Problems Encountered by Prospective English teachers
in writing a Thesis in English as a Foreign Language
By:
Luh Putu Artini
Ganesha University of Education, Bali, Indonesia
Email: tien_miasa@hotmail.com
Abstract
This paper attempts
to describe problems encountered by prospective English teachers in writing
their final project/thesis in English. In the context of Indonesian schools,
literacy skills are not given a priority so that students have problems in
reading and writing in the first language. It is important to study what
problems adult learners majoring in English who are prepared to be an English
teacher actually have encountered in writing a thesis in the foreign language.
A thesis is highly academic writing that requires the writer to do research and
write up findings in the form of a standardized format of a thesis. 20 theses
were randomly selected and analyzed based on two of the four categories of
errors by Brown
(2007). The findings of this study are expected to give positive
contribution to curriculum development and pedagogical practices in ELT.
Key
words: prospective English
teachers, thesis in English as a foreign Language
INTRODUCTION
The latest statistics on
Indonesian Literacy Index indicate that 90.4% of the total population of age 15
and over can read and write (Index Mundi Report, 2013). This report defines literacy
from the most common concept (i.e. an ability to read and write at a specified
age). In Indonesian schools, literacy skills in the national language, bahasa
Indonesia, has been a major concern, yet practical approach to enhance literacy
skills in the national language is unclear. Fanany (2013) states that a
majority of Indonesian today still do not speak bahasa Indonesia as their first
language. The diversity of ethnic groups and local languages has resulted in
wide variation of Bahasa Indonesia spoken in Indonesia. Even though mastery of
Bahasa Indonesia has always been a central focus of national education in
Indonesia, students were still found to fail to achieve the level of mastery so
that it is likely that they are lack of ability to interact in a good and
standard Bahasa Indonesia in formal social functions and in the context of
education itself (Fanany, 2013: i) Further, this scholar argues that the lack
of ability has something to do with time and exposure.
Referring to the context
of English language, there is a so called native speakers, and non-native
speakers. When someone learns English, s/he is supposed to learn toward the
achievement of native-likeness to be considered as proficient English speaker.
However, in the context of bahasa Indonesia, there is no standard for deciding
which variation represents the native speaker of the language. Consequently,
teachers are the role model for the use of bahasa Indonesia. With variety of
linguistic and cultural backgrounds, the teachers are unaware of the influence
they bring to the variety of Bahasa Indonesia their students develop
(Yiakoumetti, 2011).
According to Snow et al.
(2007), literacy skills are important to help learners to reach their full
potentials, including critical thinking. The authors suggest that in primary
schools, students’ literacy skills are enhanced through innovative strategies
that involves various activities such as, Buddy
Reading (reading activities in which children take turns, when one is
reading, the other is listening); Numeral Games (math activities in which
one is the doer and the other is the checker); and Scaffolding Writing (writing activities in which children plan,
write and reread their writing). Apart from literacy skills which are developed
through the activities presented above, there should be supportive student-teacher
interaction, ideal class size and strategies to help learners develop their self
directed learning.
In relation to literacy
skills development in the context of Indonesia, the problems lay on the
intensification of strategies used as well as materials available. After
systematic exposure to literacy activities in primary schools, there must be
ongoing reading support in secondary schools (Harste, 1988), so that students
develop a reading habit that will influence their writing skills. Reading and writing are related and both
contribute to reasoning and learning. For this reason, these two language
skills should be taught in meaningful contexts (Shanahan, 1988).
Efforts related to
students’ literacy skills have been done in Indonesian education system as seen
from the formulation of standard and basic competencies for language subjects
(both Bahasa Indonesia and English as a foreign language). The language curriculum
has the competencies for the four language skills (listening, speaking,
reading, and writing). However, limited time and qualified teachers (and also
the facilities and tools to support the reading and writing in both languages)
have made the literacy target is unclear. This results in poor achievement in
the Program for International Student Assessment which indicates poor student
performance in mathematics, science and reading. In reading, Indonesia sits in the 62nd
rank among the 74 countries involved.
