scholarly journals The Use of Metadiscourse Markers in Malaysian Undergraduate Persuasive Essay Corpus at Universiti Malaysia Kelantan

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
Amaal Fadhlini Mohamed ◽  
Radzuwan Ab Rashid ◽  
Nor Hazwani Munirah Lateh
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Public University ◽  
Essay Writing ◽  
Student Writers ◽  
Written Texts ◽  
Persuasive Essays ◽  
Preliminary Study ◽  
The Way

Metadiscourse in undergraduate essay writing is the linguistic expressions used by student writers to organise written texts while interacting with their imaginary readers. This paper presents a preliminary study to discover and present the use of metadiscourse markers in persuasive essays written by a group of undergraduate students from a chosen public university in Malaysia, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan. For the purpose of this study, a simplified metadiscourse framework for ESL lay writers proposed by Tan et al. (2012) is used. The metadiscourse markers in a corpus of undergraduate persuasive essays were explored with the assistance of a concordance software, WordSmith Tools. The findings reveal the frequency of the metadiscourse markers in the corpus and how they are commonly utilised in sentences. This study is expected to pave the way for more studies related to metadiscourse in undergraduate essays from other universities across this country.

scholarly journals Perceptions of Students on Environmental Impacts of Online Shopping: A Preliminary Study at a Public Malaysian University

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
pp. 4-9
Author(s):  
Kai Wen Yong ◽  
Leong Wan Vun
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Online Shopping ◽  
Greenhouse Gas Emission ◽  
Public University ◽  
Background Information ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Perceptions Of Students ◽  
Preliminary Study ◽  
University Undergraduate Students

The environmental impacts of online shopping are multifaceted as many factors are contributing to the impacts. This study was conducted to determine a public university undergraduate students' perceptions of the environmental impacts of online shopping and their intentions to reduce the impacts by using a questionnaire survey. One hundred twenty-six respondents were engaged through convenient sampling in this study. Results found that the majority of respondents perceived online shopping as environmentally friendly. They perceived that it does not contribute to climate change and will not be a major environmental risk in the future. Type of packaging (77.8%), transport mode of freight (71.5%) and amount of packaging (69.9%) were the top three factors perceived to contribute to environmental impacts. However, a small number of the respondents perceived ICT equipment (32.5%), express delivery (28.5%) and time spent in searching online products (24.6%) were the factors that contribute to environmental impacts. The majority of respondents (74.6%) perceived that packaging waste generation was the major environmental impact of online shopping. In contrast, carbon footprint, energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission made up of 56.4%, 53.3% and 44.4% of the total respondents. Most of the respondents intended to plan first before making any purchase to prevent wastage, reuse the packaging material and maximise the number of items of each purchase to reduce the environmental impacts. This preliminary study can provide the necessary background information on the level of awareness of university undergraduate students on this issue for future environmental education programs on online shopping.

scholarly journals Longitudinal Study of EFL Students Using the Systemic Functional Linguistics Method

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akiko Nagao
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Systemic Functional Linguistics ◽  
First Year ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Essay Writing ◽  
Functional Linguistics ◽  
Genre Awareness ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Study Participants

This study examined the progress of English as a foreign language (EFL) writers using the instructional framework of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and the communities of practice (CoPs) model. The study participants comprised 11 first-year undergraduate students in Japan with intermediate-level English proficiency who were exposed to SFL in a single EFL classroom (CoP). The participants’ genre understanding and meaning-making decisions when writing discussion essays were studied over two semester-long courses. To do so, their developmental changes were analyzed using pre- and post-instructional writing tasks. In particular, their ability to convey interpersonal meaning, such as through the use of modal verbs, was examined and compared between the pre- and post-tasks. To triangulate the findings, participants’ genre awareness in relation to discussion essays was also examined using in-depth qualitative analysis of their self-reflective texts and peer assessments, based on a grounded theory approach. In the pre-writing task, it was apparent that the learners lacked understanding of the components of discussion essay writing. However, analysis of their post-instructional tasks revealed that most had begun to apply the language components required to convey interpersonal meaning in their discussion genre texts. These results suggest that the changes in learner’s genre awareness and knowledge affected the lexicogrammatical features they used when writing discussion essays. Thus, this study concludes that applying the SFL framework to writing instruction enhanced EFL learners’ awareness of textual meaning and their understanding of the function of discussion essay texts.

scholarly journals Learning in the informal spaces and re-signification of the existence of undergraduate students of nursing

