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Next Gen Literacies

Losing voice in academic writing

By November 13, 2012May 25th, 201976 Comments6 min read17,669 views

Losing your voice or learning academic writing? (Source: business2community.com)

“A latent function of the educational system is to instil linguistic insecurity, to discriminate linguistically, to channel children in ways that have an integral linguistic component, while appearing open and fair to all.” (Hymes, 1996, p. 84)

Academic literacy as a way to demonstrate one’s knowledge and cultivation in tertiary education takes a huge amount of time and effort to develop. For some students, this learning process can be consistent and accumulative all along the way of education; however, for some, the process can be disrupted by a change in the medium of instruction. I’m thinking particularly of overseas students from non-English backgrounds studying in Australian higher education. In this context, it is a common-sense truth that formal academic English has to be embraced as the natural and neutral vehicle to pursue the truth of the universe. In this context, it is also a common-sense truth that English is equally transparent to everyone, regardless of their linguistic or cultural background.

However, these common-sense truths fracture when it comes to the actual experience of overseas students’ academic literacy learning as I am discovering in my ethnographic research of the language learning experiences of Taiwanese students in Australia. Specifically, I have discovered that academic literacy serves just as much to instil linguistic insecurity and deny the voices of overseas students.

Let me illustrate my point with two vignettes. Both vignettes occurred during a five-week academic writing class particularly designed for Ph.D. students. When the class was advertised, it came as a timely rain to Ph.D. students in this cohort irrespective of language background or visa status. They had all been in need of writing assistance because each of them feels daunted by the challenge of having to produce a 70-100,000-word thesis.

In the academic writing class, students were given intensive tasks each week to practice their writing. The idea was to progress from a summary to a critique and then to a paper by the end of the course. The instructor, a native speaker of English and an academic literacy professional, gave them instruction and feedback on the tasks and assisted them to spot problems and overcome them.

 Vignette one: Nonsense language

In week 3, one of the participants, let’s call him Owen, received the following comment on a short summary he had written about an aspect of education policy in Taiwan:

Owen, please watch your “Chinese expression” directly translated into English. They do not read well and either need extra explanation or need to be written in an expression that makes sense in English.

Owen was puzzled. He could not recall where in the text he had used a Chinese expression and the instructor’s line and circle back to the original problem did not identify a Chinese expression. Indeed, the offending expression were not even his original writing but appeared in a quote from a senior researcher in the field. They were “Mandarin-only” and “Mandarin-plus.” It had been the point of the summary to describe changes in Taiwanese education from the use of only one language to a greater variety.

Owen was no longer puzzled but felt angry: the instructor had arbitrarily judged the terms as “Chinese expressions” upon seeing the word “Mandarin.” Apparently, she had not been able to make sense of them in the context of the summary.

Vignette two: Useless language

The event described in the second vignette took place a week after the one described above. Owen shared with me this excerpt from his diary:

Before the course commenced, the instructor wanted to see how we really write and asked us to send her something we were working on. I was excited about this tailored approach, which I desperately need but couldn’t have obtained from any other sources within the university except my academic supervisor. I quickly sent my draft chapter to her and asked for her advice since some contents covered in class did not apply to my case. The instructor replied, saying she would like to discuss my work after next class. I was very much looking forward to the meeting; however, the discussion turned out to be rather disappointing.

To begin with, the instructor told me she was using her own time to do this and it was too costly. So, she had not been able to read my 20+ pages as it would be unfair to other students. Plus, she had to leave in ten minutes for another appointment. She then started to comment on trivial things such as page numbers, table numbers, and how the boxes of interview excerpts would turn off readers. While I was getting the message of how little I could benefit from this conversation, her final comment really offended me. The instructor commented on an interview excerpt. My original interviews were in Mandarin and so the transcripts are in Mandarin and I present excerpts in blocks in Mandarin followed by the English translation.  “Why do you put Mandarin there?” she asked. “Uhm… that is the language the research participants speak and it is what they used in the interviews, so these are the original data and I have to present those.” The instructor ignored my response and went on to ask: “Who is going to read it anyway?” I was really irritated inside by this ignorant question! There are 1.2 billion speakers of Mandarin in the world! But, I couldn’t express my anger. “Uhm… I think there might be an examiner of my thesis who speaks Mandarin.” was the lame excuse I mumbled politely.  Within a few seconds, she rushed out of the door for her next thing and left me behind.  The experience made me feel like I was a beggar, for English and for academic writing.

These two vignettes reflect an English-only ideology that denies students’ voices in at least two ways: they have to use only English and they have to target only English readers. First of all, English is the default. Everything has to be translated into something which makes sense only in an imagined homogeneous English-only world. If no equivalent term exists in the material, scientific, spiritual, cultural, emotional or political world of the writer, they have to provide an extended explanation or risks being “nonsensical” with their own non-English expressions.

Put another way, English-only hegemony is disguised in academic literacy by making other languages invisible, by rejecting the legitimacy of writers from other linguistic and cultural backgrounds and by suppressing the richness of meaning human beings can express in languages other than English.

One may want to argue that since English is extensively used in global academia it is reasonable to require researchers to write proper English which can survive the judgement of English speakers. However, as the second vignette shows, the imagined English-only reader is an imposition, too. English-language readers have never been homogeneous and today’s global academics are more likely to use English as a lingua franca than as a native language (Graddol, 2006). Many if not most academic readers are thus unlikely to be monolinguals.

Unfortunately, academic literacy instruction seems largely unperturbed by these facts. It seems that its purpose is not to help novice researchers find their own academic voice nor to allow them to speak to a global multilingual academic audience but to instil in them linguistic insecurity and delegitimize their voices, as Hymes observed in another educational context all those years ago.

References

Graddol, D. (2006). English Next. British Council.

Hymes, D. (1996). Report from an underdeveloped country: Toward Linguistic Competence in the United States. Ethnography, Linguistics, Narrative Inequality: Toward an understanding of voice (pp. 63-105). London: Taylor & Francis.

Grace Chu-Lin Chang

Author Grace Chu-Lin Chang

Receiving a 2011 Endeavour PhD Postgraduate Award from the Australian Government to fund her research, Grace now holds a PhD degree in Linguistics from Macquarie University in Sydney. Building upon her experiences in student services as an English teacher, a student affairs coordinator, a translator and a researcher, Grace devotes herself to cross-cultural communication and social participation of transnationals.

