Iberica 13
Ibérica 39 (2020): 165-190
ISSN: 1139-7241 / e-ISSN: 2340-2784
Abstract
While the teaching of discipline-specific writing has drawn increasing attention
in recent EAP writing research, much remains to be investigated regarding what
constitutes teaching specificity. This study, adopting a learner-focused
perspective, examines how students respond to discipline-specificity when
learning in an EAP writing class and what the relationship is between learning
the writing of disciplines and general academic writing. It used an in-depth
qualitative approach and documented three focal students’ learning trajectories
of a business-specific genre – case analysis – in an Academic English for
Business course at a Chinese university, drawing on data from interviews, the
students’ course reflections, and their multiple drafts of case analysis texts. It was
found that the students grasped the genre-specific move structure and the
specialized vocabulary of case analysis writing, and they also sharpened their
academic skills for business study, including assessing information, applying
disciplinary knowledge, and making evaluative analysis. However, the students’
learning of case analysis was affected by problems regarding their general
academic writing skills, including argumentation and the formality and clarity of
language in the academic written register. The issues of learning discipline-
specific writing in combination with disciplinary ways of knowing and doing,
and the interplay between learning discipline-specific and general academic
writing are discussed. Pedagogical implications for teaching specificity in EAP
writing classes are also suggested.
Keywords: discipline-specific writing; EAP writing classes; genre learning;
business case analysis.
Understanding students’ approach to
discipline-specificity when learning EAP
writing: A case study in an Academic
English for Business class
Wei Wang
Fudan University (China)
wangwei9906@fudan.edu.cn
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Ibérica 39 (2020): 165-190
WEI WAng
Resumen
¿Cómo se aproximan los estudiantes a las convenciones discursivas de disciplinas
específicas cuando aprenden escritura académica? Un estudio de caso en una clase
de inglés académico de los negocios
Mientras la enseñanza de la escritura en disciplinas específicas cada vez está
despertando un mayor interés en la investigación reciente sobre la escritura en
inglés para fines académicos, todavía queda mucho por investigar respecto a lo
que constituye la enseñanza de la especificidad de discursos pertenecientes a
disciplinas concretas. Este trabajo, que adopta una perspectiva centrada en el
aprendiz, examina de qué manera responden los estudiantes a la especificidad de
la disciplina en cuestión cuando se están instruyendo en la escritura en inglés
para fines académicos y qué relación se produce entre el aprendizaje de la
escritura específicamente dirigido a disciplinas concretas y la escritura académica
general. Para ello, se ha adoptado un enfoque cualitativo exhaustivo y se han
documentado tres trayectorias focales en el aprendizaje de un género específico
del ámbito de los negocios (los análisis de casos) en un curso de inglés académico
para los negocios en una universidad china, a partir de datos obtenidos de
entrevistas, reflexiones de los estudiantes del curso y de sus múltiples borradores
de textos de análisis de casos. Estos datos han evidenciado que los estudiantes
consiguieron identificar la estructura específica de este género y su vocabulario
especializado, y que también mejoraron sus destrezas académicas para los
estudios de negocios, tales como la evaluación de información, la aplicación de
conocimientos propios de la disciplina o la realización de análisis valorativos. Sin
embargo, el aprendizaje de las convenciones de los análisis de casos se vio
afectado por problemas relacionados con las destrezas que los alumnos tenían en
la escritura académica general, entre las que destacan la argumentación y la
formalidad y claridad lingüísticas en el registro académico escrito. En este
artículo se discute acerca de la conveniencia de que el aprendizaje de las
convenciones discursivas específicas de una disciplina se produzca en
combinación con formas de saber y de hacer propias de esa disciplina, así como
acerca de la interacción que se produce entre el aprendizaje de la escritura
académica general y el de disciplinas específicas. También se sugieren algunas
implicaciones pedagógicas para la enseñanza de esa especificidad en las clases de
escritura en inglés para fines académicos.
Palabras clave: escritura en disciplinas específicas, clases de escritura de
inglés con fines académicos, aprendizaje de géneros, análisis de casos de
negocios.
166
1. Introduction
In English for academic purposes (EAP) writing research, the argument for
highlighting discipline-specificity has risen to prominence in the most recent
decade. The scholarship of teaching discipline-specific writing emphasizes
the “literacy skills which are appropriate to the purposes and understandings
of particular academic and professional communities” (Hyland, 2002: 385)
and maintains that addressing specificity comprises effective teaching of
EAP writing (Zhu, 2004a; gardner, 2016). Proposed approaches to
discipline-specific writing pedagogy include guiding students to explore and
examine specific discourse conventions in their own disciplines, exposing
students to multiple academic literacies through contrasting different
disciplinary experiences, engaging students in discipline-specific authentic
writing tasks, and utilizing corpora of disciplinary genres as pedagogical
tools (e.g., Johns, 2008; Cotos, link, & Huffman, 2016; gardner, 2016).
The central issue of “what constitutes teaching specificity” (Zhu, 2004a: 44)
is a focus of particular interest in EAP writing research. Hyland (2002) sees
specificity as situated in disciplinary communities and embedded in practices
of knowledge construction and communication processes, arguing that the
“ways of disciplinary texts vary not only in their content but in different
appeals to background knowledge, different means of establishing truth, and
different ways of engaging with readers” (p. 391). likewise, Zhu (2004a) and
flowerdew (2016) believe that the specificity of EAP writing encompasses
particular linguistic features, unique thought processes, and communicative
practices associated with specific disciplines. Carter (2007) deepens insights
into the relationship between discipline-specific writing and disciplinary
practices from a learner-focused perspective, that is, he sees the ways of
“writing” in disciplines as students’ response to disciplinary ways of “doing,”
defined as four meta-genres (problem-solving, empirical inquiry, research
from sources, and performance), and he argues that discipline-specific
writing in this sense is critical to the ways of “knowing” in disciplines.
