Effective language use in academic study material for L2 speakers of English at a distance learning institution

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The gap which exists between the academic culture represented by lecturers and the nonacademic-culture represented by students at a residential university is even greater at adistance learning institution (DLI). At a DLI, lecturers and students are faced with a numberof challenges. Firstly, the majority of distance learning students are older than the averageresidential student and have added responsibilities related to their families and jobs.Secondly, they come from a wider variety of cultural, educational and socio-economicbackgrounds than residential first-years. Finally, the majority of these students have arelatively low proficiency in their second language (L2) English, which is usually their thirdor fourth language rather than their second language, and which is the language of instructionat South African DLIs. At a DLI, there is little or no face-to-face contact between lecturersand students, and teaching takes place primarily by means of printed study material,specifically study guides. Study guides substitute for the lectures and other contact periodsthat residential students receive. In addition, study guides have to facilitate the student in theworld of a new and sometimes intimidating culture, namely the (tertiary) academic culture.However, many students may have trouble understanding the type of language used in studymaterial (essentially, academic language), sometimes because lecturers do not understand thechallenges faced by DLI students and/or because they write in a formal, academic style,which is often not easily accessible to first-year students. This could pose a barrier forlearning, as well as for the transition of the student from the non-academic culture to theacademic culture. The aim of the study reported in this thesis was to identify the linguisticcriteria which a successful study guide for L2 speakers of English should adhere to. Thesecriteria were extracted from literature on effective writing/teaching in general, then discussedin terms of their relevance for the specific purpose of writing effective study guides, andfinally applied to critically evaluate the language used in three DLI study guides. The thesisends with some concluding remarks, a discussion of the implications of the findings of theresearch, and some recommendations for further research.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University