Poverjuc, Oxana (2010) A longitudinal case study of students’ perceptions of academic writing and of themselves as academic writers : the writing experiences of five students who spoke English as an additional language. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This thesis explores how students who spoke English as an additional language (EAL)
learned to write in a new discourse community, the difficulties they encountered and the
changes that occurred in their perceptions of academic writing and of themselves as
academic writers. The existing literature reported that learning to write disciplinary
assignments is an interactional and dynamic process, encompassing not only writing and
reading but also social interactions occurring among novice and more experienced
members of the discourse community. Nevertheless, previous studies suggested that HE
institutions still tend to hold narrow views on academic writing and to provide little
attention to its teaching. Essentially, many studies are limited because they have
examined how isolated factors (i.e. tutor written feedback or use of guidelines) impacted
on student writing, overlooking the complexity of interactions that can come into play
and influence student writing.
This research adopted a longitudinal case study to investigate in-depth the writing
experiences of five EAL students. To conduct this exploratory project, I employed
constructivist and interpretivist approaches and multiple methods such as selfcompletion
questionnaire, semi-structured interviews and analysis of tutors‘ feedback
sheets and handbooks.
This project suggests that indeed learning to write in HE was an active and dynamic
process, encompassing interactions with members of the discourse community (tutors,
peers and teacher-assistants), with the training system (taught module courses, writing
assignments, academic writing class, CELTE support) and with institutional artefacts
(samples of previously written work, published guidelines and assessment criteria).
Despite a number of literacy practices designed to make the departmental conventions
and expectations transparent, there was a level of invisibility of the conventions students
were expected to adopt in their writing. As a result, students‘ writing experiences were
fraught with tensions and conflicts that influenced their perceptions of academic writing
and of themselves as academic writers.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB2300 Higher Education P Language and Literature > PE English
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	English language -- Study and teaching -- Foreign speakers, Academic writing, Students, Foreign -- Great Britain -- Case studies
Official Date:	September 2010
Dates:	Date Event September 2010 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Institute of Education
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Wray, David, 1950- ; Brooks, Val, 1954-
Extent:	xii, 394 leaves : ill., charts
Language:	eng

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