Carter (2007) contributes a valuable learner-focused perspective to
understand what constitutes teaching specificity, but only a few studies have
adopted this approach to investigation, and the understanding of teaching
specificity, especially in EAP instructional context, still needs further
research efforts. Hammouda (2008) demonstrates the connection between
learning discipline-specific writing and the disciplinary ways of knowing and
doing by tracking a geology student’s acquisition of a genre through the
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construction of his disciplinary identity, which embodies specialist
knowledge frames and practice. different from Hammouda’s focus on a
long-term and practice-based genre acquisition in the disciplinary
community of practice, Kuteeva and negretti (2016) and Kaufhold (2017)
shift attention to the learning of discipline-specific writing in EAP classes.
Kuteeva and negretti’s cross-discipline study (2016: 36) shows that students’
development of genre knowledge is “linked to their perception of
knowledge-making practices in their respective disciplines”; similarly,
Kaufhold (2017) finds that students’ building genre knowledge requires
connecting disciplinary studies to the interrelated epistemological, thematic
and discoursal aspects of academic writing. These studies touch upon the
relation between discipline-specific writing and the disciplinary way of
knowing, but their focus is more on genre knowledge development than on
the discipline-specificity of writing, so the findings are limited concerning
the interplay between writing in disciplines and the disciplinary ways of
knowing and doing. It is worth continuing research efforts to explore from
a learner-focused perspective what constitutes teaching specificity of
academic writing in relation to disciplinary ways of knowing and doing in
EAP classes.
Teaching specificity in EAP writing classes also gives prominence to the
issue of the relationship between discipline-specific and general academic
writing abilities in course design, but existing studies are inconclusive about
the issue in EAP teaching practice. The two types of writing are now seen as
“ends of a continuum” rather than as “a dichotomy”: towards the “general”
end are the writing skills entailed by the academic written register in general,
and towards the “specific” end are those specific to writing in different
disciplines (dang, Coxhead & Webb, 2017: 961; Cai, 2016; gardner, 2016;
Hyland, 2016). researchers suggest that general EAP writing instruction
could help undergraduate students to develop a more academic writing
register (Crosthwaite, 2016), which could be transferred across task types
and disciplines, though with complexities concerning differences in task
types and disciplines (James, 2010). Teaching discipline-specific writing does
not mean excluding general academic writing skills, but how to integrate
general academic writing into that instruction, an area which has had
increasing attention recently, is still a problem needing further research. for
example, Cai (2016) reports that the learning of general lexical bundles in
academic writing relies on the learning of move-specific lexical phrases,
indicating an emphasis on specific vocabulary. In contrast, Peters and
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fernández (2013: 236) find that the lexical needs of English for specific
purposes (ESP) students (of architecture) are more for the “shared
terminology of science disciplines and academic discourse at large” than for
architectural terminology, suggesting that instruction needs to emphasize
general academic vocabulary. Similarly, lancaster’s study (2016) of both
discipline-specific and general expressions of academic stance in students’
texts highlights shared rhetorical expectations for expressing a critical stance
as part of a “general novice academic stance that may be implicitly expected
in students’ coursework writing across a range of contexts” (lancaster, 2016:
236).
While discipline-specificity is increasingly emphasized in teaching EAP
writing, how to teach specificity in relation to disciplinary ways of knowing
and doing and how to appropriately address the general requirement for the
formal academic written register in instruction to better meet students’ needs
for writing in disciplines are two important issues in need of further
exploration. To address the two issues, the study reported here takes a
learner-focused perspective and looks into students’ approach to learning a
discipline-specific genre, case analysis writing, in an Academic English for
Business course. It adopts an in-depth qualitative approach to documenting
three focal students’ learning experiences, aiming to answer the following
two research questions:
• How do the students respond to the discipline-specificity of case
analysis writing when learning in an EAP class?
• What is the relationship between case analysis writing and general
academic writing in the students’ learning process?
2. The business-specific genre – case analysis
Case analysis is one of the most common and important disciplinary genres
in business courses that feature case-based teaching and learning (Esteban &
Cañado, 2004; nathan, 2013). As a “student coursework genre” (gardner &
nesi, 2013: 25), case analysis assesses students’ written response to actual
cases in business practice, including “[applying] business concepts, theory,
and knowledge to the analysis of business problems and business decision-
making processes” (Zhu, 2004b: 120); its specificity lies in the analytical,
problem-solving, persuasive, rhetorical, and teamwork skills that are valued
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in business studies. The definition and description of case analysis has subtle
differences in different educational contexts linked with similar terms for the
genre, such as case study, case report, and case critique. gardner and nesi
(2013: 35) clarify that the “defining feature of Case Studies is the inclusion
of recommendations, while [Case] Critiques include evaluation as central,
and Explanations offer a more neutral explanation”. Similarly, nathan (2013,
2016a) distinguishes between case critique, case report, and case analysis,
noting specific requirements of students’ response to cases, such as analysis,
evaluation, role-taking, or recommendations. despite such differentiation, it
can be seen that case analysis, as the assessed student writing intended for
business study, entails students assuming dual roles: the institutional role,
that is, to demonstrate their understanding of disciplinary concepts, theories,
and analytical tools, and the professional role – to apply their disciplinary
knowledge to actual business practice for making decisions and solving
problems (forman & rymer, 1999; Zhu, 2004b), which is largely shaped by
the typical “learning situation” – problem solving in business study (Carter,
2007: 395). Problem-oriented writing tasks are proposed for teaching case
analysis writing in academic writing classes (Zhu, 2004b).