More posts by Grace Chu-Lin Chang

Join the discussion 76 Comments

  • KyKy says:

    Researchers have demonstrated the successful of mother-tongue instruction right from the start. children are more likely to enroll and succeed in school (Kosonen, 2005); parents are more likely to communicate with teachers and participate in their children’s learning (Benson, 2002). Countries possessing high rate of student success have governments ensuring that mother tongue is taught as a subject in schools if not as a medium of instruction. Personally, all student must be proficient in their mother tongues first before learning other languages, including English.

  • KyKy says:

    The article appears to be critical of the pressure placed on foreign students to use English proficiently, and only English, in their academic endeavours. It is certainly plausible and likely that there is a systematic bias towards the use of English, and the dismissal of other languages as unimportant in the field of academia. However, this particular example provided seems more indicative of a failure on the teacher’s part, instead of the system as a whole. The teacher appeared to be less interested in enabling competency in English writing, and more on pedantic formatting issues

  • Ngoc Hiep Nguyen says:

    It can’t be denied that academic literacy instruction has important role in helping all the stakeholders with relating academic works. However, it is also reasonable to concern about one’s own voice in academic writing. My situation relating to academic area is a good case in point. I am currently a postgraduate student at one Australian university in which a lot of academic writing work are required to be done. The university has its academic guide, especially in academic writing. Most of these academic instructions require students to comply with formal format, genre, discourse, disciplines… which may lead to different kinds of voice in writing work. It is this that may influence and limit the flexibility of the writer’s voice.

  • Xinyue Ji says:

    Actually I was shocked when I read Owen’s narrative. I agree that English is a general language and knowing how to effectively and correctly use English is significant in academic writing. However, because of the different thinking patterns and cultures, people express their opinions in different ways and they need a long period to adapt to English patterns. As a result, teachers need to guide foreigner students rather than negatively critisize.

  • N says:

    Writing is the skills that ESL students who study overseas may need time for adaptation and get used to Academic culture particular areas. For me, I have studied English for Academic courses before I studied degree too. In class teachers focused on structure and hoe to organize the essay to clearly understand by readers. It is very useful when I study in the Uni. However, I still have problems of how to show my stance too and also cultural differences that cannot learn in class ,as mentioned in the article, which may cause misunderstanding and conflict between people.

  • Nidhi says:

    The article reflects the situation of most of international students who come from totally different environment and face challenges in learning and getting fit in new settings especially in education system. As I come from India I face difficulties in writing assignments in academic English because I have studied in different system with totally traditional translation methods. I often feel losing confidence because of wrong way of writing by translating ideas.

  • jlakjl says:

    15. This article makes me wonder both the quality and the dedication of the instructor mentioned. She must have spent not enough time on reading her students writings and giving feedback on those writings. It is obvious that English academic writing does not require writers to use English only and to target only English readers. I also study Translation and Interpreting and read a lot of writings whose writers use other languages than English (of course with English translations).

  • Duyen Ngo says:

    With me, this blog has a very interesting content. As an international student, I face with a lot of problems about academic writing. Sometimes, I feel that voice and identity are such a complicated matter and they are real challenge for teacher in supporting students’ academic writing.

  • v says:

    When learning a second language, I was astonished to find exactly how little perfectly translates an interpretation of starting with one language to another. Interacting in our local language enables us to pass on subtleties that are frequently impractical in our second or third language. Thus, I feel that pieces of Owen’s meeting directed in Mandarin, joined by an English interpretation, would give further experiences to the (imaginable various) Mandarin speakers perusing his theory that the English interpretations alone.

  • Tamanna Habib says:

    Academic writing is very important for higher education and it demands a lot of things. I have completed my bachelor degree in Bangladesh. I noticed that the Australian academic system is very different from my country. Even after more than a year of study, I still face problems in writing my assignments. Two major problems I had: writing academically and expressing my own voice in my writing. Finding own voice is important as it helps writer to express their own ideas and creating an identity of a specific cultural background.

  • tting says:

    This article teaches students how to express their own opinions precisely and accurately. What is more important is how to transfer the authors’ meaning into their own words without changing the writers’ original opinions. Students should also focus on the learning methods when they study, develop a habit like reading broadly, deeply, and critically. Read in-depth within your academic field but also read outside your field. After acquiring more knowledge relating to more aspects, the students would get more proficiency in academic writing.

  • Kim says:

    As an EFL international student, it takes me quite a while to understand the concept of ‘showing your voice’ in academic writing and speaking. This could be because of the educational system that does not require to integrate the students into such academic debates. Back in 2016, I was completely illiterate about the concept of academic writing the mid of 2017 when I received a scholarship offer to study in Australia and granted an intensive pre-departure training in Bali for several weeks. This is when I first exposed to ‘voice’ in academic writing. Since then I have realized that to have a ‘voice’ is important in academic life as it could be one of the ways I can contribute for the running discussions and may also give another insight for other people about certain issues. I have also realized that to have a ‘voice’ is not simple, it involves a long journey of research until I or maybe other people reach a point where I feel confident enough to take a stance.

  • Rochelle says:

    Upon reading this article, it highlights to me that it is important for the writer to express himself or herself accurately. While I was pursuing my course for NAATI, I thought that it should be easy for me to do the course as I am bilingual however upon taking up the course, I find that it is so difficult to translate or express some terminology or ideas from Mandarin to English at times because of the words and the meaning may not be accurate in the process of illustrating the ideas down, especially in academic writing.

  • Shaher Mohammed Shaher Asiri says:

    Hello everyone,

    This article is useful for individuals who aspire to study abroad and assist them for academic writing. In my experience, I confronted struggles on how to present my voice in academic writing. Students need to take intensive courses before starting their academic studies in order to succeed. I remember the first time when I wrote an academic essay, I got a lot of feedback from lecturer since I have not presented my voice in that essay. I used my mother tongue essay structure. I realized that voice is a compulsory skill that learners have to pay close attention in this aspect and learn it in order to meet the requirements for English academic writing.

  • yym says:

    English is widely used in the global academic community, students need to overcome the difficulties of writing. The first time I need to write an academic writing, it is confused for me. In China, the English writing has been taught in a fixed mode. However, when I come to Australia, the critical thinking will be more emphasized. In addition, it is true that we can obtain the guidance feedback on tasks by asking the lecturers, native English-speaking, and academic professionals.

