Abstract-It was noted that one of the most distressing challenges faced by the L2 college students was the poor presentation of their journal writing skills. The researcher noticed a prevailing pattern in their journal writing, where most of them were unable to construct proper sentences, making too many grammatical errors and also lacking in vocabulary. These factors have eventually restricted them from expressing their ideas clearly and effectively in their journal writing. Therefore, this study is primarily designed to look at how second language learners have acquired the use of English language through journal writing and how they have improved within a short time frame. The researcher scaffold a number of 3 undergraduate university college students by using several interactive writing techniques and instructions in writing a journal which showed their progress, daily activities and new experiences. The writing errors from the samples of written journals during week 1 were as it was written before and during the scaffolding period. Data were collected and the results of the progression were obtained based on the observation and comparison of written journals on week 1 and 5. The scaffolding technique presented in this study has helped remedy the challenges faced by the target students by further developing their effectiveness in journal writing.Index Terms-scaffolding, second language learners, journal writing skills, interactive writing skills, English language learner

This research paper is based on the Academic Modules of IELTS test. A study is conducted to evaluate the performance of IELTS test takers and to analyze inter rater reliability in evaluating the test. The test is held at a private university and there are 9 participants who are the students of Foundation, Diploma and Degree courses were assessed only on writing component. This test is rated by three different raters to observe inter rater reliability in evaluating the test. The findings show that rating is not reliable and there is less agreement between the raters as different raters awarded different marks for the students. The total accumulated marks are 588 out of maximum 900 marks and the average score of these 9 students are 65.3% and falls under band 6. Since the IELTS test uses holistic marking, the raters find that the scoring rubrics are too vague in defining the qualities of writing. This study proposes analytic scoring system as a better procedure in assessing IELTS test, whereby it uses separate scales to assess different aspects of writing rather than a single score. The inter rater reliability issue can be overcome if test providers are able to furnish grading scales that could clearly equate the total marks achieved by a candidate to an appropriate band. The result and discussion from this study cannot be generalized to all IELTS candidates as there are many limitations in this study such as student preparedness, tester marking experience, time constraint, and reliability of the test and the validity of the marks tabulation method

Background: This study examines the genre of Engineering Laboratory Reports (ELR) introduction section written by Electrical Engineering Undergraduates in a higher learning institution. The aims of this study are to identify the rhetorical moves and combinations of move patterns used by engineering students to write introduction section of ELR. Method: A genre analysis was conducted to identify writing patterns and convention practices of engineering undergraduate students thus a corpus of N= 35 was selected from electrical engineering students in their final year of study. This study adopted Genre Theory as its theoretical framework, [1] analytical framework and [2] BCU approach for analysis procedure. A pilot test was conducted to determine the model that fits the best to describe moves and steps of ELR. The study benchmarks a move or step to be present in at least 60% of the reports. Results and discussion: The finding shows the introduction consists of one main move which is providing background information of the experiment and followed by four subsequent steps which are reference to research purposes, reference to theoretical knowledge in the field, providing an overview of the study and identification of main research apparatus. The move 1 and all four steps identified above are viewed as obligatory, conventional and optional move and steps. The exemplification of finding shows lack of compliance among undergraduates to produce ELR based on university’s guideline in discussing previous literature and underpinning theories, lack of references and citation, absence of description to apparatus used and non-sequential steps. Conclusion: This study posits the importance of collaboration between English for Academic (EAP) practitioners such as English-writing instructors and discipline specific specialist from engineering field to further improve on genre-based writing instruction, and to support student’s understanding in meeting the requirements of university’s scientific technical reports.

Background This study examines the genre of Engineering Laboratory Reports (ELR) introduction section written by Electrical Engineering Undergraduates in a higher learning institution. The aims of this study are to identify the rhetorical moves and combinations of move patterns used by engineering students to write introduction section of ELR.  Method A genre analysis was conducted to identify writing patterns and convention practices of engineering undergraduate students thus a corpus of N= 35 was selected from electrical engineering students in their final year of study. This study adopted Genre Theory as its theoretical framework, [1] analytical framework and [2] BCU approach for analysis procedure. A pilot test was conducted to determine the model that fits the best to describe moves and steps of ELR. The study benchmarks a move or step to be present in at least 60% of the reports.  Results The finding shows the introduction consists of one main move which is providing background information of the experiment and followed by four subsequent steps which are reference to research purposes, reference to theoretical knowledge in the field, providing an overview of the study and identification of main research apparatus. The move 1 and all four steps identified above are viewed as conventional move and steps of introduction section only among undergraduates in academic context. The exemplification of finding pave ways to address grey areas of improvement in scientific written genre among laboratory instructors and academics. The method employed in this study may be replicated to analyse other sections of scientific and technical reports such as method, result, discussion and conclusion (MRDC).  Conclusion This study posits the importance of collaboration between English for Academic (EAP) practitioners such as English-writing instructors and discipline specific specialist from engineering field to further improve on genre-based writing instruction, and to identify student learning needs.