The results of this study suggest that second language students present four main characteristics of difficulty in writing the academic essay. This can only be achieved through the language (formulation) of the task and the kinds of assumptions and ideas that this language prompts students to think about.
WI:IAT IS UNDERPREPAREDNESS?
Miller (\989) claims that the importance of the paradox lies not in how it explains how knowledge is acquired, but rather how it is acquired. It seems then that the opposite of the approach to teaching new material is actually true.
THE HISTORY OF ACADEMIC SUPPORT
This developmental method was revolutionary as it overcame the shortcomings of previous approaches and proposed a dialectical understanding of the way in which human beings and the environment interact. Therefore, it is essential, in the context of a lecture, that students are able to interpret the text effectively and recognize the textual structure hidden within the verbal form of the lecture (Tannen, 1982; Bradbury and Griesel, 1994).
ORALITY VS. LITERACY
A third difference relates to the conservative, traditionalist mindset characteristic of an oral society, where knowledge of the past is repeated to preserve conceptualized knowledge. He argues that "thought requires continuity, and only writing is capable of establishing this outside the mind."
A CT ION AND REG ULATIO N
Miller therefore argues that much of human action is not located in the person performing the action, but. It is precisely because human action can be regulated that the teaching-learning process is.
DEFINING AND MEASURING COHESION AND COHERENCE
The findings of the study show that students who are academically successful rank the essays in the same order as the lecturers, which means that they can use the same criteria for grading. Clark (1992) draws attention to the idea of critical language awareness, where he claims that learners must be aware of the specific socio-political context in which they are.
METHODOI _ OGICAL FRAMEWORKS
It is recognized that the linguistic processes under investigation are only products or manifest performances of the underlying processes and. In short, there can be no present without a past, and the possibilities of the future are always governed and limited by a social history (Bradbury, 1993). Morrow (1994) argues that this can be overcome by a careful explanation of the characteristics characteristic of each.
As already mentioned, a qualitative approach allows for a "thick description" (Morrow. 1994; Denzin, 1989) of the data, where underlying or implicit meanings can be discovered and explained. In an intensive research design, each case is similar to others of its type, allowing interpretation of individual cases as well as comparative generalizations within and between types of cases. In contrast, discourse refers to a set of sentences that produce a global meaning that is more than just the sum of the sentences that make it up.
METHOD
The aim was to gain a broad understanding of the frequency and types of errors that second language students produce in their academic writing. Furthermore, the aim was to identify any substantial differences or similarities between the performance groups that might suggest reasons for their apparent sign. After a baseline error analysis was conducted, the essays were examined for difficulty with cohesive ties.
A five-way classification model (Halliday and Hasan, 1976) was used to identify problems with cohesion, both within and across the four performance groups. The results of the analysis of cohesion errors were also used at a more global (macro-level) level. A coherence scale, ranging from one (poor coherence) to five (excellent coherence), was developed to facilitate macro-level analysis and was rated according to the degree to which the essays initiated, developed, and resolved the essay's main themes.
ANAI.YT/CAL FRAMEWORKS
1982) argue that the surface strategy approach provides a valuable indicator of the cognitive processes that underlie the learner's reconstruction of a second language. Halliday and Hasan (1976) address one of the most prominent issues in modern linguistics; namely cohesion. Because cohesive errors are not limiting but can affect the coherence of a text, the macrostructure analysis of this study examined both the cohesive ties within texts as well as the overall coherence of texts.
The main topic of the essay is initiated and resolved and there is an integration of subtopics. Shows adequate structure and development of subtopics and covers relevant conceptual principles/information. Excessive reliance on example with only a brief mention of the conceptual principles involved.
Results
The exception to this pattern was the ASL essays in the first performance group, which showed a similar pattern to that of the English first language group. While a greater proportion of the errors in English first language essays were disorganized errors (55% of total errors), compared to ASL essays (36%), the average number of first language disorganized errors was still significantly lower than the average number of misordering errors made by ASL students (10.1 compared to 17.7 errors per essay). For example, essay one of the English first language group reads ~'Characteristics that better fit them to the environment can be inherited' without demonstrating to whom ``they'' refer.
