The Language Demands of Science Reading in Middle School

Fang, Zhihui

doi:10.1080/09500690500339092

Cited by 321 publications

(250 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Our findings align with theorists and researchers noting the challenge K-12 students face in learning when simultaneously being on the academic English language learning trajectory while learning new content (Fang, 2006;Janzen, 2008). Graduate students are learning the content of their specific areas of research alongside academic writing.…”

Section: Student Characteristics and Notable Measuressupporting

confidence: 77%

Graduate students as academic writers: writing anxiety, self-efficacy and emotional intelligence

Huerta

Goodson

Beigi

et al. 2016

Higher Education Research & Development

136

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Researchers interested in psychological factors affecting writers in higher-education institutions, or academic writers, are concerned with internal variables affecting writing productivity; however few empirical studies explore these factors with samples of students who are in the process of earning master's or doctoral degrees (i.e., graduate students). In this study, we examined writing anxiety, self-efficacy, and emotional intelligence in a sample of graduate students at a large, research-intensive university in the United States. Using a survey, we collected measures on these variables in addition to demographic information from the participants. We then used the measures to descriptively compare groups of students with similar characteristics and to run three regression models to identify which variables best predicted writing anxiety. Our findings indicate self-efficacy is a statistically significant and large predictor of writing anxiety while emotional intelligence (EI) is not, though descriptive data showed moderate effects between EI and first language (i.e., whether or not a student reported English as a first language). In the presence of self-efficacy, gender remained a significant predictor of writing anxiety, while first language did not. We discuss implications for future research and practice focused on helping graduate student academic writers succeed.Graduate Students as Academic Writers 3 3 Graduate Students as Academic Writers: Writing Anxiety, Self-Efficacy, and Emotional IntelligenceBased on global trends, only 1.6% of students are expected to complete an advanced research program, such as a doctoral degree (OECD, 2014). The low percentage of advanced degree recipients may be due to many different factors. However, writing is one known barrier for individuals aspiring to a master's or a doctoral degree (from here on referred to as graduate students). For example, nearly 50% of graduate students pursuing doctoral degrees in the United States leave the university without completing their degrees, dropping out during the research proposal or dissertation-writing phases (Cassuto, 2013;Harris, 2011). Belcher (2009a) vividly describes her experience as a master's degree student as follows: "When I started graduate school…my first quarter was tough… I began to suspect that everyone but me knew how to organize their time, do their research, and write successful papers" (p. 186). In a career where academic writing -that is, writing for academic purposes such as classroom assignments, theses, or publications in academic journals -is so central to the evaluation of one's success, understanding why graduate students struggle with writing and finding solutions to low writing productivity would benefit both the students and the institutions supporting them. Although studies have well documented the success of writing support groups at higher institutions in addition to providing frameworks for creating the writing groups (e.g., Boice, 1987;Murray & Newton, 2009;Murray & Thow, 2014), this study ...

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Section: Student Characteristics and Notable Measuressupporting

confidence: 77%

Graduate students as academic writers: writing anxiety, self-efficacy and emotional intelligence

Huerta

Goodson

Beigi

et al. 2016

Higher Education Research & Development

136

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Science textbooks, however, have been heavily criticized for focusing too much on consensual and well-established science, lacking argumentation, and presenting an individualistic image of science where individual scientists discover "truth" through experiment (Bauer, 1994;Knain, 2001;Penney, Norris, Phillips, & Clark, 2003). In addition, science texts also present students with specialized linguistic and multimodal demands that are difficult for those who are not familiar with scientific language and representation (Fang, 2006;Kress, Jewitt, Ogborn, & Tsatsarelis, 2001). While these demands indicate that science reading and writing requires specific attention, they are often left unattended in the classroom (Wellington & Osborne, 2001).…”

Section: The Role Of Text In School Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges and Support When Teaching Science Through an Integrated Inquiry and Literacy Approach

Ødegaard

Haug

Mork

et al. 2014

International Journal of Science Education

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“…그러나 과학 학습과 언어의 연관성은 과학의 어휘나 어구의 의미를 명확히 이해하는 것 이상을 의미한다. Halliday and Martin(1993) (Martin, 1993 (Fang, 2005(Fang, , 2006Fang and Schleppegrell, 2008;Halliday and Martin, 1993). 레지스터는 "언어 가 사용되는 특정한 상황적 맥락에서 구성되는 의미 들의 조합 또는 그 의미들을 표현하는 용어(어휘)와 문법(구조)의 구성 형태(configuration)"를 말한다 (Christie, 2002;Halliday and Mathiessen, 2004;Martin and Rose, 2003;Schleppegrell, 2004).…”

Section: 서 론unclassified

Understanding of the Linguistic Features of Earth Science Treatises: Register Analysis Approach

Seungho¹,

Shin²,

Cha³

et al. 2010

Journal of the Korean earth science society

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This study identified the linguistic features of Earth science treatises through the analysis of the register. Data included three Korean treatises that were in geology, atmospheric science, and oceanography. The register of Earth science treatise was as follows: First, there were semantic, referential connections between Themes and Rhemes, that the messages and main points of the texts were expressed coherently and cohesively. Second, some predicates were used which were related to deductive inference, abductive inferences, or causal relation according to the genre elements of each text. The logical relations were not represented by the conjunctions but by the types of predicates. Third, most texts in the treatises showed interpersonally weak relationship using mental predicates related to possibilities, which meant scientists expressed indirectly their interpretation, explanation, or arguments. From these results, we argued that some activities of unpacking the language of science be included in science curriculum in order to improve students' literacy of science texts and understanding scientists' knowledge construction.

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The Language Demands of Science Reading in Middle School

Cited by 321 publications

References 15 publications

Graduate students as academic writers: writing anxiety, self-efficacy and emotional intelligence

Graduate students as academic writers: writing anxiety, self-efficacy and emotional intelligence

Challenges and Support When Teaching Science Through an Integrated Inquiry and Literacy Approach

Understanding of the Linguistic Features of Earth Science Treatises: Register Analysis Approach

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