but cannot replace the latter, given the low precision and accuracy rates of the former in identifying a range of errors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although Chinese university students' perceptions of plagiarism have been extensively investigated, those of their teachers have been surprisingly under-researched. This study sought to address this gap by investigating 112 Chinese university English teachers' knowledge of and attitudes towards plagiarism. While 57 participating teachers had overseas academic experience, the remaining ones received all their education in mainland China. They completed a perceptions of plagiarism survey that elicited their knowledge of several common forms of plagiarism in Anglo-American academia, perceptions of various possible causes of plagiarism, and attitudes towards plagiarism induced by different causes and plagiarism in general. The study found that the teachers reported varying knowledge of different types of transgressive textual practices, variegated perceptions of the different causes of plagiarism, but clearly punitive attitudes towards plagiarism. It also revealed significant differences between teachers with and without overseas academic experience in knowledge of and stances on plagiarism. These findings highlight the complexity of plagiarism as an intertextual phenomenon and point to the important role of cultural practices and academic socialisation in shaping perceptions of it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This comparative study draws on an interpersonal model of metadiscourse to examine disciplinary and paradigmatic influences on the use of interactional metadiscourse in the post-method sections of 120 research articles. These research articles were drawn from three social science disciplines (i.e., applied linguistics, education, and psychology) and two research paradigms (i.e., quantitative and qualitative research). Quantitative analyses showed that the applied linguistics and education research articles used boosters more frequently than the psychology research articles. Furthermore, the applied linguistics subcorpus deployed more reader references but fewer self-mentions than the psychology subcorpus. Cross-paradigmatic comparisons revealed that the quantitative research articles made more frequent use of hedges, boosters, attitude markers, engagement markers as a main type, and directives as a subtype than the qualitative research articles. Qualitative analyses identified additional cross-disciplinary and cross-paradigmatic differences in the choice or function of specific metadiscoursal resources. These observed differences are attributable to the knowledge-knower structures characteristic of the disciplines and the epistemologies underlying the research paradigms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study sought to provide a nuanced understanding of the relationship between metacognitive awareness and listening performance by eliciting from 113 English-as-a-second-language (ESL) Chinese learners their metacognitive awareness with regard to knowledge of listening strategies used and perceptions of difficulty and anxiety following a listening lesson. Data were collected through the Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ) and an official sample IELTS listening test. Responses were examined for how different aspects of metacognitive awareness represented by the MALQ factors related to listening performance and for individual differences in metacognitive awareness across these factors. The results showed a significant positive relationship between learners’ metacognitive awareness scores and listening performance and that their metacognitive awareness accounted for 22% of the variance in listening performance. Analysis of individual factors showed a significant relationship between listening performance and the strategies of directed attention and problem solving as well as an overall moderate-to-low sense of confidence among the participants in the study. It also revealed considerable intrapersonal variation in different aspects of metacognitive awareness. The paper discusses the results as well as the use of the questionnaire as an instrument for eliciting and interpreting learners’ metacognitive awareness about listening. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article focuses on how higher institutions can better deal with the unacceptable intertextuality in the writings of Chinese students who are learning English as a second language. Topics discussed include the extensive research on plagiarism in ESL academic writing and the influx of Chinese students into higher education institutions in the West. The need for professors to instill academic integrity among students and the use of text-matching programs for detecting plagiarism are mentioned.