Marcelle Harran - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Marcelle Harran

Across the Disciplines, 2011

South African journal of higher education, 2011

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 (HE) 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 fe...

Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology, Feb 4, 2019

Purpose-In 2004, the Council for Higher Education (CHE) required a curriculum responsiveness to t... more Purpose-In 2004, the Council for Higher Education (CHE) required a curriculum responsiveness to the teaching and learning of literacies at the programme level, which needed to be addressed across all disciplines. This study aims to describe a situated higher education (HE) collaboration project between mechanical engineering and the Department of Applied Language Studies (DALS) at Nelson Mandela University from 2010 to 2014. The collaboration project aimed to develop the literacies levels of engineering students, reduce the first-year attrition rate and prepare engineering students to meet the high graduate attribute expectations of a competitive workplace amid employer concerns that engineering graduate communication competencies were lacking and insufficient. Design/methodology/approach-The collaboration study used a mixed-method approach, which included student and lecturer questionnaires, as well as an interview with one engineering lecturer to determine his perceptions of the collaboration practices instituted. As the sample was purposeful, two mechanical engineer lecturers and 32 second-year mechanical engineering students from 2012 to 2013 were selected as the study's participants, as they met the study's specific needs. From the questionnaire responses and transcribed interview data, codes were identified to describe the themes that emerged, namely, rating the collaboration practices, attitudes to the course, report feedback provided and report template use. Findings-Most of the student participants viewed the collaboration practices positively and identified their attitude as "positive" and "enthusiastic" to the language/engineering report collaboration initiative. The report feedback practices were viewed as improving writing skills and enabling the students to relate report writing practices to workplace needs. The engineering lecturers also found that the collaboration practices were enabling and improved literacy levels, although time was identified as a constraint. During the four-year collaboration period, the language practitioner increasingly gained report content knowledge, as well as unpacking the specific rhetorical structures required to produce the report text by co-constructing knowledge with the mechanical engineering lecturers. Research limitations/implications-Studies have shown that language practitioners and discipline lecturers need to change their conceptualisation of academic discourses as generic transferable skills and autonomous bodies of knowledge. Little benefit is derived from this model, least of all for the students who grapple with disciplinary forms of writing and the highly technical language of engineering. Discipline experts often tend to conflate understandings of language, literacy and discourse, which lead to simplistic understandings of how students may be inducted into engineering discourses. Therefore, spaces to nurture and extend language practitioner and discipline-expert collaborations are needed to embed the teaching and learning of discipline-specific literacies within disciplines. Practical implications-For the collaboration project, the language practitioner and mechanical engineering lecturers focused their collaboration on discussing and negotiating the rhetorical and content

Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, Dec 1, 2011

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 (Ferris, 1995). 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 (Harran, 1999). 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.

Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology, Mar 29, 2011

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe how dominant social practices embedded in situate... more PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe how dominant social practices embedded in situated report‐writing activities in an automotive discourse community in South Africa causally shape component engineers' perceptions of literacy. The study explores how the dominant practices of supervisor feedback and report acceptance causally impact on effective report‐writing perceptions during report text production.Design/methodology/approachCritical ethnography is the preferred methodology as it explores cultural orientations of local practice contexts and incorporates multiple understandings to provide a holistic understanding of the complexity of writing practices. This study focuses on data collected during two interviews and a focus group discussion with four L2 component engineers as well as the questionnaires their two L1 supervisors completed.FindingsThe engineers tended to measure or associate literacy and effective writing standards with supervisor feedback practices. These feedback practices interacted causally with the meanings or associations, the participants gave to or associated with literacy and their report‐writing competency. As a consequence, literacy was often described in terms of correct wording or terminology, grammatical correctness, spelling, sentence structures or styles in reports as determined by their supervisors during feedback practices, rather than report content, structure or technical details.Research limitations/implicationsThe participants constructed literacy in terms of correct language, word and spelling use and focused on linguistic errors in their report writing. They tended to perceive rhetoric and engineering discourse as separate entities rather than rhetorically constructed contextual knowledge. Language problems were usually attributed to human being inefficiencies and L1 standards rather than the individual creation of knowledge.Practical implicationsThis paper not only impacts causally on engineering workplace writing practices but on higher education and future report‐writing practices. Digital technologies and systems will increasingly impact on report‐writing practices, what constitutes contextual knowledge and acceptable literacies as varied and different audiences define acceptable writing practices.Originality/valueThe paper shows that on‐the‐job writing research is limited and research that has been done often focuses on criteria for good writing as defined by experts in the field. If all workplace writing‐practice research adopts this expert view, it offers no insight and understanding into what implicitly and explicitly guides writers. Writing‐practice research also needs to focus on the voices of writers so that the influence of human social behaviour on these practices can be understood.

