case study "thesis writing" developing courses in englsih by helen basturkmen

2

Thesis Writing

By Helen Basturkmen presented by Ola Sayed Ahmed

3

Importance of Thesis for Students

• The thesis is of critical importance to students who conduct a research study for their degree. The thesis is the ‘public record’ of the research the student conducted for a master or doctoral degree and it will be examined both internally (within the university) and externally (by one or more examiners at a second university).

• The thesis needs to reflect the student’s investment of time and effort as well as his or her understanding of the literature on the topic of research and on research methodology in general.


4

Importance of Thesis for Students

• For students doing their masters, the thesis usually carries more ‘credits’ than any coursework paper.

• For students doing their doctorates, the thesis is often the pathway to an academic career.

By Helen Basturkmen presented by Ola Sayed Ahmed 4

5

Context of The Workshop

• Setting: university

• Students:

• students from a range of disciplines including language and communication, health, business studies, humanities and art and creative technologies.

• A mix of native & non-native speakers.

• Full-time & part-time students

• Time: on the weekend.

• one-off workshopBy Helen Basturkmen presented by Ola Sayed Ahmed

6

Why doing a workshop on ‘writing the

thesis literature review’ ?

• The postgraduate centre had heard from students and their supervisors that the Literature chapter was an area of difficulty.

• The research interest of the teacher trying to help his research students writing their literature chapters.


7

Some Unknowns

• Whether students would be willing to devote part of their weekend to this subject?

• Which students would be likely to turn up – master or doctoral students?

• Whether the workshop would attract students from some specific disciplines rather than others?

• Whether students would find the workshop useful?

• Would the students find the information relevant?


8

The Decisions of The Teacher

• The teacher decided that some form of genre-based description, using examples from theses in Applied Linguistics but discussing them with reference to the other disciplines represented by students who were likely to attend the workshop, would be a sensible design option. The genre-based description would be the ‘common denominator’ and he would lead discussion around similarities and differences in the various disciplines.


9

The Result

• The workshop proved highly successful and it attracted both masters and doctoral students and students from a range of disciplines. The evaluation forms completed by students after the workshop along with informal feedback, which included comments by students and supervisors, indicated that students and supervisors perceived a need for more such workshops.


10

What Did this Teacher Do?

1. Investigating Needs

2. Investigating Specialist Discourse

▫ Functions, Contents and Organization.

▫ Linguistic Features.

3. Designing the Workshop Series and Materials.

4. Responding to Difficulties and constraints.


11

1. Investigating Needs.• The students could elect to attend if they wished,

they could elect to attend some sessions rather than others, they could attend just part of a session, and it was expected that students would attend on a ‘as needs’ basis (their needs at the time).

• Not all students (and supervisors) perceived that students needed help equally with all sections of the thesis.e.g. Some chapters, such as the ‘Discussion of Results’, were widely

seen as problematic whereas others, such as the ‘Introduction’, were not.


12

1. Investigating Needs.

• Range of Types of Difficulties:

▫ Difficulties at the linguistic level for some non-native speakers.

▫ Difficulties in expressing complex ideas clearly for a group of native and non-native speakers.

▫ Students had a variety of academic expectations for the form and content of the various sections of the thesis.


13

1. Investigating Needs.• Students were undertaking a range of research studies

from different disciplines :

▫ Quantitative or Qualitative.

▫ Descriptive or Experimental.

• The ‘target’ audience for the sessions in this case was not fixed since the class members were likely to change over the duration of the workshop series.


Thus, there was not one clearly delineated group of learners whose ‘needs’ would be identified as the

basis of the design of the workshop series.

14

So….?• The teacher consulted the considerable body of literature on

the topic .• He also consulted studies investigating students’ difficulties in

writing at the postgraduate level. • The teacher considered the difficulties his own students had

in understanding the ‘content and organizational requirements’ for the various sections of the thesis and in articulating ideas and information using suitably ‘academic’ forms of expression.

• The teacher also examined ‘research methodology’ courses offered in the local context. The research methodology courses focused largely on the research process rather than the kind of micro elements in the sections of the thesis that were to constitute the major focus of the workshop series.


15


• The investigation of discourse was based on a genre-analytical approach.

• The teacher drew on the genre-based descriptions of parts of the thesis (for example, abstract, introduction, literature review, discussion of results)in the flourishing research literature and on his own research in the area.

