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B 6
B 6
B 6
Abstract. Academic writing is arguably the most important language skill to tertiary students,
especially to English-major ones, whose grades are largely determined by their performance in
written assignments, academic reports, term examinations and graduation theses. However, reality
has proved the difficulties of Vietnamese learners in applying the right level of formality, lexical
dense, and objectivity. The article, with the hope to help the tertiary English- major students
improve their skill of writing academic English, first deals with an overview on academic English
and the necessity of equipping them with knowledge of academic English. It will also go on to put
forward some strategies for effective writing academic English.
problems; the context provides few or no clues when they're engaged in ordinary conversation.
about what the communication means. In In everyday English, sentences tend to be
Gersten et al’s point of view [2], academic shorter, and the formal punctuation of the semi-
English is the language of school-based colon and colon seem to be avoided.
learning and extended, reasoned discourse. Contractions and the first person are acceptable.
Writing academic English refers to a formal In order to assist tertiary English-major
style of expression, namely a formal tone, use students with the production of academic pieces
of the third-person rather than first-person of writing competently, teachers should draw a
perspective, clear focus on the issue or topic distinction between academic English and daily
rather than the author’s opinion, and precise spoken English .Let’s consider the ways the two
word choice. Writers employing the academic varieties of English are used by two students:
style avoid jargon, slang, and abbreviations. Spoken English: Gimme it (pointing to a
Academic writing, when used appropriately, cell phone). I gotta go.
presents a polished and professional image.
Academic English: Could you please give
It can be said that academic writing is linear, me the cell phone because I have to leave?
which has one central point or theme with every Notice how context-rich spoken English is.
part contributing to the main line of argument, The student need only point to the cell phone to
without digressions or repetitions. Its objective is convey his/her meaning to his/her friend. In
to inform rather than entertain. Therefore, it is in contrast, notice that informal expressions such
the standard written form of English. as “gimme” and “gotta” are absent in academic
English and that academic English is
2.2. Academic English vs daily spoken English grammatically correct and is characterized by
subordination (because I have to leave) rather
than short, simple sentences. The academic
Academic English is, for the most part, a English version does not depend on context to
written language. In general, it is confined to convey meaning (Scarcella [3]). Those who
the realm of the serious: textbooks, academic or master academic English know its phonological
technical works, and most essays at university. features, including stress, intonation, and sound
Academic English tends to be impersonal and patterns. They also have a command of
precise, and often uses long, carefully vocabulary, everyday words, content-specific
constructed sentences; the formal writer will terms, know sentence structure and
avoid contractions and abbreviations, and will morphology. Also, they know how to use
use a more specialized and complex vocabulary grade-appropriate complex sentences, such as
than that employed in everyday speech. passive structures.
One must, however, beware of excess It can be said that the difference between
academic writing. It can easily become academic English and spoken English is not a
incomprehensible because it is too convoluted difference between correct and incorrect, but a
or wordy. In recent years the proliferation of difference of what is known as register. A
jargon has become altogether too general. register is a variety of language related to a
Despite its sophistication, formal language must particular subject matter or area of activity, a
remain clear. set of words and expressions as well as
Daily spoken English is the language syntactical features that may be said to
spoken by most people every day. While characterise that specific area of language.
There are many registers: technical, academic,
educated speakers retain their knowledge of
mathematical, scientific, etc., we can also speak
formal rules, they're more relaxed about
of a “formal” and “informal” register in
grammar and less concerned with vocabulary
114 N.T.H. Nga / VNU Journal of Science, Foreign Languages 25 (2009) 112-117
English, but in writing academic English, it Such limitations partially explain the reason
would be normal to draw most of the why teaching academic English to Vietnamese
vocabulary and expressions from the formal university English-major students is an essential
register. This entails avoiding colloquial issue.
(everyday) or slang expressions in academic
writing assignments. 2.4. Some suggested strategies for teaching
academic English to tertiary English - major
2.3. The necessity of teaching academic English students in Vietnam
to tertiary English - major students in Vietnam
From the above discussion of objective and
Academic writing is arguably the most subjective factors and from my own teaching
important language skill at university because experience, I would like to suggest some
students’grades are largely determined by their strategies to help University teachers raise
performance in written assignments, tests and English major students’ competence of writing
examinations or graduation thesis (Leki and academic English.
