Academic Literacy: The Analysis Of First-Year Ukrainian University Students’ Errors In Essay Writing

Abstract

Ukrainian undergraduate students face challenges in demonstrating high-level proficiency in most of their academic writing. As an integral part of academic achievement, writing skills are essential for success at the various levels of students’ future career paths. Thus, academic literacy has raised considerable attention to teaching English as a second language. This study explores the writing competence level of 90 first-year students of Computer Science and Cybernetics Faculty at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and analyzes essay errors that are identified, classified and explained. The study describes the main categories of errors and reveals the causes of their production. It is evaluated that the major types of errors committed in students’ writing are: word choice, word spelling, verb tense, articles, and prepositions. We consider that the main reasons for errors are the native language interference, the lack of English academic writing knowledge and insufficient English grammar and functional use practice. Focusing on the importance of encouraging students to develop their academic literacy, we defined the approaches and strategies that can help teachers and language learners to overcome difficulties in writing. After defining the essay errors, the students were given a set of tips on academic writing proficiency and presented with contrastive L1-L2 comparisons, which resulted in significant improvement of the required academic writing skills. Finally, we measured the impact value of error difference aimed at describing the relationships between pre-analysis and post-analysis writing. Learning academic writing literacy may be an appropriate way to arise overall disciplinary literacy with the students.

Students’ Perceptions on Online Teaching and Learning in Higher Education

“…It calls for necessary continuous professional development that should include the development of both digital and psycho-pedagogical competence, with a focus on effective course design, instruction, implementation and evaluation (Nawar Al-Saadi, 2017). Pedagogically, there is also a need to adapt and adjust the teaching methods to the specificity of the online process (Kim & Bonk, 2006), which is why studies providing echoes of the experiences of trained teachers/experts on the topic are useful (Thomas & Dello Stritto, 2021);  Students' perspective on the process Duţă, 2023;Nikolenko et al, 2023;Islam & Mondal, 2022;Laili & Nashir, 2022;Lamanauskas et al, 2022;Radmehr & Goodchild, 2022;Soliman et al, 2022;Abu et al, 2021;Alexa, 2021;Almahasees et al, 2021;Aziz Ansari et al, 2021;Fyllos et al, 2021;Hofer et al, 2021;Saurabh et al, 2021;Seifert, 2021;Ayu, 2020;Coman et al, 2020;Mishra et al, 2020;Sadiku et al, 2018;Brittany, 2015). The data highlighted by such studies underline the need for a joint teacherstudent effort and a stronger commitment from both partners to create an online learning community that ensures a higher level of interaction and collaboration (Thomas & Dello Stritto, 2021;Kim & Bonk, 2006) between them as well as between students (Nawar Al-Saadi, 2017);  Views on the benefits and challenges of online teaching and online learning in the academic environment Nikolenko et al, 2023;Blonder et al, 2022;Radmehr & Goodchild, 2022;Soliman et al, 2022;Alexa, 2021;Aziz Ansari et al, 2021;Bekker & Nazir, 2021;…”

“…The academic learning experiences during the pandemic period led to the immediate psycho-pedagogical reflection towards new lessons to be learned, simultaneously towards many aspects of the teaching process, older or newer, but equally important such as: learners' satisfaction with online teaching and learning (Nikolenko et al, 2023); online teaching-learningmore difficult processes than those conducted face-to-face (Krull & De Klerk, 2021); online teaching-learning -more efficient than the face-to-face ones. To what extent is online teaching-learning associated with stress?…”

“…; how to build trust in an online learning environment (Wang, 2014) or to others, which are not yet visible? Precisely because online teaching-learning in the academic environment is a long-term certainty, it is natural that after the pandemic period, wide debates have been activated about the path which needs to be developed in order to achieve a high-quality online educational process (Nikolenko et al, 2023). In any case, one should not ignore the reality that both current theories and practices -in e-learning are not simple or coherent, which means that the application of this solution occurs irregularly, randomly, and with varying degrees of success‖ (Ayu, 2020, p.48).…”

“…Accordingly, online teaching-learning should no longer be understood as just a short-term crisis educational solution but as a natural way for running a long-term Kim & Bonk, 2006) and a very long-term academic learning process. Definitely, it is not by avoiding face-to-face learning altogether, but by a blended, hybrid version Nikolenko et al, 2023;Thomas & Dello Stritto, 2021;Nawar Al-Saadi, 2017;Kim & Bonk, 2006) yet adopting the lessons already learnt during COVID-19 (Hargis, 2020;Hofer et al, 2021) and keeping a balanced rational approach to their benefits and challenges.…”

Students’ Voice on Feedback and Instructions in Academic Writing

“…Noteworthy, there is an expanding body of publications on developing writing skills in a contemporary EFL classroom (Brisk, 2014;Burgess, Sieminski and Arthur, 2006;Fairbairn and Winch, 2011;Hedgcock, 2010;Hedgcock and Ferris, 2009;Nikolenko et al, 2021;Thomson and Walker, 2010, etc.). Substantial research has been carried out on causes of writing apprehension or anxiety and blocking, which can elucidate students' resistance to writing tasks (Hanna, 2010;Kara, 2013).…”