Regardless of how reading
abilities have been measured, the point that can be underlined is that, as
Fanany puts it, language situations in
Indonesia is complex. The majority of Indonesian are speakers of the local
languages and through formal education they are expected to be able to read and
write in Bahasa Indonesia. However, there is no significant effort being made
to establish the standard variation of Bahasa Indonesia that characterizes the
language of the native speakers. Systematic literacy programs have not
adequately been addressed. It is interesting to know the strategies students
have to cope with the writing tasks, especially when they are required to write
in a foreign language (English).
This paper attempts to describe
adult learners’ writing abilities in English as a foreign language. In a more
specific way, the discussion is emphasized on the sociocultural and linguistic
problems the learners encountered when they have to write a highly academic
writing (thesis).
METHOD
Adult learners in the context of
the present studies refer to 21-23 year old students who are in the process of
finalizing their thesis as partial requirement for a bachelor degree in English
education. These students are prepared to be English teachers in secondary
schools and have gone through exposure to English during their six semesters
study prior to their research and writing up its results in the format of a
thesis. 20 students were recruited to participate in the research. The data were collected through questionnaire
and interview (to describe the sociocultural problems encountered by the
students in writing a thesis), and error analysis (to discuss the linguistic
problems).
ACADEMIC WRITING IN TERTIARY EDUCATION
According to Weissberg
and Buker Z. (1990) there are a number of academic writing that a student at
tertiary education level should produce such as essays, written assignments,
tutorial papers, reports, term papers, and thesis. Essays, for example, are
most frequently assigned in all subject areas as they are easy to administer.
Teacher usually gives a list of essay questions for the students to choose
from, and then students have to start planning for their essay and then do some
reading in the essay topic. In tertiary education, the essay questions may
range from an essay that answers a question directly and explicitly to an essay
that describes a phenomenon or writing based on analyses or synthesis.
Similarly, a written assignment requires students to be able to write in
academic English. The writing could be as simple as answering list of
comprehension questions to writing a summary or synopsis of a book
chapter. Tutorial papers are papers
prepared for a presentation on a particular topic. This is not very much
different from a written assignment as explained above, however the tutorial
paper should be presented orally before the entire class. Reports are the other
type of academic writing in which students should do an intensive research or
observation prior the writing activity. A report is a combination of a presentation
of a theory and practice, that is, the writer should understand something from
exploring the literature as well as from observing the phenomenon in real life.
The writing takes place after some degree of understanding to the theory and
practices. Special reading and interpretation to a set of data is crucial
before the process of writing begins. Thesis, last but not least, is the
end-written product of a university student. To produce a thesis, students
should go through process of planning,
researching and evaluation
In Indonesia, to become
an English teacher in secondary schools, a student should go through a four
year or eight semester of study. In the first two years, their English
proficiency is built through English skill subjects like Speaking, Reading,
Listening, Writing, Vocabulary, Structures, as well as Micro Linguistics that
equip them with the language. Each of those subjects comes in series (for example,
Speaking 1 and 2, Writing 1, 2, Writing, and Advanced Writing and so forth. The
language of instructions for content subjects, such as Educational Psychology,
Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Cross Cultural Understanding, etc. is
English. For the seven out of eight semester of study, there is an intensive
exposure to English language that include different types of written tasks that
the students should produce as a requirement for a provisional mark in a
subject area. For some subjects, instead of sitting in exams, students are
assigned to demonstrate their knowledge on a particular issue through extensive
reading, research and write up a project report.
The
major characteristics of written tasks assigned to the students are that they
require high-order thinking. This must be expressed in high academic English. As a matter of fact, this is very challenging
in a way that students have differing degrees of literacy skills in the first
language. In addition, competence in a topic is not a guarantee that the
writing will be of excellent quality because it involves commitment, energy and
mental effort. Good knowledge on a particular issue may not be expressed well
in written language due to lack of concentration, time or experience.
