Naslov
Exploring Note-Making as a Self-Mediation Strategy to Improve Academic Performance in an ESP Course

Autori
Kabalin-Borenić, Višnja ; Sladoljev-Agejev, Tamara

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, sažetak, znanstveni

Izvornik
Mediating Specialised Knowledge: Challenges and Opportunities for LSP Communication, Translation and Research, Padua, 10-12 July 2019 (Book of Abstracts) / - , 2019, 27-27

Skup
22nd Conference on Languages for Special Purposes: Mediating Specialised Knowledge - Challenges and Opportunities for LSP Communication, Translation and Research

Mjesto i datum
Padova, Italija, 10.07.2019. - 12.07.2019

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
content integration ; note-making ; self-mediation ; ESP ; motivation ; engagement ; academic performance

Sažetak
Content integration (CI) is a major academic and professional skill which can be practiced through activities such as summary writing or note- making (e.g. making outlines or graphic organizers) (Durán Escribano 1999 ; Jiang 2012). This can also be used in advanced classes of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) - Business English in this paper - as such activities contribute to constructing specialized knowledge in a respective discipline and the contextualised use of target vocabulary (e.g. Van Meter, Yokoi, Pressley 1994 ; Mežek, 2013). However, it is often difficult to motivate students to engage in cognitively demanding tasks of this type for the sake of language practice only. In other words, without a clearly perceived benefit in the classroom context, note-making and summarising may fail to produce quality results. In this study, following the advice of Stadler (2011), we decided to enhance our students’ motivation by creating a real-life situation in which students’ engagement with a content integration task, i.e. note-making, presented a concrete benefit. The purpose of the study therefore was to explore notemaking as a self-mediating exercise in actual exam preparation in relation to students’ academic performance and their perception of the learning experience. To be specific, about 70 students (junior business undergraduates) who had already received formal training on note-making as part of their ESP course, were told that, during the regular exam, they would be allowed to use their notes prepared at home (limited to a single page). The note-making task was intended to facilitate integration of information from multiple sources in the form of notes which could subsequently be used at the exam. We use multivariate analysis (PCA) to visualise in 2D the correlations between a) the quality of students’ notes while preparing for the ESP exam (e.g. completeness, integration), b) students’ actual academic performance (their results in the exam testing vocabulary, language use and content-based paragraph writing expressed as a composite grade ranging from 1 to 5), and c) their perception of note-making as a self-mediating exercise (assessed by an analysis of students’ selfreports responding to an open-ended question on the usefulness of note- taking/making task).

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Psihologija, Filologija, Kognitivna znanost (prirodne, tehničke, biomedicina i zdravstvo, društvene i humanističke znanosti)

POVEZANOST RADA