Genres in academic writing: Research report discussions

Use Of A Writing Web-Site By Pre-Masters Students On An English for Academic Purposes Course.

A. J. Gillett, University of Hertfordshire

Discussion

¹The purpose of the study was to investigate whether Students in Higher Education on an EAP writing course would benefit from computer assisted instruction. ²The findings clearly suggest that they do. ³The students who took part in the computer assisted element of the writing course outperformed those who followed the traditional course in every aspect as shown by their performance on the University of Hertfordshire Writing test. ⁴They showed particular strengths in the task achievement element of the assessment, suggesting that the computer assisted materials really help the students to understand and focus on the purpose of their writing.   ⁵It also seems to be the case that the individually directed nature of the on-line materials helps the students to focus on their own specific needs as well as allowing them to access their materials in their own time. ⁶Another reason for the success of the materials may be that it allows students to spend more time on the course than is normally the case in a classroom based programme.   ⁷This supports and adds to the findings of Jones & Smith (1997) and Harris (2002), who showed similar results for an on-line grammar course. ⁸This study has taken a step in the direction of justifying the inclusion of web-based materials in EAP writing courses for post-graduates on English language preparation course. ⁹It did however look at a narrow range of subject areas -  mainly business, computer science, engineering life-sciences  and law - taken by students from only a few countries - particularly China, Japan , Korea and Thailand. ¹⁰It may be the case that students from other countries intending to study different subjects - for example, medicine or humanities  - would not benefit in the same way. ¹¹It is also not clear whether younger students such as students preparing for undergraduate programmes would succeed to the same extent. ¹²The approach outlined in this study should be replicated with other students in other subject areas, as well as at other levels in order to be able to recommend the use of on-line materials for all students in all subject areas.