In the current study, case analysis is defined as students’ written response to
case method education in business courses, entailing business-specific
academic writing proficiency, the display of discipline specialist knowledge,
and application of the knowledge to analysis, evaluation, and explanation of
actual business practice. It is a medium-level assessed writing task for
academic novices (sophomores and juniors) (gardner & nesi, 2013), close
to case critique and case analysis classified by nathan (2013)1. The basic
move structure, as adapted from nathan (2016b) and Bangeni (2013),
includes four major moves (with sub-moves), as shown in figure 1. given
the dynamic conception of genre as a situated response to social exigency
(Miller, 1994; forman & rymer, 1999), it is worth pointing out that case
analysis targeted in an EAP writing class also embodies a pedagogical
purpose (forman & rymer, 1999), that is, to familiarize students with the
formal, rhetorical, and process dimensions of the genre and to prepare them
for the academic skills required. In the present study, the students’ response
to the discipline-specificity of case analysis is examined in terms of their
understanding of the move-step structure, the use of specialized vocabulary,
and the performance of case information assessment, persuasion of
personal opinions, and communication with formality and clarity, which
reflect the “purposes, conventions, and resources for communicating
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competently in [the case analysis] genre” (forman & rymer, 1999: 106) for
business study.
3. The study
3.1. Context of the study
The Academic English for Business course belongs to the EAP curriculum
offered to all undergraduate students across campus by the College English
Centre at a key university in mainland China. The selective course aims to
meet students’ needs for studying business through the medium of English.
Students attending the course are usually sophomores or juniors from the
business school.
The course consisted of 16 weeks of lectures (90 minutes per week) and
tutorials (two hours per week). The instruction framework was composed of
two parallel sections: academic reading and academic writing in business.
The reading part was designed to strengthen students’ academic skills of
comprehending, summarising and synthesizing information from English
materials and to expand their vocabulary of specialized terms in business.
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Figure 1. Move structure of case analysis in business. Adapted from Nathan’s (2016b) “A genre-based study of
case response writing on an MBA programme”, Journal of Academic Writing 6: 126, and from Bangeni’s (2013)
“An exploration of the impact of students’ prior genre knowledge on their constructions of ‘audience’ in a
Marketing course at postgraduate level”, English for Specific Purposes 32: 250.
3
T
The parallel writing part targeted the specific genre of case analysis in
business study. for the writing instruction, I followed the ESP genre-based
approach and placed emphasis on genre analysis and meta-communication
of the move structure, rhetorical strategies, lexicogrammatical features, and
communication processes. The discipline-specific skills of assessing
information, making analysis, persuading audiences, and brief and concise
communication were also part of the genre-based instruction (see details of
the writing syllabus in Appendix A). The pedagogical purpose was to
strengthen students’ genre awareness, rather than imposing the genre
features as prescriptive rules.
for genre-focused EAP writing practice, I utilized the step-by-step task of
case analysis writing on the basis of the course reading materials (see
Appendix B), following the problem-oriented writing task design (Zhu,
2004b). The writing practice consisted of three staged tasks in
correspondence to the writing instruction and the students’ writing
procedures: (a) Shaping a case analysis – working out an outline (assigned at
the end of course Session 1 and submitted in Session 4, including two to
three drafts); (b) Pilot writing – writing a few paragraphs of the Analysis and
Evaluation Move (assigned at the end of Session 4 and submitted in Session
7, including two drafts); and (c) Completion of the case analysis (about 1,200
words long; assigned at the end of Session 10 and submitted at the end of
the semester). Students obtained teacher feedback on each assignment and
had teacher assistance with the writing practice in tutorials for addressing any
difficulty or problem arising in the learning process.
3.2. Participants
Three students from the class participated in the study on a voluntary basis.
for ethical concerns, the study was conducted one week after the course had
finished and all students were graded; I emailed the whole class (12 students)
to inform them about the purpose and design of my study, and asked them
to contact me within one week if they were interested to participate. Three
students (yan, Hong, and Wu, pseudonyms) replied to me and became
participants in the study by signing Participant Consent forms.
yan (female) and Wu (female) were majors of management in their
sophomore year, while Hong (male) was a junior majoring in marketing.
They all intended to apply for exchange programmes of overseas
universities, but had received no formal EAP writing instruction previously.
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The students had an upper-intermediate level of English proficiency, as they
had finished College English III (the advanced English for general Purposes
course at the university) and passed the proficiency test (including reading,
writing, and listening) before attending the EAP class. They were native
speakers of Chinese, with English as a foreign language.
