Assisting international students with academic discourse :

1. Assistinginternational students with academic discourse:  a multidisciplinary pedagogical intervention Technical academic writing in Asia: obstacles and interventions Lawrie Hunter Kochi University of Technology Japan http://lawriehunter.com

2. No need to take notes :^o You can download this powerpoint (and many more) from http://www.core.kochi-tech.ac.jp/hunter/ or lawriehunter.com or slideshare.net/rolenzo

3. Dimensions of Media Object Compehensibility Island of Shikoku Lawrie Hunter Kochi University of Technology http://www.core.kochi-tech.ac.jp/hunter/ KUT

4. Background

5. Hunterthe style dossier approachRATIONALE KUT scenario • Since 2002: Japanese government scholarships • for foreign students in technical doctoral programmes. • ! the foreign students are required to publish • 2+ refereed papers and a dissertation in English demand for new technical academic writing courses

6. Hunterthe style dossier approachRATIONALE KUT scenario Applicants are screened for academic English knowledge and skill, BUT 1. There are no extensions in the 3 year programme 2. Research topics are highly granular. 3. Technical RP writing genres are highly granular. further L2 acquisition to the point of near-independence during the study period is NOT a realistic strategy. Need for a pragmatic approach.

7. Design Scenario ESP EAP ELaw EZ... EMed TAW EAP HUMANITIES Technical Academic Writing

8. Design Scenario Hayles 2012 cites Hamilton 1991: Percent of science papers never cited within 5 years: ____% Percent of humanities papers never cited within 5 years: ____%

9. Design Scenario Hayles 2012 cites Hamilton 1991: Percent of science papers never cited within 5 years: 22.4% Percent of humanities papers never cited within 5 years: 93.1%

11. Technical academic writing in Asia: obstacles and interventions EAP How does academic writing differ in various cultures? How do we set global standards? Is there a problem of English as the lingua franca of academia? cultural variation 1 2 global standards 3 ELF: problems?

12. Technical academic writing in Asia: obstacles and interventions cultural variation How does academic writing differ in various cultures? For engineers, not so much. TAW* is 1. formulaic 2. data-centered 3. graphically scaffolded (equations, graphs, charts) *TAW = technical academic writing

13. cultural variation Asian culture: perceptions 1. Some Asian cultures (esp. former British colonies) tend towards more use of rhetorical devices. 2. Rhetorical devices seen as a mark of erudition

14. cultural variation Asian culture: perceptions Confucian cultures 1. Citation: a. more frequently b. more valued ['good quoting' is a sign of erudition] 2. Acceptance of authority -tendency to overclaim others' findings in summary/abstraction exercises 3. Admiration of extended sentences -difficulty with orchestration of own logical structures

15. cultural variation LEARNER CULTURE: production techniques 1. Tendency to over-emphasize generation of text from own grammar knowledge  tendency to undervalue working from language models. 2. Tendency to link everything.

16. cultural variation 201X Culture -a recent development 1

17. cultural variation 201X CULTURE: life in a low-text world Twitter! SMS! Blogs! Like! Unfriend! Intensifying problems: 1. Excessive terseness 2. "Optimism" about communication (whatever) 3. Step skipping in persuasion 4. Life is troublesome = can't be bothered

18. Possible approaches 2. layer view most TAWprograms work here grammar/surface features usage/convention most TAW writers start writing here (simulacrum of argument) document format argument supporting claim RP language generation should start here research design/results 18

19. TAW best practice Writing work focusing on argument and info-structures Niche language acquisition to near-independence in TAW Training in the use of language models: Style Dossier Preparation for work with an editor Preparation for work with a mentor

20. cultural variation

21. cultural variation Interventions

22. cultural variation Interventions 1. editor as instructor 2. information designer as instructor 3. logician as instructor 4. learner as client

23. cultural variation Intervention 1: editor as instructor

24. cultural variation 1. Editor as instructor a. Tasks: analysis, repair => demonstrate b. Rewrite tasks to perfection c. Use checklists of own LF* problems d. Style dossier * language features, lexical items crucial to a given communication move in TAW

