Marcelle Harran | Higher Colleges of Technology (original) (raw)

Papers by Marcelle Harran

This study describes the social practices involved in the situated activity of report writing in ... more This study describes the social practices involved in the situated activity of report writing in an engineering automotive discourse community in South Africa. In particular, the study focuses on the subjectivity of predominantly English Second Language (ESL) engineers writing reports by determining what literacy means to them and what meanings they give to dominant literacy practices in report writing, especially feedback in text production.

Writing pedagogy research has constantly maintained that feedback is 'an essential component of v... more Writing pedagogy research has constantly maintained that feedback is 'an essential component of virtually every model of the writing process' (Hall, 1990: 43) as it motivates writers to improve their next draft. Feedback during the writing process improves not only student attitude to writing but writing performance if students are given unlimited opportunities to respond to teacher feedback and continue writing . Feedback research, therefore, suggests a causal relationship between teacher feedback practices during text production, student attitude and writing performance. However, a four-year longitudinal study conducted at a higher education institution monitoring student perceptions of written feedback on essay drafts found that the impact of feedback practices on writing performance was limited . The article briefly overviews the longitudinal study's findings and then describes a second study conducted at the same institution to pursue research assertions that specific, non-directive and interactive feedback practices have a causal relationship not only with student attitude to writing and writing performance but motivates action to improve writing. The article describes the feedback practices implemented in the second study which students perceived as motivating and improved writing quality though redrafting. Downloaded by [Marcelle Harran] at 03:45 25 June 2015

This article reports on an investigation into whether writing centre (WC) respondents at an insti... more This article reports on an investigation into whether writing centre (WC) respondents at an institution of Higher Education encourage or discourage draft dialogue (a conversation in writing) with students submitting drafts electronically to the WC for feedback. The writing respondents insert local feedback responses or comments directly onto submitted complete drafts using word-processing review functions. The inserted feedback aims to encourage dialogue between students and lecturers by situating the teaching and learning of writing in different genres and disciplinary discourses. The feedback dialogue also aims to promote an understanding of writing as a drafting and responding process. Although the study's findings indicated that the writing respondents encouraged dialogue during the writing-responding process, most drafts included authoritative comments which do not promote dialogue. The study's main recommendations are that writing respondents should ensure that feedback phrasing is dialogical to encourage students to critique and explore discourses and for discipline experts to incorporate draft dialogue as a feedback practice into their writing practices.

Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology F o r P e e r R e v i e w

This article reports on a study that explored how social media or social networking sites (SNSs) ... more This article reports on a study that explored how social media or social networking sites (SNSs) such as Facebook facilitate communication spaces as well as literacies development in a higher education (HE) language classroom context. The study's overarching theoretical orientation was social which challenges many contemporary writing theory and pedagogy assumptions. A social orientation necessitates stepping back from the pedagogical issues involved in the teaching and learning of writing and trying to find out how writing is actually used in a range of contexts, including social media. The qualitative study was situated in a comprehensive university and analysed the perspectives of 17 Public Management first-year English Additional Language participants on the use of the Facebook group page as a communication space in the language class. The data collection included the student Facebook group page postings, focus group interviews and journal reflection reports. Content analysis was used to code the data and access was identified as a critical orientation criterion to identify dominant themes from the data sources. The study found that the participants preferred Facebook as a communication space because of its convenience, mobility, learning freedom and team work. However, an access constraint that emerged was limited air time as mobile phones were mostly used to access the Facebook site. Although the participants often used informal texting in their wall postings, the research findings revealed that Facebook as an SNS could facilitate teacher-student communication if managed effectively.

This study describes the social practices involved in the situated activity of report writing in ... more This study describes the social practices involved in the situated activity of report writing in an engineering automotive discourse community in South Africa. In particular, the study focuses on the subjectivity of predominantly English Second Language (ESL) engineers writing reports by determining what literacy means to them and what meanings they give to dominant literacy practices in report writing, especially feedback in text production.

Writing pedagogy research has constantly maintained that feedback is 'an essential component of v... more Writing pedagogy research has constantly maintained that feedback is 'an essential component of virtually every model of the writing process' (Hall, 1990: 43) as it motivates writers to improve their next draft. Feedback during the writing process improves not only student attitude to writing but writing performance if students are given unlimited opportunities to respond to teacher feedback and continue writing . Feedback research, therefore, suggests a causal relationship between teacher feedback practices during text production, student attitude and writing performance. However, a four-year longitudinal study conducted at a higher education institution monitoring student perceptions of written feedback on essay drafts found that the impact of feedback practices on writing performance was limited . The article briefly overviews the longitudinal study's findings and then describes a second study conducted at the same institution to pursue research assertions that specific, non-directive and interactive feedback practices have a causal relationship not only with student attitude to writing and writing performance but motivates action to improve writing. The article describes the feedback practices implemented in the second study which students perceived as motivating and improved writing quality though redrafting. Downloaded by [Marcelle Harran] at 03:45 25 June 2015

This article reports on an investigation into whether writing centre (WC) respondents at an insti... more This article reports on an investigation into whether writing centre (WC) respondents at an institution of Higher Education encourage or discourage draft dialogue (a conversation in writing) with students submitting drafts electronically to the WC for feedback. The writing respondents insert local feedback responses or comments directly onto submitted complete drafts using word-processing review functions. The inserted feedback aims to encourage dialogue between students and lecturers by situating the teaching and learning of writing in different genres and disciplinary discourses. The feedback dialogue also aims to promote an understanding of writing as a drafting and responding process. Although the study's findings indicated that the writing respondents encouraged dialogue during the writing-responding process, most drafts included authoritative comments which do not promote dialogue. The study's main recommendations are that writing respondents should ensure that feedback phrasing is dialogical to encourage students to critique and explore discourses and for discipline experts to incorporate draft dialogue as a feedback practice into their writing practices.

Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology F o r P e e r R e v i e w

This article reports on a study that explored how social media or social networking sites (SNSs) ... more This article reports on a study that explored how social media or social networking sites (SNSs) such as Facebook facilitate communication spaces as well as literacies development in a higher education (HE) language classroom context. The study's overarching theoretical orientation was social which challenges many contemporary writing theory and pedagogy assumptions. A social orientation necessitates stepping back from the pedagogical issues involved in the teaching and learning of writing and trying to find out how writing is actually used in a range of contexts, including social media. The qualitative study was situated in a comprehensive university and analysed the perspectives of 17 Public Management first-year English Additional Language participants on the use of the Facebook group page as a communication space in the language class. The data collection included the student Facebook group page postings, focus group interviews and journal reflection reports. Content analysis was used to code the data and access was identified as a critical orientation criterion to identify dominant themes from the data sources. The study found that the participants preferred Facebook as a communication space because of its convenience, mobility, learning freedom and team work. However, an access constraint that emerged was limited air time as mobile phones were mostly used to access the Facebook site. Although the participants often used informal texting in their wall postings, the research findings revealed that Facebook as an SNS could facilitate teacher-student communication if managed effectively.