3.3. Data sources and analysis
The focal students were invited to write about their reflections on learning
case analysis writing in the class. Based on their written reflections, I
conducted semi-structured interviews with them for their further
commentaries on the learning experiences in the EAP class. The interviews
were conducted in Chinese2 so as to put the students at ease and were guided
by the following topics: (a) responding to the instruction of case analysis
writing; (b) doing EAP writing tasks; and (c) understanding case analysis
writing (see Appendix C). While these topics served as a guide to the
proceedings of each interview, the participants were encouraged to mention
anything they thought was relevant or important to their learning
experiences. The method of discourse-based interviews was also used as
part of the semi-structured interviews for seeing into the writing processes
behind the students’ texts and the underlying reasons for particular writing
choices. The interviews were audio recorded with the participants’
permission and transcribed verbatim afterwards. Each transcript was divided
into extracts in terms of interview topics and issues, and then numbered in
sequence. The focal students’ written texts in the course (multiple drafts of
outline, two drafts of the pilot writing, and the complete case analysis texts)
(see Appendix d) were collected for examining their progress in learning
case analysis writing. The written texts also complemented the students’ self-
reported retrospection of learning experiences from the other data sources.
The interviews and students’ course reflections were analysed by the method
of constant comparison (Corbin & Strauss, 2008; neuman, 2011). The cyclic
procedure of open coding, axial coding, and selective coding was repeated
for generating the major themes common to the focal students’ response to
discipline-specificity in the learning process. for each participant’s interview
transcript, the extracts that contained information relevant to the research
questions were marked and compared with sequent extracts. The marked
extracts of similarities were classified and the primary analytical categories
were generated from them. The primary categories of all participants’
interview transcripts were then compared and analysed to generate the key
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concepts common to all the participants. The key concepts were then
applied to the interview transcripts to select more data that could consolidate
these concepts. for example, the following three of Wu’s interview extracts
“I was learning ‘Microeconomics’ in the same semester. The textbook
provided some explanation of third-degree price discrimination. I found that
the knowledge matched my analysis of flight ticket pricing strategies in
China Eastern Airlines” (Extract 15), and “yes, this part explains why the
price discrimination strategy can increase the profits of China Eastern
Airlines, and basically the explanation was drawn from my microeconomics
textbooks”(Extract 17), and “With my knowledge of microeconomics, I had
no problem in understanding and applying relevant concepts” (Extract 19)
were marked as similar to each other and categorized as “drawing on
disciplinary knowledge from content courses”. Similar primary categories
also emerged from Hong and yan’s interview data, such as “Utilizing
concepts and theories in content courses” (Hong) and “relying on readings
in content courses” (yan). The three similar categories were then shaped into
a key theme “Making connection to discipline-specific content courses”. The
key theme was then applied to the interview data for selecting more extracts
that could illustrate it. The students’ course reflections were analysed in the
same way.
The students’ written texts were analysed both at the macro-level (move
structure and genre-specific academic skills) and the micro-level
(lexicogrammatical features). for the macro-level analysis, the move
structure of case analysis (see figure 1) was referred to, while the variation
of the actual move structure of each student’s text was assessed in the
analysis as well. The correspondent academic skills required by each move,
such as analytical skill and argumentation (in terms of Toulmin’s model)3
required by Move 2 and 3, were also examined through the textual analysis.
for the micro-level analysis, the participants’ texts were examined for the use
of specialized vocabulary, formality of academic writing, and clarity of
conveying meaning for effective business communication, which are
priorities of writing in business courses (Zhu, 2004b); the examples of those
lexicogrammatical features were noted, numbered, and evaluated in analysis.
The results of textual analysis and the themes from constant comparison
were then integrated to answer the two research questions of this study.
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4. Findings
The major themes emerging from data analysis are reported in terms of the
two research questions; illustrative data are presented accordingly.
4.1. Research question 1: Students’ learning response to the discipline-
specificity of case analysis writing
4.1.1. Applying the move structure flexibly for specific cases
A typical learning response common to all the focal students when they were
working on the outline of their case analysis (writing task 1) is that they
applied the move structure flexibly for shaping their specific writing. The
students worked out the outlines as required, but they reported that it was
no easy job, as they needed to address the specifications of their individually
focused cases before shaping the writing appropriately into a formal case
analysis. yan recalled:
I think the move structure we learned and discussed in class served as
guidance on my writing. But even with the structure I still spent much time
organizing my writing [yan’s focused case is Coca Cola’s marketing strategy
in China]. I needed to consider the connection between different parts of the
case information, the flow of reasoning, and the way to organize all the parts
into a whole… That was quite difficult. (yan, interview, Extracts 7, 12).
yan’s outline follows the prototypical move structure of a case analysis,
clearly marking the major moves and the key points of content.
Hong mentioned that he made adjustments to the move structure when
dealing with his focused case (Coca-Cola’s branding strategy in India):
Here is a change I made to the text organization: I have two parallel issues
identified in Move 2 – brand positioning and brand association, so in Move
3, for each issue there are sub-moves of information assessment, applying
concepts, and making evaluation. It is different from the sample move
structure we discussed in class, but it fits in with my analysis. (Hong,
interview, Extract 8)
In Hong’s outline, the two parallel sections 2.2 (Brand positioning) and 2.3
(Brand association) display what he mentioned in the interview (see figure
2), showing his flexible application of the move structure to his own writing
situation.
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Similarly, Wu described the writing procedure by which she first drafted the
outline according to the specifications of her focused case (price
discrimination strategy by China Eastern Airlines), and then checked it with
the prototypical move structure to see whether the outline included the
necessary components of a case analysis (Wu, interview, Extracts 2, 3). An
example of Wu’s outline is illustrated in figure 3: the “Body” part was
organized around two questions of the central issue as well as the answers
to the questions, which substantiated the sub-moves of applying relevant
theories and evaluating the business practice.