  • Fern says:

    These two interesting vignettes illustrate a monolingual mindset which denies the cultural diversity that non native speakers bring into the discipline . However, I believe that this works at two levels. As EAP teachers, at a lower level of language proficiency teachers tend to correct student writing ascribing their errors to direct translations of cultural expressions which do not read well. Also at this level the target audience would be and English speaking and reading audience. This behaviour is focused on seeing into where the error comes from and used as a corrective tool for the improvement of the students. But at an academic level feedback of this nature would not only result in linguistic insecurity but also discrimination against non English speaker students. Therefore feed back on academic writing at tertiary level should be an inclusive practices on the part of instructors/academics where diversity is accommodated .

  • H says:

    I can relate my position and current situation with this article. As the educational system, environment, culture, setting, background is totally different, I often find things so hard, specially the assignments. It takes lot of time to understand properly to write academically. I need to translate the unfamiliar words to L1 or some common synonyms of those. But I feel that the translation process happens automatically when we read any text in English.

  • Luis TV says:

    This article resonates with others that I have read. International students, like myself, have to go through a diverse process of adaptation when it comes to tertiary education. In that regard, as the article points out, academic literacy demands to invest time and effort to comply with the standards set by universities, and in that process, students’ voices may be denied or misunderstood. As Bowe, Martin and Manns (2014) suggest, there are cultural differences in writing that are sometimes overlooked by scholars when grading international students’ work. The perhaps worst part is when these cultural differences are constrained or even urged to be suppressed for the sake of ‘writing in the English way’. This is certainly a complex issue that also involves how English has been assumed as the language of academia. However, more comprehensive feedback and understanding of cultural differences may aid this complicated relationship between international students and their tertiary education in English-speaking countries.

    Bowe, H., Martin, K., & Manns, H. (2014). Communication across cultures: Mutual understanding in a global world. (Second Ed.). Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press.

  • Nana says:

    This is a very interesting reading that reminds me of a teacher I had in an institute here in Australia; I was doing an English for academic purposes course and our teacher was a native Australian. The class was basically divided in two groups: one Asian and one Latin american, there were students from Laos, China, Japan, Korea, Chile, Venezuela and Colombia correspondingly. There was one classmate that was in the middle of the two groups because she was Brazilian born with a Japanese background. The point is that when our teacher was correcting us, she constantly said: ‘this is an Asian common mistake’ or ‘Latin team will have difficulties with…’ That situation was something that most of us did not like at all also because of the division of the class. This type of comments must be avoided not only because of students’ perception and sensitivities but also because it contributes to the students’ lost of voice.

  • Karly says:

    The article is a great illustration of how English dominates the academic world but with so many international and foreign speakers venturing into the academic world, there are some inherent issues which non-native English speakers may face in writing in English. Although the expectation is that academics should be bale to write coherently in English, there are some circumstances where writing in coherent English may create a loss of meaning of text from different languages which would devalue the true meaning of certain academic texts.

  • Salam Moussa Oghli says:

    I have read English texts that were written by researchers from an Arabic background and it is always enjoyable to detect traces of Arabic writing or mentality throughout the text. Moreover, reading L2 research writings have been insightful and influential as they introduce the reader to some aspects of writing in their cultural background. However, there have been instances in which some articles in Arabic have been so heavily influenced by the writer’s L1, an Arabic speaker like me could not entirely understand the implications of some parts of the text. Originality should be encouraged to a certain degree to allow diversity and inclusiveness. On the other hand, writers need to make sure the overall writing is mutually understood among the targeted audience.

  • Natalie says:

    The vignettes provided in this blog are good examples of how the Western academic context needs to adapt to the chaining demographic of students. It is well known that the number of international students studying at Australian universities is constantly on the rise. It is also well known that lecturers are struggling with this changing demographic and previous assumptions regarding student understanding and knowledge of academic values and conventions can no longer be held.

  • Yan Yan says:

    Academic literacy is very important for higher education and it takes a lot of time to develop and learn. Before I entered Australian universities, I had relevant learning and training. Because I finished college in China, I found that the Australian English academic system is very different from China in terms of format and expression. Even after more than a year of study, I still have some small academic difficulties in how to express my voice.

  • xqx says:

    Expressing ideas in writing has always been a common problem for oversea students from non-English speaking countries. As for me, a secondary language learner, when I first came to Australia I got into a similar situation with academic writing, at that time I knew that I had some creative ideas but I just didn’t know how to express it because it was such a big challenge for me to put it in the rigid academic literacy instruction while maintaining my own voice. Although English has always been leading the academic culture, isn’t it just a tool for us to express different ideas? I think we should jump outside the box and open our mind to some new ways of writing.

  • Lai Ng says:

    We can see how importance the feedback or comment from teachers to students on the academic writing matter. Relevant and practical comments are helpful for students to improve their next assignments as well as improving their academic writing skills. Abstract and general comment are easy for teachers but no benefits to students at all. I would remember this point whenever I mark my student’s writing pieces and aim to help them as much as I can.

  • AzPc says:

    In my case, effective feedback from the teachers are really important, an effective feedback can improve my writing skills in academic circles and also allow me to realize that “where is my voice?”. In the first term of my study in Australia after few weeks, I started to ask myself “what is the result of my essay and what is the purpose of my homework, it seems that my teachers didn’t care about anything “. that is the time I started to doubt everything of my voice in academic essay, I tried to just paraphrase everything and stopped expressing my self, my voice.

  • Gab says:

    One of the biggest and perhaps most difficult adjustment I had to do as an international student is to follow the conventions of writing academic essays/papers in English. I admit that English in my country is not treated as a foreign language, the way we use the English language in writing is completely different with that of the way is prescribed here in Australia. It is difficult because of the somehow “suppressing” and strict reliance on standards and norms in writing which most of the time removes or “kills” not only the creativity of the student-writers but also their own voice.

  • C says:

    I went on to read the next blog after this post “Seeing Asians speaking English.” It made me wonder about the evaluation of the content of the academic writing of students whose first language is not English. Since many international students are prone to making mistakes in expression and some of them write with unnatural English expressions, it is quite easy to distinguish whether a student is international or local quite quickly. I wonder if the recognition of the student being a local student is likely to influence the marker of the paper in terms of evaluating content as well. I wondered what kind of safeguards there are at Macquarie to protect international students and also again how to weigh this against the expectations of “good writing” for local students as well as it may be hard to justify different expectations for the two groups.