• His research had led him to collect sample chapters and consider them in terms of their functions, areas of content, organization and linguistic features.


16


• Functions, content and organization.

e.g. Discussion of Results Chapter.

▫ Function:

Review the aims of the research, the theoretical basis for the study and the methodological approach and to discuss the contribution of the study to the field and to interpret, explain and evaluate the results.


17


• Functions, content and organization.

▫ Organization

The organization is described in terms of moves.


18


• Linguistic Features.The aim was to identify salient linguistic features in

the various sections or chapters of the thesis.e.g. The conviction writers feel towards these claims in

Discussion of Results chapter can be: Assertive or Tentative. They use ‘hedges’ to express that.

This is genre analysis. It can involve ▫ ‘text analysis’ alone▫ ‘text analysis’ along with ethnographic inquiry into

how the discourse community that produces the genre(s) perceives its or their roles, functions and values.


19


• Linguistic Features.▫ The teacher/course developer conducted

interviews with academic staff members who were supervising students and the students themselves. They were asked to discuss samples of the students’ writing of the discussion of results sections in order to know their understandings of the various sections or chapters of the thesis.

The difficulties the supervisors identified revealed their ‘criteria’ for evaluating writing in this chapter and thus the values they held for it.


20

3.Designing the Workshop Series and Materials.

• A five-part workshop series was devised (division & order).

• The workshops are held and re-held over the course of the academic year, generally during the weekends. It also does not involve course work or assignments for the students. The series covers all the parts and chapters of the thesis (abstract, introduction, literature review, and so forth). (material)


21



22


• The approach to instruction is largely genre-based. It involves teacher-led description and discussion and this is interspersed with pair and small group work in ‘text analysis’ and discussion tasks. (role of teacher).

• e.g. A session may begin with teacher-led

discussion of the functions of the chapter or part, followed by an overview of the typical content and organization involved in it.


23


The limitations of time have resulted in the teacher opting for a mainly ‘deductive’ approach.


The teacher/course developer in the present case identified ‘time’ as the particular constraint that hindered the development of the workshop series. Students feel that they can give only very limited time to the topic of ‘writing the thesis’.

24


• The teacher was not able to involve writing tasks in which students ‘transfer’ what they having been learning about to writing a segment of their thesis.

• He was not able to assess the learning and he had to rely on students’ comments for workshop evaluations


The workshop series is not a ‘course’ (students are not required to do assignments and are not graded)

25

Summary

The workshop series described in this chapter illustrates a program that not only had to

respond to the possibility that the ‘needs’ of the students were diverse but also had to respond to

a particularly challenging set of ‘real world’ constraints. the teacher worked to transform information from a well-established research

literature and his own research in the area into a ‘time effective format’ for teaching purposes.


26

:The workshops aimed• To help students ‘see’ the typical content and

organization of chapters and parts of a thesis, an underlying structure which all too often is not apparent to the untrained eye and thus help them in organizing parts and chapters in their own theses.

• To help them ‘notice’ linguistic features in the parts and chapters.

• For the possibility that the students can transfer the ‘genre analytical’ skills they develop in the thesis writing workshop series to other genres they encounter.


27

Summary of What Did this Teacher Do.

1. Investigating NeedsDraw on different sources of information: Discussion with colleagues &

students, literature of the area studied and one’s own experience if he/she is an insider in that area.

2. Investigating Specialist Discourse ▫ Functions, Contents and Organization.(macro features)

▫ Linguistic Features.(micro features)

3. Designing the Workshop Series and Materials.



28

Discussion

4. What role might ethnographic inquiry play? Which ‘ethnographic’ means of inquiry used in the present case could the teacher draw on and can you suggest any further means to understand the role of a genre in an unfamiliar discourse community?


1. How would you classify the English for Thesis Writing workshop series?

2. Have you had experience in teaching or learning writing using a genre-based approach and, if so, what do you see as its advantages? Are there potentially any drawbacks?

3. How much can the ESP teacher be expected to know about a genre unless she or he is a member of the discourse community that produces and reproduces the genre? How might the ESP teacher/course developer investigate the practice and values held for a genre in a discourse community with which he or she is not familiar?

Ola Sayed Ahmed

case study "thesis writing" developing courses in englsih by helen basturkmen

Education

research students

doctoral students

unknownswhether students

studentsfor students

ola sayed ahmed

helen basturkmen

students investment

importance of thesis