EAP511S - ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES - 2ND OPP - JULY 2023 :: NUST past examination papers between 2020 and 2024

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EAP511S - ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES - 2ND OPP - JULY 2023

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EAP511S - ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES - 2ND OPP - JULY 2023

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n Am I 8 I A Un IVE RSITY

OF SCIEnCE

TECHnOLOGY

FACULTY OF COMMERCE, HUMAN SCIENCESAND EDUCATION

DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGES

QUALIFICATION: VARIOUS SUBJECTS

QUALIFICATION CODE: VARIOUS

LEVEL: 5

COURSE CODE: EAP511S

COURSE NAME: ENGLISHFORACADEMIC

PURPOSES

SESSION: JULY 2023

DURATION: 3 HOURS

PAPER: THEORY

MARKS: 100

SECOND OPPORTUNITY EXAMINATION QUESTION PAPER

EXAMINER(S) MR. B. KAMWI

MS. T. KANIME

MR. C. GWASIRA

MS. Y. LYAMINE

DR. S. ITHINDI

MODERATOR: DR. N. MLAMBO

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Answer ALL the questions.

2. Read all the questions carefully before answering.

3. Number answers clearly.

THIS QUESTION PAPER CONSISTS OF _20_ PAGES {Including this front page)

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SECTIONA: ACADEMIC READING

[40]

Readthe following research article and answer the questions below. The original article has been

adapted for assessment purposes.

Developmental potential of self-assessment reports for high school students' writing skills

Afsheen Rezai, Ehsan Namaziandost, and Siamak Rahimi

ABSTRACT

Though many studies have been conducted on the effects of self-assessment on L2 learning over

the last decade, none has investigated how self- assessment reports lead to improving L2 learning. Thus,

this study aims to disclose how self-assessment reports improve Iranian high school students' writing skills

and their perceptions of the effectiveness of self-assessment reports in cultivating writing skills. For this

purpose, the researchers selected one intact grade 11 class {n = 21) at Shahed public high school in

Borujerd, Iran. During the instruction lasting 15 sessions held twice a week, a self-assessment report was

designed based on Nunan's (2004) template and given to the students to assess their writings weekly.

Then, a focus group interview was run with six students. Findings documented a significant improvement

in the students' writing skills in terms of content, language, organisation, and task requirements.

Additionally, the focus group interview results yielded four themes: raising students' awareness of

evaluation criteria, making students more self-regulated, letting students have a voice in their academic

destiny, and increasing students' motivation to write. In light of the findings, a number of conclusions are

drawn, and several implications are put forward.

LITERATUREREVIEW

Since the 1950s, the self-assessment concept has been under the lens of the leaders of the field

for both research and teaching purposes. According to Hilgers et al. {2000), its roots can be traced back

to social and clinical psychology. Self-assessment is built on two notions, namely self-observation, and

self-monitoring (AI-Mamoory & Abathar Witwit, 2021; Lam, 2010, 2018). Self-monitoring pushes learners

to generate internal feedback so that they are given the opportunity to compare their current

performance with well-established educational criteria (Carroll, 2020; Kanfer, 1975; Sabri Ali, 2021;

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Shahidi, 2020). As Lam (2010) stresses, "this feedback comes partially from observation and evaluation,

which are key processes in affecting change with deep-seated human behaviors" (p. 16).

Self-assessment has also gained support from social constructivism theory. Under the premise of

this theory, the social context is an influencing factor in shaping or modifying the behavior in which it is

situated (Grabe & Kaplan, 1996; Nieminen, 2021; Qinghua, 2021). However, self-assessment could not be

justified from the perspectives of behaviorism and cognitivism as they consider self-assessment a series

of isolated performances (Lam, 2010). In other words, these perspectives, as Hilgers et al. (2000) put it,

have been unable to show and justify how L2 learners learn the needed strategies to implement self-

assessmentcorrectly and how these perspectives can self- evaluate their performance in social conditions.

Therefore, it is essential to adopt a social constructivism perspective as the underpinning of a self-

assessment study to determine and disclose how self-assessment strategies and practices improve L2

learners' performance in social contexts (Karimi & Sarem, 2021; Lam, 2018). In connection with L2writing,

adopting this approach is most likely to reveal how self-assessment helps L2 learners become better

writers when actively involved in planning, drafting, editing, and self-monitoring their performances.

