Identifying Problems in Writing Thesis Introductions in Research Methodology Class

AbstractIntroduction,as a genre, has conventionally been understood as a piece of discourse which introduces other forms of lengthy discourse, be it a research article, a project report, a laboratory report or even a student essay. In writing introductions to dissertations, Dudley-Evans (1989) discovered a six-move structures. This move structure provides a step-by-step instruction for students to use and is a user-friendly guide in writing their thesis introductions. These moves are designed in a very simple manner that is understood by students at the undergraduate level. This paper which is based on a research that analysed undergraduate research proposals written by students majoring in English Language studies. The aim is to identify if the introduction section adheres to the moves suggested by Evans (1989). Based on the findings the researchers will to introduce a genre- based approach to guide students in writing their thesis introductions

Effect of metadiscourse on reading comprehension of Iranian EFL learners

Metadiscourse, known as discourse about ongoing discourse, has been the subject of discourse research from a wide range of perspectives. In academic contexts, knowledge of metadiscourse as a prominent feature of all types of academic discourse provides second language readers with information about writer’s attitudes towards the text and the readers. Over the past decade there has been a growing interest in conducting studies investigating different aspects of metadiscourse in relation to language learning. The present study hopes to contribute to the study of metadiscourse by investigating its effect on EFL learners’ reading comprehension (with three levels of reading proficiency: low, medium, and high) when faced two text types –academic and general. To this end, data were collected through two instruments, namely a TOEFL reading comprehension sample test and a reading comprehension test which consisted of two text types was developed for the purpose of this study. Two versions of this reading comprehension test were developed: one with metadiscourse enriched texts and the other with metadiscourse removed ones. The results of data analysis showed that students in all three levels of reading proficiency performed better on metadiscourse enriched test booklet than their counterpart groups who took the metadiscourse removed text booklet. In comparing students’ performance on metadiscourse removed text types, it was revealed that they did more poorly on academic metadiscourse removed test booklet than on general one. The findings of this study suggest that making students aware of metadiscoursal features of different text types enhances students’ reading comprehension

Addressing learner diversity by culturally responsive pedagogy

Malaysian school classrooms are characterized by its diversity whereby students (Malay Chinese, Indian and other ethnic groups) come from various cultural backgrounds. Studies have shown that culture influences the learning process and social adjustment of students. Providing culturally appropriate practice is one of the main concerns of the teaching profession. To do that teachers need to be able to promote cultural understanding to enable students to become sensitive to other students from other cultures and to eventually be able to live harmoniously in a multicultural community. They need to be multi-culturally aware of differences among students to better act as role models in classroom. The objective of this paper is to describe the effect of a multicultural competence workshop in raising a group of 128 primary school teachers’ awareness about multiculturalism in the classroom. Multicultural competence comprises multicultural awareness (how people’s attitudes, beliefs, values, assumptions, self-awareness affect the ways they interact with those who are culturally different from themselves), knowledge (informed understanding of cultures that are different from one’s own culture) and skills (skills individuals use to engage in effective and meaningful interactions with those who are from different cultural backgrounds). The training workshop employs three main activities (a) self-awareness, (b) awareness of Malaysian cultures and (c) instructional strategies and resources. The qualitative data reveals that the teachers find that the workshop activities to be supportive of a culturally responsive pedagogy. These activities have helped them to be aware of their own thinking, biases and emotions towards diversity in the classroom. The activities of the workshop seem to have been facilitative in increasing the teachers’ multicultural awareness and competency. It can be concluded that the teachers have positive responses to the workshop. The study indicates that teachers need to be exposed to multicultural activities that could assist them in implementing a culturally-responsive pedagogy

Development of an automated tool for detecting errors in tenses

The rapid growth of computer technologies creates a plethora of ways in which technology can be integrated into one of the alternatives to facilitate essay marking. Automated essay marking systems developed from the late 1960s have attempted to prove that computers can evaluate essays as competently as human expert. Several computer-based essay marking (CBEM) systems have been developed to mark students’ essays and they can be divided into semi-automated and automated systems. This paper illustrates the development of an Automated Tool for Detecting Errors in Tenses (ATDEiT™). The first phase analysed the errors found in 400 essays written by 112 English as second language (ESL) learners at tertiary level using Markin 3.1 software. The results showed that the most common errors were found in tenses. This finding led to the second phase of the research, which was the design of an automated marking tool. Consequently, the techniques and algorithm for error analysis marking tool for ESL learners were developed. An initial testing was conducted to evaluate the results of the marking tool using 50 essays. Findings showed that ATDEiT™ achieved a high level (93.5%) of recall and an average level (78.8%) of precision. This proves that ATDEiT™ has the potential to be used as an automated tool for detecting errors in tenses for ESL learners