Concentration help a writer focused to a point, time allows him/her to develop
arguments to its maximum quality and experience characterizes the writing with
academically appropriate culture.
The central struggle for
writing, according to Clanchy and Ballard (1987) is to ‘shape thoughts into
written coherent arguments’. Arguments are serious and systematic points of
view held by writers to convince their readers that what they write is right.
To be coherent, arguments should be consistent, have adequate and strong
supports and reasoning drawn from relevant sources. Further, for quality
academic writing in a thesis, it is advised to select relevant ideas or points,
structure ideas logically and coherently, develop arguments in sections and
support with evidence, examples and quotations, and include alternative points
of views.
The advices above
emphasize that there should an extensive reading takes place before writing
tasks are started. Among the information read, a writer should know which ones
are relevant to the task requirement. The selected ideas/information are then
written up, making use writer’s knowledge or views as the bases for
development. Those ideas are organized in a logical and coherent way in the
forms of paragraphs or sections. Each of the sections contains arguments
supported by evidences, examples or quotations. The writer is advised to
demonstrate an ability to give interpretations to original ideas and put this
interpretation as an integral part of his/her academic writing.
REQUIREMENT FOR A QUALITY THESIS
English Education
Department (which is one of the four Department a Department under the Faculty
of Language and Arts) prepares students to be an English teacher. As mentioned
before, they have had intensive exposures to English as a Foreign language for
seven semesters before they start doing research and writing up a thesis. This
thesis is a final written project that is produced by a student after data
collection was conducted based on a sound research methodology. This project
requires a student to demonstrate extensive knowledge about research topic,
research methodology as well as high-order academic writing skills.
One of the most important
points in a thesis is an ability to organize ideas in a systematic way. The
format of a thesis is usually available in every tertiary educational
institution. It is the guidance for how ideas should be organized to improve
the readability of a thesis. The format, advises the general content of the
thesis as well as a guideline of organization, such as where to insert
acknowledgement, what the first chapter should contain, etc. However, students
need to develop their systematic way of thinking within the process of writing
as there are no fixed rules about how much details should be included when
developing a topic sentence. Similarly, what words to choose is the writer’s
decision and this gives spacious spaces to develop styles.
According to Monash
University Thesis Writing Guideline (2009), there are actually no set rules
that govern the organization of ideas in a thesis. A thesis writer should be
able to imagine his/her reader and do the best he/she can to make the thesis
easy to read and understand. In line to this, the Guideline asserts: “It is not
desirable to include useless points because it will only make the thesis
complex and difficult to understand”. In
other words, it is advisable that a thesis should remain specific in its topic
area and should focus on the research problem. To do this, a writer is required
to employ concentrated thinking and be ready with ideas. The act of writing
(especially of thesis writing) requires full concentration as ideas are
systematically built one upon another (Wheeler & Walshe, 1979).
In the context of the
present study, students have been through Advanced Writing course which teach
them about the characteristics of academic English as mentioned above. In other
words, they can be assumed to have had adequate writing skills and knowledge
about what and how to write a thesis. They are under supervision from two
lecturers along the process of writing up a thesis proposal, collecting and
analyzing data, and writing up their theses.
SOCIOCULTURAL AND LINGUISTIC ASPECTS OF
WRITING A THESIS
The
definition of sociocultural aspect in the context of the present study adapts
Brown (2007) for whom the term ‘socio’ conveys the meaning of interactions
among the academic community members, such as between students and tutors or
supervisors, and between students and students. Meanwhile, culture refers to
class academic culture involving daily class activities, communication and strategies
for teaching and learning. Linguistic aspect, on the other hand, refers to
errors made by the writers. The errors comprise domain error analysis and
extent error analysis. The former include effort to minimalize grammatical
errors and paraphrase sentences, while the later is about knowing which grammar
use that suppose to be deleted, replaced, supplied and reordered on the thesis
writing and deciding which set of linguistic units that have to be deleted,
replaced, supplied and reordered on the thesis writing.
