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Write Like a Chemist: Drawing on Applied Linguistics Research

Write Like a Chemist: Drawing on Applied Linguistics Research . Fredricka L. Stoller Northern Arizona University fredricka.stoller@nau.edu. Overview of Presentation. Overview of Write Like a Chemist project

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Write Like a Chemist: Drawing on Applied Linguistics Research

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  1. Write Like a Chemist: Drawing on Applied Linguistics Research Fredricka L. Stoller Northern Arizona University fredricka.stoller@nau.edu

  2. Overview of Presentation • Overview of Write Like a Chemist project • Discussion of the contributions of applied linguistics research and methodologies to the project

  3. Write Like a Chemist Project

  4. Write Like a Chemist Project Goals • Design a discipline-specific writing course • Improve chemistry students’ discipline-specific writing skills

  5. Write Like a Chemist Project Goals • Analyze the language of chemistry in four genres • Translate findings into a pedagogical approach and instructional materials

  6. Drawing Upon Applied Linguistics

  7. Drawing Upon Applied Linguistics • Discourse analysis • Corpus linguistics • Curriculum and course design • Language teaching pedagogy • Writing pedagogy • Assessment • Language knowledge base

  8. Discourse Analysis

  9. Discourse Analysis • Genre analysis • Journal article • Conference abstract • Poster presentation • Research proposal

  10. Discourse Analysis • Genre analysis • Moves • Hedging • Lexical-grammatical patterns • Collocations • Pronoun use • Active-passive voice • Nominalizations

  11. Moves

  12. 1. Introduce the Research Area 1.1 Identify the research area 1.2 Establish the importance of the research area 1.3 Provide essential background information about the research area General Cite relevant literature 2. Identify a Gap (or Gaps) 3. Fill the Gap 3.1 Introduce the current work 3.2 Preview key findings of the current work (optional) Specific Figure 6.1. The move structure for a typical Introduction.

  13. 3. Fill the Gap Present goals of current work Preview principal findings 1. Introduce the Research Area More General Identify the research area Cite relevant works to support each move/ submove Establish the importance of the research area Provide background information about the research area 2. Identify a Gap (where a gap identifies a question that needs to be answered, an area that needs to be better understood, a step that needs to be taken, a procedure that needs to be improved, an idea that needs to be tested, etc.) More Specific

  14. 1. Introduce the Research Area 1.1 Identify the research area 1.2 Establish the importance of the research area 1.3 Provide essential background information about the research area General Cite relevant literature 2. Identify a Gap (or Gaps) 3. Fill the Gap 3.1 Introduce the current work 3.2 Preview key findings of the current work (optional) Specific Figure 6.1. The move structure for a typical Introduction.

  15. Discourse Analysis • To facilitate discourse analyses, we made use of corpus linguistics tools • Project-specific corpus • American Chemical Society (ACS) Journals Search data base

  16. Write Like a Chemist Corpus • 200 full-length refereed journal articles (991,606 words) • 240 sections of refereed journal articles (297,407 words) • 132 full-length popular chemistry articles (157,344 words) • Total word count: 1,466,357 words

  17. ACS Journals Search • Legacy data base (1879-1995) • 23 journals, 464,233 articles • Current issue to 1996 data base • 33 journals, 316,131+ articles • ASAP articles data base • 2,745 articles (as of 9/30/08)

  18. Collocations • first-principles calculations • first-principles kinetics • first-principles methods • first-principles molecular dynamics study • first-principles simulations • first-principles study

  19. Active and Passive Voice

  20. Use of “we”

  21. Table 3. Common verbs that follow we in the fill-the-gap statement of the Introduction

  22. Historical Changes: We

  23. Word and phrase frequencies • Further (97,663 documents) Farther (1,554 documents) • Proceed (30,381 documents) Precede (18,693 documents) • Principle (57,475 documents) Principal (20,267 documents)

  24. Curriculum & Course Design • Needs analysis • Situation analysis • Determination of primary goals and objectives • Syllabus design

  25. Syllabus Design • Course content • Four genres • Five features of writing Audience and purpose Organization Writing conventions Grammar and mechanics Science content (in prose and graphics)

  26. Syllabus Design • Scope and sequence • Instructional activities • Instructional materials

  27. X of Y by Z pattern found in journal article titles

  28. Common functions of verb tense-voice combinations in Results sections

  29. Language Teaching Pedagogy • Modeling • Scaffolding • Use of authentic texts and tasks

  30. Authentic models of text 2-(p-Toluenesulfonyl)-4'-methoxyacetophenone (2a). A mixture of 2-bromo-4'-methoxyacetophenone (45.8 g, 200 mmol) and p-toluenesulfinic acid sodium hydrate (35.6 g, 200 mmol) in ethanol (1 L) was heated at reflux for 1.5 h. The mixture was stirred and cooled to room temperature, and the resulting solid was collected, washed with ethanol (2 × 50 mL), dried to give 54.6 g (90%) of pure 2a: mp 126.0-127.0 °C; IR 2951, 2906, 1676, 1599, 1572 cm-1; 1H NMR (CDCl3) 2.45 (s, 3H), 3.90 (s, 3H), 4.67 (s, 2H), 6.95 (d, J = 8.8 Hz, 2H), 7.34 (d, J = 8.2 Hz, 2H), 7.76 (d, J = 8.2 Hz, 2H), 7.95 (d, J = 8.8 Hz, 2H); 13C NMR 20.9, 55.1, 62.5, 113.4 (2C), 127.7 (2C), 128.3, 129.1 (2C), 131.1 (2C), 135.8, 144.3, 163.7, 186.0. Anal. Calcd for C16H16O4S: C, 63.14; H 5.30; S, 10.54. Found: C, 63.49; H, 5.35; S, 10.33. (from Swenson et al., 2002)

  31. Language Teaching Pedagogy • Feedback (self, teacher, and peer) • Reflection tasks • Learning-by-doing tasks • Teacher guidelines

  32. Teacher Guidelines • How to acknowledge students’ apprehensions about writing • How to build students’ confidence (with, e.g., actionable feedback) • How to build upon students’ attraction to objectivity • How to deal with mixed-ability classes

  33. Teacher Guidelines • Reminders that good writing doesn’t develop over night! • Reminders that students learn to write by writing! • Reminders that conciseness is not a matter of simply eliminating words.

  34. Writing Pedagogy • Adoption of a process orientation to writing • Attention to multiple factors that contribute to effective writing • Recognition that students need to have something to say in order to write • Incorporation of different forms of feedback

  35. Assessment • Development of pre and post tests/ tasks to evaluate student progress • Identification of benchmarks • Development of holistic and analytic grading criteria and rubrics (for faculty and student use)

  36. Language Knowledge Base • Functions of, e.g., hedging, tense-voice combinations, modals • Terminology (participles vs. particles) • Distinctions between tense and aspect • Complexity of article system • Nominalizations • Two-word modifiers

  37. Write Like a Chemist: Drawing on Applied Linguistics Research Fredricka L. Stoller Northern Arizona University fredricka.stoller@nau.edu

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