In addition, according to Hobson (1996), written self-assessment, as a powerful method, can make

way for L2 learners to enter a professional community. He reasons that the self-assessment can do so by

encouraging students "to think, make decisions, and evaluate their actions using the self- assessmenttools

as other members of the community" (p. 56). From this perspective, self-assessment is beneficial for L2

learners to understand their favorite professional community's typical conventions and values (Litterio,

2018; Sadeghi et al., 2017).

In addition, self-assessment has received support theoretically/theoretical and practically from

other perspectives. For example, according to Schendel and O'Neil (2000), by getting L2 learners to assess

their writing performance, they continue to reflect on all the factors influencing writing processes. In this

way, L2 learners' self-awareness of their writing skills significantly improves. The self-assessment is also

very useful to help L2 learners "take control over their writing, writing process, and learning-key

considerations in supporting a student-centered and effective learning environment" (Schendel & O'Neil,

p. 205). This, in turn, may make L2 learners self-regulated. The increased self- regulation in L2 learners

urges them to practice metacognitive strategies in which they can plan, monitor, and evaluate their

writings and produce self- directed feedback as to what should be done and not done next (Butler &

Schnellert, 2015; Zimmerman, 2008; Zheng et al., 2021).

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Different approaches to self-assessment

In the literature, two main self-assessment approaches have been verified. According to Brown

(2005), the first type measures L2 learners' proficiency through discrete-point tests that are objectively

rated. The second type assesses L2 learners' proficiency via checklists to rate and comment on their

abilities (North, 2000; Yan & Carless,2021). Though objectively ratable tests enjoy a high level of reliability,

they cannot push L2 learners to generate linguistically complex structures in productive skills. As Brown

(2005) stresses, this goes in sharp contrast with the fundamental tenets of alternative assessment

approaches, which put stress on outcome-based learning. In other words, they prioritise learning

grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and orthography as the traditional building blocks and listening and

reading comprehension at the cost of productive skills. Hence, it is clear that this kind of assessment does

not permit L2 learners to use the newly-acquired structures in new communicative contexts.

In contrast, self-assessment checklists are designed based on the current status quo of L2 learners

to assesstheir productive skills along with other receptive skills and language components (Brown, 2005).

They include open- ended statements like 'I can talk about ....' or 'I can write about ....'. Though these self-

assessment instruments do not possess a high level of reliability, they encourage L2 learners to

concentrate on L2 use in communicative contexts. The outstanding feature of self-assessment checklists

is that they allow L2 learners to reflect upon the processes and stages they have passed through to

produce a piece of writing (Hoo et al., 2021; Lam, 2010; Porter & Cleland, 1995; Ross, 1998). In line with

these considerably/considerable benefits, self- assessment reports were used in the present study.

Writing in EFLclassrooms

In the 21st century, the ability to write in English as an international language has gained more

attention than ever due to globalisation and technological advances such as the Internet. All age groups

require written communication across languages and cultures for business, education, and other purposes

(Hyland, 2016; Rahimi et al., 2021; Wiegle, 2014). From this perspective, writing is considered an act of

interactive communication between the writer and reader through texts (White, 2019). Vis-a-vis spoken

interactions, the writing process is more demanding for writers as there is no immediate feedback.

Different approaches to teaching L2 writing have been developed and practised in the literature.

According to Silva (1990), they represent "a cycle in which particular approaches achieve dominance and

then fade but never really disappear" (p. 11). These approaches, in general, have differed from two

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perspectives: the degree of articulation of the curricular proposals deriving from them and the degree to

which of the three essential elements of writing constitutes the core of the pedagogical option, that is,

texts, writers, or readers and contexts of writing (Hyland, 2016). In this sense, teaching writing approaches

have fallen into two broad categories: product-based and process- based approaches.

In the product-based approach, the primary attention is on the final texts that L2 writers are

required to produce for educational or vocational purposes. In this approach, texts are considered as

'objects,' and the ultimate goal of the course is to help L2 writers generate different kinds of texts in line

with their contextual needs (Hyland, 2016). The aim is to equip L2 learners with different and adequate

patterns and forms to produce a well-organized paragraph. In contrast, following the premises of the

learner-centered pedagogy, the process-based approach emphasizes L2 writers themselves (Hyland,

2016). From this perspective, as Crusan (2010) notes, L2 writing is considered a cognitively demanding

and problem-solving task, and the writing course needs to provide a couple of required strategies

deployed by expert writers. The aim is to help L2 writers involve successfully in a variety of processes

characteristics of expert writers' composing behavior, such as generating ideas, planning, goal setting,

monitoring, evaluating, and searching for language with which to express their intended meaning (Kyttala

et al., 2022; Weigle, 2014).