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. In the South African engineering workplace, because of the diversity and 2 complexity of language and identity issues, the appropriation of the required literacy skills tends to be multifaceted. This context is made more complex as English is the business language upon which engineering is based with engineering competence often related to English proficiency. Therefore, the study is located within the understanding that literacy is always situated within specific discoursal practices whose ideologies, beliefs, power

This article describes a situated engineering project at a South African HE institution which is ... more This article describes a situated engineering project at a South African HE institution which is underpinned by collaboration between Applied Language Studies (DALS) and Mechanical Engineering. The collaboration requires language practitioners and engineering experts to negotiate and collaborate on academic literacies practices, discourse understandings, reports as genres as well as literacy concerns so that engineering students can acquire the necessary academic literacies to be successful in HE and in the workplace. Although the collaboration intends to facilitate the embedding of teaching and learning of literacies into disciplinary discourses enacted in the writing of different kinds of genres in mainstream curricula (Jacobs, 2007b, p. 870), collaboration practices are complex and lengthy and require systematic and sustained collaboration with discourse teachers (Jacobs, 2007a) in engineering "communities of practice" (Lave & Wenger, 1991). The article focuses on liter...

Across the Disciplines, 2011

This article describes a situated engineering project at a South African HE institution which is ... more This article describes a situated engineering project at a South African HE institution which is underpinned by collaboration between Applied Language Studies (DALS) and Mechanical Engineering. The collaboration requires language practitioners and engineering experts to negotiate and collaborate on academic literacies practices, discourse understandings, reports as genres as well as literacy concerns so that engineering students can acquire the necessary academic literacies to be successful in HE and in the workplace. Although the collaboration intends to facilitate the embedding of teaching and learning of literacies into disciplinary discourses enacted in the writing of different kinds of genres in mainstream curricula (Jacobs, 2007b, p. 870), collaboration practices are complex and lengthy and require systematic and sustained collaboration with discourse teachers (Jacobs, 2007a) in engineering "communities of practice" (Lave & Wenger, 1991). The article focuses on liter...

A Critical Ethnographic Study of Report Writing As Literacy Practice By Automotive Engineers.، لل... more A Critical Ethnographic Study of Report Writing As Literacy Practice By Automotive Engineers.، للحصول على النص الكامل يرجى زيارة مكتبة الحسين بن طلال في جامعة اليرموك او زيارة موقعها الالكتروني

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 (HE) 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 fe...

Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology

PurposeIn 2004, the Council for Higher Education (CHE) required a curriculum responsiveness to th... more PurposeIn 2004, the Council for Higher Education (CHE) required a curriculum responsiveness to the teaching and learning of literacies at the programme level, which needed to be addressed across all disciplines. This study aims to describe a situated higher education (HE) collaboration project between mechanical engineering and the Department of Applied Language Studies (DALS) at Nelson Mandela University from 2010 to 2014. The collaboration project aimed to develop the literacies levels of engineering students, reduce the first-year attrition rate and prepare engineering students to meet the high graduate attribute expectations of a competitive workplace amid employer concerns that engineering graduate communication competencies were lacking and insufficient.Design/methodology/approachThe collaboration study used a mixed-method approach, which included student and lecturer questionnaires, as well as an interview with one engineering lecturer to determine his perceptions of the coll...

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.

Http Dx Doi Org 10 2989 16073614 2011 651941, Jan 30, 2012

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 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 wa...

Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, 2011

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

Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology, 2011

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

Across the Disciplines, 2011

South African journal of higher education, 2011

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 (HE) 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 fe...

Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology, Feb 4, 2019

Purpose-In 2004, the Council for Higher Education (CHE) required a curriculum responsiveness to t... more Purpose-In 2004, the Council for Higher Education (CHE) required a curriculum responsiveness to the teaching and learning of literacies at the programme level, which needed to be addressed across all disciplines. This study aims to describe a situated higher education (HE) collaboration project between mechanical engineering and the Department of Applied Language Studies (DALS) at Nelson Mandela University from 2010 to 2014. The collaboration project aimed to develop the literacies levels of engineering students, reduce the first-year attrition rate and prepare engineering students to meet the high graduate attribute expectations of a competitive workplace amid employer concerns that engineering graduate communication competencies were lacking and insufficient. Design/methodology/approach-The collaboration study used a mixed-method approach, which included student and lecturer questionnaires, as well as an interview with one engineering lecturer to determine his perceptions of the collaboration practices instituted. As the sample was purposeful, two mechanical engineer lecturers and 32 second-year mechanical engineering students from 2012 to 2013 were selected as the study's participants, as they met the study's specific needs. From the questionnaire responses and transcribed interview data, codes were identified to describe the themes that emerged, namely, rating the collaboration practices, attitudes to the course, report feedback provided and report template use. Findings-Most of the student participants viewed the collaboration practices positively and identified their attitude as "positive" and "enthusiastic" to the language/engineering report collaboration initiative. The report feedback practices were viewed as improving writing skills and enabling the students to relate report writing practices to workplace needs. The engineering lecturers also found that the collaboration practices were enabling and improved literacy levels, although time was identified as a constraint. During the four-year collaboration period, the language practitioner increasingly gained report content knowledge, as well as unpacking the specific rhetorical structures required to produce the report text by co-constructing knowledge with the mechanical engineering lecturers. Research limitations/implications-Studies have shown that language practitioners and discipline lecturers need to change their conceptualisation of academic discourses as generic transferable skills and autonomous bodies of knowledge. Little benefit is derived from this model, least of all for the students who grapple with disciplinary forms of writing and the highly technical language of engineering. Discipline experts often tend to conflate understandings of language, literacy and discourse, which lead to simplistic understandings of how students may be inducted into engineering discourses. Therefore, spaces to nurture and extend language practitioner and discipline-expert collaborations are needed to embed the teaching and learning of discipline-specific literacies within disciplines. Practical implications-For the collaboration project, the language practitioner and mechanical engineering lecturers focused their collaboration on discussing and negotiating the rhetorical and content

Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, Dec 1, 2011

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 (Ferris, 1995). 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 (Harran, 1999). 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.

Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology, Mar 29, 2011

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe how dominant social practices embedded in situate... more PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe how dominant social practices embedded in situated report‐writing activities in an automotive discourse community in South Africa causally shape component engineers' perceptions of literacy. The study explores how the dominant practices of supervisor feedback and report acceptance causally impact on effective report‐writing perceptions during report text production.Design/methodology/approachCritical ethnography is the preferred methodology as it explores cultural orientations of local practice contexts and incorporates multiple understandings to provide a holistic understanding of the complexity of writing practices. This study focuses on data collected during two interviews and a focus group discussion with four L2 component engineers as well as the questionnaires their two L1 supervisors completed.FindingsThe engineers tended to measure or associate literacy and effective writing standards with supervisor feedback practices. These feedback practices interacted causally with the meanings or associations, the participants gave to or associated with literacy and their report‐writing competency. As a consequence, literacy was often described in terms of correct wording or terminology, grammatical correctness, spelling, sentence structures or styles in reports as determined by their supervisors during feedback practices, rather than report content, structure or technical details.Research limitations/implicationsThe participants constructed literacy in terms of correct language, word and spelling use and focused on linguistic errors in their report writing. They tended to perceive rhetoric and engineering discourse as separate entities rather than rhetorically constructed contextual knowledge. Language problems were usually attributed to human being inefficiencies and L1 standards rather than the individual creation of knowledge.Practical implicationsThis paper not only impacts causally on engineering workplace writing practices but on higher education and future report‐writing practices. Digital technologies and systems will increasingly impact on report‐writing practices, what constitutes contextual knowledge and acceptable literacies as varied and different audiences define acceptable writing practices.Originality/valueThe paper shows that on‐the‐job writing research is limited and research that has been done often focuses on criteria for good writing as defined by experts in the field. If all workplace writing‐practice research adopts this expert view, it offers no insight and understanding into what implicitly and explicitly guides writers. Writing‐practice research also needs to focus on the voices of writers so that the influence of human social behaviour on these practices can be understood.

