Language and Knowledge Content Gaps in Students’ Academic Writing: A Case Study in University of Science and Technology- The University of Da Nang
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54855/ijte.25526Keywords:
Language and Knowledge Content Gaps, Academic Writing, Cross-Cultural PerspectiveAbstract
This study aims to identify and bridge the major language and knowledge gaps existing in their IELTS writing task 2. A collection of 202 essays made by engineering freshmen at the University of Technology- The University of Da Nang (DUT-UDN) is interpreted and organized into two strata: (i) lexico-grammar and (ii) knowledge content stratum. The descriptive and qualitative analysis of the collected data reveals that there is a tremendous number of grammatical errors, such as tenses, conjunctions, prepositions, and others, as well as wrong word use or lexical errors on account of word-by-word translation. Particularly, this study sheds light on the challenges of a persistent absence of experience and real-world knowledge in supporting techniques to offer solid persuasion to readers within a cross-cultural perspective. It is concluded that besides teaching grammatical and lexical ranges, introducing, practicing, and reinforcing argumentation, critical reasoning, typical exemplifying, quoting, and citing statistical evidence techniques are also essential in academic essays.
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