Writing assessments can be considered a continuum from least to most authentic "in terms of the

degree to which they simulate real-world writing conditions" (Wiegle, 2013). A distinction can be made

between indirect and direct writing tests at the end of the continuum. As a prevalent approach in the

1970s and 80s (White, 1994; Wolcott, 1998), the indirect tests measure the sub-skills engaged in writing

like grammar and usage through selected- response questions, such as multiple choices, fill-in-the-blank,

matching, identifying the problematic parts, among others (Crusan, 2010; Yan et al., 2021). On the other

hand, as Elliot and Perelman {2012) note, direct writing tests get test-takers to generate a piece of text in

response to a set of directions. According to Weigle {2013), direct writing tests are administered under

timed conditions, and test-takers must produce a piece of language going beyond the sentence level. On

the other end of the continuum, alternative assessment methods exist like self-assessment, peer-

assessment, portfolio assessment, and collaborative assessment, among others, in which authenticity is

the number one priority. In these writing tests, as Weigle {2013) puts it, they "allow writing to be assessed

over time and over a range of writing tasks and genres" (p. 2).

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Context of the study

Iranian high school students need to develop writing skills. For example, they know that writing

skills are of central importance to successfully use the new social technologies (e.g., Whatsaap, Facebook,

lnstagram, etc.) to pass their messages across to other people across the world (Naghdipour, 2016).

Despite this paramount importance tied to writing skills, they have gained scant attention in the syllabus

of the Iranian high schools. The writing parts are mostly restricted to sentence writing levels in the newly-

designed high school books Vision series (Alavi et al., 2016). For example, in Vision I, nouns, adjectives,

verbs, and adverbs are presented and practiced. In Vision II, the 'basic structure of a simple sentence',

'gerund', and 'to be infinitive' are presented and practiced. In Vision Ill, the structure of compound

sentences is introduced in Unit one, and the next two Units are assigned to developing paragraph writing

skills. In other words, the writing skills have not been principally and systematically covered in the Iranian

high school English coursebooks. In fact, as Naghdipour (2016) notes, the "English language education in

Iran appears to follow a "truncated" curriculum in that it ignores productive language learnings skills, such

as speaking and writing" (p. 83). To ameliorate this thorny condition, it is essential to introduce and

practice new pedagogies with rigorous theoretical foundations such as self-assessment. Hence, this

impetus urged the researchers to excavate the effects of the self- assessment on the development of the

Iranian high school students' writing skills. In addition, it aims at disclosing their perceptions about the

effectiveness of the self-assessment. To meet these goals, the following research questions were put

forward:

1. How does self-assessment lead to the improvement of Iranian high school students' writing skills?

2. What are the perceptions of Iranian high school students about the effects of self-assessment

reports on the development of their writing skills?

METHOD

Setting and participants

This study was conducted at Shahed public high school in Borujerd, Iran, in the autumn of 2019

semester. One intact grade 11 class (n = 21), including female students, was selected. The students aged

from 16 to 17 years old and those who were not willing to participate in the study were not included. The

English course is compulsory in the high school syllabus, and learners have to attend the English course

for three hours per week. Moreover, it should be stressed that the students were trained based on the

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third-grade public high school coursebook (Vision Ill) to ensure they were already familiar with paragraph

writing skills. In this regard, their English teacher confirmed that the students had not been educated on

paragraph writing skills already. It is worth noting that the researchers assured the school principal,

English teacher, and students that the data collected would remain confidential and they would be

informed about the final findings.

