Innovative Methods and Practices of Academic Writing and Writing Instruction
CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES TEACHING ENGLISH ACADEMIC WRITING TO SOCIOCULTURALLY DIVERSE NONNATIVE STUDENTS: A 670SUBJECT STUDY WITH IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING AND CURRICULA
1 2 David R. Albachten , Levent Balcioglu
1
Istanbul Sehir University, Academic Writing Center and Graduate Writing Program, Istanbul, Turkey Istanbul Sehir University, Sehir English Preparatory Program (SEPP), Istanbul, Turkey
2
Istanbul Sehir University, Istanbul, Turkey, is a young private Englishmedium university where all of the students are native speakers of other languages (85% Turkish and the remainder natives of over twodozen languages). The vast majority of students enter the university with a suboptimal level of English skills, particularly writing. Therefore one or two years prior to entering their freshman year, students enroll in a separate universityoperated English preparatory program (SEPP), where on average students’ writing improves 43% (Albachten & Balcioglu, 2014). Additionally, once matriculated there are two mandatory English courses all students take (UNI 123 and UNI 124) to further enhance English receptive and productive skills. To date 670 students have completed UNI 123 or both. This study investigates the entire body of writing production from all students who attended the freshman English courses to determine (1) common deficiencies, (2) learning transfer (James, 2009), and (3) create statistically valid comparisons across groups. Using reliable and reproducible methods, covering grammar, mechanics, style, plagiarism, and compositional structure, we determine the issues among these students. These results alone are critical for improving academic writing teaching. Furthermore student writing is compared along a variety of categories: native language, English competence, and academic achievement among others. Conclusions highlight the challenges and opportunities in teaching English writing to this socioculturally diverse group of university students. Implications of the study suggest ways to alter teaching methods and curricula to best prepare multicultural nonnative students for excellence in English academic writing.
References
Albachten, D & Balcioglu, L 2014, “Can Tracking and Error Identification Inform Better Teaching Methods and Build Better Writers? A Longitudinal Tracking of Turkish L1 University Preparatory Students Writing in English: A TwoYear Retrospective Study with Implications for Teaching and Curricula”, IATEFL Research SIG Conference , June 2014, Gediz University, Izmir, Turkey.
James, MA 2009, “‘Far’ transfer of learning from an ESL writing course: Can the gap be bridged?”, Journal of Second Language Writing, vol. 18, pp. 6984.