Preparing Chinese novice writers for academia: An integrated genre-based approach for writing research articles
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Luna Jing Cai
Abstract
With the rapid development of, and pressing requirements for international publication in China, there has never been such an urgent need among Chinese graduate students and scholars for improving their English academic writing skills. In this chapter, a text-focused genre-based approach was developed to provide comprehensive scaffolding to novice writers. From the top down, this approach integrates two traditions of genre-based pedagogies, namely that of the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) School as well as the Sydney School Teaching and Learning Cycle. In this regard, a strong emphasis is placed on using guided analyses for understanding prototypical research article genre structures. From the bottom up, this approach applies a corpus-informed lexical approach where academic lexical phrases are utilized as the building blocks of academic prose. Application of this approach as a case study conducted in a tertiary institution yielded very positive feedback from Chinese graduate students. This feedback evidenced an increased level of genre awareness in students after instruction. Particularly, the moves/steps as well as handy linguistic tools (e.g., lexical phrases) were found to provide an effective solution to students’ common problem during the preliminary stages of research article writing: “not knowing what to write about in each section”.
Abstract
With the rapid development of, and pressing requirements for international publication in China, there has never been such an urgent need among Chinese graduate students and scholars for improving their English academic writing skills. In this chapter, a text-focused genre-based approach was developed to provide comprehensive scaffolding to novice writers. From the top down, this approach integrates two traditions of genre-based pedagogies, namely that of the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) School as well as the Sydney School Teaching and Learning Cycle. In this regard, a strong emphasis is placed on using guided analyses for understanding prototypical research article genre structures. From the bottom up, this approach applies a corpus-informed lexical approach where academic lexical phrases are utilized as the building blocks of academic prose. Application of this approach as a case study conducted in a tertiary institution yielded very positive feedback from Chinese graduate students. This feedback evidenced an increased level of genre awareness in students after instruction. Particularly, the moves/steps as well as handy linguistic tools (e.g., lexical phrases) were found to provide an effective solution to students’ common problem during the preliminary stages of research article writing: “not knowing what to write about in each section”.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Preface V
- Acknowledgements VII
- Contents IX
- Contributors XI
- Teaching English writing in Chinese speaking regions 1
- Integrating e-learning into process writing: The case of a primary school in Hong Kong 19
- A dual case study of perceptions of strategy-based training and peer review stances among Hong Kong secondary students: An activity theory perspective 43
- Improving English as a foreign language learners’ writing using a minimal grammar approach of teaching dependent clauses: A case study of Macao secondary school students 67
- A pedagogical inquiry into students’ writing skills development from the perspective of English as a lingua franca: Insights from secondary and tertiary English language education in Taiwan 91
- Metacognitive knowledge development of low proficiency Hong Kong English as a Foreign Language university students in a process-oriented writing course: An action research study 117
- Metacognitive strategy-focused instruction in a writing across the curriculum programme in a Hong Kong university: The impact on writing performance 145
- A narrative inquiry into washback of highstakes and low-stakes testing on second language English writing in Hong Kong higher education 179
- Preparing Chinese novice writers for academia: An integrated genre-based approach for writing research articles 207
- Toward better English for research publication purposes practices through the lens of activity theory: A case study of a cross-disciplinary graduate writing course in Taiwan 233
- Practice and future directions for developing Chinese speakers’ English writing across different education levels 257
- Index 271
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Preface V
- Acknowledgements VII
- Contents IX
- Contributors XI
- Teaching English writing in Chinese speaking regions 1
- Integrating e-learning into process writing: The case of a primary school in Hong Kong 19
- A dual case study of perceptions of strategy-based training and peer review stances among Hong Kong secondary students: An activity theory perspective 43
- Improving English as a foreign language learners’ writing using a minimal grammar approach of teaching dependent clauses: A case study of Macao secondary school students 67
- A pedagogical inquiry into students’ writing skills development from the perspective of English as a lingua franca: Insights from secondary and tertiary English language education in Taiwan 91
- Metacognitive knowledge development of low proficiency Hong Kong English as a Foreign Language university students in a process-oriented writing course: An action research study 117
- Metacognitive strategy-focused instruction in a writing across the curriculum programme in a Hong Kong university: The impact on writing performance 145
- A narrative inquiry into washback of highstakes and low-stakes testing on second language English writing in Hong Kong higher education 179
- Preparing Chinese novice writers for academia: An integrated genre-based approach for writing research articles 207
- Toward better English for research publication purposes practices through the lens of activity theory: A case study of a cross-disciplinary graduate writing course in Taiwan 233
- Practice and future directions for developing Chinese speakers’ English writing across different education levels 257
- Index 271
