خلاصة:
A challenge for many postgraduate students is to move from the state of
novice observers to those of professional contributors of a particular
discourse community. They need to develop certain skills, practices, and
competences, the demonstration of which is mostly through writing, called
disciplinary writing expertise (DWE). DWE can be examined from two
aspects of nature and development. This study aims at proposing a model of
disciplinary writing expertise including both the competencies of DWE and
factors developing these components. In-depth interviews with 28
postgraduate students of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL)
were collected and research papers written by these students were used to
collect data. Based on substantive considerations and the results of the
content analysis, five subcomponents of DWE were identified including
strategic, genre, rhetorical, subject matter and discourse community
knowledge components. Meanwhile, writing strategies and goal orientations
were identified as two important factors influencing the development of
disciplinary writing proficiency in a foreign language context. Two
questionnaires were made and piloted to endorse these two factors among
538 postgraduate TEFL students. Using structural equation modeling (SEM),
we proposed a model to show the relationship among these two factors and
the components of DWE. The results showed that those who followed
mastery goals used all types of writing strategies to develop different
subcomponents of DWE. On the other hand, those who followed context and
career-directed goals used strategies to develop rhetorical knowledge mostly.
ملخص الجهاز:
Using a case study research design, Beaufort (1999) developed a model of disciplinary writing expertise which consists of five basic knowledge domains: discourse-community knowledge, subject-matter knowledge, genre knowledge, rhetorical knowledge, and writing-process knowledge.
The present study, following a broad conceptualization of the term writing strategy, defines writing as a socio-cognitive process (Cumming, 1989; Cumming, Busch & Zhou, 2002; Cumming, Eouanzoui, Gentil & Yang, 2004; Riazi, 1997; Spack, 1997) which holds that L2 writing strategies are actions L2 writers perform in order to respond to the demands of the discourse community to which they belong.
Contribution of the Present Study Based on the literature reviewed, it can be stated that strategic competence or knowledge of writing strategies is on the one hand a component of disciplinary writing expertise models and on the other, one of the factors which influences the development of this particular writing proficiency.
The results of the qualitative phase of the study led the researchers to postulate a model on the relationship between goal orientations as the most determining factor identified based on the analysis of the interviews with the students.
On the one hand, strategic knowledge is a component of the writing expertise model which makes the acquisition, development, and implementation of the other domains possible, and on the other, being defined as goal-directed activities (in the broad conceptualization of writing strategy research), they seem to be determined by goals students pursue in their academic writings.