All the focal students reported that, following the outlines, it was then quite
easy to complete their case analysis (writing task 3). Analysis of the students’
texts shows that all the texts included the following moves: presenting case
background information, identifying issues typical of focused cases,
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Figure 2. Hong’s outline of case analysis (Part 2 of Draft 2, unedited).
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assessing case information, making evaluation, and conclusion (see
Appendix E). The students had grasped the move structure and content of
a formal case analysis required by business study.
4.1.2. Making connection to discipline-specific content courses
Another salient learning action as the response to the discipline-specificity of
case analysis writing is that the focal students proactively made connection
to their study in disciplines, including the content courses they took and the
learning resources they had, when they prepared for the subject-matter
content of their case analysis, in particular, identifying issues typical of
focused cases and making evaluation from initial information assessment.
Hong reported:
When I was attending this course [Academic English for Business], I was also
taking a course in my school, “Enterprise Management”. I learned about
branding strategies in that course, including new concepts such as brand
association. I thought it would be a good idea to apply the concepts to my
writing. (Hong, interview, Extract 1)
Hong also remarked in his course reflections, “It was not difficult to get
suitable concepts for my case analysis… The writing did require a knowledge base
in business [emphasis added]” (Hong, course reflections, Extract 12).
likewise, Wu recalled:
I was learning “Microeconomics” in the same semester. The textbook
provided some explanation of third-degree price discrimination. I found that
the knowledge matched my analysis of flight ticket pricing strategies in China
Eastern Airlines. (Wu, interview, Extract 15)
Move 2 and Move 3 in the focal students’ outlines (e.g., see figure 2, 3) also
reveal that they had defined the typical issues of focused business practice
and worked out the appropriate content accordingly.
4.1.3. Emphasis on assessing case information
The focal students also attached high priority to working with information
provided by case materials or collected from outside sources, a specific
ability required by case analysis writing as well as business study.
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yan recalled the painstaking process of searching for and synthesizing data
from the focused Coca-Cola case:
I intended to do a rigorous analysis with solid evidence. … It took a lot of
effort to get useful information. for example, I checked the annual report of
Coca-Cola. The information was overwhelming, so I had to filter the data
carefully and picked up the relevant data that could be used in my analysis of
the nickname Bottle marketing activity. (yan, interview, Extracts 2, 19)
Wu also remarked on the importance of working with information in her
writing process:
Writing a case analysis is not presenting my personal assumption; it depends
on the assessment of relevant information about the actual business practice.
Theories could be useful, but the analysis still needs to be supported by data
from actual business practice. (Wu, course reflections, Extract 22)
The following account is an example of how Wu managed to obtain the data
regarding the passenger load factor from the annual report of China Eastern
Airlines:
To see the effect of the price discrimination strategy on the profits of China
Eastern Airlines, I needed information about its passenger load factor. I
spent much time looking for reliable statistics. … I first checked the annual
report in Shanghai, but didn’t find any data concerning the passenger load
factor, though there were data of its annual returns. Then I checked the HK
report, and luckily got the statistics I needed. (Wu, interview, Extract 8)
Information assessment is also foregrounded in the students’ texts of draft
paragraphs (writing task 2), illustrated as follows:
… Coca-Cola’s “nickname bottle” won the grand Effie in the greater China
region in 2013. The sales data provided by Coca-Cola’s financial statement of
2014 reveals that this project has boosted its sales by more than 10%.
Besides, the social media interaction has reached 2.6 million person-time by
September, 2014. (yan, Pilot Writing, draft 1)
… In addition, Coca Cola creates an advertisement “Eat cricket, sleep
cricket, drink only Coca Cola” in consideration of the extreme popularity of
cricket in India. Besides, one advertisement is created to commemorate
diwali which is a festival that heralds hope and instills a joy into the Indian
youth. (Hong, Pilot Writing, draft 1)
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… According to China Civil Aviation Annual report, around 90% of the
total airline transport turnover is captured by four major airlines or groups
… in 2014, leaving only about ten per cent for other minor airlines. (See
figure 1) … (Wu, Pilot Writing, draft 1)
4.2. Research question 2: The relationship between learning case
analysis writing and general academic writing
Based on the findings of students’ learning response to the discipline-
specificity of case analysis writing concerning research question 1, this
section presents the results that show how the students’ learning of case
analysis writing is interrelated to their general academic writing abilities,
answering research question 2: What is the relationship between case
analysis writing and general academic writing in the students’ learning
process?
