Further practice (from mid term exam)

Ovejero K.

CAECE University

Mid term exam

Activity 1

Blog version

“A small-scale study of primary school English language teacher’s classroom activities and problems” by Arikan (2011) - Academic summary

     In the article “A small-scale study of primary school English language teacher’s classroom activities and problems”, Arikan (2011) presents the results of a study conducted in Turkey where he found out that most teachers are mainly engaged in traditional syllabus and teacher-centered activities.

     Arikan (2011) introduces the article by highlighting the growing importance of English teaching in Turkey, the focus on primary school teachers’ use of language activities in the classrooms, the need for high quality course delivery in English language teaching, the differences among adult and young learners and the strong need for further research in this field.

     Results showed that the kind of activities carried out in Turkish primary schools’ English classes involved traditional syllabus rather than a constructivist one as long as with a low use of technology. Similarly, teachers reported that in order to improve their teaching they needed to have smaller classes to teach, new technologies such as computers or DVDs and better access to print materials.

     Taking into account teachers’ belief, they stated that in order to be successful learners, they required to develop first their vocabulary background, then speaking and pronunciation abilities and finally writing, grammar and listening skills.

In its conclusion, Arikan (2011) asserted that that teachers refrain from using TV, Computers, and DVDs in their classrooms by prioritizing teacher-centered activities such as grammar exercises. Consequently, there is a need of further research on the nature of the activities employed in Turkish EFL classrooms while courses require to be strengthened and regularly updated because teachers do not give importance on the culture of the language learned and taught. Moreover, teachers’ beliefs influence their classroom performance and choice of skill-based activities.

Reference

Arikan, A. (2011). A small-scale study of primary school English language teacher’s classroom activities and problems. International conference on new trends in education and their implications. Ankara, Turkey. Retrieved from  http://www.iconte.org/FileUpload/ks59689/File/053.pdf

Ovejero K.

CAECE University

Mid term exam

Activity 2

Blog version

Vignette: An English lesson

This vignette was observed in a third grade of an urban primary school in Catamarca.

In my first visit to the class, students (a group of 30 boys and girls) were silently looking at the teacher. They were all arranged in single rows, one after the other. During the initial phase of the lesson, the children were looking at Miss X, each holding a textbook. She was instructing her third grade learners to memorize a long list of food items. Children looked bored and worried because there were so many words to remember. They seemed to have difficulty for memorizing all these words.

Then the teacher sat down for a while. Later, she returned with a fill-in-the-gap activity. Student asked her for meaning clarification and she directly translated words. No pictures or flashcards were used. I could see an old (turned off) computer on the teacher’s desk and the blackboard looked rather old and blurry.

Later on, students were asked to repeat the words in order to practice pronunciation, first in big groups and then individually. Eventually, Liza, a shy girl, asked her teacher when they would use a CD or a video in their class. She didn't answer. 

This teacher X seems to be closely engaged with teacher-centered activities and traditional syllabus since there is no use of technology, constructivist or integrative tasks. She merely focuses on oral repetition patterns and memory training do not paying attention to learners' needs and interests.  

"Academic Writing: A handbook for international students" by Bailey (2006) Book critique

Chaves M. J., Ovejero K.

CAECE University

          In the book "Academic Writing: A handbook for international students" by S. Bailey (2006), the reader is presented with a useful handbook that helps and teaches readers develop an essay from scratch. It is an accessible, easy reading book which offers international students of English who have to write exams or coursework in English, a practical guide of the writing process, do not leaving any important ingredient aside as when writing time is regarded.

          This ambitious manual is divided into four main sections: 1) the writing process, 2) elements of writing, 3) accuracy in writing and 4) writing models. Each of them is subdivided into small units of study, developing every topic concerned in each area. Every unit of study is introduced with a short explanation followed by exercises that help the reader understand what the author implies by means of practice. Every single topic developed in isolation is followed by an activity in which the reader will be able to put into practice what he has just read and experienced. Clearly, it presents both teachers and students plenty of opportunities to easily find the extra help and practice on different writing activities. Indeed, as Bailey (2006) plainly states it “any international student wishing to maximize his or her academic potential will find this practical and easy-to-use guide to writing in English a truly indispensable resource” (p. 2)

          Moreover, this easy to follow and adaptable academic writing manual focuses on explaining the whole writing process from understanding the title to proof-reading, covering referencing and paraphrasing techniques and including several tasks related to accuracy in writing. At the end of the handbook, four writing practice tests and all the book activity answers are available for its users so both classroom work and self-study are possible. 

