English language teacher perceptions of plagiarism as a culturally-based concept Kara Ronai
[email protected] University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Presentation outline O Rationale and research questions O Defining and problematising plagiarism O Plagiarism and writing in English as a second/foreign language
O Plagiarism and culture O Teacher perspectives on plagiarism and culture
O Conclusions and future research directions
Academic plagiarism scandals O Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg (German Minister of Defence) O Annette Schavan (German Minister of Education and Research) O David Robinson (Vice-Chancellor Monash University, Australia) O Wang Hui (Professor, Tsinghua University, China) O Jari Vilén (Finnish Minister of Foreign Trade and European Affairs)
Academia, international tertiary education & the English language English as the language of academia
English as the medium of instruction (EMI) at universities globally
(Jenkins, 2014)
Research questions O What does plagiarism constitute in the context of English
academic writing (especially English as a foreign/second language)? O To what extent is plagiarism perceived as a culturally-specific
concept?
Defining plagiarism An object
by an agent
which has been taken (borrowed, or stolen)
from a particular source
without (adequate) acknowledgement
and with or without intention to deceive
(Pecorari, 2002)
(Sutherland-Smith, 2011)
Problematising the definitions of plagiarism O Plagiarism of ideas or language? (Sutherland-Smith, 2011) O Textual ownership (Pennycook, 1996; Sowden, 2005) O Originality and authorship (Barthes, 1977)
Plagiarism and writing in English as a second/foreign language O Textual borrowing for language learning
(Pennycook, 1996; Pecorari & Shaw, 2012) O Patchwriting (Howard, 1995) O Referencing and citation (Phan Le Ha, 2005)
Plagiarism and culture O Is plagiarism cultural?
(Liu, 2005; Pecorari & Petrić, 2014; Pennycook, 1996; Phan Le Ha, 2006; Sowden, 2005; Sutherland-Smith, 2008) O Problematisation of the term ‘culture’ (Holliday, 1999)
Teacher perspectives on plagiarism and culture O Six Australian English language teachers O Teaching experience O Semi-structured interviews O Thematic coding and analytic memos - NVivo
Teacher perceptions of student cultural backgrounds
I was really shocked when it first happened and very embarrassed, but the students I caught cheating didn’t seem to have any sense of embarrassment about it at all....I actually had one [Saudi] guy copy an essay – I thought his page looked odd – and he actually on his smart phone had an entire essay that he was copying! [laughs with disbelief]
Referencing is everything in Western, in most English-speaking universities. Saying where you got stuff is so important
Chinese students, for example, have no idea that there’s even such a thing as plagiarism… they can’t believe that they’re not allowed to do it [in Australia] because they’re expected to do it in China I’ve got teenage children, I’ve had to talk to them about plagiarism[…]about what is it[…] students need training in this From my experience of reading students’ work that is plagiarised, I’ve had students from Arabic cultures, students from Asian cultures and students from Latino cultures[…] Now, does it mean that it’s those cultures that have problems with plagiarism? No, I don’t think so; I think it’s the individual students. I think it’s often the student’s laziness, leaving things to the last minute and then not knowing what to do
Conclusions O Teacher perceptions of plagiarism linked to cultural
background of students O Definitions of plagiarism lack references to culture and are
varied and problematic
Future directions O Analysis of tertiary plagiarism policies O Cultural comparison of teacher/student perceptions of
plagiarism (Australian, German, Finnish, and Chinese) using interview data
References O O O
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Barthes, R. (1977). The death of the author. Glasgow: Fontana Press. Holliday, A. (1999). Small cultures. Applied Linguistics, 20(2), 237-264. Howard, R. M. (1995). Plagiarisms, authorships, and the academic death penalty. College English, 57(7),788-806. Jenkins, J. (2014). English as a Lingua Franca in the international university: The politics of academic English language policy. New York: Routledge. Liu, D. (2005). Plagiarism in ESOL students: Is cultural conditioning truly the major culprit? ELT Journal, 59(3), 234-241. Pecorari, D. (2002). Original reproductions: An investigation of the source use of postgraduate second language writers (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Birmingham, UK. Pecorari, D., & Petrić, B. (2014). Plagiarism in second-language writing. Language Teaching, 47(3), 269-302. Pecorari, D. and Shaw, P. (2012). Types of student intertextuality and faculty attitudes. Journal of Second Language Writing, 21, 149–164. Pennycook, A. (1996). Borrowing others' words: Text, ownership memory and plagiarism. TESOL Quarterly, 30(2), 201-230. Phan, L. H. (2006). Plagiarism and overseas students: Stereotypes again? ELT Journal, 60(1), 76-78. Sowden, C. (2005). Plagiarism and the culture of multilingual students in higher education abroad. ELT Journal, 59(3), 226-233. Sutherland-Smith, W. (2011). Crime and punishment: An analysis of university plagiarism policies. Semiotica, 187(4), 127 -139. Sutherland-Smith, W. (2008). Plagiarism, the Internet, and student learning: Improving academic integrity. New York: Routledge.