Instruments

Self-assessmentReport

One of the instruments used in this study was a self-assessment report. It was designed based on

the template presented by Nunan (2004). The self- assessment report was given to the students to record

their growth and development weekly over the course. The self-assessment report covered a range of

different items, including what the students have studied and learned over the current week, how their

writings have developed in terms of organization, content, language, and task achievement requirements,

what kinds of mistakes they have made, what difficulties they have, what they tend to learn, and what

plans they have for their upcoming sessions. It should be noted that the self-assessment report was

explained in detail to the students, and the teacher filled it in several times as a sample in front of the

class to let the students know how to use it during the instruction. Finally, it should be stressed that the

self-assessment report was piloted prior to the main study to measure its validity. For this purpose, the

researchers invited two university professors in Applied Linguistics at Lorestan University. They examined

the self-assessment report regarding face and content and reported that it could be used in the current

study. Afterward, five grade 11 students were asked to write about a topic and then assessed their

writings based on the self- assessment report. Next, they were asked about any ambiguity with the self-

assessment report's items. Based on the students' comments, some items were modified in terms of

language.

FocusGroup Interview

The second instrument was a focus group interview administered with six students who actively

participated during the instruction. The participation was voluntary, and prior to running the focus group

interview, written consent was translated into Persian and signed by the students' parents. Particularly,

the interview revolved around the participants' perceptions and experiences of the effectiveness of the

self-assessment reports in developing their writing ability. During the interview, the participants

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expressed their experiences of the intervention and responded to other participants. The focus group

interview was audio-recorded by two voice recorders. It was run at the end of the instruction at an agreed

time with all the participants, lasted around 2-3 hours, and run in the participants' mother tongue

(Persian) to let them express their voices with ease.

Students' Coursebooks

The participants' course books were the last instrument utilised in this study. The course books

are comprised of a student book and a workbook. The student book named Vision Ill includes three units.

Every unit covers a range of parts, including Get Ready, Conversation, New Words and Expressions,

Reading, Grammar, Listening and Speaking, and Writing. Concerning the writing part, it should be noted

that the writing part of Unit 1 deals with the development of compound sentences. In Units 2 and 3,

paragraph writing is introduced and exercised. It seems that the primary objective is to enable third- grade

students to write short description paragraphs in a principled way. The workbook written in three units

encompasses some activities consistent with the content of the student book.

Data Collection Procedures

Some steps were taken to carry out the current study. First, to satisfy the ethical requirements,

before running the study, the researchers met the school principal and English teacher and explained the

current study's objectives in detail. Having received the consent of the school principal and the English

teacher to let the study be run in their school, the researchers semi-randomly selected one of the grade

11 classes.At an agreed time, the researchers attended the class and illuminated in detail the objectives

of the study for the students. Then, the written consent in Persian was given to the students to be signed

by their parents. Second, the teacher was taught the principles and procedures of the self-assessment

with a particular focus on writing skills by an assistant professor at Ayatollah Borujerdi University. The

reflections and explanations of the teacher demonstrated that he has completely learned the principles

and procedures of the self-assessment. Then, the instruction lasted about 15 sessions, and the classes

were held in 75 minutes twice a week. The first session was dedicated to introducing and explaining the

participants' self- assessment reports and writing skills. In this session, the teacher explained the self-

assessment reports and the required steps to use them. She illuminated the different parts of the self-

assessment reports. In clear words, Concerning the content, she explained that the content should be

relevant and sufficient. Relevant means the content needs to be meaningful to the topic, and sufficient

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means there should be enough content. She detailed that the content or ideas need to be presented

logically and grouped or separated in meaningful ways concerning the organization. Regarding the

language, she illuminated that they need to make use of a range of grammatical and sentence structures

accurately and use a variety of vocabulary and expressions accurately. Their punctuation was to be

assessed, and the spelling had to be accurate. Their writing had to be around 100 words in length

concerning the task requirements. This procedure was followed twice to clear any misunderstandings or

ambiguities. The students raised their questions and affirmed that they had got the key points.

By following Grower et al.'s (1995, pp. 115-116) model, which has been presented to teach L2

writing skills, every session included some distinct steps. The lesson started with the introduction (about

five minutes), in which the participants' interest and background knowledge were activated in different

ways, such as playing a listening clip, reading a text, displaying a short video, and narrating a short story.

The next stage was working with ideas (about ten minutes), in which the teacher extracted the students'

ideas through brainstorming technique, wrote the ideas on the whiteboard, and chose the most

appropriate ones. In the next stage, called planning to write (about ten minutes), a model of the intended

paragraph with its typical features and structures was provided to the students. The lesson continued by

drafting (about ten minutes), in which the teacher had the students write an initial draft based on their

notes and plans. The students were recommended to consult dictionaries, grammar reference books, and

model paragraphs for some conventions to complete this part. The fifth stage was reviewing and drafting

(about ten minutes), in which the students were urged to edit and improve their first draft. In the next

stage, called reviewing (about ten minutes), the students had to repeat their writings and modify the

problematic parts. During the rest of the class time, the students were given the self-assessment reports

to assesstheir writing performance (about twenty minutes) in line with the given open- ended statements.