  • J says:

    This is an interesting article as one of the international students. It is obvious that English is used as a lingua franca especially in academic field. This is the reason why I study English in Australia. However, I have experienced the similar situations like Owen. When I need to present my ideas and voice in written ways, sometimes I need to use the situation/ideas/opinions from my country. However, as the ideas are written in my first language, I have to translate into English. it is sometimes inappropriate to use because it might be misinterpreted or unacceptable.

  • zhongliang lin says:

    It’s very interesting, as an international student, we often focus on our academic writing on grammatical and lexical items, while ignoring the mastery of the professional knowledge. In fact, when we look at the grading criteria for academic papers in colleges, usually the content of the article accounts for 80% and writing only accounts for 20%. Most Chinese students do encounter problems with ‘Chinese expression’ in their papers, and these writing obstacles that are difficult to overcome in a short time for them.

  • Adia says:

    Using language always involves some factors that enable learners to convey and represent their identity through the language. These factors mostly refer to Discourse (with capital D) and discourse (with small d) that are distinguished by Gee (2002). They do influence the language users in negotiating or making meaning. That’s why when language learners and users use language, they are entailed to represent themselves through their language and to whom they address their language production. However, there are some conventions that have to be adhered in order to be a competent language user. For those reasons, language learners, especially the novice writers in this case, are definitely in need of feedback but it’d also better to encourage their awareness about voice to help them controlling over personal and cultural identity they are projecting in their writing.

  • The Curious Learner says:

    Producing academic pieces of writing is challenging by itself, adding on the challenges of cultural differences faced by L2 learners might make the process increasingly discouraging. The comments made by the instructor as stated in the article, is rather disappointing. It is quite common that as non- native speakers of a language, students may often rely on the translation of ideas from their L1 to L2.

    Just as how ‘brainstorming’ works through the acceptance of different ideas from different members of a group, why not as members of a larger ‘academic’ group we accept the opinions and perspective of other members (who may or may not be of the same cultural background or practices) by focusing on the ‘message’ that is being put across for the benefit of knowledge, rather than discriminating against the ‘norm’ of how a language is to be used. As we move forward, the world is only going to get more diverse, and rich with different kinds of ‘norms’ within the linguistic landscape. I guess it is time we accept, respect and embrace it.

  • S says:

    This article reminds me of a similar experience I had last year when I was studying at an English university for the course of one semester. Assessments consisted mainly of essay writing, which I usually master quite well. I had to write two major essays in different modules, both within linguistics. As the teachers were aware of the fact that I was an international student, they explicitly commented on my academic writing skills, apart from content. I received remarkably positive feedback for my academic writing from one professor, whereas the second teacher classified my English as “unsatisfactory”. These situations can be frustrating and discouraging, and it seems difficult for us as international students to reach an overall satisfactory level of competence in academic writing, which is why adequate programs should be provided within higher education to aid our learning process.

  • jeyoung says:

    In my opinion, I felt it was so strict and structured to follow English academic writing strategy and convention since it differs from what I had learnt in my country. Occasionally it happens to me that I can’t translate what I want to say in the essay as English doesn’t have similar phrases or expressions. Therefore I sometimes struggle, but at the same time, it is also really important for international L2 learners to be able to write academic professional English writing when they proceed their study. They must need supports to improve their writing skills and more practice to write in English.

  • Luv says:

    I like the title for this blog post, it appears to talk about academic voice only but it brings on deeper issues of the power of English language. As English is part of global world and global conventions, so are the norms for English literacy. There are some rules in the English academia and if someone wants to be part of that community, need to follow those rules. However, the way of expressing ideas and seeing things around depends on each person’s environment or culture, that cannot be changed and English is one of the tools to let others see those differences. What makes sense to someone, might not make sense to others but it will depend on the purpose of writing and the readers. I think there should be a place for writing outside the box that lead to openness to new or different ways of writing in any language, not just in English…and even in academia.

  • Au says:

    It was quietly surprised for me to read the instructor’s comment on the students. I can understand that English speakers who do not speak Mandarin find it nonsense to write Mandarin in the research. However, the students can give the original interview written in Mandarin in attachment and English version in another pages. I have read some of articles conducted in China or Hong Kong, which was presented in this way. Other than that, as an instructor for a novice researcher, the comment was really discouraged. There are other ways to express the idea of using English only rather than this way.

  • Chunja says:

    The blog is really interesting to me!
    Actually I found a bit surprised when read the comments
    of the teacher because I may not have been in the same situation, and as a teacher, I wouldnt do the same thing to my L2 learners.
    I agree that L2 learners encounter a number of challenges and difficulties when learning English, and they possibly make mistakes when expressing their ideas due to the impact of L1, ways of thingking and cultural differences.
    As a teacher, we must acknowledge student’s diversity and sometimes should be sympathetic to their wrong choice of words, encourage and help them get engaged gradually into new language learning process.
    Voice and identity is such complicated and confusing concepts that many EFL/ESL teachers may also need time to completely understand. So with students, teachers need to patiently guide them and work with them to help them at first understand how to write as a academic english writer, and then how to write as an individual writer with their own voice. It takes more time for students to deal with the written academic disciplines without losing their voice. That’s why teachers should get to know student’s problems with voice and identity in academic writing and work out more effective ways to help them instead of judging and criticizing their mistakes.

  • Arnon says:

    Nowadays, English is become a lingua franca and many students around the world go to overseas to study by using English language. Those students come from different background and usually have the same problem in academic writing. This is because academic culture in English writing differs from academic culture in another counties. For my experience, I usually translate language in my first language and then write in academic English and my English academic writing sometimes was nonsense English.a

  • gab88 says:

    This blog poses some very good questions about how critical we can be as teachers.
    It seemed that the point on the feedback session was missed! What I found interesting was the lack of consideration on the part of the academic who was meant to be a support aid. I know that all elements are important when writing academically but first and foremost shouldn’t content be looked at before the details, like page numbers and table.
    As it was pointed out, English is being used as lingua franca more and more and I think we need to be more understanding linguistically as our language evolves.

