版权说明:本文档由用户提供并上传,收益归属内容提供方,若内容存在侵权,请进行举报或认领
文档简介
西南科技大学2011-2012-2学期《学术英语写作》本科期末考试试卷课程代码208900070命题单位外国语学院:大学英语教研室姓名 学号 专业班级Direction:Thereare3typesofexercisesinthetest.Youmaychooseoneanddoitaccordingtoitsrequirement.Exercises1Direction:Writeanabstract(includingatitle,authorshipandkeywords)forthefollowingessay.Youshouldwritenolessthan250wordsandnomorethan400words.Youscorewillbevaluedbytheformat,contentandgrammarofyourabstract.TheUniversityofHertfordshireInternalBridgingProgrammepreparesStudentsinHigherEducationforpost-graduatestudyattheUniversityofHertfordshire.Tofollowtheprogramme,studentsusuallyhaveafirstdegreeandtheappropriateacademicqualificationstoThemainaimsoftheSemesterBcourseareto:improvethestudents'commandofacademicEnglish:languagestructure,useandvocabularyconsolidatetheirlanguageskillsofreading,writing,listeningandspeakinginacademiccontextsputtopracticaluseappropriateacademicconventionsobservedinBritishhighereducationacquirearangeoftransferableacademicskillsessentialforeffectivestudyatpostgraduatelevelrideveloplearnerindependence.Bytheendofthecoursetheyshouldhaveaknowledgeandunderstandingof:relevantconventionsfollowedinacademicEnglish(bothwrittenandoral)thedifferencebetweentheinformalandformalregistersoftheEnglishlanguagewhatislinguisticallyexpectedofanoverseaspostgraduatestudentinBritishhighereducation.andtheyshouldbeableto:listento,understandandtakenotesinlecturesapplyarangeofreadingstrategiesandusethelibraryappropriatelyproduceasubstantialpieceofresearchedwritingtakepartindiscussions,seminarsandtutorialsprepareanddeliverpresentationsemployarangeofgeneralandacademicvocabulary.Ourobjectivesaredefinedbytheneedsofthestudents'academiccoursesinthefollowingyear.Themainjob,therefore,inpreparingthesecoursesistoinvestigatewhatourstudentswillhavetodointheiracademiccourse,workoutwhataspectsoflanguage-grammar,vocabulary,skillsetc-theywillneedandthenfindwaystoteachandassessit(Gillett,1989).Oneskillneededbypostgraduatestudentsistheabilitytotakepartindiscussions.Itisgenerallyacceptedthatstudent-studentinteraction,bothformalandinformal,isbeneficialinhighereducation(Pica&Doughty,1985Topping,1996Tan,2003).IthasalsobeenreportedthatmanyStudentsinHigherEducation,especiallythosefromAsia,findthisdifficultanddonotparticipatewellenoughinthesediscussions(Jones,1999Leki,2001Basturkmen,2002).Soparticipationindiscussionsisincludedasoneoftheobjectivesofourcourse.Forseveralyears,wehaveincludedaface-tofacediscussionsofanacademicarticle,wherebyonestudentintroducesanacademicarticletotheclassandthenleadsadiscussion.Withtherecentintroduction,though,ofStudyNet,ourin-houseVLE,andastrongbeliefthatanyeffectiveuseofaVLEmustbeginwithclearintegrationoftheVLEintothecourse,itwasdecidedtoextendthisaspectofthecoursetoincludeanon-linediscussionusingtheStudyNetgroupdiscussionfacility.Onereasonisthatmuchresearchhasshownthaton-linediscussionsproducemoreinteraction(Dysthe,2002).TheyalsoallowquieterstudentstoparticipateandshowthatStudentsinHigherEducationwillparticipatemoreiftheyhavetimetothinkabouttheircontributionsandplanthelanguagetheywanttouse.Ithasalsobeenreportedthatinternationalstudentshaveincreasedmotivationtousethetargetlanguageandthereforeproducemorelanguage(Bump,1990Beauvois,1992Kern,1995Oliva&Pollastrini,1995).Moreover,thereisamorebalancedparticipation(Kern,1995Sullivan&Pratt,1996Warschauer,1996).Studentsalsouseawidervarietyoflanguage(Chun,1994Warschauer,1996),whichissyntacticallyandlexicallymorecomplex(Warschauer,1996).ThisstructureduseoftheVLEbenefitsstudentswitharangeoflearningstylesfromawiderrangeofsocioculturalbackgrounds(Pennington,1996).Itwashopedstudentswouldfindthistotheiradvantage.Thusthereisevidencethatgroupdiscussionisbeneficialineducationandthaton-linediscussionscanalsobevaluable.However,howpredominantlyEastAsianstudentswoulddealwithanon-linediscussionwasanimportantquestion.Often,theirviewofeducationisthatitisessentiallyapassiveprocess,somethingthathappenstothem,notsomethingtheyhavetodoforthemselves,somethingthatismainlythejoboftheteacher(Jin&Cortazzi,1993Cortazzi&Jin,1997Catterick,2004).Sothepurposeoftheresearchwastoinvestigatewhethersuchstudentswouldundertakethetaskinthemannerset,whethertheyregardedtheactivityasbeingadvantageoustothemandwhethertheywouldseetheunderlyingreasonsforsuchatask.Finally,itwasusefultodeterminewhetherthestudentsperceivedlearningwasinfactoccurring.MethodologyTheprogrammehadabout120studentsin2003/2004,dividedinto9groupsforteachingpurposes.Theon-linediscussiontookplaceinthefirstfourweeksofthesecondsemester.Theeducationalpurposeoftheon-linediscussion,whichwedidnorevaluateinthisstudy,wastohelpstudentsimprovetheirabilitytoreadanacademicarticle,totakepartindiscussionsonsuchanarticleandtoexperiencethisviaStudyNet.Aswithmostoftheteachingonthisprogramme,thepurposeofthisistwofold:toimprovestudents'languageandstudyskills,andalsotoexperienceusingStudyNetinpreparationfortheirfutureacademiclives.Theyweregivenveryclearinstructionsaboutexactlywhatwasrequiredofthemandtheircontributionwasassessed,inordertoencouragefullparticipation.Theon-linediscussionelementwasworth6.25%ofthecourseworkelementofthecourseforthesemester.Allthestudentsdiscussedthesamearticleandweretoldtheycouldreadthearticleon-line,printitoutorcopyittotheirowncomputers.Attheendofthisdiscussionperiod,thelecturersevaluatedthestudents'contributions.Theassessmentconsistedofacombinationofthequantityofcontributionstothediscussionandthequality-ideas,interactionandlanguage.Inotherwords,studentswererewardedforcontributingmorethantheminimum,aswellasusingtheactivityasalearningtool,notsimplyasabareassessment.Thestudentswerethenaskedaboutwhattheyfeltaboutdoingthisactivityandwhattheylearnedfromit.Thiswasdoneviaaquestionnaireinwhichstudentswereaskedhowtheytookpartinthediscussion,whattheyfeltabouttakingpartinthediscussionandwhattheythoughttheylearnedfromit.Thequestionnairewasgiventoallthestudentswhohadtakenpartandtheywereaskedtocompleteitinclasstime.Thiswasdoneinweekssevenandeight,threetofourweeksafterhavingcompletedtheactivity.Thequestionnaireconsistedoftwenty-twoquestions,dividedintomultiplechoiceandshort-answerquestions.Therationalebehindthequestionnairewastoassesstheperceivedworthinessofthetaskbythestudents.Thestudentsweretoldthatagradewouldbegivenfortheircontributiontothisdiscussion,andthatagoodcontributionconsistedofdemonstratingknowledgeofthearticleandmakingarelevantcontributiontothediscussioninappropriateEnglish.Theywereinstructedtomaketheirfirstcontributionbytheendofweek2ofthesemesterandtheirsecondbytheendofweekthree.Twocontributionswasthebareminimumiftheywantedtopassandmorewasexpectedforagoodmark.Eachcontributionhadtobefourorfivesentences.Thestudentswereadvisedon,andgivenpracticeinclass,aboutwhatacontributionconsistedof.Thiscouldinclude,amongotherthings:aquestiontoamemberofthegroupanopinionaboutthearticlegivingfurtherinformationonthesubjectagreementordisagreementwithamemberoftheirgroupreasonsfortheiropinionsinvitationstoothermembersoftheirgrouptocontributeaskingotherpeopleabouttheiropinionssupportingandencouragingothermembersoftheirgroupTheyweretoldtoreadallthecontributionsfromtheirgroupmembers,notjustthosefromthelecturerandfurthermoretorespondnotonlytothelecturer'spoints,butcarryonadiscussionwiththeothermembersoftheirgroupaswell.Appropriatelanguageneededtobeusedasthiswasaformalacademicdiscussion,notane-mailtoafriend.TheircontributionshadtobewritteninaccurateacademicEnglishanditmightthereforebeusefultocomposetheircontributionsinaword-processor,checkitforaccuracyandthenpasteitintothediscussion.Theirmarkwoulddependonhowwelltheyachievedthistask.ResultsanddiscussionThepurposewasthereforetoseewhetherornotstudentsundertookthetask,whatadvantagestheysawtoit,whethertheysawthereasonsfordoingitandwhattheythoughttheylearnedfromit.112completedquestionnaireswerereceived.Thequestionsmostrelevanttotheresearchaimswillbediscussed,withthehopethatitwillbeusefulforlecturersinsimilarcircumstances.Firstisthequestionoftheextenttowhichstudentsundertookthetask.Thiswasmeasuredbylookingatthenumber,frequency,styleandlengthofstudents'contributions.Althoughtheminimumnumberofcontributionswastwoinordertoachieveapass,theywereencouragedtocontributeasmuchaspossible,inordertobesuccessful,andfortheirskillstobepractised.Theassessmentperiodbeingover4weeks,35%ofstudentsmadeonecontributionaweek,23%twiceaweek,while36%ofstudentscontributedthreetimesaweekormore(Figure1).Itwascertainlyclear,therefore,thatmoststudentswerecontributingmorethantheminimum.Itmaybethecase,though,thatveryfewdecidedthatdoinganyextraworkforanassessmentthatcountedsuchasmallamountoftheoverallcoursemarkwasnotworththeeffort.Figure1:FrequencyofcontributionConsideringthestyleofdiscussion,withthreadsconnectedtosingleopinionsorideas,onewouldhaveexpectedstudentstohavereadallormostofthecontributionsonthelistpriortoaddingtheirownpointofview.Figure2showsthat48%ofstudentsclaimedtohavereadmorethan5previouscontributions,while22%ofthosestudentshadreadmorethanten.Surprisingly,though,10%ofstudentsclaimednottohavereadanycontributionsbeforeaddingtheirown.Itcanthusbespeculatedthatthesestudentsdonotquiteunderstandtheconceptofadiscussion,though,butthisispredicatedontherebeing10contributionstoactuallyread.Figure2:ContributionsreadpriortocontributingAsregardsthelengthoftheirowncontributions,42%statedtheyhadwrittenaparagraph,whiletheresteitherequallywroteafewsentencesormorethanaparagraph.Thiswasconfirmedbytheclasslecturer,whomonitoredthecontributionsonaweeklybasis.Thestudentswereexpectedtowriteatleastafewsentences,sointhisrespect,itcanbedeemedsuccessful.Itwasfeltthatthelevelofparticipationwoulddependtosomeextentonwhethertheyhadenjoyedtheexercise.AscanbeseenfromFigure3,lessthan2%saidtheyhatedit.Almost50%chose'OK'and29%saidtheyhadenjoyedit.Itwaspleasingtonotethat12.5%assertedthattheyhadenjoyeditverymuch.Figure3:DegreeofenjoymentSecondlywaswhetherornotthestudentsfoundtheexerciseadvantageousoruseful.Morethan50%ofthestudentsrespondedaffirmatively(Figure4),whileonly6%ofstudentsdidnotitfindituseful.Nooneconsideredittobeawasteoftime.Thiswascrucialforus,consideringthiswasthefirstattemptatthistypeoftaskandisanevaluationmethodwhichneedstobeusedmoreactivelyinthefuture,astheuseoftheon-linefacilityisplayingalargerroleinacademiclife(Browne&Jenkins,2003).Figure4:RelativeusefulnessThirdly,theopenquestionof'Whydoyouthinkweusedtheon-linemethodfordiscussion?'elicitednumerousfavourableresponses.Chiefamongthese,thestudentswereoftheopinionthatitwouldimprovetheirreadingandwritingskills.Whytheybelievedtheirwritingskillswouldimproveisnotquitecertain,asnoneoftheircontributionswerecorrected.Inanycase,theyweremakinguseofEnglishinaformalacademicstyletocommunicatetheirideas,anessentialpartoflearningtowrite.Furthermore,theactofreadingothers'contributionsandbeingabletocomparegrammar,vocabularyandlevelofsophisticationofanargumentwithones'ownwritingisakeypartofpeerlearning,whichisanaspectwhichisgreatlyemphasisedinsecondlanguagelearning(Flower&Hayes,1981Grabe,2001Vincent,1999).Inadditiontheyfeltthatitwouldallowthemtoanalyseideasmoreclearlyandtothinkmoreindependently.Thismaybelinkedtothetimefactorinvolvedinbeingabletoformulateideaswithoutpressureduetolanguageabilityandpeerobservation.Thisisparticularlyrelevanttothequietstudentswhoareoftenunwillingtobeinfocusinaclasssituation.Theydidconsiderthatitwouldalloweveryonemoretimeandopportunitiestodiscussideasandwasparticularlyusefulfortheshystudents.Thisiswhatwashopedfor.Oftentheamountoftimefordiscussioninclassislimited,soallowingstudentsthisextratimetodebateisofgreatimportance.Lastlywewantedtoseeifthestudentsthoughttheyhadlearnedsomethingfromtheexercise.Inthiscase,only5of112studentssaidno,and3'notreally,butitwasgoodtopractise.'Thusthegreatmajoritywereoftheopinionthattheyhadlearnedfromthetask.Whetherthestudents'perceptionisborneoutinrealitywasnotthefocusofthisresearchbutshouldberesearchedatafuturedate.Theareastheyhighlightedarebeingabletoseethegrammarmistakesofothers,andbeingabletolearnfromthem.Herethepreviouscommentonpeerlearningisreflected.
