Abstract
This study examines Taiwanese English as a foreign language (EFL) graduate students’ perspectives on paraphrasing strategies. A two-layer scenario survey was developed to identify the reasoning behind students’ judgments that certain paraphrasing is appropriate or inappropriate. The first-layer scenario survey is in a true–false format that consists of nine paraphrasing scenarios and that served to elicit from students their declarative knowledge of appropriate paraphrasing strategies. The second-layer scenario survey is in an open-ended question format that explores students’ explanatory knowledge underlying their first-layer choices. In addition, an attitude survey and a demographic survey were designed and implemented to explore learner variables in relation to the learners’ perspectives on paraphrasing strategies. A total of 141 EFL graduate students participated in the study. The results shed considerable light on students’ diverse perceptions and reasoning regarding paraphrasing strategies. More than half of the students considered surface-level paraphrasing (patchwriting) to be acceptable strategy use. Significant correlation was found between students’ responses to the acceptability of paraphrasing strategies and the following factors: (1) perceived difficulty in paraphrasing, (2) perceived value of appropriate source use, (3) perceived competence in overcoming the temptation to plagiarize, (4) perceived disadvantage as a foreign-language learner with paraphrasing, (5) gender, and (6) paraphrasing-related training. Pedagogical implications of the results are discussed.
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Acknowledgments
The author is deeply grateful to the two anonymous reviewers and editors for their insightful feedback and to Dr. C. Chou for her comments on earlier versions of this article. The project was sponsored by the National Science Council in Taiwan (NSC-96-2520-S-009-003-MY3, NSC-97-2410-H-009-038).
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Appendix: Sample two-tier paraphrasing survey
Appendix: Sample two-tier paraphrasing survey
1. To paraphrase the source text by using one’s own words in expressing the ideas of another’s work and to cite the source constitute an appropriate paraphrasing strategy.
Source | Motivation is commonly thought of as an inner drive, impulse, emotion, or desire that moves one to a particular action. |
Paraphrase | Motivation is considered to be the driving force that stimulates people to do something (Brown, 1987). |
□ Appropriate □ Inappropriate
My reason: __________________________________________________________
2. Using a synonym to replace words or phrases in source texts is an appropriate paraphrasing strategy.
Source | Two different clusters of attitudes divided two basic types of motivation: instrumental and integrative motivation. |
Paraphrase | Two different clusters of attitudes separated two basic types of motivation: instrumental and intrinsic motivation (Brown, 1987). |
□ Appropriate □ Inappropriate
My reason: __________________________________________________________
3. Paraphrasing by inserting word(s) or phrase(s) of source texts and citing the source constitute an appropriate paraphrasing strategy.
Source | Motivation is commonly thought of as an inner drive that moves one to a particular action. |
Paraphrase | Motivation is commonly thought of as an inner drive, impulse, emotion, wish or desire that moves one to a particular action (Brown, 1987). |
□ Appropriate □ Inappropriate
My reason: __________________________________________________________
4. Paraphrasing by deleting word(s) from source texts and citing the source constitute an appropriate paraphrasing strategy.
Source | Motivation is commonly thought of as an inner drive that moves one to a particular action. |
Paraphrase | Motivation is commonly thought of as an inner drive (Brown, 1987). |
□ Appropriate □ Inappropriate
My reason: __________________________________________________________
5. Changing the grammatical structure from, for example, the active voice to the passive voice is an appropriate paraphrasing strategy.
Source | One of the best-known studies of motivation in second language learning was carried out by Robert Gardner and Wallace Lambert (1972). |
Paraphrase | Robert Gardner and Wallace Lambert (1972) carried out one of the best-known studies of motivation in second language learning. |
□ Appropriate □ Inappropriate
My reason: __________________________________________________________
6. Paraphrasing by combining sentences from different source texts, verbatim, and citing the source constitute an appropriate paraphrasing strategy.
Source 1 | Motivation is commonly thought of as an inner drive, impulse, emotion, or desire that moves one to a particular action. |
Source 2 | Six desires or needs of human organisms are commonly identified. |
Paraphrase | Motivation is commonly thought of as an inner drive, impulse, emotion, or desire that moves one to a particular action and six desires or needs of human organisms are commonly identified (Brown, 1987). |
□ Appropriate □ Inappropriate
My reason: __________________________________________________________
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Sun, YC. Using a two-tier test in examining Taiwan graduate students’ perspectives on paraphrasing strategies. Asia Pacific Educ. Rev. 10, 399–408 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-009-9035-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-009-9035-y