Promoting and Assessing Knowledge Building in the Writing of English-Medium Instruction Students

Abstract

Past research has shown that students for whom English is a foreign language (L2) and a medium of instruction in the disciplines (EMI students) depend heavily on source material when writing. Problems found include patchwriting (lifting parts of text) and/or information dumping (including irrelevant gist), raising concerns as to whether these students, whether in transnational branch campuses or English-medium programs at national universities in non-Anglophone countries, can engage in meaning making and knowledge building. The chapter reports on a study conducted with a group of Spanish EMI students in a Pharmaceutical Chemistry course to explore and assess knowledge building. The students were first prompted through a specific task design to extract gist from an assigned source to write a self-explanation of a technical term (drug interactions). Their decisions while working on the task were monitored using a learning web application¿nStudy then their final productions were analyzed qualitatively, flagging patchwriting and information dumping, using Seidlhofer's work on summarization and Maton and Doran's semantic codes to determine how these students, as developing language users, engaged in making meaning. Analyses revealed different levels of knowledge building moving from compiling and restructuring propositions to manipulating semantic density and gravity. Sample analyses representing three levels of knowledge building are presented for teaching and assessment purposes. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003252382-12/promoting-assessing-knowledge-building-writing-english-medium-instruction-students-nashwa-nashaat-sobhy