Based on the brief
overview of academic writing in tertiary education, in general, or in English
education Department, in particular, it is not difficult to imagine how much
academic writing they have produced from the beginning to the end of their
study period. In other words, an English Education Department graduate can be
expected to have sufficient experience in writing academically and develop a
special writing style due to their literacy skills in the first language as
well as their learning experiences in English as a foreign language context. However,
a close reading to their final projects (i.e. thesis) indicates that final year
students share common problems in academic writing.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
As mentioned above,
thesis is students’ end product of academic writing. In fact, this product is
the representation of their’ writing proficiency after going through eight hour
credit of writing courses throughout their study program at the English Education
Department. At the same time the content of the thesis demonstrate students
effort to learn new things and elaborate these with what they already know.
SOCIOCULTURAL AND LINGUISTIC PROBLEMS
ENCOUNTERED BY THE PROSPECTIVE ENGLISH
TEACHERS
This
research found that students generally struggled to write theses in English.
From the questionnaires which were followed up with in depth interview, many
students have problems in sociocultural aspects of writing a thesis. More
students have serious problems in Linguistic aspect as seen in the following
table.
.
Table 01 : Sociocultural and
Linguistic Problems in Writing a Thesis
No
|
Factors
|
Sub-Factors
|
Indicators
|
Percentage of Problems
|
1.
|
Sociocultural
Factors
|
a.
The social Distance among undergraduate students
|
discussing about
the thesis writing with peers
|
20%
|
b.
The social distance between undergraduate students
and their supervisors
|
discussing about
the thesis writing with supervisors
|
45%
|
||
c.
The culture in the language classrrom
|
understanding
the culture regarding the format and content of the thesis writing
|
55%
|
||
d.
The communicative competence
|
having knowledge
of proper lexical items and linguistic units on thesis writing
|
65%
|
||
having ability
to connect each sentences and to form it into a meaningful thesis writing
|
75%
|
|||
having knowledge about the roles of the
social context related on the study of thesis writing
|
55%
|
|||
having ability to sustain communication
through speech styles on thesis writing
|
55%
|
|||
2.
|
Linguistic
Factors
|
a.
Domain error analysis
|
minimalizing the
error of the grammar on thesis writing
|
60%
|
pharaphrasing sentences from the sources
to thesis writing
|
60%
|
|||
b.
Extent error analysis
|
knowing which
grammar use that suppose to be deleted, replaced, supplied and reordered on
the thesis writing
|
65%
|
||
deciding which set of linguistic units
that have to be deleted, replaced, supplied and reordered on the thesis
writing
|
65%
|
Table above
reveals that, in general, prospective English teachers have more serious
problems in linguistics aspects than in sociocultural aspects. They did not
seem to have problems in interacting with peers to discuss about their thesis.
This is not unusual because in the culture, it is common that a friend is
someone likely to turn to when there is a problem. Students (adult learners) in
English Education Department have a tendency to talk to their friends first
before seeing their supervisors. When a supervisor needs to be involved in the
discussion, 45% of the students found it difficult. The follow up interview
with students indicates that many of the students feel uneasy when they have to
see their supervisors. This is also common since many students feel that there
is a cultural distance between a student and a lecturer.
In term of understanding the culture
regarding the format and content of the thesis writing, 55% students found it
difficult. It is obvious that writing in the first language is different from
writing a thesis in the foreign language. More than a half of them admitted
that it is not easy to write a thesis in English because they have to think
about the format and the content which is academically and culturally different
from everyday-day-based tasks.
65% students were found to have
problems with knowledge of proper lexical items and linguistic units on thesis
writing and 75% responded that they did not have the ability to connect each
sentences and to form it into a meaningful thesis writing. These could relate
to students’ limitation in vocabulary and grammar as a result of limited
opportunities for them to exercise their highly academic writing skills.
Overall, the percentage of difficulties the prospective English teachers
encountered in sociocultural aspect of writing a thesis in English is 45%. In
other words, almost a half of them have difficulties in this aspect.
From the linguistic perspectives,
the students committed errors in all of the indicators.