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. In the South African engineering workplace, because of the diversity and 2 complexity of language and identity issues, the appropriation of the required literacy skills tends to be multifaceted. This context is made more complex as English is the business language upon which engineering is based with engineering competence often related to English proficiency. Therefore, the study is located within the understanding that literacy is always situated within specific discoursal practices whose ideologies, beliefs, power

This article describes a situated engineering project at a South African HE institution which is ... more This article describes a situated engineering project at a South African HE institution which is underpinned by collaboration between Applied Language Studies (DALS) and Mechanical Engineering. The collaboration requires language practitioners and engineering experts to negotiate and collaborate on academic literacies practices, discourse understandings, reports as genres as well as literacy concerns so that engineering students can acquire the necessary academic literacies to be successful in HE and in the workplace. Although the collaboration intends to facilitate the embedding of teaching and learning of literacies into disciplinary discourses enacted in the writing of different kinds of genres in mainstream curricula (Jacobs, 2007b, p. 870), collaboration practices are complex and lengthy and require systematic and sustained collaboration with discourse teachers (Jacobs, 2007a) in engineering "communities of practice" (Lave & Wenger, 1991). The article focuses on liter...

Across the Disciplines, 2011

This article describes a situated engineering project at a South African HE institution which is ... more This article describes a situated engineering project at a South African HE institution which is underpinned by collaboration between Applied Language Studies (DALS) and Mechanical Engineering. The collaboration requires language practitioners and engineering experts to negotiate and collaborate on academic literacies practices, discourse understandings, reports as genres as well as literacy concerns so that engineering students can acquire the necessary academic literacies to be successful in HE and in the workplace. Although the collaboration intends to facilitate the embedding of teaching and learning of literacies into disciplinary discourses enacted in the writing of different kinds of genres in mainstream curricula (Jacobs, 2007b, p. 870), collaboration practices are complex and lengthy and require systematic and sustained collaboration with discourse teachers (Jacobs, 2007a) in engineering "communities of practice" (Lave & Wenger, 1991). The article focuses on liter...

A Critical Ethnographic Study of Report Writing As Literacy Practice By Automotive Engineers.، لل... more A Critical Ethnographic Study of Report Writing As Literacy Practice By Automotive Engineers.، للحصول على النص الكامل يرجى زيارة مكتبة الحسين بن طلال في جامعة اليرموك او زيارة موقعها الالكتروني

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 (HE) 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 fe...

Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology

PurposeIn 2004, the Council for Higher Education (CHE) required a curriculum responsiveness to th... more PurposeIn 2004, the Council for Higher Education (CHE) required a curriculum responsiveness to the teaching and learning of literacies at the programme level, which needed to be addressed across all disciplines. This study aims to describe a situated higher education (HE) collaboration project between mechanical engineering and the Department of Applied Language Studies (DALS) at Nelson Mandela University from 2010 to 2014. The collaboration project aimed to develop the literacies levels of engineering students, reduce the first-year attrition rate and prepare engineering students to meet the high graduate attribute expectations of a competitive workplace amid employer concerns that engineering graduate communication competencies were lacking and insufficient.Design/methodology/approachThe collaboration study used a mixed-method approach, which included student and lecturer questionnaires, as well as an interview with one engineering lecturer to determine his perceptions of the coll...

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.

Http Dx Doi Org 10 2989 16073614 2011 651941, Jan 30, 2012

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 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 wa...

Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, 2011

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

Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology, 2011

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