Fostering metacognitive genre awareness in L2 academic reading and writing: A case study of pre-service English teachers

Although the concept of metacognition has received considerable attention for its impact on learning across disciplinary areas, it has not been sufficiently discussed in the context of L2 academic reading and writing. In this paper, we bring together two theoretical frameworks, genre analysis and metacognition theory, and discuss the concept of metacognitive genre awareness. Drawing on the analysis of the data collected from a group of pre-service English teachers at a major Swedish university, we examine the process of building this awareness within ESP genre-based academic reading and writing instruction and show how it influences L2 students’ ability to interpret and compose academic texts. It was found that all study participants developed declarative (what) and procedural (how) metacognitive knowledge of genre-relevant aspects of academic texts, but only a few demonstrated conditional (when and why) knowledge of the genre in their reading analyses and writing assignments. It is concluded that using a metacognition framework to study L2 academic writing provides us with new insights and practical applications for L2 instruction

Researchers’ language practices concerning knowledge production and dissemination : Discourses of mono- and multilingualism

Drawing on research interviews with 43 researchers working across four disciplines in two Nordic countries, this chapter examines the researchers’ perceptions of, and choices related to their mono/multilingual knowledge production and research writing practices. Three discourses were found to be constructed in the interview talk: (a) disciplinary monolingualism, (b) dual monolingualism, and (c) functional epistemic multilingualism. For research writing, most researchers in the study opted for a mono- or bilingual publication strategy, but when doing research, the main determiner in terms of how many and which languages the researchers reported to use was the object of research. The pragmatism associated with the researchers’ language practices may thus be related to both mono- and multilingualism.Peer reviewe

Nordic universities at the crossroads : Societal responsibility, language perceptions, and policies

This chapter focuses on questions surrounding universities’ societal responsibility in connection to language use, going beyond the national language(s) versus English dichotomy. As a result of university internationalisation and increased migration, both student and faculty populations at Nordic universities have diversified. Nordic universities are currently facing multiple challenges: to maintain academic autonomy and freedom of thought, to protect democratic ideals, to prove the validity of scientific findings, and to conduct most of their activities with the support of digital media. Drawing on findings from recent research conducted in Sweden and Finland and the latest Nordic language policy document (Gregersen et al. 2018), our chapter critically discusses how researchers and students with transnational trajectories perceive their language use. In particular, we consider the role of English vis-à-vis the national language(s) and other languages for purposes of research outreach and widening participation. We argue that there is a mismatch between university policies assuming that societal responsibility concerning language use is largely limited to local national and (to a lesser extent) minority languages, and the translocal experience of university stakeholders who often deal with a range of linguistic resources on a daily basis.Peer reviewe

What's a language error? A discussion

Peer reviewe

"Good" and "acceptable" English in L2 research writing : Ideals and realities in history and computer science

In light of the recent developments on the international publishing scene, increasingly dominated by L2 writers of English, the question of what is considered to be "good" and "acceptable" English calls for further research. This paper examines in what ways researchers describe the English used for research writing in their field. Interview data were collected from historians and computer scientists working in Finland and Sweden. Our analysis points towards some differences in the way researchers perceive "good" writing in English in their field, and what they themselves report to practice as (co-)authors, readers/reviewers, and proofreaders. The discrepancy between the ideals and realities of research writing in English was clear in the case of the historians. Our findings suggest that in research writing for publication, there is a pull towards some form of standard norm. This standard can be jointly negotiated during the writing, reviewing, and proofreading process. It may also develop in different directions in different disciplines, but it is likely to be based on the principles of understandability and clarity. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe

Engaging with terminology in the multilingual classroom:Teachers’ practices for bridging the gap between L1 lectures and English reading

In some academic settings where English is not the first language it is nonetheless common for reading to be assigned in English, and the expectation is often that students will acquire subject terminology incidentally in the first language as well as in English as a result of listening and reading. It is then a prerequisite that students notice and engage with terminology in both languages. To this end, teachers’ classroom practices for making students attend to and engage with terms are crucial for furthering students’ vocabulary competence in two languages. Using transcribed video recordings of eight undergraduate lectures from two universities in such a setting, this paper provides a comprehensive picture of what teachers ‘do’ with terminology during a lecture, i.e., how terms are allowed to feature in the classroom discourse. It is established, for example, that teachers nearly always employ some sort of emphatic practice when using a term in a lecture. However, the repertoire of such practices is limited. Further, teachers rarely adapt their repertoires to cater to the special needs arguably required in these settings, or to exploit the affordances of multilingual environments

The theoretical research article as a reflection of disciplinary practices: The case of pure mathematics

Recent years have seen an interest in the generic structure of empirical research articles across a variety of disciplines. However, significantly less attention has been given to theoretical articles. This study aims to begin to address this imbalance by presenting the results of an investigation into the organizational and rhetorical structure of theoretical pure mathematics research articles. The data set combines a close analysis of 22 peer-reviewed articles and semi-structured interviews with their authors. While there is considerable variation in terms of the major section headings and content, the results reveal an overall structure that differs from a typical empirical research article. We argue that this alternative structure is produced by the dual argumentation-mathematical and metamathematical-which runs throughout the text. Moreover, triangulation with the interview data indicates that the structural patterns of the theoretical pure mathematics research article can be viewed as a reflection of the research practices and epistemology of the discipline

Lewis’s Istra and Frazer’s Ishtar: Cults and rituals in C.S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces (1956)

Este artigo examina a influência de The Golden Bough (1890-1915) de Sir James Frazer no último romance de C.S. Lewis Till We Have Faces (1956). O primeiro é um ensaio de antropologia subtitulado “um estudo em magia e religião”, enquanto o último é um romance com subtítulo “um mito recontado”. O foco principal deste artigo reside nas descrições de crenças e práticas religiosas, em particular a temática mítica da mãe divina e seu filho/amante. A relação Frazer-Lewis pode ser vista como um exemplo forte das ligações íntimas entre a academia do século dezanove e a ‘mitopoeia’ do século vinte. Assim, Frazer e Lewis aparecem como criadores de mitos e como antropólogos: Frazer começa como um antropólogo, mas acaba a sua escrita com algo que pode ser visto como uma colecção literária de mitos, enquanto Lewis, criador de mitos, se torna um antropólogo em seu mundo imaginado. This paper examines the influence of Sir James Frazer’s Golden Bough (1890-1915) upon Till We Have Faces (1956), the last novel of C. S. Lewis. The former is a research in anthropology subtitled ‘a study in magic and religion’, whereas the latter is a novel subtitled ‘a myth retold’. The main focus of this article is on the descriptions of religious beliefs and practices, particularly the motif of the divine-mother-and-son/lover. The author argues that the Frazer-Lewis connection can be seen as a strong example of intimate links between nineteenth-century scholarship and twentieth-century mythopoeia. Thus both Frazer and Lewis appear to be mythmakers and anthropologists: Frazer starts as an anthropologist, but ends up writing what in a way can be seen as a literary collection of myths, whereas Lewis-the-mythmaker becomes an anthropologist in his own imaginary world