  • Ary says:

    Keeping oneself relevant and up-to-standard for the expectation of academic discourse community (for any given discipline) is indeed a difficult task. The situation is even more so for non-English-speaking novice academic writers who are still struggling with grasping the concepts of “proximity” and “positioning” among these disciplinary communities. On top of that, they also have to deal with the impact (which some might refer to as problematic ones) that their cultural heritage bring to their performance. The two vignettes mentioned in the blogpost raised a deserving, yet undermined, attention that should be adequately given from the instructors to the learners’/writers’ multi-dimensional academic discourse acquisition.

  • preeya says:

    My experiences as an international student in English- speaking countries, sometimes same as Owen’s situation in this article. The voices can help the writers who want to express their ideas and bring them to stand at the distinctive point in academic environment, especially in academic writing skill. Nonetheless, it is not a great effort for every international students, they have to make a serious effort to practice their writing academic essays and accept the criticism with grace and appreciation from the teachers. In my point of view, the voices in academic writing is an important approach to clear the writer’s position and support it. However, the teachers want to their students to think critically through their writing and the students don’t want to have think that hard. This is a challenge for the teachers how to teach and give the feedback to their student to improve their academic writing skills.

  • Farzaneh Morovati says:

    Hello,

    This article was really interesting, since I think it mentions to the problem that so many people encounter in the field of English language especially those who have started learning English very newly. It is very true that English has predominance over other languages so it would be completely rationale that an English text should be more tangible and understandable for its native speakers at the first place. Therefore, it would be acceptable to say that the individuals’ writing is hampered by specific disciplines defined in English language. From my personal point of view, translation is one of those elements that brings this kind of disparity. All non-native speakers of English usually employ translation (from their native tongue to English) while writing, reading, or speaking in English and the outcome may be nonsense for native speakers. However, translation is one of the mediums through which the non-native speakers demonstrate their real identities and voice in L2.

    Thank you
    Farzaneh Morovati

  • Orpheus says:

    Thanks for writing such a great post, Grace. It is without no doubt that overseas students who are from non-English backgrounds face many obstacles when studying at an English-speaking country, especially when dealing with academic writing in higher institutions. It is also true that the cultural and educational background differences could possibly cause problems for students in their learning process at schools. Therefore, it is of importance for teachers to acknowledge these differences when teaching. Furthermore, they should provide appropriate instruction and feedback on students’ writing so that their students can be able to find their own voice without confusion.

  • Yuki says:

    As an international student from non English-speaking country studying in Australia, I myself used to experience the same situation like Owen. As voices help writers express themselves and give them a chance of standing out from others in the academic community. However, it is not easy for non English-speaking students to show their voices in academic writing. Instead of ignoring students’ ideas, lecturers should give them more constructive feedback for their improvement in their writing skills and encourage them to read much more academic articles or researches in the target language as well as stimulate them to practice writing essays.

  • Mengyao APPL941 says:

    This article reminds me of the upset experience of English academic writing learning. As an international student, I had to participate in the ten-week academic writing class before I studied my master courses. Sometimes I just try to use some complicated structure sentences in my articles, but my teachers always say ‘Mengyao, please watch your Chinese expression’ or ‘it is a run-on sentence’.Yeah, I know I have some grammar problems in my writing and I also attempt to fix them. But my teacher she did not have any patient about what I was trying to express, just told me to watch my Chinese expression,I felt so confused and upset, this is why i really understand the feeling like an English academic writing begger.

  • Nasser says:

    While linguistic discrimination against publications produced by non-native scholars cannot be denied, there does not seem to be a systematic bias to repudiate their participation in the academic work produced. The number of articles published by NNS in distinguished journals (non-native speakers) indicates an openness of the formal anglophone context.
    From a pedagogical perspective, ESL teachers need to be quite sensitive and conscious of cross-cultural differences when providing negative feedback to students though. This is mainly because the teacher’s awareness of washback effects in testing and delivering constructive feedback has a crucial role in learning as a developmental process.

  • Vox says:

    The two situations described in the post are common in the context in which many of us are now as international students in Australia. First, I think that the situation explained in vignette one has to do more with the negative type of feedback given by the instructor who did not bother to look beyond the form to see the content expressed. I have observed similar situations in writing classes in my native language (Spanish) with instructors who were so over-focused on form that become too prescriptive and forget the importance of content in writing.

    As for the situation in vignette two I agree with the fact that English hegemony in academic literacy is affecting other languages. I consider it should be our duty as applied linguistics students to work towards the legitimisation of multiple literacies in the context of English as a lingua franca.

  • West Coast says:

    Like Haley and Anas I too am in two minds. As a native English speaker who went through a bachelors and honours degree in Australia, that pedantry isn’t restricted to international students in my experience. An errant comma here, a missed period at the end of a citation, including the year in brackets again for the same citation the second time it appears in-sentence and within the same paragraph… All these things can get you a red circle on your paper and contribute to marks being reduced. I’ve had it happen myself. As you rightly note, some errors can change or cloud the intended meaning quite considerably.

    That stuff about the page numbers and table formatting, while it can be frustrating, are easy marks to lose and require a bit of practice to get one’s head around. I agree with Owen’s response to that feedback in the first vignette provided that the terms were adequately explained earlier in the text, whereas in the second vignette the information about page numbering and formatting, while dry, is required at some point by all students, international or not. It seems to have been an unhealthy conversation even before the comment about whether the original mandarin excerpts belong in the main body of the thesis. When including translated text I too might ask of myself, “why put the original text there?” With emphasis on the word ‘there’, space and word counts were a serious consideration in my previous writings and so I would consider putting them elsewhere such as in the appendices. That emphasis is unfortunately lost in written text compared to spoken. We can’t hear the tone or emphasis in this vignette.

    I tried to look up the APA standards for translated texts, but couldn’t find any guidance on interviews specifically. Sources in another language I could now cite, but I can’t find any guidance for text like that. And so, without any APA guidance I began looking at research articles with interviews in the languages I am interested in, but could only find one article of 10 or so with the untranslated text or gloss in the main text (Steinberg, Wiggins, Barmada & Sullivan, 2002), and even then only when the specific signs used and grammar is a core concept that the interviewee is talking about, otherwise it’s only the English translation. The convention for the languages I would be interested in (languages without a written text and so require a gloss or a video link) definitely appears to be translated text only in the main article, with possibly an appendix with the gloss or video links.