The score range for the ASL group was also lower (1–5) than for the first language group (2–5), with no first language students scoring in the very poor to poor score categories (ie, 1–1.5 out of 5). In contrast, EFL students generally demonstrate average to good coherence in their essays with sufficient development of the main themes. The majority of the English first language group described and explained the theoretical concepts before explaining the pepper moth example and linking it to these.
Discussion and Theoretical Inte!!ration
The results of this study have pointed out four main features that require attention in relation to African second language students' difficulties with academic writing. The first of these concerns the structure and form of academic discourse produced by students. In addition, the first performance category of ASL and AFL groups, as well as English first language, Afrikaans second language, and EFL students.
This pattern was not identified among second language, foreign language, or Afrikaans language students and appeared to be particularly prominent in the lowest performing categories of the ASL group. The results of this study seem to indicate, however, that ASL students, in panic, lack the metacomponents of intelligence (i.e., the ability to plan, monitor, and evaluate the development of an essay) and that in first language English, EFL and Afrikaans second language students do not show the same problems in this area. In particular, the results of this study indicate that ASL students may lack the appropriate development of the level of cognition that Strohm Kitchener (1983) labels epistemic cognition.
Conclusions
While academic support programs based solely on the improvement of language skills have not been found to be the comprehensive form of mediation required at the tertiary level, the present study has indicated that some of the most fundamental difficulties that ASL- students present for in academic essay writing stems from from incompetence with the English second language. Although many of the difficulties identified may occur in other second language groups (for example, African foreign language), the scope of the problems experienced by ASL learners appears to be more extensive and far-reaching. By making the categories of the five-way framework explicit to students, a better understanding of the English coherent system is possible and students would become.
This automatization of the syntactic rules of the English language would make it easier for second language learners because the mind would not be busy achieving linguistic regularity, allowing more time to be spent developing meaning in the text (Widdowson, 1983). . Another form of mediation that should take place involves explaining the implicit rules or conventions that characterize academic writing. Finally, while Shakespeare may have viewed reading and writing as natural products of the mind, it is important to recognize that they are.
The problem of non-standard pronunciations used by speakers of English as a second language at tertiary level. Towards a pedagogy of possibility in the teaching of English internationally: people's English in South Africa. A critical look at Waiter Ong and the 'Great Divide', in Social /ilerac;es: critical approaches to literacy in development, ethnography and education.
Correlation between matrix symbols and grades obtained in a first-year physics course at the University of the. Results of the error analysis of African second language essays, using surface strategy taxonomy and language classification.
Results of English Secono-Language Essays' Error Analysis Using Surface Strategy Taxonomy and Linguistic Classification.
Results of the error analysis of first language English essays using surface strategy taxonomy and language classification. Results of the error analysis of African second language essays, using surface strategy taxonomy and language classification.
Results of a cohesion analysis on African second language essays, according to a five-way classification framework.
Results of a Conesion analysis on African Bilingual essays, according to a five-way classification framework.
Results of a cohesion analysis of English first language essays according to a five-way classification framework.
Results of an analysis of cohesion error in foreign second language essays according to a five-way classification framework.
APPENDIX 3
Explain the process of natural selection and illustrate your answer using the example of Britain's spiced moth. Four (4) marks were awarded to the description of the process of natural selection, which included the principles of variation, competition and inheritance. Three (3) marks were awarded for the illustration of the pepper moth example, while a further three marks were awarded for linking the principles of natural selection to the example.
A copy of the model response, which briefly outlines the main issues students were asked to include in their essays, is included below. Comprehensive definition: Natural selection involves the selection of a character trait that best suits the environment (1) OR survival of the fittest (1/2 point). Before the industrial revolution, white moths camouflaged better against the pale bark of trees and were therefore more numerous than dark moths, which were vulnerable to predation (1).