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 731-738 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel Silva de Jesus ◽  
Edite Lago da Silva Sena ◽  
Luana Machado Andrade
Keyword(s):  
Nursing Students ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Professional Training ◽  
Public University ◽  
Metropolitan Region ◽  
Undergraduate Nursing Students ◽  
Construction Of Knowledge ◽  
Undergraduate Nursing ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
The University

OBJECTIVE: to describe the perception of lecturers and undergraduate nursing students regarding the dialogic experience in the informal spaces and its relationship with training in health.METHOD: experiential descriptions were collected in the context of a public university in the non-metropolitan region of the state of Bahia, Brazil, using open interviews. These descriptions were analyzed according to the principles of the phenomenology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty.RESULTS: it was revealed that the informal spaces contribute significantly to the construction of knowledge and professional training strengthening teaching and promoting the re-signification of the subjects' experience.CONCLUSION: it is evidenced that the dialogic experience has relevancy for rethinking the teaching-learning process in the university, such that the informal spaces should be included and valued as producers of meanings for the personal and academic life of lecturers and students, with the ability to re-signify existence.

Consumer digital piracy behaviour among youths: insights from Indonesia

2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 898-922 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denni Arli ◽  
Fandy Tjiptono
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Theory Of Planned Behaviour ◽  
Private University ◽  
Public University ◽  
Digital Piracy ◽  
Deterrence Theory ◽  
Digital Products ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Convenience Sampling ◽  
Legal Consequences

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the antecedents of consumers’ attitude towards, and intention to commit, digital piracy in Indonesia, a country with the world’s fourth largest population and one of the highest digital piracy rates. This study explored the effects of six variables derived from the theory of planned behaviour, ethics theory, and deterrence theory on young consumers in Indonesia. Design/methodology/approach Using a convenience sampling approach, researchers hand delivered 400 questionnaires to undergraduate students at one large private university and one major public university in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Findings The results showed that consumers’ intention to pirate digital products was strongly influenced by consumers’ attitude towards digital piracy. Interestingly, fear of legal consequences and perceived likelihood of punishment were not significant predictors of consumers’ attitude towards digital piracy. This suggests that the principles of deterrence theory have a limited impact on consumers’ attitudes in Indonesia. Originality/value The results of this study will provide some insights to government and digital industries on how to reduce the prevalence of digital piracy.

scholarly journals Self-Regulation and “Time Off”: Evaluations and Reflections on the Development of a Blended Course

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie Spadafora ◽  
Zopito Marini
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Academic Experiences ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
Capstone Course ◽  
Course Content ◽  
Digital World ◽  
Premier Cycle ◽  
University Course ◽  
The Way

Changes in both the landscape of education and digital technology are giving rise to interesting, innovative, and potentially effective pedagogical possibilities. As educators of the 21st century, we are witnessing continuous changes in the way we teach as well as the way students learn. This study is a part of an ongoing research program aimed at evaluating the pedagogical effectiveness of blended teaching. More specifically, this paper aims to describe some of our reflections as we developed, delivered, and carried out an evaluation of a university course taught using a blended format. Undergraduate students (n=109) in a fourth-year capstone course participated in this study. We report on the students’ perceptions of the effectiveness of the delivery method of the course, while focusing on the struggles they encountered, including difficulties keeping up with the course content, particularly on the weeks where the lecture was online, as well as a struggle to stay organized and connected with their peers and their assignments. Self-regulation turned out to be a major determinant of success in this type of course. We conclude with suggestions to improve students’ social and academic experiences as they navigate learning in a digital world. Les changements survenus à la fois dans le paysage de l’éducation et dans la technologie numérique donnent naissance à des possibilités pédagogiques intéressantes, innovatrices et potentiellement efficaces. En tant qu’éducateurs du XXIe siècle, nous assistons à des changements continus dans la manière dont nous enseignons ainsi que dans la manière dont les étudiants apprennent. Cette étude s’inscrit dans le cadre d’un programme de recherche en cours qui a pour objectif d’évaluer l’efficacité pédagogique de l’enseignement hybride. Plus spécifiquement, cet article vise à décrire certaines de nos réflexions au fur et à mesure que nous élaborons, livrons et exécutons l’évaluation d’un cours universitaire enseigné selon un format hybride. Des étudiants de premier cycle (n=109) inscrits dans un tout dernier cours de quatrième année ont participé à cette étude. Nous présentons un rapport sur la manière dont les étudiants ont perçu l’efficacité de la méthode employée pour enseigner ce cours, tout en mettant l’accent sur les problèmes qu’ils ont rencontrés, y compris les difficultés à faire face au contenu du cours, en particulier durant les semaines où les cours magistraux étaient présentés en ligne, ainsi que sur leurs difficultés à rester organisés et connectés avec leurs camarades de classe et avec leurs devoirs. Il s’avère que l’autorégulation est un élément important pour la réussite de ce type de cours. Pour conclure, nous présentons des suggestions pour améliorer l’expérience sociale et académique des étudiants dans leur parcours de l’apprentissage au sein d’un monde numérique.

