From an Outsider to a Marginal Member： The Academic Literacy Narrative of a University English Lecturer’s Transformational Experience in a Singaporean University

Liu+Yanhua

【Abstract】This academic literacy narrative reports a Chinese university English lecturers experience in a major university in Singapore as an academic writer. It details the struggles that the author experienced as well as the linguistic and non-linguistic problems he faced， with a focus on the transformation of the author from a novice academic writer and outsider of academic community before going overseas to a confident academic writer and a peripheral member of a community of practice a year later through participatory practice.

【Key words】academic writing； participatory practice； narrative

【摘要】本文報告作者在新加坡留学期间作为一名学术英语写作者的身份嬗变经历。作为学术英语的新手到一个陌生的全英语的学术写作环境，作者面临着诸多语言及语言外的问题和困难。本文记录了从作者从出国前的学术话语共同体的局外人到通过参与式实践成为一名自信的学术写作者和学术社团边缘成员的心路历程。

【关键词】学术写作 参与式实践 叙事

I. Introduction

“Do you consider yourself a good writer？” I tossed back this question to our writing pedagogy course lecturer who asked us the same question at the beginning of my postgraduate degree program in a major Singaporean university in August 2014. It was not my intention to embarrass the professor， who holds a PhD in academic writing from a prestigious university in England， but was just out of my curiosity. However， on retrospection， it perhaps should be viewed as a way of seeking consolation from an authority figure， whom I looked up to as a full member of academic discourse community and would confess to not being a good writer， then I would feel that I was not the only lousy writer in this world. This is because， as a second language user， I did not have much confidence in writing， let alone academic writing， the main reason being having received little instruction and training in academic writing in the Chinese education system， just as reported by the Chinese student Fei studying in an Australian university （Morton， Storch， & Thompson， 2015）. Despite having earned a Masters degree before going to Singapore， I was aware of the little training I had received in academic writing， and in particular， writing extended discourse. I still remember the excruciating experience I had in producing my first MA dissertation in China years ago， which was so damaging that I did not want to engage in any academic literacy activity at all for a year or two after my graduation. Therefore， at the beginning of the postgraduate program I was ambivalent and had little confidence in the multitudes of upcoming written assignments assigned by our instructors. This sense of insecurity would entail challenges， frustrations and stress in my later participation in the “communities of practice” （Wenger， 1998）， which I have found only recently is a common experience for many graduate students studying in English-medium universities， regardless of native or non-native status， mainstream or non-traditional background （Casanave， 2008； Costley， 2008； Fujioka， 2008； Lu & Nelson， 2008）， during their acculturation into the academic communities from an novice to a full member. A year later， although I was still way too far from being a full participation member， I was confident that I am not an outsider any more， but a sort of insider or a “marginally participating member” as （Casanave， 2008， p. 15） would put it. On retrospection， I think this shift in my confidence and transformation of identity came as a result of my participatory practice in numerous academic literacy activities I was engaged in during the first year of my study in Singapore， which I shall discuss in the following paragraphs.

II. Participatory Practice

My participatory practice in the discourse community of academy that I have been seeking entry into involves many aspects of literacy such as the linguistic， non-linguistic problems I encountered and how I tackled them. With the constraints of space in mind， I will only discuss two of them and the strategies I have used， as well as how my confidence and identity has shifted on my journey as an academic writer. The first problem I faced is how to write extended discourse， a concern I had in the beginning because of the lack of training in this respect as I mentioned previously. As a second language writer， I was used to completing short writing tasks as an undergraduate and postgraduate in China. However， it was usually much longer discourse that I was tasked with in the postgraduate program there， which typically ranges from 800 to 2500 words. Aware of the slow pace at which I used to write， I felt hugely pressured to start early. Therefore， at the beginning of the first semester， I would start reading in preparation for the assignments weeks before they were due so that I would have plenty of time to write and revise. I remember it took me about two weeks to write for the first assignment which was about 1500 words in total. Then came more assignments with less available time. I had to struggle and negotiate with the time constraints， sometimes by going to bed at 3 am and rising at 5 am. Nevertheless， the fact was I spent less time in writing the same length of article. Towards the end of the first semester， three days was what I needed to finish writing a 2500-word assignment. By the end of the second semester， I had finished writing 35763 words for ten courses I took， a record figure larger than the totality of all the written work I had done for the three-year MA program in China！ This achievement with 9 As and a B+ greatly boosted my confidence in academic writing. For the first time I was feeling that there was little problem for me to handle extended writing assignments， although I could not forget the many struggling days and sleepless nights of trying to participate intellectually in the academy of applied linguistics， a lived experience of frustration， stress， and pains for many native and non-native graduate students studying in Anglophone countries （see Casanave， 2008； Costley， 2008； Lu & Nelson， 2008； Morton et al.， 2015）.

