What do subject experts teach about writing research articles? An exploratory study

Abstract

In some countries such as Taiwan, subject experts deliver English research writing courses within their respective departments. However, how they approach English research writing, including students' text-based plagiarism, is not well documented. This study began to bridge the gap by investigating two subject instructors' teaching practices in two English research writing courses at a Taiwanese university. Three themes emerged: (1) Both instructors attended to general language topics most often though they did not consider themselves the best candidate for teaching language, and they treated language as an independent knowledge area; (2) One instructor attempted to connect his instruction to disciplinary publishing practices, whereas the other treated English research writing more as independent, one-fits-all knowledge; (3) While one instructor considered text-based plagiarism a serious problem, the other encouraged students to imitate published texts. The findings pointed to strengths and potential problems of subject experts' instruction and suggested ways in which EAP researchers could help address the problems. Based on these preliminary results, it is argued that interdisciplinary collaboration can maximize the potential of discipline-based English research writing courses. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.