    All in all I can’t say I entirely agree with the arguments in this article given the pedantry I think every student has at some point endured, or without knowing the conventions or writing style (chicago, APA…) being used in Owen’s degree. This article has me thinking a great deal about how I’m going to format my own writings with translated text and what is most appropriate, thank you.

    Steinberg, A. G., Wiggins, E. A., Barmada, C. H., Sullivan, V. J. (2002). Deaf women: Experiences and perceptions of healthcare system access. Journal of Women’s health, 11(8).

  • Wendie LIU says:

    I have to say this is a common problem might appear in almost every English learner’ studying experience, to be honest, I would be also irritated by the response given by Owen’s instructor as mentioned in the article, what the instructor acted to Owen’s writing results signified the overwhelming stance of English in academic writing, whose mind could be considered to be out-dated. Since the increasing significance of linguistic diversity, the original language data should be respected by the researcher rather than be despised or ignored by them. There are lots of language types in the world, the world has gradually transformed into one community, the using of English could better be deemed as a lingua franca in academic research than a type of Tyrannosaurus Rex in linguistic landscape.

  • Ann says:

    Second language learners find difficulties to express ideas specially in writing. I feel very much confident when I write in my first language. Unfortunately most of the well recognised higher education causes are conducted in English and second language learners struggle with their writing. Leaners are unable to express their voices.
    The importance of gaining much practice prior to the academic course is shown. If learners join the course without that experience they struggle more. They can somehow express their voices.
    There are some higher studies conducted in first language in my country. However, if the degree holders want to find better jobs either in home country or overseas definitely need to prove competency in English. If someone doing Ph.D absolutely he or she has to go overseas and find difficulties in expressing the voice. Therefore, English plays a vital role.

  • Van Le says:

    Coming to Australia as an international students, I have kind of similar experience and feelings with academic writing and expressing my own voice as raised in this article. I think English second-language speakers/learners/researchers are “suffering” from the rigid academic literacy instruction. They might be less advantageous in terms of language, but that does not necessarily mean they have less great ideas and expertise. I have experienced some feedback for my assignments focusing on grammatical errors, not my ideas and that was quite irritating. I hope that novice researchers are assisted in a sympathetic, contributing way rather than imposing and denying their voices.

  • Ito says:

    It is true that writers need to obey the discipline shared in a certain discourse community, and refer to a writing style as experienced writers express their voices and engage their readers. However, lack of suggestions or information seems to prevent novice writers to understand why their ways of writing are inappropriate in academic writing even though their English is correct in casual conversation. Concrete feedback for what will make students’ writing appropriate in academic discourse should be provided.
    Furthermore, educators should understand the different perspectives of giving voices because making voices is culturally unacceptable in some cultures. The professor in this article might exclusively impose proper academic writing and try not to comprehend different academic cultures of the students. Now that English is seen as a lingua franca, it is highly likely that more English non-native people are involved in an academic world. Therefore it is necessary to have a flexible attitude about how to make voices and appropriately support novice non-native students with their voices to make them more recognized in an academic community.

  • Naoya says:

    This article has made a good point that is usually ignored by many individuals due to the strong belief that English is supposed to be produced properly to make sense in the English world since it is predominately used around the world regardless of genres, such as academy, business and cultural exchange. However, this implies the social hierarchy with a misconception that English should be put first all the time because of its influential status as a lingua franca. In reality, English has developed in multicultural environments and therefore, other cultural facets should be esteemed even in academic field where English is highly regarded.

  • Siyi Wu says:

    English has become a popular language in the world. Obviously, many people learn it. For me as well, before I am into Macquarie University, I was receiving the language course for half an year in Macquarie language center. I can say that I learn all my skills and academic abilities in there, and it helps me a lot. Also, I have some Chinese thinks as well, sometimes, I will use them in my assignments directly and the teachers will say what do you mean or something like these. But I think, it is better for me to adapt the new life and new thinks.

  • Thet says:

    It is true that students need to be a member of the academic community in accordance with its criteria of linguistic and academic performance. In attempting so, personally, it is very challenging to maintain my voice, particularly in academic writing. The overall process of getting the sources and thinking and responding to the written tasks and expressing the voice in those criteria are very demanding. In Myanmar, students are trained to write with sayings and proverbs and figures of speech to support their writing, emphasizing the beauty of writing instead of factual evidence and analysis.
    It would be helpful if there were some findings and advice on how to keep own voices while attempting to attain academic membership for those that are losing their voices in academic writing.

  • student says:

    When learning my second language, I was amazed to discover just how little neatly translates from one language to another. Owen’s experience in the first vignette is highly regrettable. Communicating in our native language allows us to convey nuances that are often not possible in our second or third languages. Consequently, I feel that snippets of Owen’s interview conducted in Mandarin, accompanied by an English translation, would provide deeper insights for the (likely numerous) Mandarin speakers reading his thesis than the English translations alone.

  • Sunny says:

    As an international students, I have suffered the same problems and feelings. I took five weeks English Language Class in Macquaire University before my master’s study. To be honest, thanks these five weeks class, I learned too much knowledge relating to academic writing and all these knowledge I even never heard in my own country. This means that without these five weeks pre-class, I may really hard for me to tackle with problems in writing my various and different assignments.
    As a student who came to Australia to learn master degree, academic writing is one of the most important skills that we need to have, while normally it is the most challenging one. It is important to provide much resources and opportunities for international students to learn much about how to write academically, such as how to express their voice and stance appropriately and how to connect their essay fluently.

