Masters Degrees (General Linguistics)

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Browsing Masters Degrees (General Linguistics) by Subject "Academic writing -- Study and teaching"

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    A study of multilingual Extended Degree Programme (EDP) students: The construction of voice through metadiscourse markers in written texts
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-03) Lotter, Risha Shalome Jedidiah; George, Erica; Bernard, Taryn; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of General Linguistics.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Higher Education has become increasingly diverse, and this is especially true in South Africa where universities have adapted to allow for more equitable access. To facilitate student success in this changing environment, South African Higher Education institutions have put several strategies in place, among which foundational programmes. These programmes are targeted towards students who can stand to benefit from a more thorough introduction to the academic practices of universities. At Stellenbosch University, such foundational programmes are called Extended Degree Programmes (EDP), and they usually extend degrees by a year. Research is increasingly being done on foundational programmes to determine pedagogical best practices and continually improve the nature of such courses; however, ‘voice’ as a contributor to academic writing success among such foundational programme students has rarely been investigated. This study thus undertook to investigate said voice among a group of EDP students at Stellenbosch University, by analysing their use of metadiscourse markers. Hyland and Tse’s (2004) model for metadiscourse markers was utilised for these analyses, since this model expressly approaches metadiscourse from an interpersonal standpoint. In other words, this model considers metadiscourse to be a resource used by students to make their presence felt within their writing, thus using it to craft their voices. Essays from a first-year EDP class in the Arts and Social Sciences faculty were analysed, of which some had been written at the start of the students’ academic career, and the remaining written after 5 months of instruction. The research participants were from varied backgrounds, more than half of them being second-language (L2) students; as such their sociolinguistic contexts were considered a valuable resource, both to the students in question and for this research. First and second-language students’ (L1 and L2) uses of metadiscourse were compared with each other and measured over time. It was found that L1 and L2 students do approach academic writing with different resources, and that after five months of instruction they still show some differences, particularly in how they build coherence and self-reference into their essays. However, both L1 and L2 students tended to apply more standardised academic norms in their essays after some exposure to academic writing, particularly incorporating frame markers and evidentials. Nonetheless, from these students’ often irregular use of metadiscourse is was clear that they had yet to perfect an authoritative academic voice for themselves.