| . |
. |
. |
|
Research
Writing in a Foreign Language
|
|
|
It is generally agreed that learning to write
well is a difficult and time-consuming process (Atkinson and Ramanathan 1995; Kaplan 1987;
Richards 1990; Taylor 1980; Wallace-Robinett 1978; etc.). In order to write well, an
individual needs more than basic mechanical control, especially the nonnative student who
may feel anxiety and frustration about starting, creating, or finishing a writing
assignment or project, even though he or she has sufficient mechanical ability in the
foreign language (Richards 1990:100). Writers need to have enough language and general
intellectual skills to generate and organize ideas and put those ideas into coherent,
logically ordered, intelligible sentences, paragraphs, and essays.
|
|
|
This is a report of the application of a North
American system of research writing (based on several texts such as Hacker 1988; Hacker
and Ranch 1989; Spack 1990) in a high-intermediate class of EFL learners in Colombia. The
students had little prior experience with academic writing based on research in their
native language, Spanish, and even less experience with academic writing in the two
foreign languages they studied in their department of modern languages, English and
French. The system presented to them was taken from a variety of sources representing
typical approaches to the introduction of academic research writing at the university
level in the United States.
|
|
|
For most of the authors cited, the first step is
to become familiar with the library, its resources, and its methods for locating
resources. After becoming familiar with the availability of materials, the student needs
to choose a topic of interest and pose several questions that could be answered through
reading various sources (books, journals, magazines, newspapers). A student also has to
know how to find and to read articles and books and take notes from those sources,
indicating direct quotations, paraphrases, and summaries of the author's words.
|
|
|
After collecting sufficient material to start
writing the research paper, the student needs to identify the audience; select the tone,
organization, and documentation; and limit and focus the topic, none of which is an easy
task. Then the student needs to solidify his or her argument, organize the information in
a logical order, and write a rough draft of the research paper. The cited authors also
suggest that some time be dedicated to revision in order to polish the organization and
presentation of ideas before submitting the paper to the teacher for review.
|
|
|
Potential problems for nonnative speakers
|
|
|
Because of the complexity of research writing,
there are a number of challenges that face nonnative speakers when attempting to acquire
this skill. A specific problem for them in this process may be in reading and taking notes
from materials written by native speakers of the target language. The student who is
learning to write may have the tendency to copy word for word. Wallace-Robinett explains
that because they do not have the syntactic and semantic skills of native speakers (or the
confidence in the skills that they do have), nonnative speakers may "prefer to copy
the words of another, which seem so much more accurate and elegant than their own"
(1978:197). This is not usually done out of malice but more likely insecurity about
writing and reporting the ideas of others.
|
|
|
Another problem may be exposure to research
writing. Egginton (1987), Jones (l990), and Wallace-Robinett (1978) point out that many
nonnative speakers of English, who come from a variety of different cultures, have very
little or even no training in specific styles of writing, especially research writing. A
possible explanation may be that the number of resources (books, journals, journal
indices) is extremely limited (which is the case in many universities in Colombia). This
shortage limits students and even professors in their attempts to do the research that is
needed for much academic writing.
|
|
|
An introduction to research writing
|
|
|
Difficulties and successes in learning to use
new writing skills and techniques in the foreign language are the main focus of this
report. It is noted here that there may be problems with the concept of writing and
literacy across languages. Bell (1995) reports that in her attempt to become literate in
Chinese, her native English literary skills did little but hinder her.
|
|
|
In an experiment, a group of native Spanish
speaking students studying English in an EFL situation were exposed to the research
writing process and required to write a research paper for their English class. The
participants were 12 members of a Level VI (high-intermediate) English class in the modern
languages department of a large public university in Colombia. Their English class met six
hours per week, divided into two-hour classes on three separate days. The course ran for
approximately four months, and the time dedicated to the research process was just less
than half of the semester. The students were considered to be high-intermediate in their
language skills, fully capable of carrying on discussions about many topics and writing in
complete sentences with reasonably accurate grammatical control. Although the students
were ideally at the same level of development, some students were above average and others
were below average in their overall skills. Regarding their knowledge of academic writing
in general, none of the students had previously written a research paper in English (or
French), and very few of them had a similar experience in Spanish, their native language.
They were, however, interested in the project and motivated to learn how to do this type
of advanced writing.
|
|
|
10 steps to a research paper
|
|
|
To organize the presentation of the research
project for the students, a series of 10 steps for research writing were developed.
Following these steps as a guideline, the introduction to research writing was implemented
in the class.
|
|
|
The first step was an introduction to the
research process in general, with an overview of what the final product would look like.
