ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics - Volume 159, Issue 1, 2010

Abstract

Becoming academically literate involves two main parties: teaching staff and students. Previous research (Belcher, 1994; Cotton, 2004; Van de Poel & Brunfaut, 2004) has indicated that a discrepancy exists between the interpretations of and expectations about academic literacy of teaching staff on the one hand and students on the other. The different interpretations of academic literacy and the lived experiences of both parties need to be identified before the existing discrepancy between the concept as used by teaching staff and students can be narrowed or even bridged. This article is based on the results of a study conducted at the University of Antwerp in 2009. It aims to shed light on the students’ interpretation of academic literacy and integrate the student perspective in a definition of academic literacy.

Abstract

Este artículo presenta los resultados de un estudio sobre el uso de la puntuación en un corpus de textos expositivos y argumentativos escritos por estudiantes de varias titulaciones de la Universidad de Barcelona, tanto desde una perspectiva cuantitativa como cualitativa. Aislando los principales contextos en los que este uso se aparta de las convenciones establecidas se han detectado tendencias claras en relación a los aspectos de la puntuación en los que los estudiantes muestran menos competencia. Puede ser útil, pues, para orientar la enseñanza de este aspecto de la escritura, tanto en la universidad como, sobre todo, en los niveles educativos anteriores. El artículo también incluye algunas reflexiones sobre la estrecha vinculación que existe entre la puntuación y el proceso general de composición del escrito, y sobre la relación que suele establecerse – a nuestro juicio, erróneamente, tanto desde una perspectiva didáctica como teórica– entre la puntuación y la entonación (y la prosodia, en general).

Abstract

This article discusses the manifestations of interlanguage punctuation from a short dialogue in which the subjects of the investigation had to restore missing punctuation marks. The testees realized a meagre score in the task, leaving out punctuation marks where they were compulsory, inserting punctuation marks where they were not needed, and placing punctuation marks where others were required. This state of affairs emanated from a poor command of these orthographic devices. The sample was composed of four groups of students of English, and the one-way analysis of variance conducted on their performance showed a significant difference across the groups. Such a situation proves that although punctuation is under-represented in grammar classes, students manage to acquire incidentally personal information on this area in their target language development. However, the knowledge acquired is inadequate to satisfy the specifications of punctuation in a piece of textual material. It was also observed that students encounter more problems with non-terminal than with terminal punctuation marks. Therefore, systematic instruction is recommended in order to promote students’ control of these devices in text production and in text reception.

This article reviews From Simple Verbs to Periphrastic Expressions: The Historical Development of Composite Predicates, Phrasal Verbs, and Related Constructions in English

This article reviews Application-Driven Terminology Engineering

This article reviews Step by Step. A Course in Contrastive Linguistics and Translation