An Academic Writing Curriculum and Materials for A1-B2-Level Learners in a Turkish

Running head: An Academic Writing Curriculum for A1-B2 English Learners 1 An Academic Writing Curriculum and Materials for A1-B2-Level Learners in a Turkish University’s English Language Preparatory Program Matthew C. Champlin Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts in TESOL degree at SIT Graduate Institute, Brattleboro, Vermont April 2019 IPP Advisor: Leslie Turpin Academic Writing Curriculum 3 Abstract This IPP combines a literature review and a materials development project. The literature review outlines and supports the approach taken throughout the curriculum and the materials that were developed. First, it lays out the nature of Turkish universities’ ELPP’s; then, it deals with the basic philosophy of the curriculum including individualization and standardization, the role of joy in education, the necessity for an integration of skills in teaching academic writing, the use of models, and the necessity and purpose of feedback. In the second half of the literature review, the key features of academic writing are discussed in advance of showing how to teach them. Recommendations are also given for testing the validity of the approach taken and for additional areas that should be studied. These are followed by a demonstration lesson where the principles are shown in action. Finally, the entire 32-week curriculum is presented, showing how this philosophy can be actualized in lesson planning, materials, and handouts. Academic Writing Curriculum 4 ERIC DESCRIPTORS Academic Curriculum Academic Language Academic Writing English for Academic Purposes Material Development Second Language Learning Student Writing Models Writing Instruction Academic Writing Curriculum 5 Table of Contents TURKISH UNIVERSITY ELPP CONTEXT ..................................................................................... 7 A PHILOSOPHY OF WRITING INSTRUCTION AND WRITING CURRICULUM ............... 10 CORE BELIEFS ABOUT TEACHING ....................................................................................................... 10 INDIVIDUALIZATION AND STANDARDIZATION ....................................................................................... 11 STUDENT AS AUTHOR ............................................................................................................................. 13 JOY IN TEACHING AND LEARNING .......................................................................................................... 14 INTEGRATION OF SKILLS ..................................................................................................................... 15 WRITING APPRENTICESHIP.................................................................................................................. 17 FEEDBACK AND AWARENESS-CREATION ............................................................................................ 17 ACADEMIC FEATURES IN A WRITING CURRICULUM ......................................................... 20 THE ACADEMIC DISCOURSE COMMUNITY AND ITS ACCOMPANYING SKILLS ................................. 20 GRAMMAR AND GRAMMARS ................................................................................................................ 22 VERB TENSES ......................................................................................................................................... 26 HEDGING ................................................................................................................................................ 27 LINKERS AND TEXT-REFERRING WORDS ................................................................................................ 28 PUNCTUATION ........................................................................................................................................ 28 PASSIVES ................................................................................................................................................ 28 ACADEMIC LEXICAL RESOURCES ....................................................................................................... 29 ORGANIZATION, COHERENCE, AND COHESION.................................................................................. 31 THE USE OF SOURCES ........................................................................................................................... 33 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................................... 35 REFERENCES ..................................................................................................................................... 37 APPENDIX A – SAMPLE LESSON WITH RATIONALE ............................................................ 41 APPENDIX B – CURRICULUM SCOPE AND SEQUENCE ........................................................ 43 APPENDIX C – LESSON PLANS FOR THE TEACHER .............................................................. 45 APPENDIX D – STUDENT HANDOUTS FOR LESSONS .......................................................... 108 Academic Writing Curriculum 6 Teaching in the English Language Preparatory Program (ELPP) system for Turkish universities presents clear benefits and challenges for an English-language teacher. A majority of Turkish universities have ELPPs, and depending on the specific university’s requirements, students often have to complete the ELPP regardless of their subsequent field of study (e.g., Turkish history or Political Science) or of the language which will be the primary medium of instruction (i.e., some departments are “mixed medium” and teach in both Turkish and English). To begin their first year of departmental studies, students typically need to pass a proficiency test at the B2 level according to the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) language indicators. Given only 8-12 months to learn a foreign language well enough to gain an undergraduate education in it, students clearly face a daunting task. This is especially true when they are starting as near-zero beginners, as is often the case. Experience suggests that although it is not entirely impossible for diligent students to start with virtually no previous knowledge of English and to succeed in reaching the B2 level (at least in the academic areas of focus) within the 8-12-month timeframe, it is exceptionally difficult. Compounding these challenges is the fact that proportionally few English-language textbooks, especially at the lower levels (A1-A2), are focused on preparing students specifically for university. In addition, researchers have shown that daily communicative competence in English is substantially different from academic communicative competence (Niiya, Warschauer, & Zheng, 2013; Lightbown & Spada, 2013; Hinkel, 2015). Studies of non-native English-speaking (NNES) schoolchildren in the USA have shown that a focus on teaching academic language and intentionally providing access to academic structures (e.g., grammar, vocabulary, and punctuation) is necessary for additional language learners to thrive in their studies (Hinkel, 2015). If this is true for schoolchildren, it seems likely that other language learners need the same focused instruction. Despite this, one teacher trainer conducting a training for İstanbul 29 Mayıs University’s ELPP, where I teach, bluntly noted Academic Writing Curriculum 7 that ELPP programs are a niche market that do not generate enough money to have materials designed specifically for them. It is these niche programs that the current project aims to serve. With a narrowly-focused, academic-skills-oriented curriculum that begins developing the necessary writing skills and knowledge from the first lesson onward, students will be provided with a single cohesive resource to replace the eclectic assortment of materials that, until now, has often been used to teach academic writing in English. Turkish University ELPP Context From a practical standpoint, with approximately thirty-two weeks of full-time study, ELPP students have sufficient time to gain and demonstrate a certain competence in the grammar, lexicon, and rhetorical structures of academic writing if their writing lessons work in tandem with their other lessons. (In the İstanbul 29 Mayıs ELPP, for instance, each week consists of twenty-eight hours of in-class learning. Two or three of these are able to be devoted just to writing skills.) In fact, several reasons can be given that writing lessons can have a nearly unique place within an ELPP’s overall curriculum. They typically require integrating other language skills in order to be effective, and they produce quite concrete results. Furthermore, since writing allows more planning and resourcing than speaking, learners can be expected to take some risks with their emergent knowledge in which they are not yet fully competent. Thus, each writing event should create a field where the students’ learning is observable to the teacher, as well as to the attentive students themselves. This function of writing as a field of observable learning is what makes it so valuable in the language-learning process. With careful collaboration, the writing teacher is able to not only guide the students’ development personally but also provide information to any other teachers about where the students are improving and working out their emerging knowledge or where they may need additional support. In this way, writing classes can potentially serve the ELPP’s entire program of study. Academic Writing Curriculum 8 Many

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