This step included a specific time line of dates for the completion of each successive
step, ending with the due date for the final version. To encourage students to be
systematic in the collection of material for their written reports, it was suggested that
they keep a research journal. For the purposes of the project, this journal was to have
three sections:
|
|
|
- topic, research questions, working thesis
- bibliography and notes from readings
- interactive response (a section where the student was to write his/her reactions to each
article or book that was read, or in other words, an evaluation of the reading)
|
|
|
The second step was to select a topic.
Students used brainstorming, clustering, and questioning to find an interesting topic.
After the topic was chosen, students were given an assignment about narrowing the focus
(see Appendix A ). Before
completing the assignment, the class went on a tour of the library (the third step
) to review what was available and how the materials were organized and accessed. Included
in the library tour was an introduction to using a journal index. Also involved in this
step was a discussion of research strategies (for example, going from general to specific)
as well as a review of the different types of resources available (books, journals,
magazines, pamphlets, newspapers, etc.).
|
|
|
An initial material collection to explore the
availability of sources of the chosen topics made up the fourth step . This was not
an in-depth review of the literature but a quick search to see if sources existed and were
available at the university (the reason for this step was, and remains, the shortage of
materials available in the university library as was stated earlier). After this early
material was collected about the topics, the fifth step was to write some
preliminary questions, hypotheses, or objectives for the research paper.
|
|
|
These first five steps were accomplished in
approximately two weeks, giving the students several weeks (three to four) to read more
sources and take notes about the topic. During this sixth step , methods for taking
notes were reviewed. These included understanding direct quotation and its requirements
(word-for- word transcriptions, quotation marks, page numbers, full bibliographical
information), summaries and paraphrases and their requirements (student's own words, full
bibliographical information), and an introduction to bibliographies or reference lists.
|
|
|
The seventh step was to review outlining
and argumentation. An introduction to argumentation was presented when the students were
ready to begin writing a rough draft. The aim was to show them a new rhetorical style.
They needed to recognize differences between statements of fact and arguments of opinion
as well as the differences between personal opinions and the opinions of other authors.
This knowledge was intended to help the students avoid the trap of writing another
author's argument as their own. Part of this step was the introduction of audience
awareness, to be aware of who was going to read the final product, in order to have an
appropriate tone.
|
|
|
After they had collected sufficient information,
the rough drafts (the eighth step ) were written. The students were given a
ready-made outline to help them organize their thoughts. It was not expected, however,
that they follow the outline if they felt that it did not suit their needs. The generic
outline was presented as follows:
|
|
|
After the rough draft was written, the group
reviewed citation and reference conventions (the ninth step ), followed by revising
techniques so that the students would not write one draft and hand it in as the final one.
The last task (the tenth step ) was to write the final draft, which was completed
according to the agreed-upon time line.
|
|
|
In review, the ten steps were:
|
|
|
- Introducing the research paper (time line, due date, and research journal);
- Selecting a topic, narrowing it;
- Visiting the library and reviewing research strategies and available resources;
- Exploring the availability of sources;
- Writing preliminary research questions, hypotheses, or objectives;
- Doing research: taking notes, summarizing, and paraphrasing;
- Writing arguments and creating an outline;
- Writing a rough draft;
- Writing a resource list and properly citing applicable material;
- Revising the rough draft and writing the final draft.
|
|
|
Comments about the 10-step process in practice
|
|
|
All of the students in the class completed the
research paper. Through their attempts, it became evident that some changes needed to be
made in the 10-step model. Initially, many of the students thought that the research
journal would be a very helpful tool for organizing their work. Unfortunately, this was
one of the weakest parts of the entire process. Most did not try to keep their notes in a
research journal but preferred to make photocopies of everything and to highlight relevant
information. This lack of consistency in their notes caused confusion and difficulties in
locating information when they needed to write the rough drafts. Their "note-taking
strategy" may have been the result of a low level of confidence in their English,
which may not have allowed them to feel good about writing paraphrases and summaries of
material originally written in English by native speakers.
|
|
|
This problem demonstrates the need to expand
this part of the training to include much more classroom practice about note taking: how
to take down direct quotations and how to manage paraphrases and summaries of information
using the students' own words and structures. A suggested change is to make the research
journal (with handwritten notes about all of the sources) a required part of the grade of
the research paper, with periodical evaluations of the work in the journal.
|
|
|
Another problem came in writing arguments. In
working with argumentation, some students were at a loss. They understood the concept of
argument, but they had difficulties in developing their own argument (or opinion) apart
from those reported by the experts that they were reading. In order to help solve this
problem, argumentation could be presented much earlier in the research process in order to
give students more time and practice managing it.
