online

11

^th

Conference of the European Association for the Teaching

of the Academic Writing

online

The residence of writing and writing support

July 7–8, 2021

Ostrava, Czech Republic

.

Cindy Wee

Kio Ora and greetings from NEW

ZEALAND

Making the transformation in academic writing: Some

strategies for students from Asian backgrounds

Cindy Wee

Overview

• Academic writing – a threshold concept

• Common threshold

concepts in academic writing

• Strategies used in the

transformation

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Academic writing is a significant part of students’ academic

learning and is very challenging.

clueless challenge, a “game” almost all implicit

(Casanave, 2002, p.19).

the most daunting task (Ong & Zhang 2013)

cognitively demanding (Belcher & Hirvela, 2001

)

difficulty in three aspects, i.e.

content, structure and language

(Xiao & Chen, 2015).

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Threshold concept

“A threshold concept can be considered

as akin to a portal, opening up a new

and previously inaccessible way of

thinking about something. It represents

a transformed way of understanding, or

interpreting, or viewing something

without which the learner cannot

progress” (Meyer & Land, 2003, p.1)

Threshold concept in academic writing

Is an opening up of a new way of thinking and understanding

about academic writing

Asian students cannot progress without the transformed way of knowing how to write in the

acceptable norm of academic writing

Threshold concept:

structure, coherence, analytical writing and referencing.

Educational and cultural background (Zhang, 2018)

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Transformational process of new form of knowledge

• Strategies to help cope with the challenges of the “alien” knowledge faced in academic

writing.

support students to come to a new

understanding of the

Western convention

of academic writing

People from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds organise discourse differently, in ways that reflect their

own language and culture

(Kaplan, 1996).

Structure of writing

Oriental

pattern is inward turning spiral – inductive, indirect and circular approach to the topic

English

Pattern is linear which shows direct approach to the topic

➢ Chinese traditional writing in Chinese discusses the subject from different angles but in indirect way;

(McLaughlin,1995).

➢Korean’s writing has long introduction of purpose and the main topic appears at the end of the text (Connor, 1996)

➢Japanese style of writing is quite ambiguous in nature (Takagi, 2001) due to long introduction, with

illustrations and examples given

before main idea and the conclusion is considered the most important part of the essay

Teaching and learning style

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• Chinese focus on the final product and grammatical and linguistic accuracy, students pay little attention on the

whole process of writing, and neglects academic writing style (Zhang & Luo, 2004, cited in Zhang, 2018

• Academic conventions are not explicitly taught in class (Campbell & Li, 2007)

Critical and analytical thinking

• Challenges in using reading to inform academic writing, presenting evidence and conveying a clear written message in writing (Clark & Yu, 2020).

• Asian students have difficulties

adjusting to the unfamiliar Western culture of learning, due to Socratic dialogical practices (Major, 2005)

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rarely clearly defined and very confusing for Asian students studying in a Western culture, academic knowledge is generally recognised to be a social accomplishment, outcome of a cultural activity shaped by ideology (Hyland, 2003) .

over rely on direct quotes because of lack of confidence in summarising or paraphrasing (Newfields, 2003).

Plagiarism &

Referencing

➢ Assure students that they bring along with them rich experiences in their culture of learning.

➢ Make them aware of the differences in the

academic writing convention and learning styles (Huang, 2012)

➢ Need to learn the genres and conventions of

academic discourse in order to write (Freeman, Carey, & Miller, 1991, cited in Mu, 2005).

➢ How to start ?

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Strategies to help transformation in academic writing

• Concept maps draws students’ prior

knowledge of essay conventions and help awareness of the

content and structure of the problem-solution text (Wette, 2017)

Academic

literacy needs to be taught

(Wingate, 2019)

• Explicit teaching on the features of Western academic writing with the

help of concept

maps

Step-by-step approach • Step-by-step

approach in teaching how to write in an

academic style

(Heffernan, 2006).

emphasises organising ideas clearly throughout academic

writing course (Newfields, 2003)

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Modelling

Showing exemplars of excellent, fair and bad writing

Showing students how to use referencing systems

Teaching referencing and using

model texts can assist students to

understand appropriate practices

and experiment them in their own

writing (Burns & Richards, 2012)

teaching academic writing by

providing models helps students in

“making sense” and were more

effective (Jones & Freeman 2003, p,181)

Models and guidelines can give

access to expected standards, and

understandings of these guidelines

can be insightful (East, 2006).

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Conclusion

transitioning to a teacher- centred approach to help Asian students as they are more familiar due to their cultural background

understand that academic writing is a threshold

concept for Asian students Explicit teaching, step-step approach and

modelling to bridge the gap for them and also to provide a less troublesome

transformation/transition

Feedback from students

How did Cindy's way of teaching help your writing?

• She teaches me how to structure my report and it is very clear and easy for me to follow

• I can understand easily when Cindy shows me how to do it step-by- step, most of the time I am asked to figure it out, this makes me stressed.

• Helps understand the key points of the literature review, how to draft the structure of the report, and APA referencing

• She made me realize the error patterns in my writing which I would watch for in learning.

• She explains why should I use the words and sentences in my assignments. And she always explains that my assignment needs to be clearly and understand

when others are reading. I always follow this rule and it is quite useful for me.

• I follow her handouts closely and I have them in front of me when I do my assignment so that I know I am writing according to the correct way.

• She showed me how to do APA referencing and gave me the handouts to follow.

It wasn’t that hard after all.

• She did a very good job. even though we met in zoom, but it didn't not bother the quality of her working performance. English is not my first language and Cindy helped me to structure my writing

Resources used in teaching

• Handouts on structure of essay writing, report writing, literature review, using linking words, reporting verbs

• PowerPoints on teaching writing coherent paragraphs, writing reports, essay writing, writing literature review, paraphrasing, summarising, APA referencing

• Worksheets on analysing a coherent paragraph, error

analysis on Referencing

References

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Thank you for listening!