4.2.1. Problems with argumentation
While the students emphasized information assessment in their learning of
case analysis writing, the argumentation needed to generate evaluation from
the information assessment was found to be weak. for example, in Wu’s
pilot writing (writing task 2, draft 1), the part that analysed the condition of
adopting the price discrimination strategy by China Eastern Airlines lacked
sufficient argumentation:
… [1] According to China Civil Aviation Annual report, around 90% of
total airline transport turnover is captured by four major airlines or groups
[…] in 2014, leaving only about ten per cent for other minor airlines. (figure
1) [2] Therefore, customers hardly can take flights without getting in contact
with one of the major airline enterprises, and China’s civil aviation market is
undoubtedly an oligopoly. (Wu, Pilot Writing, draft 1)
As Wu explained in the interview, she wrote this paragraph to show that
China’s civil aviation market being an oligopoly was a prerequisite for
China Eastern Airlines’ adoption of the price discrimination strategy. In
terms of Toulmin’s (1958, 2001) model of argumentation, Sentence 1 in
the above extract provides data (the dominant turnover by the four major
airlines in China), and Sentence 2 is the Claim (China’s civil aviation market
is an oligopoly). It lacks a Warrant that being an oligopoly is the condition
for the airlines’ adoption of price discrimination. This part of the
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argumentation was strengthened in the revised draft (Sentence 2 and 3),
shown as follows:
… [1] According to China Civil Aviation Annual report, around 90% of the
total airline transport turnover is captured by four major airlines or groups
[…] in 2014, leaving only about ten per cent for other minor airlines. (See
figure 1) [2] Therefore, it is of little possibility for customers to take flights without
getting in contact with one of the major airline enterprises, and China’s civil aviation
market is an oligopoly. [3] In this circumstance, the market mechanism no longer works
and the major airlines are now price givers instead of price takers. Thus, it is possible for
those corporations to adjust the airfares without fearing for consumer defection, which
makes the conditions ripe for the practice of third-degree price discrimination [emphasis
added]. (Wu, Pilot Writing, draft 2)
yan had a similar problem in pilot writing (draft 1). She made an evaluation
of Coca-Cola’s “nickname bottle” campaign, as the following extract shows:
In 2013, Coca-Cola’s “nickname bottle” won the grand Effie in the greater
China region, which is a great honour for a project. The business practice
illustrates that Coca-Cola marketing is shifting from Consumer Impressions
to Consumer Expressions. Their current core business principal [sic] is
“focus on the social marketing and information technology”. (yan, Pilot
Writing, draft 1)
The argument in the above excerpt fell short of reason or data that the
Claim “Coca-Cola marketing is shifting from Consumer Impressions to
Consumer Expressions” should rest on. In the revised draft, supporting
evidence and exposition was added, but still needed improvement, shown as
follows:
… This business practice [“nickname bottle” campaign] empowered consumers to
create their own content about Coca Cola brands and share it throughout their networks.
This was an initial attempt of Consumer Expression [emphasis added]. As Joe
Tripodi, the Coca-Cola’s chief commercial officer, said, Coca-Cola’s
marketing is shifting from Consumer Impressions to Consumer
Expressions…. (yan, Pilot Writing, draft 2)
The problem with argumentation was still found in the students’ final texts
(writing task 3): Claims were made without sufficient data or reason.
Although parts of the inadequate argumentation at the pilot writing stage
had been revised with teacher feedback, the rest of Move 2 and Move 3
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composed at the final stage still displayed instances of the problem. for
example, the following excerpt from Wu’s text (Move 3) made an analysis of
the reasons why third-degree price discrimination strategy can cause profit
increase:
[1] There are several reasons why the third-degree price discrimination
strategy can lead to the increase of China Eastern Airlines’ revenues. [2] The
first reason is that it could capture consumer surplus and thus earning larger
profits. [3] Separating its business consumers from leisure travellers and
setting diverse prices are apparently better for all consumers than charging
the same price between the lowest and the highest ones. [4] If being charged
the same price, though the group of business consumers would pay less for
the airfares, the group of leisure travellers may hesitate to buy the tickets or
turn to other means of transportation, such as high-speed rails or trains. [5]
As a result, the profits of the airline company will decrease. (Wu, case
analysis, Paragraph 6)
The paragraph shows that capturing consumer surplus was one reason for
profit increase. The evidence of “setting diverse prices” is provided in
previous paragraphs, but more data or reason is necessary for reaching the
Claim that the “profits of the airline company will decrease” as a result of
charging all consumers the same price.
4.2.2. Struggling with formality and clarity of the use of language
All focal students reported that a major challenge in their pilot writing stage
(paragraph writing) was writing in formal academic English. Wu mentioned:
I had written the case analysis in Chinese in my content courses, but had not
written it in English before. This was the first time I wrote it in English, so
I had to deliberately think about how to transfer those Chinese formal
expressions into the English ones. It’s quite demanding, as I was not sure what
words were more formal [emphasis added]. (Wu, course reflections, Extract 10)
yan recalled her writing process:
… the less formal words easily came into my mind, but the formal words not.
I had to change those words already in my mind to the more formal ones,
but sometimes I couldn’t come up with good choices. (yan, interview,
Extract 24)
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Hong commented, “… academic writing requires formal expressions, not
the colloquial ones or the casual ones. I often reminded myself of the
language requirement, but I often felt uncertain whether the words I used were
academic or not [emphasis added]” (Hong, interview, Extract 13).