In doing so, the teacher encouraged the students to reflect on their different aspects of writing regarding

organization, content, language, and task achievement requirements, detect areas of weakness and

strength and plan for improvement. In doing so, the students were left alone to reflect upon their learning

and compare and contrast their new writings with the previous ones. The teacher monitored the students

when they completed the self- assessment reports and responded to their questions. Every week, the

teacher gathered the self-assessment reports and put them in a cabinet in the corner of the class. At the

end of the instruction, the focus group interview was run with six students who participated actively.

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DISCUSSION

The first research question investigated how self-assessment reports improve Iranian high school

students' writing skills. As reported above, the findings unveiled that the students reported that their

writing skills improved during the instruction. The self-assessment reports documented that the students

could improve their writing skills with aspects to content, language, organization, and task requirement

factors during the instruction. Moreover, the results indicated that the students' writing mistakes

dwindled, and their writing difficulties ameliorated with the cross of time. Likewise, the findings evidenced

that the students reported that their motivation increased and wanted to practice writing more in the

upcoming times at the end of the course.

The second research question examined the Iranian high school students' perceptions of the

effects of the self-assessment reports on the development of their writing skills. As reported above, the

results evidenced that the students had very positive attitudes toward the efficiency of self-assessment

reports in cultivating their writing performance. The recurring themes unveiled that the students

maintained that the self-assessment reports could raise their awareness of evaluation criteria, make them

more self-regulated, have a voice in their life academic destiny, and increase their motivation to write

more. According to the findings, it may be argued that using the self- assessment reports affected the

students both cognitively and affectively.

CONCLUSION AND PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS

The present study aimed to scrutinise how self-assessment reports foster Iranian high school

students' writing skills. Besides, it sought to excavate the Iranian high school students' perceptions about

the effectiveness of self- assessment reports in cultivating their writing. The results of the self- assessment

reports demonstrated that the students assessed that their writing abilities significantly improved with

aspects of content, language, organization, language, and task requirements. In addition, complementary

to the self-assessment reports' findings, the focus group interview results evidenced that the students

have very positive attitudes toward the efficacy of the self-assessment report. In light of the findings, it

can be concluded that EFLlearners can exercise self-assessment reports to boost their writing skills.

In line with the study's findings, a number of pedagogical implications are suggested. First, to take

advantage of self-assessment reports in high school classes, the teacher educators may want to give

enough attention to this alternative assessment approach theoretically and practically. By doing so, it is

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assured that the Iranian EFLteachers get a comprehensive understanding of the pros and cons of self-

assessment and, accordingly, employ it in their real classes.Second, owing to the promising results of the

current study, the authors of the Iranian high school course books are recommended to include self-

assessment at least in the workbook. For example, a particular space can be assigned at the end of each

lesson in which, using a self-assessment report, students can self-assess their performance over the

lesson. Later on, they can return to their reports and clearly understand their growth and development.

Third, congruent with the study's findings, the Iranian EFL teachers may want to use self-

assessment in their pedagogy. However, they need to present clear and straightforward explanations of

the benefits of the self-assessment report to their students and train them on how to do it inside and

outside the class. Finally, as self-assessment lets the students of the current study get more motivated to

write, make more correct judgments about their writings, and increase their self-regulated skills, the

Iranian high school students may want to benefit from its implementation in the learning of other

language skills and components.

In light of the limitations imposed on the current study, some suggestions for further research are

presented here. As this study's results provided strong support for the benefits of self-assessment reports

to foster the Iranian high school students' writing ability, there is much scope for exploring how self-

assessment reports can improve the other language skills and language components. Future research can

also extend how online self- assessment reports may boost EFLlearners' educational achievements in

mixed methods or qualitative studies. Additionally, it is suggested that the efficacy of self-assessment

reports in developing EFL learners' self-regulation skills be examined. Moreover, the effects of self-

assessment reports can be put into research with different participants (e.g., kids, teenagers, and adults)

in other contexts (e.g., elementary schools, private language schools, and universities). Last but not least,

the findings of the present study could provide the background for a survey to uncover the Iranian EFL

teachers' thinking and perceptions about alternative assessment methods, like self-assessment reports in

the future.