  • Anas says:

    Like Hayley, I am in two minds about this subject. Unlike Hayley, my point of view is from a perspective of an international student pursuing his academic pathway in English. I do understand the frustrations of my teachers and professors when I make languages mistakes especially grammatical and collocation (amongst many others). Not only do I make language mistakes, the critical thinking components required and still do require some polishing. The feedback from my professors can sometimes be harsh, nevertheless, I took it as part of my learning journey. ‘Harsh’ is an interesting word as it is subjective and mostly dependent on varying points of views. When I read Chang’s heading of ‘Vignette one: Nonsense language’, I was expecting a ‘harsh’ comment but after reading the quoted “Owen, please watch your “Chinese expression” directly translated into English. They do not read well and either need extra explanation or need to be written in an expression that makes sense in English”, I thought it was not harsh but rather fair. I can understand the bewilderment of the student when the “offending expression was not even his original writing but appeared in a quote from a senior researcher in the field”. There needs to be a balance between academians’ expectations and students’ expectations. We, the students, apart from our language errors, do feel justified in using terminologies from our L1. Ultimately, it is our research. As to the question posed by a professor in Vignette two, “Who is going to read it anyway?” , it is good to be reminded that Chinese, specifically Mandarin is the most commonly spoken language in the world and English comes third. In some data, English may be the no.1 spoken language but look deeper and you will find most of the speakers are not necessarily from English speaking countries. Now, I do understand that may not be the case in the academic world but look no further than in the TESOL/Applied Linguistics classrooms in your own university. When international students write their thesis, be it for Masters or PhD, the topics are usually close to the heart or when we identified a gap. Regardless, we write for the specific audience and while the immediate audience may be our professor who is evaluating our work and ultimately give us the grades, our target audience is much farther reaching. And they are most likely like us – with their own struggles in English as their L2 or sometimes L3.

  • Haley says:

    I am very much in two minds personally on this subject. While I believe it is important for students to maintain their own voice and that minor grammatical mistakes that do not impede the meaning of the overall text and most likely not worth worrying about, there are times where using the language incorrectly may take focus and meaning away from an intended point.

    I am not a university lecturer, I am an ESL teacher and have taught quite a few classes in academic writing. We do try in these classes to get the students to able to express their opinions and reasoning in an academic voice. Of course, there are many grammatical and lexical related mistakes. The main problem is when the language associated with reasoning, drawing conclusions and structuring an argument is used incorrectly. Mistaking an uncountable noun doesn’t take away from the argument, but an inability to use contrastive language appropriately, for example, may make their intended meaning unclear.

    So I think that there is some level of command you do need to have of any language to use it an academic setting. Having said that, I have no idea how pedantic the lectures discussed in this article were being with their feedback.

    As far as the use of other languages, I would think that any work, like the interviews performed in another language would have to stay in that language for purposes of integrity.

  • Pegah Marandi says:

    Dear all,

    English has been the main language since around 1453, and in literature it is observed that the hundred year war against France, for France was the main language before rising of English, had the effect of branding French as the language of enemy and the status of English rose as a consequence. Hence since that time, English is considered lingua franca, and majority of countries speak that. Also, Britain, the main coloniser, colonised many countries and thus English was practised and pursued in various milieus: That is why we have many versions of English such as African English, Indian English, and so forth. Studying postcolonialism helps a lot to thoroughly understand why English is the dominant language amongst all.
    With regards,
    Pegah

    • Hi Pegah, you are pre-dating the rise of English by a couple of centuries and that English is dominant “amongst all” is debatable even today …

      • Pegah Marandi says:

        Dear Professor Piller,
        Thank you so much for your comment. 100 percent agree and yes it is very debatable even in post- post modern era.
        With best regards,
        Pegah

  • Piiigah (kamali) says:

    Unfortunately, not everyone in the world knows a global language. To cover this issue, there should be an agreement on an international language, which would ideally be English.

    With that, academic writing and reading would be comprehensible for everyone.

    However, based on my personal experience with the Persian language, there are thousands of word and phrases which I can’t translate in a way that I want to in English. And, in my experience, academic writing in English can be frustrating because of the lack of similarities in English and Persian, and it can affect the whole idea of the thesis.

    Maybe writing academically in my mother tongue would be the easiest approach, but it will be time-consuming and tiring for readers of other languages.

  • Yang says:

    The “nonsense English” example that writer provided, I was also received the similar comments from my English teachers in Australia. They are native speakers of English, however, I am the international students who come from the country which sets English as the compulsory subject and mainly focuses on tests and paperwork. We are used to translate English into the first language for understanding, then translate the “voice” back into English. Then, there are differences of the logic flow which writer mentioned “Chinese expression” (or which can be called the ‘Chinglish’) and it should be wrote “in an expression that makes sense in English”. But that really needs a period of time to change the logic flow, or change the understanding and thinking modes or methods, to adapt the modes in new language. This, after all, dues to some incorrect language learning habits.

  • Thuy Linh Nguyen says:

    It is very important to researchers to find or have their own academic voice. This will help them not only to express their opinions and make meanings in their own best ways but also to be outstanding as individuals in communities where they are members. However, ones should learn discourses’ conventions before manipulating, bending or breaking them to position themselves.

  • Li says:

    It is true that English is a lingua franca and if we can achieve high proficiency in English, we can successfully study or work in overseas countries such as the USA, Candan or Australia. However, people should not neglected the importances of their first languages. Different cultures have different cultures, values, and beliefs, someone who can speak English so well, does not mean English is better than other languages. Therefore, it is significantly important for individuals to find their own academic writing voice.

  • Roxxan says:

    Thanks for the world wide aspect post. I absolutely agree the point in the post that English is becoming a lingua franca more than a native language. As a English student has a different culture background, there might be some problems in the English learning process. I tried to ‘translate’ my mother tough into English instead of ‘organise’ it base on English culture. In this case, sometimes what I try to express could not make sense. As mentioned in the article, ‘If no equivalent term exists in the material, scientific, spiritual, cultural, emotional or political world of the writer, they have to provide an extended explanation or risks being “nonsensical” with their own non-English expressions.’

  • Flora Launay says:

    I can sort of relate to this article being an International student myself. However, I never felt disappointed, shocked, or upset by any of my teachers’ comments. The first time I went to study abroad was in Belfast, at Queen’s University. I remember that one of my professors actually encouraged me to read articles, journals, and any other academic texts in the languages I was comfortable with. Being French, he said “Go and read it in French”. Then, he learnt that I could also understand Spanish and encouraged me to read in Spanish. He even argued than being multilingual is an advantage for a student as the range of the available resources is much wider. I then went ahead and wrote my essay based on readings written in three different languages. It was very enriching especially because each language is linked to a certain culture as well as a certain point of view. It is fascinating to see how academics write and think in other languages than English.

  • bahar says:

    How informative, thanks.

  • Hanna Torsh says:

    Thanks so much for this post Grace – it really adds what has been a missing voice from EAP (English for Academic Purposes) teaching and learning, that of the learner themselves.