scholarly journals A Study of University Students in Japan: Learning and Application of Academic English Writing

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
James Graham McKinley
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Social Constructivist ◽  
Academic English ◽  
Writing Classes ◽  
Writer Identity ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
English Writing ◽  
Written Texts ◽  
The Rich

<p>This study investigated Japanese first and second year undergraduate students learning English academic writing in their compulsory English composition courses in a Japanese university. The thesis takes a social constructivist approach to investigate the aspects of critical argument and writer identity in these students’ classes and their writing.  The data for the study include classroom observations and teacher and student interviews, all conducted monthly throughout the academic year-long course. In total there were six courses, four teachers, and sixteen student participants. The observations were analyzed using an adapted version of Ivanič’s (2004) Discourses of Writing framework, which focused on aspects of identity construction in the writing classroom. The linguistic data included a selection of one major piece of writing from each student, analyzed using an adapted Appraisal framework within Systemic Functional Linguistics (Martin, 1997; 2000). In order to maintain a focus on writer identity in the analysis, Clark and Ivanič’s (1997) selves were identified through this analysis. In addition, the texts were analyzed for use of Casanave’s (2002) writing game strategies, in order to further establish the students’ approaches in writing their texts. The objective was not to generalize about how Japanese students learn to write academic English, but rather to provide, from a social constructivist, Western researcher’s perspective, an analysis of what happened in these students’ writing classes and how it affected their writing for those classes.  Teachers’ general practices in the observed courses mainly focused on two aspects of writing: 1) as a communicative act (writing for a reader), and 2) as an exercise in critical thinking (developing a thesis). These two aspects emerged from the observation and interview data collection. The four teachers used very different approaches in designing their courses, and the students in the same classes responded in different ways, mostly depending on their ability to understand their teachers’ intentions and to form appropriate academic identities in an attempt to meet their teachers’ expectations. The analysis of the students’ written texts revealed that students often did not meet the teachers’ expectations of writing objectively and using a genre-appropriate voice as students often resorted to the same authorial voice to push their thesis.  This investigation was designed to inform pedagogic practices for university teachers of academic English and curriculum designers in Japan to establish effective English writing courses. The rich description of classroom practices and resulting written texts and the focus on differences in cultural expectations between teachers and students provide significant contributions to this area of inquiry. The main pedagogical suggestions are standardizing course objectives and goals, assigning more reading as a part of writing, and teaching students how to write authoritatively.</p>

scholarly journals Entrepreneurial Intention of Undergraduate Students from a Municipal Public University of the State of São Paulo - Brazil

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (9) ◽  
pp. 88-94
Author(s):  
Marcela Barbosa de Moraes ◽  
José Luis Gomes da Silva ◽  
Francisco Kenedy Quinderé Aquino ◽  
Venusa Delgado Rego
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Entrepreneurial Intention ◽  
Public University ◽  
Sao Paulo ◽  
The State ◽  
São Paulo

scholarly journals The Prevalence and Frequency of Authorial Identity among Undergraduate Students in Fiji

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 136
Author(s):  
Jasbir Karneil Singh ◽  
Ben K. Daniel
Keyword(s):  
Academic Success ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
First Year ◽  
Esl Students ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Student Writers ◽  
Authorial Identity ◽  
National University ◽  
Authorial Voice

Expressing an authoritative voice is an essential part of academic writing at university. However, the performance of the authorial self in writing is complex yet fundamental to academic success as a large part of academic assessment involves writing to the academy. More specifically, the performance of the authorial self can be complex for English as a Second Language (ESL) student-writers. This research investigated the extent to which ESL first-year students at the Fiji National University perform their authorial voice using interactional metadiscourse in their academic writing. The study employed a quantitative analysis of corpus produced by 16 Fijian ESL undergraduate students enrolled in an EAP course. The research found that the ESL authorial voice was predominantly expressed through boosters and attitude markers, with relatively little usage of other interactional metadiscoursal elements such as hedges, engagement markers and self-mentions. Further, the research showed that this particular cohort expressed their authorial voice and identity through boosted arguments and avoiding language that directly mentions the authorial self. The study concludes that the ESL authorial self for this cohort manifests itself in a selected range of selected interactional metadiscoursal elements, requiring the need to raise the awareness of self-reflective expressions for ESL students. The study also encourages further exploration of ESL authorial identity construction in academic writing at undergraduate level and beyond.

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