Tài liệu Teaching academic ESL writing part 4 ppt

18 CHAPTERS

those written discourse genres and formats common in the academy in

English-speaking environments.

WRITING REQUIREMENTS IN THE UNIVERSITY

Undergraduate students in U.S. colleges and universities are required to

take general education courses in such disciplines as the sciences, history,

philosophy, psychology, and sociology prior to their studies in their chosen

majors. One implication of this structure in U.S. college education is that

the greatest demand on students' language skills occurs during the first 2

years of their academic careers, when they are expected to read large

amounts of diverse types academic text, write many short and long assign￾ments, and take numerous tests and exams.

In the academy in English-speaking countries, the purpose of written as￾signments and of examinations and testing is to require students to display

their knowledge and familiarity with the course material. Examinations

vary in types and formats, ranging from multiple-choice tests to lengthy

term papers, including essay tests and short essay-like responses. Outside

multiple-choice tests, a great deal of writing is expected in most undergrad￾uate courses, and it is not unusual for students to have to produce up to a

dozen written assignments per term (Horowitz, 1986a). Even some multi￾ple-choice tests—such as the TOEFL, ACT, or SAT—incorporate an essay

component designed to measure test takers' writing proficiencies.

It is important to note that practically all writing assignments necessi￾tate more than one writing task, such as exposition in the introduction, fol￾lowed by cause/effect or comparison/contrast rhetorical structures, and

possibly back to exposition in the conclusion. For instance, most types of

writing assignments can include summaries of published works or synthe￾ses of multiple sources of information or data. In this case, the writing

tasks would include synthesis (or analysis) of information, paraphrasing,

and restatement skills.

Beginning in the early 1980s, several studies undertook to investigate

the types of writing assignments and tasks required of undergraduate and

graduate students in academic mainstream courses in various disciplines,

such as the natural sciences (e.g., biology, chemistry, and physics), engineer￾ing, business, and the humanities including English.

MOST IMPORTANT CHARACTERISTICS OF ACADEMIC WRITING

A survey of 155 undergraduate and 215 graduate faculty in 21 U.S. universi￾ties specifically identified the essential NNS students' L2 writing skills in

courses that ranged from history, psychology, business, chemistry, and engi￾neering (Rosenfeld, Leung, & Oltman, 2001). The responses of undergrad￾uate faculty (Table 2.1) clearly indicate that organizing writing to convey

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