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Hania Salter-Dvorak

Hania Salter-Dvorak. Tracking the learning experiences of MA students: Hurdles faced by the researcher. outline. The study: aims & design My aspirations: text and context Front stage/backstage Front stage: hurdles Back stage: hurdles Two ethical dilemmas

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Hania Salter-Dvorak

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  1. Hania Salter-Dvorak Tracking the learning experiences of MA students:Hurdles faced by the researcher

  2. outline • The study: aims & design • My aspirations: text and context • Front stage/backstage • Front stage: hurdles • Back stage: hurdles • Two ethical dilemmas • Conclusions on ‘insider’ field work in educational settings

  3. Working title Entering ‘the argumentative fray’ of Anglophone academia: How learner identity and agency interact with affordances.

  4. 1.How do learners ‘acquire’ the discourses of EAP and develop a ‘shared awareness of academic genres and rituals that successful players use’? 2. How do learners transfer the EAP discourses to specific disciplines? 3.What evidence is there of factors relating to language/agency/ identity/ affordances affecting participation on the Masters course? Research questions

  5. Phases of project

  6. Design and methodology • situated ethnographic longitudinal study • eclectic approach to data collection • learners take centre stage • learners’ perspectives triangulated with my own (as their EAP lecturer) and those of their subject lecturers and peers. • dynamic interaction of the processes that affect the cognition of learners, by viewing them as ‘embedded’.

  7. Lillis: Text and Context ‘research lens goes beyond the text and the researcher adopts an openness to writer-insider’s comments, perspectives and discourses, whether or not these relate to a research focus pre-defined by the researcher’ (2008:361) ‘deep theorising between text and context’ (2008:356)

  8. Goffman Front stage What happens in the classroom What happens in tutorials What happens in talk around texts Back stage What students say about the above What lecturers say about the above

  9. Front stage data • What happens in the classroom • Observation 6 observations - field notes • What happens in tutorials • Observation? recording? I recording • What happens in talk around texts between students and lecturers • High tech? Deception? No data

  10. Back stage data • What students say about the classroom/ tutorials/talk around texts 38 recorded interviews • What lecturers say about the classroom/ tutorials/talk around texts 15 recorded interviews

  11. Front stage:Hurdles 1. Will university research ethics committee give permission for the research to take place? 2. Will the students/lecturers agree to participate? 3. What will I be able to see/hear in class? 4. How can I capture what I see/hear without being obtrusive?

  12. Back stage:Hurdle ‘role relations may crucially influence the research process and outcome’ Sarangi and Roberts, 1999 :23

  13. Back stage:Hurdles Interviews with students identities: lecturer/advisor/colleague/friend Interviews with lecturers identities: colleague/co-researcher/language &literacy expert/amateur interviewer

  14. Dissertation advisors: discourses and identities • Wants to address problem in department Internationalisation & EAP What are we going to do with them? • Wants to enter into a dialogue on learning Professional development & L2 writing What do you think we should be doing? 3. Wants to develop provision/learn from trial and error Evidence based practice with L2 students What have we learnt ?

  15. ‘entry into the back regions is not only an index of rapport but of success as an ethnographer’ (Berrerman, 1968:362, quoted by Sarangi and Roberts, 1999:23)

  16. Conclusion Data capture – How do people think, behave and learn? 1.What is feasible? 2. What is ethical? 3. What is reportable?

  17. References Lillis, T. (2008) Ethnography as Method,Methodology, and ‘Deep Theorising’ Closing the Gap between Text and Context in Academic Writing Research. Written Communication 25:3 pp 353-370. Sarangi, S & C. Roberts. (1999) Talk, Work and Institutional Order Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

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