(Source:Rezai, A., Namaziandost, E., & Rahimi, S. (2022). Developmental potential of self-assessment

reports for high school students' writing skills. A qualitative study, 163-203.

10.22099/TESL.2022.42670.3082.)

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Part 1: Comprehension

[20 marks]

1. Over the past ten years, how many studies have been conducted on how self-assessment report

leads to improving L2 learning?

(1)

2. To what can the origin of the self-assessment concept be traced?

(1)

3. Name two key processes that affect change with deep-seated human behaviours.

(2)

4. Say whether the following statements are True or False.

(5)

a) Self-assessment has not gained support from social constructivism theory.

b) Written self-assessment can be a great opportunity for L2 learners to enter a professional

community.

c) Self-assessment is useful because it can help learners to take control over their writing and

writing process.

d) Written self-assessment can result in self-regulation which can urge students to practice

metacognitive strategies.

e) The outstanding feature of self-assessment lies in the fact that it does not allow students to

reflect upon processes and stages they have passed through to produce a piece of writing.

5. Choose the correct answer.

(1)

The ability to write English as an international language has received more attention in the 21st century

because of ....

a) All age groups

b) Language and culture

c) Technology improvements

d) Interactive communication

6. Find a word that is closest in meaning to each of the following descriptions in each of the given

paragraphs.

(3)

a) of undisputed origin and not a copy; genuine (Par K)

b) to examine or inspect closely and thoroughly (Par U)

c) means before (Par N)

7. To what does each of the following pronouns refer

(3)

a) They (Par B)

b) They (Par F)

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c) It (Par O)

8. Study the abstract of this paper paying attention to the cohesive devices used, so that you can

answer the following questions.

(4)

a) Find a cohesive device that shows an opposing view

b) Find a cohesive device that shows the sequence of events

c) Find a cohesive device that shows that extra information is about to be presented

d) Find a cohesive device that shows a consequence

Part 2: Language usage questions

[10 marks]

1. Identify an example of the following in Paragraph B.

(2)

a) Hyphenated compound word

b) Solid compound word

2. Choose the correct form of the words in brackets to complete each of the sentences below. (2)

a) In addition, self-assessment has received support theoretically/theoretical and practically from

other perspectives.

[Paragraph EJ

b) In line with these considerably/considerable benefits, self- assessment reports were used in

the present study.

[Paragraph GJ

3. State whether the underlined affix in each word below is derivational or inflectional.

(2)

a) disclose

[Paragraph CJ

b) encourag)D_g [Paragraph DJ

4. Analyse (break down) the word below according to its morpheme structure.

(1)

Pedagogically

5. State the type of word formation process for the word EFLused in the text.

(1)

6. What part of speech are the words below as used in the text?

(2)

a) Curricular

[Paragraph IJ

b) Learner-centred [Paragraph JJ

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Part 3: Research analysis questions

[10 marks]

1. Readthe research questions below and formulate the research objective for each research question.

(2)

Research questions

a) How does self-assessment lead to the improvement of Iranian high school students' writing skills?

b) What are the perceptions of Iranian high school students about the effects of self-assessment

reports on the development of their writing skills?

2. What data collection instruments were utilised in the study?

(3)

3. Where and when was this study carried out?

(2)

4. Explain one way in which researchers upheld research ethics

(2)

5. In which section of the research are researchers suggesting directions for future research/studies?

(1)

SECTION B: ACADEMIC WRITING

[60]

Part 1: Report writing

[15 marks]

Readthe extract below taken from an academic article, before attempting to answer the question. The

focus of the article is on students' high failure rate at university.

The issue of students failing courses and dropping out of college is a concern for students, faculty, and

academic leaders. It is a student concern because the "impact of college failure can cause lasting damage

to self-esteem, and the consequences can influence an entire lifetime" (Tennen 1998:22) . It is a faculty

concern, because all too often faculty feel a sense of personal failure and blame their own teaching for

the failure of some students (Hagar 2007; Dawley 1999). It is also the concern of academic leaders,

because colleges and universities are accountable not only for their graduation rate, but also for their

students' successfrom enrolment through and past graduation.

