An Academic Writing Needs Analysis of Czech University Graduate
Students

J 2020

An Academic Writing Needs Analysis of Czech University Graduate Students

JANČAŘÍKOVÁ, Renata, Renata POVOLNÁ, Olga DONTCHEVA-NAVRÁTILOVÁ, Světlana HANUŠOVÁ, Martin NĚMEC et. al.

Basic information

Original name

An Academic Writing Needs Analysis of Czech University Graduate Students

Authors

JANČAŘÍKOVÁ, Renata (203 Czech Republic, guarantor, belonging to the institution), Renata POVOLNÁ (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution), Olga DONTCHEVA-NAVRÁTILOVÁ (100 Bulgaria, belonging to the institution), Světlana HANUŠOVÁ (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution) and Martin NĚMEC (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution)

Edition

Discourse and Interaction, Brno, Masaryk University, Faculty of Education, Department of English Language and Literature, 2020, 1802-9930

Other information

Language

English

Type of outcome

Článek v odborném periodiku

Field of Study

60203 Linguistics

Country of publisher

Czech Republic

Confidentiality degree

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

References:

URL

RIV identification code

RIV/00216224:14410/20:00115899

Organization unit

Faculty of Education

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.5817/DI2020-1-42

Keywords in English

needs analysis; academic writing; EAP; thesis writing; questionnaire; Theme zone; Master’s thesis

Abstract

V originále

The present paper presents the results of a needs analysis conducted among Czech students involved in a Master’s degree programme English Language Teacher Education. The aim was to identify their academic writing needs on the basis of a needs analysis questionnaire and a linguistic analysis of their written discourse in order to find out whether there are divergences between their ‘wants’ and ‘lacks’ (Hutchinson & Waters 1987). The results indicate that the students’ previous tuition at Bachelor’s level focused primarily on lexico-grammatical features of academic style such as text organizing devices, academic vocabulary, grammatical structures and citation styles. However, other areas essential to writing a successful Master’s thesis, such as evaluation and interpretation of results, conveying personal viewpoints and communicating with the reader or acknowledging research limitations, were ascribed a somewhat lower importance by the students, suggesting the existence of a divergence between the students’ ‘wants’ and ‘lacks’. The findings concerning the students’ perception of the writing process also concur with the finding of the authors’ previous research (Dontcheva et al. 2020) into the Theme zone in Czech students’ Master’s theses, which has indicated that Czech Master’s students tend to overuse textual Themes expressed by linkers and underuse interpersonal Themes realised by stance devices.

Links

LTC18015, research and development project

Name: Výzkum a výuka akademického psaní z mezikulturního hlediska

Investor: Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the CR, Researching and teaching academic writing from a cross-cultural perspective, INTER-COST

Citovat

JANČAŘÍKOVÁ, Renata, Renata POVOLNÁ, Olga DONTCHEVA-NAVRÁTILOVÁ, Světlana HANUŠOVÁ and Martin NĚMEC. An Academic Writing Needs Analysis of Czech University Graduate Students. Discourse and Interaction. Brno: Masaryk University, Faculty of Education, Department of English Language and Literature, 2020, vol. 13, No 1, p. 42-66. ISSN 1802-9930. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.5817/DI2020-1-42.

@article{1668728,
   author = {Jančaříková, Renata and Povolná, Renata and DontchevaandNavrátilová, Olga and Hanušová, Světlana and Němec, Martin},
   article_location = {Brno},
   article_number = {1},
   doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.5817/DI2020-1-42},
   keywords = {needs analysis; academic writing; EAP; thesis writing; questionnaire; Theme zone; Master’s thesis},
   language = {eng},
   issn = {1802-9930},
   journal = {Discourse and Interaction},
   title = {An Academic Writing Needs Analysis of Czech University Graduate Students},
   url = {https://journals.muni.cz/discourse-and-interaction/article/view/13508},
   volume = {13},
   year = {2020}
}

TY  - JOUR
ID  - 1668728
AU  - Jančaříková, Renata - Povolná, Renata - Dontcheva-Navrátilová, Olga - Hanušová, Světlana - Němec, Martin
PY  - 2020
TI  - An Academic Writing Needs Analysis of Czech University Graduate Students
JF  - Discourse and Interaction
VL  - 13
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SP  - 42-66
EP  - 42-66
PB  - Masaryk University, Faculty of Education, Department of English Language and Literature
SN  - 18029930
KW  - needs analysis
KW  - academic writing
KW  - EAP
KW  - thesis writing
KW  - questionnaire
KW  - Theme zone
KW  - Master’s thesis
UR  - https://journals.muni.cz/discourse-and-interaction/article/view/13508
L2  - https://journals.muni.cz/discourse-and-interaction/article/view/13508
N2  - The present paper presents the results of a needs analysis conducted among Czech students involved in a Master’s degree programme English Language Teacher Education. The aim was to identify their academic writing needs on the basis of a needs analysis questionnaire and a linguistic analysis of their written discourse in order to find out whether there are divergences between their ‘wants’ and ‘lacks’ (Hutchinson & Waters 1987). The results indicate that the students’ previous tuition at Bachelor’s level focused primarily on lexico-grammatical features of academic style such as text organizing devices, academic vocabulary, grammatical structures and citation styles. However, other areas essential to writing a successful Master’s thesis, such as evaluation and interpretation of results, conveying personal viewpoints and communicating with the reader or acknowledging research limitations, were ascribed a somewhat lower importance by the students, suggesting the existence of a divergence between the students’ ‘wants’ and ‘lacks’. The findings concerning the students’ perception of the writing process also concur with the finding of the authors’ previous research (Dontcheva et al. 2020) into the Theme zone in Czech students’ Master’s theses, which has indicated that Czech Master’s students tend to overuse textual Themes expressed by linkers and underuse interpersonal Themes realised by stance devices.
ER  -

JANČAŘÍKOVÁ, Renata, Renata POVOLNÁ, Olga DONTCHEVA-NAVRÁTILOVÁ, Světlana HANUŠOVÁ and Martin NĚMEC. An Academic Writing Needs Analysis of Czech University Graduate Students. \textit{Discourse and Interaction}. Brno: Masaryk University, Faculty of Education, Department of English Language and Literature, 2020, vol.~13, No~1, p.~42-66. ISSN~1802-9930. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.5817/DI2020-1-42.

Detailed Information on Publication Record