60 % students
found it difficult to minimize the error of the grammar during or after the
thesis writing. As a matter of fact, many of them could not detect their own
problems in their writing. 65% of
them admitted that they were unable to paraphrase sentences from the sources to
thesis writing, and another 65% found it hard to know which grammar use that suppose to be
deleted, replaced, supplied and reordered on the thesis writing. Another 65%
struggled to decide which set of
linguistic units that have to be deleted, replaced, supplied and reordered on
the thesis writing.
Those
data reveal that after continuous exposure to English language, students still
found it very hard to use the language for writing a thesis. There are at least
five reasons for the sociocultural and linguistic problems to occur. First,
there is a big difference between the writing culture in the first language and
the foreign language. The difference includes word order, sentence structures,
language expressions, etc. Second, cultural differences make it hard for the
students to be precise in which culture to use and when. In the first language,
for example, people should not be direct because being direct means the speaker
is impolite. This has an impact in the writing in a foreign language. Students’
writing became long and many repetitions and redundancy. Third, culturally, lecturers have
distinctively higher status that the students. This creates the feeling of
inconvenience when the students need to see his/her supervisors. That is why
many respondents found it hard to interact naturally with their supervisors.
Four, even though this is beyond the research, the student literacy skills is
very important because they affect thinking abilities and reasoning.. Fifth, writing
in academic English is widely accepted as a difficult task. It does not only require a considerable
period of thinking, writing and rewriting, but also strategies for approaching
the topic, researching the materials, organizing arguments, drafting, and redrafting. The complexity of writing
academically is difficult as there is no one set of skills that can guarantee
success (Clanchy & Ballard, 1987).
Apart
from the sociocultural and linguistic aspects as described above, some specific
problems encountered by the students were identified. These problems were noted
from the theses the students have finalized.
1).
Students tend to refer to secondary resources.
In writing a thesis, a great number of
students rely on previous students’ thesis to work
on his/hers. In reviewing the literature, for example, students tend to
refer to the literature
review written by senior students without clear acknowledgement.
2).
Students tend to cut and paste own work so that certain information is repeated
in
different part of a thesis. This kind of
problem is very common and for the reviewer this is
inappropriate style in academic writing.
3).
Students have problem with direct and indirect quotations. They cannot
differentiate
between the two quotations.
4).
Sentences tend to be long and ineffective. Consider the following example:
“In short, it can
be stated that in making a good narrative paragraph, the students show a well-development
of theme and plot or situation, well-organization of the writing which
consisted of narrative paragraph generic structure, and appropriate used of
grammar, which includes sentence fluency, word choice or diction, and mechanic”
(S12/43).
5).
Inappropriate word
e.g. The students are
competence to express …
6).
Lack academic value (use of abbreviation or constructed forms)
7).
Use of subjective judgment (e.g. …this finding is really important……)
8).
Plagiarism (students should encourage to use own writing and citations are
properly
referenced.
CONCLUSION
An ability to write in
academic English is crucially important for university students because many of
the subjects assign students to do a written project. The writing performance
directly affect students assessment records as teacher/lecturer usually
consider quality academic English as the major determiner apart from the
content of the writing. The sociocultural analysis was conducted through questionnaire
and in-depth interview. The findings reveal that 45 % students have
difficulties in the area of interacting with peers and supervisors, when they
felt that they needed someone to talk to about their thesis. In addition,
students also found difficulties in understanding the academic culture in
writing in English and have problems in communicating ideas through writing.
From the linguistic point of view, the problem lies in the area of domain and
extent analysis comprising use of appropriate grammar, paraphrasing, what to be
deleted and what to be added. A close look at students’ thesis writing has
found that there is a list of common problem encountered by the English
Education Department in writing a thesis that indicate their lack competencies
in English in general and academic English in particular. It is argued that the
causes of the problems are limited time for practice, lack of reading academic
materials (as reading and writing are closely related). There is also a
possibility that literacy skills in the first language plays a role in
students’ ability to write a thesis in English (this needs to be further
research).
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