5th International English for Specific Purposes Conference , Ankara, Turkey, 1 - 02 July 2022, pp.21
Novice EFL Writers’ Paraphrasing Experiences in an Academic Writing Course, ENG 101
For teaching and learning purposes, paraphrasing not only offers additional insights for teachers to learn more about learners’ reading and
writing abilities, but it also enables learners to practice close reading of target texts and language, and thereby improving their reading and
writing skills. Therefore, it is critical for L2 writing researchers to investigate the practice of paraphrasing in order to gain a deeper
understanding of novice L2 learners’ academic writing experiences. However, although the significance of plagiarism and textual borrowing
in academic writing is evidenced with a plethora of studies (e.g., Cumming, et al. 2016; Pecorari & Petrić, 2014; Pennycook, 1996),
paraphrasing has not attracted its deserved attention, especially regarding EFL writers’ practices at the tertiary level. In this regard, this study
was conducted to explore the experiences of novice EFL writers as they practiced paraphrasing in an academic writing course, in Turkey,
and further seeks to unveil the complexities for the inexperienced L2 writers to acquire the skill of paraphrasing. Focusing on how eight
inexperienced L2 academic writers experienced the process of paraphrasing, the study in hand contributes to an emic perspective to second
language writing literature by filling the methodological and the contextual gap. The data collection tools of the study included a short
questionnaire, introspective methods, think-aloud protocols, and short semi-structured interviews. Initially, a short questionnaire was used
to learn background information such as L2 learners writing experiences and familiarity with the paraphrasing skill before choosing the focal
participants. Apart from the questionnaires, think-aloud protocols were conducted to explore how students make decisions while
paraphrasing. During the think-alouds, the students were asked to complete a short paraphrasing task while verbalizing their thoughts, which
lasted approximately 30 minutes each. Moreover, short semi structured interviews were conducted to learn the participants’ perceptions
about paraphrasing experience, and suggestions for classroom instructions. The participants of the study included eight upper-intermediate
freshmen in English for Academic Purposes-I class. Findings of the study revealed that the inexperienced L2 writers conceptualized
paraphrase as a linguistic activity rather than a writing tool without taking the rhetorical functions into consideration. The participants
linguistically manipulated sentence structures, went through the paragraph sentence by sentence and search for synonyms in order to produce
paraphrases that would ideally ‘mean the same, but look completely different’. Therefore, they showed a tendency towards paraphrasing
every single linguistic chunk in the original sentences, and thus attempting to make their paraphrases as close to the original paragraph as
possible. The participants were also observed to use multiple online sources and work with Artificial Intelligence by using paraphrasing
tools to crosscheck the output. The findings provide a deep understanding of the general practices of EFL undergraduate writers, and
strategies they use when working on a paraphrase and the decisions they make in the paraphrasing processes. The study also shows the
major difficulties EFL L2 writers encounter and illuminates how they make sense of the paraphrasing skill with further suggestions for
classroom instruction.
Key words: EAP, paraphrasing, academic writing