Academic writing in an ODL context : perceptions and experiences of first-year university students

Abstract

The study reported on here sought to examine first-year students’ conceptions of writing and the extent to which these influence their academic writing; explore tutors’ expectations and understandings of student writing and how they respond to it; and suggest guidelines that can inform effective teaching and learning of writing in English second language (ESL) contexts. The study was underpinned by the academic literacies model. A qualitative research methodology was adopted and a case study approach was used as research design. Participants included ESL first-year students and their tutors. Questionnaires, focus group interviews and marked student writing samples were employed as data collection instruments. The findings showed that although students rated their writing skills as average, tutors had a different perspective. Tutors found that students still struggled with aspects of writing including grammar, spelling, the structuring of essays, coherence and cohesion in paragraphs, and arguing a point convincingly. Although it was shown that students valued feedback highly, in some instances tutors did not provide adequate, understandable and useful feedback.