The present study is an action research study that aims (1) to investigate effects of genre-based writing instruction on academic writing skills and related genre knowledge of learners of Korean for Academic Purposes (hereafter called KAP) at th...
The present study is an action research study that aims (1) to investigate effects of genre-based writing instruction on academic writing skills and related genre knowledge of learners of Korean for Academic Purposes (hereafter called KAP) at the graduate level, and (2) to identify problems occurring frequently in the process of instruction in the classroom context.
This study is divided into two parts: one is a genre analysis, and the other is an action research study. In general, graduate students are encouraged to write term s built upon conventions of academic articles, which have been traditionally considered as an authoritative source of rhetorical and linguistic norms for master’s theses and doctoral dissertations. To date, however, there has been no genre analysis study in Korean which pays attention to the literature review section of previous studies (hereafter called RPS) as an independent segment from the theoretical background, despite its pivotal role to play in justifying the purpose of the writer’s study in the literature review section. Thus, I analyzed RPS segments collected from 20 samples of master’s theses in field of Teaching Korean as a Second Language (hereafter called TKSL) written by native writers of Korean. In doing so, a special focus was put on examining typical attributes of rhetorical, functional and textual structure in the collated RPSs on the basis of the model of LR section proposed by Kwan (2006) and Bitchener (2010), and making sure if the LR model could be applied to genre analysis of the RPSs in theses written by native Korean students majoring in TKSL. Additionally, characteristic linguistic features such as discourse markers displaying the movement of each move and step of the RPSs were also examined.
The move structure of the RPSs in the sample of Korean theses had many things in common with the LR model suggested by Kwan (2006) and Bitchener (2010), but significant differences were also noticed. The three most important disparities among them were as follows: First, the RPSs obtained from Korean theses tended to have 4 sub-moves in the move 1C (a summary of previous studies) consisting of (1) presenting the theme, (2) presenting the methods, (3) presenting the results, and (4) presenting the discussion of a single given previous study. Second, they by and large included 4 sub-moves in move 2A (evaluation of previous studies), such as indicating unique values of given previous studies, locating problems of them, synthesizing common findings, and offering the writer’s own interpretation of them. Finally, meta-discourse moves, which did not appear in the LR model, were discovered in the mini-corpus of RPSs as well.
Among many generic moves comprising the RPSs analyzed, the most frequently found were Move 1A (a survey of the non-research related phenomena or knowledge claims), Move 1C (a summary of previous studies), Move 2A (evaluation of previous studies) and Move 2C (presentation of the necessity of the writer’s study by gap-indicating). The move sequence of 1A-1C-2A-2C was a typical pattern detected in the RPS segments of Korean theses. Besides, it was also revealed that frequently used discourse markers differed depending on what function the move performed. In the present study, a corpus-based analysis of the textlinguistic patterning of the collected RPSs resulted in detailed identification of discourse markers which were most frequently used in Moves 1C, 2A and 2C, respectively.
Based on the results from the genre analysis of the RPS data and related findings of previous genre research into thesis writing, I designed a fifteen-week genre-based academic writing course for graduate students who were nonnative writers of Korean before conducting an action research study. The goal of the study was to examine effects of genre-based writing instruction ranging from teaching what to write, how to organize the text and how to apply appropriate usage to developing genre perception and awareness on nonnative Korean graduate writers of academic s. A variety of practical problems facing a genre-based classroom for academic writing were also investigated to offer guidance and solutions for more effective writing instruction.
According to close observation on the process of instruction and rigorous evaluation on participants’ development as writers, it was turned out that the genre-based writing instruction indeed contributed to improvement of academic writing skills in various ways. The majority of students demonstrated a significant rise in the use of moves and markers in drafts of their writing compared to their performance at the early phase of the course. The results of the questionnaire surveyed at the end of the semester also indicated that the genre-based writing course did certainly help nonnative Korean graduate writers develop genre awareness and genre knowledge about academic writing. Most of them showed increased interest in the importance of writing academic s meeting rhetorical and texlinguistic expectations of the Korean academic discourse community, and greatly appreciated the usefulness of genre-specific knowledge of academic writing facilitated by the course.
However, it was not that there was no difficulty in running the genre-based writing course. The most unexpected and serious setback was the evident decrease in productivity and efficiency of engagement in classroom activities which had prevailed since the latter half of the course. Based on a result of examination of students’ learning logs, in-depth the-end-of-course interviews with them and transcripts of classroom interactions, I determined that this was largely due to a lack of autonomous learning brought about by heavily teacher-centered classes, a loss of interest caused by repetition of similar activities, and inappropriate choices of reading materials. Accordingly, quickly taken were a series of follow-up measures to amend the situation: revision of the syllabus, change in pedagogical methods, variation of lesson plans, and addition of new interesting activities.
In spite of the growing voice of the importance of genre-based instruction in the field of KAP education, focal attention in the KAP genre literature has still been paid to genre analysis of separate sections of related written texts. In an effort to redress the severe imbalance between inclination toward scrutiny of textlinguistic characteristics of specific genre texts and unfulfilled needs for genre-based instructional programs, I tried to bring together theory and practice by validating genre-based instruction of academic writing for nonnative Korean graduate writers on the basis of achievements of previous studies of genre analysis on theses. The findings of the present study, therefore, have significant implications for better understanding of the characteristics of the LR genre in Korean theses. Hopefully, they would also contribute to providing KAP practitioners with knowledgeable advice and practical help for designing and implementing genre-based writing instruction in the classroom.
，韩语毕业论文，韩语论文范文 |