Another problem with language use at the pilot writing stage is the clarity of
conveying meaning in English. The following are some instances from the
students’ paragraph writing that need improvement in clarity:
Many potential consumers knew these endearing bottles through social platforms and
were pushed to purchase Coca-Cola by their friends [emphasis added]. (yan, Pilot
Writing, draft 2)
… India is undergoing a rapid and potential change in some aspects like social
perception, people’s taste to daily life, and people’s hobbies and interests and so on
[emphasis added]. (Hong, Pilot Writing, draft 2)
…, it is of little possibility for customers to take flights without getting in contact
with one of the major airline enterprises …. (Wu, Pilot Writing, draft 2)
As regards the final writing task (the completion of a case analysis), it was
found that all the students’ texts of case analysis improved in formality, but
still revealed problems of clarity. one sign of the improvement in formality
was the appropriate use of specialized vocabulary throughout the texts, for
example:
Against the background of more different consumption demand and higher
market saturation [emphasis added], it is urgent to … (yan, case analysis,
Paragraph 4, Sentence 2)
… consumer touch points [emphasis added] have multiplied, and the old, one-
size-fits-all approach has given way to precision marketing [emphasis added] …
(yan, case analysis, Paragraph 11, Sentence 1)
… there lurked its branding strategies in the new niche [emphasis added]:
Coca-Cola not only …, regarding branding as the source of added value
[emphasis added] … (Hong, case analysis, Paragraph 1, Sentence 4)
Coca-Cola’s successful penetration [emphasis added] into Indian market is
mainly attributed to its brand positioning [emphasis added] and brand associations
[emphasis added]. (Hong, case analysis, Paragraph 5, Sentence 1)
The reason … is that the fixed costs [emphasis added] in airline businesses are
high while the marginal costs [emphasis added] are relatively low. (Wu, case
analysis, Paragraph 8, Sentence 1)
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Another aspect of progress in formality is that colloquial words and
expressions were seldom used in the final texts. Instead, formal expressions
were intentionally used, for example:
In sum, consumer impression and data technology will exert an increasingly
important effect [emphasis added] on branding. (yan, case analysis, Paragraph
11, Sentence 6)
… the sales data … reveals that this project has boosted its sales [emphasis added]
by more than 10% … (yan, case analysis, Paragraph 9, Sentence 8)
Behind such a formidable [emphasis added] success, there lurked its branding
strategies in the new niche: Coca-Cola not only …, but also adjusted branding
tactics [emphasis added] to the local conditions in India, … (Hong, case
analysis, Paragraph 1, Sentence 4)
Therefore, it is evident that [emphasis added] China Eastern Airlines has
succeeded in … with regard to [emphasis added] their preferences. (Wu, case
analysis, Paragraph 5, Sentence 5)
In interviews about the final writing stage, the students, instead of reporting
difficulties they encountered at the pilot writing stage, recalled their personal
experiences of utilizing various language resources for improving the
formality of their writing, such as the on-line corpora of formal expressions
and sample sentences, dictionaries, and disciplinary textbooks in the English
language.
yan reported:
I remember that I searched for academic English expressions online. for
example, I used an online Academic Phrasebank. It is useful because it
provides academic phrases and sample sentences for different rhetorical
functions, such as defining terms, describing quantities, and explaining
causality. I can replace the informal or emotional words in my draft with
formal ones from the website. (yan, interview, Extract 10)
Hong spoke of a similar learning experience of using online language
resources for improving formality in case analysis writing:
When I felt that a word seemed informal and I didn’t know what the formal
substitute was, I would check it on ICIBA [http://www.iciba.com/]. It is an
online translation tool. I input a Chinese expression, and the website would
provide several English words of similar meaning along with a list of sample
sentences. I think it is an advantage of ICIBA to provide sample sentences,
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because I can see the usage of seemingly similar words in a different context.
In this way, I could decide which word I actually needed for my writing not
only in relation to its meaning, but also its usage. (Hong, interview, Extract
15)
Wu referred to textbooks of the English language in her content courses for
formal expressions, for example:
I found that there were relevant formal expressions in the textbook
Microeconomics [Pindyck & rubinfeld 2013] from my microeconomics class
[English-medium instruction]. I directly borrowed some formal expressions.
It helped me a lot with my writing. (Wu, interview, Extract 16)
However, the lack of clarity of presenting information and opinions, a
problem emerging from the pilot writing stage, still remained in the final
texts of the learners’ case analysis. The three focal students all admitted that,
as it was the first time they wrote a case analysis in English, they needed to
frequently shape in their mind the meaning in Chinese and then translate it
from Chinese to English. There were frequent vague expressions in their
texts, similar to those found in their draft paragraphs, for example:
Separating its business consumers from leisure travellers [emphasis added] and setting
diverse prices are apparently better for all consumers than charging the same
price between the lowest and the highest ones [emphasis added]. (Wu, case analysis,
Paragraph 6, Sentence 3)
… Coca-Cola gained two leading actors who were shown as [emphasis added]
chatting mates in an advertisement …. (Hong, case analysis, Paragraph 4,
Sentence 9)
… in order to enhance the flexibility, the company granted consumers freedom to
custom-order a nickname bottle with their own name in different channels
[emphasis added]. (yan, case analysis, Paragraph 6, Sentence 1)
5. Discussion
By documenting three focal students’ learning of a business-specific written
genre in an EAP class, this study examined the learners’ responses to the
discipline-specificity of the genre and the relationship between learning
discipline-specific writing and general academic writing. The students’
capability of addressing the specifications to produce their own case analysis
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texts (such as adjusting the move structure to fit in with their focused cases
and choosing the appropriate formal words for individual writing situations)
shows that they achieved not only the “knowing what” but also the
“knowing how” of discipline-specific writing. An important reason for the
students’ “knowing how” could be that they proactively connected writing
tasks in the EAP class to their study in content courses, which reflects that
they were learning the writing of disciplines through disciplinary ways of
“doing” and “knowing” (Carter, 2007: 410). As shown by the findings, the
focal students drew on subject-matter knowledge from their content courses
and applied relevant concepts and theories to analysing the central issues of
their focused cases, and they placed particular emphasis on assessing
information about actual business practice. Such learning actions indicate
their taking the roles of “disciplinary thinker” and “problem-solver”
(forman & rymer, 1999: 103; Bangeni, 2013), which are required by the case
method in business education. Assuming such roles and taking
corresponding actions in the learning process reflect the students’ response
to the discipline-specificity of business study that prioritizes the “imparting
of disciplinary knowledge” and the “applied professional nature” (Bangeni,
2013: 250, 256). It suggests that learning discipline-specific writing in EAP
classes can be integrated with disciplinary ways of doing and knowing, thus
strengthening the empirical basis for understanding what constitutes
teaching specificity in EAP writing classes.