Carson [4]). Therefore, equipping tertiary a) Teaching features of academic English
English-major students with knowledge of
There are six main features of academic
academic writing is really essential. The reality
writing that students should know. To some
of teaching and learning reveals the teachers’
extent, academic writing is complex, formal,
improper emphasis on and the students’ vague
objective, explicit, hedged, and responsible.
knowledge of writing academic English, which
is partly one of the factors resulting in the poor Complexity
ability of using academic style among English- Academic English is relatively more
major students. In fact, in most universities in complex than spoken language (Biber [5],
Vietnam, the official lectures on academic style Halliday and Hasan [6]). Grammatically, it has
are not usually delivered until the seventh more subordinate clauses, more "that/to"
semester, that is, just before students finish complement clauses, more long sequences of
university. So when being questioned “What do prepositional phrases, more attributive
you know about Academic English?”, 27 out of adjectives and more passives than spoken
50 second-year students of English, who language. Lexically, academic writing often
finished 120 periods of writing at their requires longer, more complex words and
universities and covered skills of writing at phrases. That is, it has more nominalisations,
sentence level (in the first semester) and of more noun based phrases, and more lexical
functional writing (in the second semester) had variation. This kind of writing is lexically dense
similar responds reflecting their vague compared to spoken language - It has
knowledge of the issue. Most of them are proportionately more lexical words than
unable to identify the distinction between grammatical words.
spoken and written academic style as well as Commonly used techniques in academic writing
have no ideas of the features of these types. include subordinate clauses, complements clauses,
Consequently, when they are required to write a sequences of prepositional phrases, participals,
paragraph (in the third and the forth semester) or passive verbs, lexical density, lexical complexity,
an essay (in the sixth and seventh semester) they norminalization, noun-based phrases, modification
fail to produce formal pieces of writing. To of noun phrases, attributive adjectives.
improve the reality, the knowledge of academic Formality
style should be introduced in the second semester
so that students have opportunities to practice the Academic writing is relatively formal. In
skill in the five or six remaining semesters. general this means that in an academic piece of
N.T.H. Nga / VNU Journal of Science, Foreign Languages 25 (2009) 112-117 115
b) Setting the acceptable writing behaviours assignment. All academic work should
In academic writing, there is a standard that generally be presented in a reasonably formal
we can refer to as acceptable writing behaviour. style, and should not normally use a lot of
Cneanseco and Bryd (1989), Horowitz (1986a, everyday “street” language. However, this does
b), Johns (1986), Reid (1984, 1985, 1987, not mean that it should be excessively stuffy
1989), Shih (1986), Strauch (1997), Raimes and formal either. Expressing something in a
(1992), Grabe and Kaplan (1996), concur that clear, logical and critical way is one of the
there is a standard of acceptable writing requirements of good academic writing.
behaviour. That there is standard is also evident The analysis of the differences between the
in the various marking rubrics used to assess academic and spoken English together with
academic writing at different levels of suitable strategies for teaching academic English
development (in Peet [8]). are thought to be useful for tertiary English-major
As stated in the marking guidelines used in students. Once the strategies are applied in
IGCSE exams, the criterion on assessing parallelism with the learners’ attempt, it is
academic writing refers to content: believed that competence of writing academic
English among the students can be improved.
Answering the question
… Does the student make his/her answer
interesting using colourful details, personal References
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Paragraphing
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[2] R. Gersten, S.K. Baker, T. Shanahan, S. Linan-
How well does the student deal with the Thompson, P. Collins, R. Scarcella, Effective
topic? Does s/he get straight into the topic and literacy and language instruction for English
seem interested in it, and make the reader learners in the elementary grades, An IES practice
interested in it? guide, DC: IES, Department of Education,
Washington, 2007.
Sense of argument
[3] R. Scarcella, Accelerating Academic English: A
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and does the writer come to a clear conclusion? University of California, Oakland, California, 2003.
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3. Conclusion Longman grammar of spoken and written English,
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N.T.H. Nga / VNU Journal of Science, Foreign Languages 25 (2009) 112-117 117
Viết tiếng Anh học thuật được xem là kỹ năng quan trọng nhất đối với sinh viên bậc đại học, đặc
biệt là đối với sinh viên tiếng Anh. Ở nước ta hiện nay, việc đánh giá năng lực ngôn ngữ của sinh viên
chủ yếu dựa vào các hình thức viết: tiểu luận, báo cáo khoa học, các bài thi học phần, và luận văn tốt
nghiệp. Tuy nhiên, thực tế cho thấy hầu hết sinh viên tiếng Anh còn gặp nhiều khó khăn trong việc
chọn lựa văn phong và ngôn ngữ phù hợp để diễn tả tính khách quan của các bài viết học thuật. Trong
phạm vi bài viết này, chúng tôi xin giới thiệu vài nét khái quát về tiếng Anh học thuật, sự cần thiết của
việc trang bị cho sinh viên tiếng Anh một số kiến thức về tiếng Anh học thuật, đồng thời đề xuất một
số giải pháp nhằm giúp sinh viên hoàn thiện khả năng viết tiếng Anh học thuật của mình.