          However, more theoretical background and support should be provided so as to enrich the reader with several tools that latter on can be applied to different situations and cases of study. Explanations are merely short and at times it is hard to understand what the author is referring to in case the practice is not present. Anyway, the wide variety of activities included throughout the book is highly appreciated and enjoyed in the process. 

          All in all, "Academic Writing: A handbook for international students" is a practical manual which leads students towards becoming proficient academic writers by granting the essential tools that international learners of English require to be able to produce valuable pieces of academic writing. Nevertheless, it would be necessary to eventually include more theoretical explanations to enrich the offered practice instances. 

Reference

Bailey, S. (2006). Academic Writing: A handbook for international students (2nd ed). Retrieved from http://npu.edu.ua/!e-book/book/djvu/A/iif_kgpm_t27.pdf

"Writing for the World: Wikipedia as an Introduction to Academic Writing” by Tardy - Academic Summary

                                                                                                                          Chaves M. J., Ovejero K.
                                                                                                                                   CAECE University

          In the article ‘Writing for the world: Wikipedia as an introduction to Academic Writing’, Tardy (2010) depicts a line of action to introduce second language higher education learners into the world of academic writing. Tardy (2010)  states that in order to be successful in academic writing students need to have certain skills when they resort to outside sources, such as conducting research, evaluating validity of the sources, summarizing, paraphrasing, citing sources, adopting genre conventions and selecting proper lexis and grammar structures.

          The article presents a model in which writers move through the process of composing an article for the web-based encyclopaedia site known as Wikipedia. The article delineates steps for carrying out a Wikipedia research project after describing the main features of the electronic devise. Before delving into this plan, Tardy (2010) makes clear what the website is in nature defining it as “one of the most well-known online encyclopaedia that includes […] over 12 million articles” (p. 13). Then, the eight different steps are clearly developed. In the first one the students must get to know the website and its characteristics focusing on the features of the articles included here. Once this is finished, the second step can be addressed. Students are supposed to have selected a topic so they are going to gather relevant information for their future article. Subsequently, in the third stage, data should be organised in the form of an outline including the corresponding sources. Later, in the fourth face, all the ideas included in the outline will be developed into full sentences that will be part of a coherent text. Hereafter, peers collaboration will be valuable as they are going to revise each other’s articles as part of the fifth point. The next phase, sixth, is to be considered one of the most important as plagiarism will be avoided citing correspondingly all the sources used along the article. Before jumping into the last –eighth- step in which students will publish their articles, careful and detailed “proofreading and polishing” (p.17) must be carried out. This is then part of the seventh phase.

          To conclude, Tardy (2010) supports that the project above clearly explained is a good way to start walking the challenging but enriching path of academic writing developing literacy skills. She also affirms that this kind of research projects are accurate for students in different levels as they learn to perform within a context, respecting rules and answering to expected procedures, "Students can explore topics that interest them, while drawing on their multilingual resources and cultural experiences to write from a knowledgeable position" (Tardy, 2010, p. 18).

   

Reference

 Tardy, C. M. (2010). Writing for the World: Wikipedia as an introduction to Academic writing. English Teaching Fórum, 1 pp. 12-19, 27.

Analysis of the use of in-text citations, signal phrases and reference list in a specific article

Chaves M. J., Ovejero, K

CAECE University

            Academic writing in English will become an amazing enriching and powerful device whenever it is used precisely and accurately. It is believed that the write’s thought can be reflected in its use and his or her voice will be spread giving the possibility to other counterparts to learn about them. It certainly constitutes a major step towards advanced literacy; writing in academic settings can be an effective practice instrument to develop thinking skills and to find out new ideas.

           The aim of this paper is to deeply analyse the use of in-text citations, signal phrases, and the use of reference list in the article by Dalvit, Murray, and Terzoli, (2005) Providing increased access to English L2 students of computer science at a South African University, according to the documentation system known as American Psychological Association (APA) style.

          Many authors and institutions (Bailey, 2006; Flowerdew, 2000; Purdue OWL, 2006; Tardy, 2010) have produced different manuals and resources that set rules and academic conventions in order to help and guide writers to organize their productions according the established standards. These rules and conventions were studied and then applied to analyse the article.

