Browsing by Author "Schenk, Sinead"

Writing plays an important role in academia. Many universities around the world require some form of writing throughout degree programs. Finnish universities, for example, mandate that each student write an extensive thesis in order to graduate, regardless of the subject of study. Academic writing genres, however, have their own sets of norms and expectations, which students often label as restrictive and confusing. As such, academic writing is difficult to master and, in many cases, difficult to teach. And because English increasingly dominates the academic landscape, English academic writing plays an outsize role for an increasing number of students throughout the world. This study examines the factors that influence students’ English academic writing development and whether there are any differences between native (L1) and non-native (L2) English speakers. To limit the scope of the study, data were collected from individuals who study or have studied English linguistics and/or literature. Half of the participants attended a U.S.-based university, while the other half attended a Finland-based university. The data consisted of written literacy autobiographies, which are personal, first-person narratives of how individuals develop their literacy. Discourse analysis was conducted to determine the common factors among students’ writing development, while comparative analysis was used to uncover the differences between L1 and L2 writers. The results showed that individuals and communities of practice, formal education, and non-academic pursuits of reading and/or writing were the most common factors in students’ English academic writing development. L1 writers, however, cited reading for pleasure, family members, educators and communities of practice more often and more extensively than their L2 and bilingual counterparts. L2 and bilingual writers, on the other hand, situated themselves geographically as “writers in motion” (Blommaert 2010) more often than L1 writers, thereby exhibiting a greater metacognitive awareness of English being one of many languages. Considering these results, educators should keep in mind the multiplicity of factors outside of formal education that affect students’ academic writing development, especially for L2 students whose first language resources are typically underutilized. In addition, specific teaching techniques that participants found helpful, such as talk around text, feedback, and explicit instruction about academic writing, could be integrated more into content teaching to support discipline-specific academic writing development.