Theydecidedthattheirknowledge,vocabularyanddiscussionskillshadbeenenrichedbythetask.Somealsoconsideredthattheexperienceallowedthemtoshareideasbetterthaninclass,andallowedthemtofeelmoreconfidenttogivetheiropinion.Thisisacoreissue,asmanyStudentsinHigherEducation,especiallythosefromtheFarEast,usuallyhaveagreatdealtosay,butlacktheconfidencewhensurroundedbylocalstudentswithwhomtheyoftenhaveminimalactualcontact.Iftheirconfidencecanbeinitiallyimprovedinthisway,onehopesitcanbeextendedtoclasssituations.Thechancetosummariseandorganiseideasbetterwasanotherissuementioned.Theseareessentialskillsallstudentsneed.ConclusionPost-graduateinternationalstudentsatUKinstitutionsofHigherEducationoftenfinddifficultydealingwithseminartypediscussions.AnattemptwasmadetohelpstudentswiththisbyutilisingthegroupdiscussionfacilityofauniversityVirtualLeaningEnvironment(VLE).However,asmostofthestudentswerefromEastAsia,whooftenconsidereducationasessentiallyapassiveprocess,itwasfeltnecessarytoinvestigatewhethertheywouldundertakesuchanactivityandwhatthebenefitswere.Despitesomecriticisms,thestudentsgenerallytookpartintheactivityseriouslyandsawtheusefulnessofit.Theyweregenerallyfoundtounderstandthepurposeoftheactivityandfelttheyhadlearnedfromit.Thus,overall,whentheactivitywasclearlyseentoberelatedtothelearningoutcomesandintegratedintothecourse,theverdictwasoverwhelminglypositiveandtherationaleunderstood.Bytakingthevariouspointsstudentsmadeandadjustingthetaskslightly,byintegratingtheon-linediscussionmoreintoclasswork,involvingthelecturersmoreandbythinkingmoreaboutthetext,wehopethatthepositiveoutcomescanbefurthercemented,andfurtherareasprobedandstudentshelpedtotakepartinseminarstylediscussionsmoreconfidentlyandcompetently.ReferencesBasturkmen,H.(2002).Negotiatingmeaninginseminar-typediscussionandEAP.EnglishforSpecificPurposes,
温馨提示
- 1. 本站所有资源如无特殊说明,都需要本地电脑安装OFFICE2007和PDF阅读器。图纸软件为CAD,CAXA,PROE,UG,SolidWorks等.压缩文件请下载最新的WinRAR软件解压。
- 2. 本站的文档不包含任何第三方提供的附件图纸等,如果需要附件,请联系上传者。文件的所有权益归上传用户所有。
- 3. 本站RAR压缩包中若带图纸,网页内容里面会有图纸预览,若没有图纸预览就没有图纸。
- 4. 未经权益所有人同意不得将文件中的内容挪作商业或盈利用途。
- 5. 人人文库网仅提供信息存储空间,仅对用户上传内容的表现方式做保护处理,对用户上传分享的文档内容本身不做任何修改或编辑,并不能对任何下载内容负责。
- 6. 下载文件中如有侵权或不适当内容,请与我们联系,我们立即纠正。
- 7. 本站不保证下载资源的准确性、安全性和完整性, 同时也不承担用户因使用这些下载资源对自己和他人造成任何形式的伤害或损失。
最新文档
- 糖尿病与体重管理
- 化妆品公司停车场使用规则
- 造纸废水处理基本工艺流程
- 纺织加工劳务合同范本
- 药店市场药品安全知识问答
- 智能化物业:分类管理新方向
- 科技成果转化类应用案例-关于以许可方式转化的会计处理
- 农村自建房屋转让的协议书
- 商场物业管理大全:打造和谐商场
- 诊所废水处理设施运行成本控制
- 2024年湖北省宏泰国有资本投资运营集团有限公司招聘笔试参考题库含答案解析
- 中外政治思想史-形成性测试三-国开(HB)-参考资料
- (最新整理)数据库课程设计宿舍报修系统
- 2021年变配电室设备巡视检查和安全操作规定.doc
- 水泥搅拌桩施工方案(干法)(完整版)
- 五大盆地综合柱状图
- 公司与企业对账单
- DIN标准与中国标准对照表
- 一年级数学2~9分解组成.doc
- 国家标准硬度转换表
- 在职员工身体健康状况调查表[2页]
评论
0/150
提交评论