    In my work teaching English for Academic Purposes I have really struggled with many of the issues you raise. Who is the intended reader? What kind of style will be acceptable to them? When does grammar correction become cultural imposition? A pivotal experience for me was during a subject in a Masters course where the lecturer explicitly said that he had no problem with “non-native” uses of grammar and vocabulary, which made me realise that while at lower levels of English proficiency, academic literacy teachers may feel obliged to be hyper-correct, at higher levels such as a Masters level subject at a university where the focus is not on academic literacy as such but as a medium for ideas, it is really up to the discretion of the individual lecturers to pass judgment on the quality of academic writing.
    Perhaps for teachers the best way to improve the quality of academic literacy teaching is to move away from the idea that there is one kind of “correct” academic literacy and towards discipline-specific teaching, while at the same time involving both lecturers and academic literacy teachers in discussions like this around student experiences of feedback as paternalistic and dismissive. I know that this post would be a very valuable addition to the how to teach EAP materials I have worked with!

  • Terry Fellner says:

    This may be more an example of stupidity and ignorance on the instructor’s part rather than native speaker hegemony. A couple years ago I had a conversation with native speaking writing instructor when I was at a CamTESOL Conference. She became quite animated and disagreeable when I suggested that common word uses made by many non-native English writers such as “vocabularies” should be completely acceptable since they do not alter comprehension in any way and may actually enhance it for other non-native speakers/writers. To me, her view was both dismissive and paternalistic.

    But as Magalie has pointed out, this attitude is not exclusive to English. I have seen it in both my Japanese and French studies while a former colleague of mine has dealt with it in Taiwan with Chinese. All I can assume from this is that there are many ethnocentric attitudes speakers and writers have towards their native language(s). The fact that English is the de facto lingua Franca at the moment means that it is the language seen to be most guilty this.

  • khan says:

    You have raised a very significant issue which we all come across in academia and perhaps elsewhere too. Thanks very much indeed. Although I agree with your argument of English-Only hegemony, I am not sure if it is the key contributing factor or there are multiple factors from the conceptualization of languages to the complex intersection of writer’s resources, the immediate contextual/ institutional norms and the wider academic practices.

    I initially used to consider myself disadvantaged as I was a “non-native speaker” of English. However, with the passage of time in Lancaster, I discovered that I was wrong. My so-called native speakers of English colleagues had more de-motivating comments on their work than I did. I took great interest in investigating the reasons for it. My interactions with my lecturers and colleagues made be realize that the academic discourse is really much reified (as you have pointed it out very well in your post) narrowing spaces for student voices. It remains a monolingual world; there is no doubt about it. And it shatters many students’ voices. But I think there are many issues of genre and register involved here as well. And the institutional norms of academic writing can not be ignored as well. It is perhaps one of the reasons that academic publications are read by so few yet they are so important.

    I enjoyed your piece a lot and look forward to reading more of your work.

    Khan

    • Chad Nilep says:

      I would like to agree with khan and add my perspective.

      Grace is right that ideas about the hegemony of English writers and English-only readers constrict the voices of foreign- or second-language writers, and marginalize multilingual or polyvocal writing styles.

      But these are not the only barriers students or early-career colleagues face. I take the instructor in vignette two at her word: institutional barriers such as large numbers of students probably make it impractical for her to spend more than 10 minutes with each student. This is not satisfactory for any student, nor for the instructor.

      Every writer has needs that should be supported to bring diverse voices and perspectives to academic and professional fields. But the resources needed in terms of time, flexibility, and expertise to provide individually tailored support are available almost nowhere.

      In this case, as elsewhere, the individuals most in need of support have the least power to change the system, while those who might have that power are either blinded to the need or may even benefit from the status quo.

      I’m an English speaker in a non-Anglophone setting. I try to spend as much time as I can mentoring graduate students in academic writing in ways that I hope preserve their voices while allowing them to be published in not-always-flexible venues. But institutional requirements on me and on the students I work with severely limit what we can do together.

  • Thank you for the concise article. My PhD is in Education, although my ‘profession’ is Theatre. My research was concerned with connecting those two fields, Education and Theatre, in principles of a new paradigm. Although I am a native English speaker, my name is non-Anglo-Celtic and my cultural background is non-Anglo-Celtic. I witnessed the disheartening experiences of several office mates who were from non-English Speaking backgrounds. Their intellectual facilties were of the highest levels, as were their communication skills. It was the professional academics who lacked in personal and professional skills. Thus, there are year after year continual failures in supervision. This is not at all isolated to graduate studies students. However, it is complicated and easier to sideline the graduate students who are from non-English speaking backgrounds. My theorist was Pierre Bourdieu and his social theory explains clearly the various control mechanisms employed by those in control who wish to stay so. This same process of disempowerment goes on in the theatre constantly as the ethnic actor (even if they grew up in an English speaking environment yet also with linguistic diversity from their family and culture. One quote from your article intimates a broad problem that occurs within and outside of academia “It seems that its purpose is not to help novice researchers find their own academic voice nor to allow them to speak ..”.

  • Magalie Desgrippes says:

    Thank you for this contribution!
    As you probably know, this phenomenon is not limited to English. I had the opportunity to experience the same thing in German: Working for a german speaking project in Swizterland and having french as my mother tongue (something a lots of swiss german people don’t hear if it can give you an idea of my german level), I was prompted to attend a class for doctoral students about “clear” academic writing. The instructor was a science journalist supposed to help us write concisely and clearly, and avoid obstruse constructions of sentences meant to sound “more scientific”.
    Just like Owen, I had to send him some work he could comment and was very disappointed by the fact, that the most comments he had done were about supposed “french” constructions.
    The best exemple ist about the word “Professionelle” which is widly used in german educational science to label people who are professional as opposed to parents or other care givers. I was advised, in a very paternal tone, that this word was only used in german for “prostitute”.
    At least he had one comment about my style : To him, I used to much the pronoun “I”, something I wouldn’t need to do, since it was known that I was the author of the text…

    happy me…

  • Ailsa Haxell says:

    An added irritant is the need to translate use of words not common to an English speaking world, and so a glossary or use of footnotes is required. Where i study the word limit is the same for everyone, so if a glossary is required it comes at a cost to the total words that can be used in the body of the thesis.

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