|
|
|
Another area of trouble for the students was in
writing citations and references. After repeated explanations, classroom activities, and
reviews of rough drafts in progress, most of the students were unable to manage quotation,
paraphrasing, summary, and attribution to the original authors. Similarly, writing the
reference list was a struggle for many, from finding the appropriate information in the
books and journals they read to placing that information in the appropriate order to meet
the needs of the style sheet they were using. The suggested solution lies in better use of
the research journal and in added emphasis on the note-taking procedures, such as the need
for quotation marks around direct quotations, exact page numbers, and clear signals of
original authorship for summaries and paraphrases. Extensive practice is needed for
students to master these skills.
|
|
|
There were two areas of expected problems: the
practice of copying from the originals in English (Wallace-Robinett 1978) and the
students' limited experience interfering with the writing process (as reported by
Eggington 1987; Jones 1990; and Wallace-Robinett 1978). Regarding the first problem, there
was some limited use of copying in the final drafts of the research papers by some of the
students with weaker general writing skills. This pattern seemed to reflect the confidence
students had in their own language. The second problem, that of a lack of experience, in
my opinion, caused the other problems and difficulties reported in the previous section.
The majority of the weaknesses were minor considering the overall effort the students made
to write their first research paper. With increased experience in both English and
Spanish, these students will take control of their academic writing.
|
|
|
Although there were some difficulties in its
first application in this environment, the 10-step research writing process in this
particular high-intermediate EFL class was successful. In the time since the class has
ended, the majority of the students have thanked me for introducing them to this new
skill. As they start choosing topics and doing research for their senior theses, the
students are beginning to realize the value of a systematic program for completing a
research project.
|
|
|
From the first experience with this 10-step
model, it was possible to make changes that have made it more applicable to this specific
audience in Colombia. As each semester passes, the system will be reintroduced to a new
group of students and more changes will be made. It is suggested that with adaptations to
meet the specific needs of any audience, this system could become a helpful tool in a
non-North American environment.
|
|
|
- Atkinson, D., and V. Ramanathan. 1995. Cultures of writing: An ethnographic comparison
of L1 and L2 university writing/language programs. TESOL Quarterly, 29, 3, pp. 539-568.
- Bell, J. 1995. The relationship between L1 and L2 literacy: Some complicating factors.
TESOL Quarterly. 29, 4, pp. 687-704.
- Egginton, W. 1987. Written academic discourse in Korean: Implications for effective
communication. In Writing across languages: Analysis of L2 text, eds. U. Connor and R.
Kaplan, pp. 153-168. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
- Hacker, D. 1988. The Bedford handbook for writers. Boston, MA: St. Martin's Press.
- Hacker, D., and R. Ranch. 1989. Writing with a voice. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman and
Company.
- Jones, W. 1990. A case study: The problems in graduate writing assignments encountered
by foreign graduate students at NIU and the solution. Unpublished manuscript.
- Kaplan, R. 1987. Cultural thought patterns revisited. In Writing across languages:
Analysis of L2 text, eds. U. Connor and R. Kaplan, pp. 9-21. Reading, MA: Addison- Wesley.
- Richards, J. 1990. The language teaching matrix. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Spack, R. 1990. Guidelines: A cross-cultural reading/writing text. New York: St.
Martin's.
- Taylor, B. 1980. Teaching composition to low-level ESL students. In Readings on English
as a second language, ed. K. Croft, pp. 367-385. Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company.
- Wallace-Robinett, B. 1978. Teaching English to speakers of other languages. Minneapolis,
MN: University of Minnesota Press.
|
|
|
Narrowing Your Research Topic
|
|
|
On another sheet of paper, do the following
exercises:
|
|
|
- Write down the general topic you wish to pursue.
- List one appropriate journal index for this topic.
- List two articles found in this index (include author's name, year of publication, title
of article, volume and number of journal, and page numbers of article).
- Read and briefly summarize one of these articles.
- List one question within the topic that you have found in reading this article.
- List any topic vocabulary you discovered in reading this article.
|
|
|
JoEllen
M. Simpson is an assistant professor of applied linguistics at the Universidad el
Valle in Cali, Columbia. |
|
|
Return
|
|
Appendix A
|
Narrowing Your Research Topic
|
|
|
On another sheet of paper, do the following
exercises:
|
|
|
- Write down the general topic you wish to pursue.
- List one appropriate journal index for this topic.
- List two articles found in this index (include author's name, year of publication, title
of article, volume and number of journal, and page numbers of article).
- Read and briefly summarize one of these articles.
- List one question within the topic that you have found in reading this article.
- List any topic vocabulary you discovered in reading this article.
|
|
Back to Article
|
. |
. |