            Considering the use of in-text citations, the authors mainly use paraphrases to acknowledge their sources. Many examples of indirect quotations with parenthetical citation can be found in the text, such are the following cases:  “(Council on Higher Education, 2001, p. 73)”, “(Rhodes University-Information Technology Division, 2004, p. 73)”, “(Barkhuizen, 2001, p. 74)”, “(Boughey, 2002, p. 73)”, "(Sweetnam- Evans, 2001, p. 74)", and "(Martindale, 2002, p. 75)". Nevertheless, no direct quotations have been used in this article.

           On the whole, the authors have not resorted to using several signal phrases throughout the article. Indeed, only two clear-cut examples are used to introduce cited material into the text: according to Halliday and Martin (1993) and according to Heugh (2002). This is a frequently used technique to introduce other author's words in different kinds of texts.

           As regards the reference list, different types of sources have been listed such as books, reports and electronic resources like websites and journals. The entries have been arranged in alphabetical order right after the end of the article, within the same page but they were not double-spaced. All the content words from the titles have been capitalized. The tenth source does not respect the left margin, altering tidiness in the list. In general, the structure of the reference list included: author's surname, author's initial, publication year, title of work, publisher, retrieved month (day), year, from http://Web address. However, the word "reference" is not correctly typed; it should not have been bold and it should have been centered in the page.

           All in all, the authors have avoided plagiarism and have resorted to follow certain conventions as regards their documentation style. Certainly, they are closely related to the APA documentation system; however, not all conventions have been fully and strictly used.

References

     American Physiological Association. (2010) Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.).Washington, DC: Author.

     Bailey, S. (2006). Academic Writing: A handbook for international students (2nd ed.). Taylor & Francis e-library .http://npu.edu.ua/!ebook/book/djvu/A/iif_kgpm_t27.pdf.

     Dalvit, L., Murray, S. and Terzoli, A. (2005). Providing increased access to English L2 students of computer science at a South African University. US-China Education Review, Sep. 2005, Vol. 2 (9).

     Flowerdew, J. (2000). “Discourse community, legitimate peripheral participation, and the nonnative-English-speaking scholar.” TESOL Quarterly, Vol 34, 1, pp. 127-150.

     Purdue OWL. (2006). In-Text Citations: The Basics. Retrieved September, 2014 from https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/02/  

     Salmani-Nodoushan, M., and Alavi, S. (2004). APA style and Research Report Writing. Zabankadeh Publications. 

     Tardy, C. M. (2010). Writing for the world: Wikipedia as an introduction to Academic Writing. English Teaching Forum, 1, pp. 12-19, 27. 

Our joint version of the outline Chaves - Ovejero

Purpose: To summarize main ideas from the article “Editor’s Choice: An Open Memo to Community College Faculty and Administrators” by Christine Kelly-Kleese.

Thesis: A discourse community is a rich field where professionals can continue enriching themselves, growing as such and where to share goals with colleagues.

Audience: Professionals interested in learning about or taking part in a Discourse Community.

     I. Community college = Discourse Community

     I. I. Discourse Community 

                a. Definition: 

                         - group of people who share certain language-using practices

                         - can be seen as conventionalized by

                                        1. social interaction within the group

                                         2. in its dealings with outsiders. (Bizzell 1992, p. 222)

                 b. Purposes:

i. Conceptualizing the nature of the community in general,

ii. Increasing perceptions of community college communicative competence,

iii. Moving its professionals into position of legitimate power within the larger higher education discourse community.

                 c. Members:

                         i. Develop a common discourse that involves shared knowledge,

                         ii. Common purposes,

                         iii. Common relationships,

                         iv. Similar attitudes and values,

                         v. Shared understandings about how to communicate their knowledge and archive their shared                                  purposes,

                         vi. A flow of discourse that has a particular structure and style. (Kutz, 1997, p. 200). 

               d. Tools: 

                         i. Language

                              1. Enhance the college’s reputation,

                              2. Bring prestige to the campus and its faculty,

                              3. Reshape the image of the institution.  

Introduction

Getting into the Discurse Community will be posible due to the process of sharing what we produce academically in EAP. (EAP class - UCAECE- September, 2014)