25. Dossier collection tasks cultural variation A. Research writing register (FAE) models B. Informal discussion register models C. Glossary

26. Reframing: client:advisor => user:consultant cultural variation

27. Reframing: client:advisor => user:consultant cultural variation Claim: when we add dossier work, no additional knowledge or skills are required

28. cultural variation From the editor/mentor POV: 1. Reviewer comments on language aspects of RPs are almost always vague. a. mostly blanket comments b. few examples of problem types. 2. Reviewer feedback does not include confirmation of success vis a vis language features.

29. cultural variation From the editor/mentor POV: 1. "Style dossier" vetting of RPs as language models reveals a number of papers with significant problems with grammar, register and readability. 2. Journals compete heavily for significant content, and may overlook English problems when the content is significant and well data-ed – or when the author is well-known. 3. As well, multi-author papers are often patchwork.

30. cultural variation Editor POV intervention Men must be taught as if you taught them not, And things unknown propos'd as things forgot. Pope, "Essay on Criticism" Pt. III. L. 15.

31. cultural variation Intervention 2: information designer as instructor

32. cultural variation 2. Information designer as instructor a. teach pattern recognition / metalanguage (naive, e.g. "looking at" marked parallel text) b. coded feedback on tasks c. non-linguistic approach to structure related LFs d. Novakian concept mapping (relations highlighted) e. Style dossier as essential, central

33. cultural variation 2. Information designer as instructor a. teach pattern recognition / metalanguage (naive, e.g. "looking at" marked parallel text)

34. cultural variation 2. Information designer as instructor b. coded feedback on tasks

35. cultural variation LEARNER CULTURE: production techniques Rhetorical conflation 1. Logical narrative ... in order to prove... ... compared.... 2. Reseach Paper narrative (formulaic, surface marked) 3. Claim narrative (argument) [The above 3 forms are not differentiated in the learners' experience.]

36. cultural variation Editor POV -antidote to rhetorical conflation Teach discourse analysis as information analysis. -learning to produce a language is largely a matter of actively hearing it*. This calls for appealing, attractive, "cool" input. Be shameless! *and not analyzing it

37. cultural variation Editor POV: discourse information analysis lawrie hunter

38. cultural variation Editor POV: discourse information analysis lawrie hunter

39. cultural variation Editor POV: discourse information analysis lawrie hunter

40. cultural variation Editor POV: discourse information analysis

41. cultural variation Editor POV: discourse information mapping 41

42. cultural variation Intervention 3: logician as instructor

43. cultural variation 3. logician as instructor a. macro view: -argument -rhetorical devices -logic links b. micro view: -language features impacting on TAW moves -conventions

44. cultural variation Learner culture: "whatever" Tendency when reading to ignore markers of info-organization, info-structures, rhetorical devices -results in misuse of markers when writing

45. From the editor/mentor POV: Learners tend to miss steps in argument chains. E.g. "Ms. Walter's neighbor heard her smoke alarm sounding. He knocked on the door, but there was no answer. He called the police and the fire department. The police arrived first, and they knocked the door down." Why did the police knock the door down? -common: incomplete chains of argument

46. cultural variation From the editor/mentor POV: Teach pattern recognition: e.g. find all the logic links in this abstract e.g. find all the sentences without logic links

47. cultural variation From the editor/mentor POV: In informal learner writing about own research: general-to-specific takes the form: This reflects: a. the template nature of the TAW RP b. that the RP format is a metaphor for argument

48. cultural variation From the editor/mentor POV: Impact: this results in conference presentation structure: -which is argument-wise a failure in a paper: But what would be better? Toulmin => modified Toulmin => Cmap discourse

49. cultural variation Intervention 4: learner as client

50. cultural variation 4. learner as client a. Writing center: DO edit student writing -but with coded feedback -clients must know curriculum b. WC emphasis on learning -only edit small chunks, to perfection -learning in chunk x applied to chunk x+1