English Writing Assignments and Students’ Self‐Perceived Writing Needs: A Survey of Undergraduates at a Chinese University

Feng, Haiying; Ya, Sun; Zou, Yi

doi:10.1002/tesq.511

Cited by 5 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 20 publications

(28 reference statements)

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“…Nevertheless, it must be taken into account that participants described writing for EAP as "story writing" and noted that writing for EAP and writing in the disciplines were "just two different areas" (S9 & S14, respectively). Such a disconnect between EAP writing tasks and discipline-specific requirements seems to have a long history still in place today (see Feng, et al, 2019;Leki & Carson, 1997). Keefe and Shi (2017) provide a fairly recent example of the phenomenon.…”

Section: 2mentioning

confidence: 99%

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EAP Courses in Joint-Venture Institutions: A Needs Analysis Based on Learner Perceptions

Harper

Sun

2022

ijeltal

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With the increase in English medium instruction (EMI) in non-English-speaking countries, the role of EAP in preparing learners for the academic tasks that they will face is enhanced. Joint-venture universities (JVUs), institutions formed in collaboration between foreign universities and universities in the host country, pose even greater challenges for EAP programs. Learners in JVUs are expected to meet the requirements of the collaborating institution while simultaneously developing skills in an additional language. Critical to the success of EAP programs in JVUs, then, is the careful analysis of learners’ needs and wants. The present study aims to provide insights into the needs and wants of EAP students at a China-based JVU by focusing on the perceptions of learners who have completed their EAP studies. Data were obtained through a narrative research method based on semi-structured interviews with 16 former EAP students and compared with stated program goals in an effort to discover areas in which students’ perceptions aligned or did not align with program goals. The paper presents cases of alignment and cases of mismatches. An analysis of the mismatches leads to the following pedagogical implications for EMI programs in JVUs: (1) Programs may better cater to learners’ interests by implementing a semi-negotiated curriculum; (2) programs may better cater to learners’ discipline-specific needs by providing broad writing topics for learners to refine in accordance with their particular disciplines; (3) programs may better promote the integration of EAP students and international students by consciously providing the initial “push” toward integration

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Section: 2mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As English for academic purposes (EAP) programs are specifically designed to address learners' English-related challenges within a target institutional context, needs analysis is seen as fundamental to the success of such programs (see Feng et al, 2019;Gaffas, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

EAP Courses in Joint-Venture Institutions: A Needs Analysis Based on Learner Perceptions

Harper

Sun

2022

ijeltal

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“…In addition, in teaching writing, English teachers should be fully aware that the four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing are closely related and can promote each other. Therefore, in developing students' writing skills, teachers should actively cultivate students' writing skills [12][13]. In this way, students' writing abilities can be enhanced, and the overall development of students listening, speaking, reading and writing abilities can also be realized [14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Study of the Effectiveness of Corpus-Assisted Collocation Teaching on Improving College Students’ English Writing Ability Based on Random Matrix Theory

Lin

2023

Applied Mathematics and Nonlinear Sciences

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This paper presents a semantic analysis of corpus-assisted collocation teaching based on the random matrix theory, taking into account the characteristics of the computer corpus. The construction of a word-document matrix is based on the potential semantic analysis of the corpus and the intrinsic relationships between words and documents. The aggregation and combination relations of collocation, i.e., the lexicon of word meanings, are used to calculate affirmative sentence similarity, incorporating dependent syntactic and semantic analysis. The error analysis method was applied to the teaching of collocations to analyze the common types of errors and the variability of writing errors in English writing and to discuss the correlation between the performance of English composition and the number of collocations used. The correlation coefficient between composition scores and the number of collocations in compositions was 0.924, and the composition scores of college students had a positive linear relationship with the number of collocations.

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“…Students in such settings rarely need to write their undergraduate or graduate theses in English (see Cai, 2017). According to Feng, Sun, and Zou (2019), in cases in which EAP is taught in China, students tend to have "little intrinsic interest in learning it" as the academic writing needs are "imposed" and not required for other courses (p. 858, italics as in original). The increasing presence of joint-venture universities (JVUs) in China, however, leads to the assumption that a new context may have emerged.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The study reported here took place at Duke Kunshan University (DKU), one of the aforementioned JVUs in China and hence one of the possible new contexts for EAP in China. Upon undertaking the study, the researchers were aware that, consistent with Feng, Sun, and Zou's (2019) assessment of EAP in China, intrinsic interest in DKU EAP courses sometimes appeared to be lacking. This awareness stemmed from comments made in recorded interviews with former EAP students.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Criteria for Selecting Instructors of English for Academic Purposes Courses: What Do Students Look for?

Harper

2021

JELTL

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<em>Seeking to provide insight into the role that English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses play in China’s growing number of joint-venture universities (JVUs), this article reports on a study of the factors that motivate students’ selection of instructors for such courses. The study reports on three stages of the investigation: (1) a preliminary, online tapping of learners’ motives in EAP instructor selection, (2) a survey, based on the findings of Stage 1, in which past EAP students ranked qualities most and least desired of EAP instructors, (3) focus-group discussions (FGDs), based on the survey of Stage 2, in which past EAP students commented on the qualities that they most and least desired of EAP instructors. Survey results are grouped into the top three, bottom three, and middle three; survey results are analyzed in light of FGDs, with discrepancies between the two being acknowledged and interpreted. Three overarching pedagogical implications are presented: (1) the need of a sense of community in EAP courses, (2) the need of transparency in EAP courses, and (3) the perception of EAP instructors as first and foremost classroom teachers. Limitations of the study are duly noted.</em>

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English Writing Assignments and Students’ Self‐Perceived Writing Needs: A Survey of Undergraduates at a Chinese University

Cited by 5 publications

References 20 publications

EAP Courses in Joint-Venture Institutions: A Needs Analysis Based on Learner Perceptions

EAP Courses in Joint-Venture Institutions: A Needs Analysis Based on Learner Perceptions

A Study of the Effectiveness of Corpus-Assisted Collocation Teaching on Improving College Students’ English Writing Ability Based on Random Matrix Theory

Criteria for Selecting Instructors of English for Academic Purposes Courses: What Do Students Look for?

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