From Story to Argument: The Acquisition of Academic Writing Skills in an open-learning Context.

Language acquisition

From Story to Argument: The Acquisition of Academic Writing Skills in an open-learning Context.

Students: Arcos MayraHernandez OscarVilla Aura

Abstract:Examines the acquisition of academic writing skills by adult students studying by distance learning in the United Kingdom. Results indicate that the text-based nature of distance learning affects both the way in which students acquire writing skills and the development of their identity as academic writers.

Theoretical Frameworks1. Sociocultural approach: views universities as social institutions. It provides a framework for analyzing the students experience and their identities as students.2. Sociolinguistic approach: teaching academic writing in face-to-face teaching situations.

The study

The study focused on student perceptions of learning academic writing skills measured through interviews and questionnaires.

Students Perceptions At the initial, students were asked about their educational and occupational experience and their expectations of writing on the course. Results found: Writing played a minimal role in most of these students lives.After six months study , students were helped to develop their academic writing skills in the best way through essays. By the end of the study, all students had grasped the basics of essay-writing, although levels of confidence varied.

Discussion of Findings Students and teachers see academic writing in terms of argument and analysis and the use of evidence and illustration

Students arriving to academic study from vocational courses can meet special concerns in the process of learning to use academic genres. The majority of tutor observations were more critical than constructive.This showed that they were concerned about teaching skills for writing argument instead of linguistic development.

There is a lack of linguistic training of the tutors.

Factors that influence Open University teaching methods: The design of Open University courses. The nature of Open University written text. The development of personal identity as Open University students.

Course designThe course organization determines the differences between the courses interpretation of multi-disciplinary concepts.The lack of time to develop writing skills in a multi-disciplinary course and the unfamiliarity with them is a difficult situation that students have to face. Course design has a tough impact on how and in what order students learn academic writing skills.Students who are part of Open University foundation courses are in an alike position to those on modular courses.

The nature of Open University textOpen University students have less opportunities in learning because they study by textbooks, not in a oral or conversational way.

Students are unable to attend tutorials or self-help groups for practical reasons.The text is interactive and a form of dialogue between tutor and student.Students are more engaged in the text. The text is mediated by the pedagogic structuringStudents are more motivated in what they are learning. An effect on students writing skills, especially in relation to inter-textualityNegative Facts:Distinction in Open University Text

Open University student identityCurrent approaches: students acknowledge the discontinuities between their previous experience and the demands of academic study, but they regard the acculturation process positively and do not appear to be suffering from the alienation or disorientation reported in other studies.A combination of sociocultural factors rather than simply linguistic ones.The universitys methods as different from those of other universities.Learners prefer non-traditional methods. Learners have part-time jobs.The main difference is their positive desire to gain an academic identity and the fact that after six months of study they do not feel demotivated.How do students acquire an identity as student or apprentice academic writers?

ConclusionFeatures of Open University studentsThe way multi-disciplinary courses are structured and particularly the way in which the individual disciplines they include are linked together.The pedagogic and linguistic structure of distance-learning text. Students perceptions of themselves as text-based learners and the relationship between this and their confidence and identity as adult students.How students start to position themselves as academic writers by acquiring sets of skills that enable them to construct part or all of academic texts such as introductions and conclusions.For this reason, the study is continuing with sociolinguistic analysis of student text.