The findings also manifest some problems in the focal students’ response to
requirements for the general academic writing register, pointing to an
interplay between learning discipline-specific and general academic writing in
EAP classes. one problem is that the students’ ability to construct a
sustained argument still needs further development. As shown by the textual
analysis, the problem of lacking sufficient data or reason before reaching a
Claim, which emerged at the pilot writing stage and was pointed out by
teacher feedback, still remained in the final texts of the students’ case
analysis. This problem weakened the persuasiveness of communication
required by case analysis writing. It indicates that the persuasive ability
highlighted in the case analysis genre specifically and the argumentation
ability required by the formal academic writing register in general (Hirvela,
2017) could pose a major challenge for academic novices like the focal
students in this study. further, the two aspects appear integrated with each
other in that the specific requirement of persuasion in business study rests
upon the argumentation ability of logically appropriating data, reason,
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Warrant, and Claim, and meanwhile that argumentation ability needs to be
substantiated through the business-specific practice of information
assessment and evaluative analysis, given that “effective argumentation is
situated” (Johns, 2017: 80).
The interaction between learning discipline-specific and general academic
writing skills is also reflected by the students’ response to the use of
language. It is noted that the students mentioned no particular efforts in
learning the use of specialized vocabulary in business, their final texts
displaying a good use of such vocabulary. But for the use of general
academic lexical phrases, the students reported deliberate efforts of using
online corpora, translation tools, or textbooks from content courses as
support; and they made obvious progress in formality when composing the
final texts. It shows that the general vocabulary required by the formal
academic written register could be more of a challenge to these
undergraduate students than the use of discipline-specific terminology,
which concurs with Peters and fernández (2013). Another persistent
problem of lacking clarity of expression also suggests that the focal students
were probably not sufficiently proficient in the use of language required by
the formal academic written register. The problem with lack of clarity in the
use of language could in turn weaken the students’ ability to make brief and
concise communication which is specifically required by business study
(Zhu, 2004b), as seen in their texts. given the interplay between learning
discipline-specific and general academic writing, when teaching the writing
of disciplines in EAP classes we need to pay due attention to students’
general academic writing skills.
6. Pedagogical implications and future research
This study has implications for teaching discipline-specificity in EAP writing
classes. Writing instructors should pay more attention to the link between
discipline-specific writing and disciplinary ways of doing and knowing,
especially in homogeneous classes of similar disciplinary fields. for example,
knowledge-construction practice in business study, such as information
assessment and decision-making concerning real-life business practice, can
become a part of genre analysis tasks and discussions about case analysis
writing, and genre-focused writing tasks can be tailored more in line with
typical learning situations in students’ disciplines, such as problem-solving,
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empirical inquiry, and research from sources (Carter, 2007). While addressing
discipline-specificity could be a priority of EAP writing instruction,
instructors also need to consider that students’ learning of specificity,
especially academic novices like undergraduate students, interacts with their
general academic writing abilities, as discussed above. for example, the
instruction on persuasiveness required by case analysis writing could be
combined with instructional frameworks of argumentation (e.g., Wingate,
2012; Pessoa, 2017). likewise, the emphasis on disciplinary vocabulary can
be expanded to academic lexical bundles that are not specialized terms but
are commonly used for meaning construction in discipline-specific genres, as
a way to enhance students’ English proficiency of writing in disciplines.
Instructors also need to help students develop learning strategies for general
academic writing, such as using online corpora, translation tools, or
textbooks from content courses, as reported in the study. This may more
effectively help students to address the complexity of academic writing in
disciplines.
nonetheless, given the limitations of the study, its findings and pedagogical
implications should be considered tentative. The data are limited to a small
number of participants and a specific instructional context, and provide
evidence only about the students’ learning experience over a relatively short
period of time. To strengthen the pedagogical potential of the findings,
future studies could look into the connection between students’ learning of
discipline-specific writing in EAP classes and their actual academic writing
practice in disciplines on a long-term basis; comparative analysis of students’
approach to writing of disciplines in the two contexts can deepen the
insights into teaching specificity in EAP writing classes that this study has
explored.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for their
constructive and helpful comments. This study was supported by Shanghai
Planning office of Philosophy and Social Science (Project no.
2018Byy011).
Article history:
Received 01 November 2018
Received in revised form 12 May 2019
Accepted 20 April 2020
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Ibérica 39 (2020): 165-190 187
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Wei Wang holds a Phd from the University of Sydney. She is a lecturer in
College of foreign languages and literature, fudan University (China),
teaching EAP courses. Her research interests include EAP writing, genre
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NoTES
1 Case critique refers to “written case responses with primary focus on use of business theory for analysis
and evaluation of strategies and actions employed by individuals or organisations within the studied
business case”; and case analysis refers to “written case response in which writers analyse a case and
identify key factors influencing events and actions in the case (may be closely linked to evaluative tasks)”
(nathan, 2013: 59).
2 The interview extracts reported in the article were translated by a Chinese-English bilingual colleague in
a similar research field.
3 As regards the use of Toulmin’s (1958, 2001) model of argumentation for the analysis of case analysis
writing, also see Bangeni (2013).
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