These multiple concerns led the authors to embark on three separate but connected studies to

understand students', faculty members' and academic leaders' perspectives on why students fail courses

and drop out of colleges. In 2011 the authors conducted a survey of 739 students, asking them why

students fail courses and drop out of college. The many reasons students provided for failing gave insight

into this phenomenon.

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Poor time management is an umbrella problem with several related issues that can lead to course failure.

Students who spend too much time playing games, watching television or hanging out with friends do not

put enough time into completing work. Given the common need to balance coursework, labs,

extracurricular activities and jobs, lack of planning can put students in a major bind. Procrastination

sometimes leads to incomplete or deficient performance on homework, papers and projects. In some

cases, students may plagiarize papers to make up for lack of planning and effort, which often means

automatically failing the course and can even result in dismissal.

Many students are in a difficult position where they must work while in school. This is highly respectable

but could lead one having less time to focus on your studies, and possibly failing in the end. Work gets in

the way because you have less time to study and you might come home drained after that late-night

shift. One of the surest ways to fail a class is to consistently miss it. Missing classes can lead to missed

homework assignments, papers and projects, especially if you don't check in regularly with the instructor.

You also miss critical lecture and discussions of topics and content, which can lead to poor performance

on tests. Being aware of how students, faculty members, and academic leaders perceive the root causes

of student failure in academic settings is a necessary step in clinically analyzing the complexity of the

problem and in finding workable solution.

[Retrieved from https://www. ukes/education/transition-of-first-year-students-into-university-life-

education-e.php ?vref=l l

The Report question:

Many students do not succeed in their studies at university. In some cases, they end up dropping out of

university. You have been instructed by The Director of student affairs at NUSTto research and investigate

three main reasons that lead to students failure at university. You then have to compile a

Recommendation Report.

Write the following sections of the report:

1. Title of the Report

(2)

2. Introduction (about 60 words)

(4)

3. Discussion

(6)

List three main issues that cause the failure of university students at college (about 60 words)

4. Recommendation

(3)

Provide one recommendation that you think will lead to students not failing in colleges (about

30 words)

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Part 2: Academic writing

[20 marks]

Study the following paragraph carefully and answer the questions below.

Writing assessments can be considered a continuum from least to most authentic "in terms of the degree

to which they simulate real-world writing conditions" (Wiegle, 2013)1. A distinction can be made between

indirect and direct writing tests at the end of the continuum 2• As a prevalent approach in the 1970s and

80s (White, 1994; Wolcott, 1998), the indirect tests measure the sub-skills engaged in writing like

grammar and usage through selected- response questions, such as multiple choices, fill-in-the-blank,

matching, identifying the problematic parts, among others (Crusan, 2010; Yan et al., 2021)3. On the other

hand, as Elliot and Perelman (2012) note, direct writting tests get test-takers to generate a piece of text

in response to a set of directions 4• According to Weigle (2013), direct writing tests are administered under

timed conditions, and test-takers must produse a piece of language going beyond the sentence level. On

the other end of the continuum, alternative assessment methods exist like self-assessment, peer-

assessment, portfolio assessment, and collaborative assessment, among others, in which authenticity is

the number one priority5. In this writing tests, as Weigle (2013) puts it, they "allow writing to be assessed

over time and over a range of writing tasks and genres" (p. 2)6.

1. Identify the academic writing conventions exemplified in each highlighted components in each of

the following sentence.

(4)

(a) Writing assessments can be considered a continuum from least to most authentic in terms of

the degree to which they simulate real-world writing conditions.

(b) According to Weigle (2013), direct writing tests are administered under timed conditions, and

test-takers must produce a piece of language going beyond the sentence level.

2. Identify sentences which exemplify the following ways in which writers can incorporate other

scholars' ideas in their writing. Only write the correct sentence number.

(6)

(a) Quotation

(b) Synthesis

3. Identify three spelling errors in the paragraph. Write the misspelt word and the correct one next

to it.

(6)

4. Name the stages of writing process represented by the pictures that follow.

(3)

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(a)

(c)

(b)

Oo·

.__,.,___1,-.;.f.k...:t,.?

.t\\> i Oi.~lo~""e

5. What is a sentence fragment?

Part 3: Text structure

(1)

[10 marks]

l. Read each passage below and identify the type of text organisation pattern used to present the

information.

