Write on the edge: using a chemistry corpus to develop academic writing skills resources for undergraduate chemists

Abstract

Many undergraduate students find the production of an extended piece of academic writing challenging. This challenge is more acute in the sciences where production of extended texts is infrequent throughout undergraduate studies. This paper reports the development of a new English for Academic Purposes (EAP) workshop and associated resources for third year undergraduate chemists to support their dissertation module. The workshop is designed to utilise a searchable database of student texts (a corpus) developed as part of the FOCUS project at Durham University. This novel use of data-driven learning (DDL), common in second language pedagogy, transfers well to the chemistry classroom as the processes of research and discovery (of words rather than chemicals) involved in DDL parallel similar processes in chemistry research. Our workshop and online consolidation activities have been positively evaluated by both staff and our current cohort of students. The project is being rolled out across other departments at Durham as well as the corpus tool being utilised at other UK HEIs. This corpus-based approach to academic writing in chemistry offers a unique perspective on the interplay between language and scientific literacy.

The Effect of ‘box-and-bead’ Analogy versus Retrieval-based Learning on Retention in Chemical Kinetics among First-Year Chemistry Students

“…The RELT had the least retention and it is concluded that active engagement using the box-bead-analogy leads to better retention of chemical kinetics concepts. The findings of this study are in agreement with several related research studies (Taylor et al, 2016;Shahani & Jenkinson, 2016;D'Ottone & Ochonogor, 2017) that concluded that when students engage with analogies they form concrete analogues that enhances retention.…”

“…The findings focused on conceptual knowledge and left out the procedural knowledge. Shahani and Jenkinson (2016) also explored the efficacy of interactive analogical models among third-year chemistry students. The study employed two analogies: the spring system and electrostatic spheres on potential energy curves.…”

Perceptions of ESL Students about Using Web-Concordancing and Language Reference Resources in Academic Writing

“…Other studies that have used concordancing tools and on-line reference resources include (Zhang et al, 2017) that focused on the use of personally developed corpora to assist in academic writing development of postgraduate medical students. Bruce et al (2016) described student feedback to activities using concordancing as a resource for developing academic writing skills among Chemistry undergraduate students and Romer and Wulff (2010) examined the use of specific linguistic structures (demonstrative pronouns) in different disciplinary corpus subsets.…”

“…Several researchers suggest that in Google-assisted language learning, Internet search engines serve as concordancing tools (Acar, 2011;Bruce, Coffer, Rees, & Robson, 2016;Conroy, 2010;Geluso, 2013;Panah, Yunus, & Embi, 2013;Shei, 2008;Zhang, Zheng, & Li, 2017).…”

“…They are not familiar with concordancing tools as instant supports to address the grammatical and lexical accuracy of their writing. At the same time, despite the increasing interest in the use of concordancing and other online reference resources in various disciplines such as Medical Science and Chemistry as evidenced in the past studies (Bruce et al, 2016;Zhang et al, 2017) there is still a lack of sufficient investigation on university students' perceptions of these resources to solve their language problems independently during academic writing. However, little research is available, particularly in context, on the ESL postgraduate students' perceptions of using a suite of reference resources for solving their witting problem in terms of grammar, vocabulary and collocation.…”