2018 Annual Conference of China English Language Education Association (CELEA2018)

242 / 2018-06-28 22:18:39

Exploring EFL Majors’ Academic Literacy Development under an ‘Activity Theory’ Perspective: A Case Study of a CLIL-framed Academic Writing Class

academic literacy; activity theory, language and cognitive development

Plenary track > 中国特色英语教学研究

Academic literacy is a social practice, widely shaped by a series of socially constructed epistemological principles, encompassing multiple issues as language, cognition, rhetorical and social conventions (Lillis & Scott, 2007). While much research has focused on developing effective pedagogies on academic writing instruction, little attention is focused on how to specifically address individual learning experiences within a situated community of practice. To deal with the gap between teaching and learning, the study adopts an ‘Activity Theory’ (Engestrom, 1987) framework to specifically account for the concrete affordances and conflicts in students’ academic writing learning experiences to cast light on L2 writing pedagogy.
In particular, the study tracked the academic literacy development of a cohort of Chinese college EFL learners especially in terms of their language and disciplinary skills through diachronic involvement with their instructed academic writing learning over one semester. In the study multiple data collection methods are applied, including classroom observation, learners’ research journals, individual conferences with the instructor, evaluation of learners’ written assignment, and in-depth interviews. Preliminary analyses show a perceived increase in learners’ academic language and disciplinary abilities, however, they generally confessed problems in research design, showed a lack of knowledge in harnessing linguistic resources in constructing meaningful writing to some extent, and experienced difficulties to transfer the genre knowledge taught in-class to their actual academic writing processes. These findings suggest that learners’ engagement in mediated academic writing instruction can promote for language and cognitive development, however, possible instructional remediation may also be necessary especially in terms of the efficiency and efficacy of feedback available for individual needs. This may require closer cooperation from different sides and more detailed specification of rules to regulate students’ learning.