(5)

A. Are you a musician? Would you like to connect with other music makers? You've got

choices when it comes to musical programs at Morton University. If you join the marching

band, you'll play in front of thousands at our football games, while if you join the jazz

band, you'll play at our dances and elite alumni events. Both these programs can help you

become a better musician. The jazz band is a little smaller than the marching band but

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there is more room for improvisation. Of course, if you join the marching band, you'll get

to wear a cool cape. The choice is yours.

B. When you first get your instrument, the amount of work that it takes t_olearn to play well

may discourage you from trying at all, but don't give up! There are many ways that you

can improve your playing. You can take lessons, you can learn to play with a friend, or you

can join your school's music program. These can be some of the solutions to help, but the

most important thing that you can do is to stick with it. Practice playing your instrument

every day and you will learn how your instrument works. Once you know your instrument,

you'll be able to make playing look easy.

C. A mute is an object that is fitted to the end of a brass instrument to change the

instrument's sound and tone. Mutes can be made from many materials, but aluminum,

brass, and copper are common. A mute works by changing the shape of the instrument

and absorbing its acoustic vibrations. This causes the instrument to produce a sharp,

damp sound. Mutes are often used in jazz music but sometimes they are called for in

other compositions as well.

D. Louis Armstrong was born to a poor family in Louisiana. He grew up in a rough

neighborhood under the care of his grandmother and uncle. Armstrong learned to play

trumpet by ear at age 11. After getting arrested for firing a gun in the air while celebrating

New Years Eve, he was sent to a juvenile correctional house. He received musical

instruction while he was detained, and Armstrong soon led the intuition's band.

Armstrong would go on to change the face of jazz.

E. For better or worse, the Internet changed the music industry. The Internet allowed

people to share music with friends and strangers around the world. With no laws to

regulate online music sharing, many consumers downloaded music for free instead of

paying for it. Consequently, the music industry made less money and a lot of artists

suffered; however, the Internet also brought new talent to the market. Before the

Internet, artists had to sign with labels to break through. These labels acted like

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gatekeepers, but the Internet allowed artists to record and distribute albums and videos

by themselves. The Internet continues to change the music industry.

2. Provide one cohesive device from each paragraph that influenced your choice of the text

organisation pattern you gave in 1.

(5)

Part 4: Citation and reference (APA 7TH edition)

[15 Marks]

Question 1

[5]

Using the source details provided in each case, complete the sentences by inserting in-text citations as

appropriate. Use page 722 if there is a need. Write only the number and the correct answer next to it.

1.1 ________

attempted to formulate a definition of addiction that would be applicable

to drugs under international control.

Source:

WHO Expert Committee on Addiction-Producing Drugs. Third Report (1952) Wld Hlth Org. techn. Rep.

Ser., 57, 9

1.2 Following withdrawal of barbiturates, tolerance is rapidly lost, and some patients may become

more sensitive to barbiturates than they had been prior to chronic intoxication with these drugs

Source:

Belleville, R. E. & Fraser, H. F. (1957) J. Pharmacol. exp. Ther., 120, 469

1.3 WHO has already published a series of reports on these requirements _______

Source:

Braenden, 0. J., Eddy, N. B. & Halbach, H. (1955) Bull. Wld Hlth Org., 13, 937

1.4 According to _______

to those of chronic alcoholism.

___,the clinical manifestations of chronic barbiturism are similar

Source:

Isbell, H., Belleville, R. E., Fraser, H. F., Wikler, A. & Logan, C. R. (1956) Arch. Neural. Psychiat. (Chic.),

76,468

1.5 "Drug dependence is a state of psychic or physical dependence, or both, on a drug, arising in a

person following administration of that drug on a periodic or continuous basis"

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Source:

Nathan, B., Eddy; M. H, Halbach; Harris, Isbell, & Maurice, H. Seevers. Drug dependence: Its

significance and characteristics. 1965, 32, 721-733. Bull. Org. mond. Sante. Bull. Wld Hlth Org.

Question 2

[7]

The source details in question 1, 1.5 are not aligned to the APA 7th edition style of referencing.

Rewrite the source details to align them with the APA style of referencing.

Question 3

[3]

Study the source details below and answer the question that follows.

World Health Organisation. (2007). ICD-10classification of mental and behavioural disorders: Clinical

conditions and diagnostic guidelines,1(10 th ed.). 2World Health Organisation.

3.1 Identify the type of source exemplified above.

(1)

3.2 Identify the numbered details in the source above.

(2)

a) (10th ed.).

b) World Health Organisation

-END OF EXAM-