The second problem has to do with citation. While I made achievements in writing extended discourse， writing longer articles is far from enough to join the communities of practice. As an outsider seeking to gaining entry to the discourse community， I had to be aware of the expectations， conventions and cultures of the community， as academic “knowledge is community-generated and community-maintained” （Hyland， 2009， p. 12）. And the awareness of the epistemological and social assumptions in the community is often signalled through citation， which “[is] a key means by which authors signal their affiliation to their disciplinary community and the place of their work within it” （Hewings， Lillis， & Vladimirou， 2010， p. 102）.

At first， I believed that I could display my legitimacy to participate in the community activities by employing appropriate citations， that is， displaying “an allegiance to a particular community” and projecting my insider status （Hyland， 2002， p. 115） through citation. To achieve the purpose， I utilised reporting verbs which I think would made me sound academic. As an English as a Foreign Language novice writer， I had a restricted range of academic vocabulary， therefore， in the beginning I consciously paid attention to the reporting verbs and sentence patterns from the readings and would copy those I found useful and new to me in my OneNote notes. Later on， when I realised it was too time consuming to take notes for every article I read， I changed my strategy by focusing on the articles of particular authors whose style of writing I like， for instance， I found I enjoy reading one of our course instructors articles and in particular noticed the wide range of reporting verbs he used. Thus I would collect these vocabulary in his articles for later use in my own written assignments.

This strategy of borrowing linguistic devices from established members of the community worked well to some extent， however， I was not very pleased with myself， as I was aware of the limitations of it， i.e.， failing to notice the nuanced meanings of the verbs， such as the process functions and evaluative functions of the verbs （Hyland， 2002； Thompson & Ye， 1991）. For instance in my assignments I would randomly use expressions “X demonstrates /asserts/examines/” for the same textual information without thinking about whether the verb accurately reflects the authors original text， the shades of my stance brought by the different choices of verbs towards the quoted text or author， or the effects on the expectations of my target readers. All I cared about was a word that was not repetitive and sound written as I was instructed in Chinese writing classes. Before taking Academic Writing course， I did not realise the evaluative functions of reporting verbs can be very useful in projecting an authoritative voice and persona， thus helping me to establish credibility.

Apart from using linguistic devices to display credibility and membership， it did not occur to me back then that citation can be very political as discussed by Lillis， Hewings， Vladimirou， and Curry （2010）. There seems to be some implicit rules out there in the communities influencing the choices of who to cite and which journals to cite， because “[o]nly certain ways of constructing knowledge and expressing opinions are recognized and valued within the academic discourse community…”. To participate in the community， “…these privileged ways of meaning-making have to be learned” （Tang， 2012， p. 12）. With the knowledge of this non-linguistic dimension of participating in the academic literacy activities， I felt I was more confident and closer to the academy as I have gained much more insider knowledge than before.

III. Conclusion

To conclude， through my participatory practice in the discourse community， in particular， by engaging in writing extended discourse， doing citation practice by first borrowing established members linguistic devices， then gaining deeper knowledge in reporting verbs and its functions of projecting credibility and membership status， as well as knowledge in the non-linguistic dimension of citation practices which are implicit but important for an outsider to trying to gain entry into the community， I have accumulated the confidence to announce that I am not an outsider any more， but already a periphery member of the community of practice， who is working towards full participation to becoming a full member of the academic community.

References：

[1]Casanave，C.P.（2008）.Learning participatory practices in graduate school：Some perspective-taking by a mainstream educator.In C.P.Casanave&X.Li（Eds.），Learning the literacy practices of graduate school：Insiders' reflections on academic enculturation（pp.14-31）.Ann Arbor，MI：The University of Michigan Press.

[2]Costley，T.（2008）.‘You are beginning to sound like an academic：Finding and owning your academic voice.In C.P. Casanave&X.Li（Eds.），Learning the literacy practices of the graduate school：Insiders' reflections on academic enculturation （pp. 74-87）. Ann Arbor，MI：The University of Michigan Press.

[3]Fujioka，M.（2008）.Dissertation writing and（re）positioning of self in a ‘community of practice.In C.P.Casanave&X.Li （Eds.），Learning the literacy practices of graduate school：Insiders' reflections on academic enculturation（pp.58-73）.Ann Arbor，MI： The University of Michigan Press.

[4]Hewings，A.，Lillis，T.，&Vladimirou，D.（2010）.Who's citing whose writings？A corpus based study of citations as interpersonal resource in English medium national and English medium international journals.Journal of English for Academic Purposes，9（2），102-115.

[5]Hyland，K.（2002）.Activity and evaluation：Reporting practices inacademic writing.In J.Flowerdew（Ed.），Academic discourse（pp. 115-130）.London：Longman.

[6]Hyland，K.（2009）.Academic discourse： English in a global context.London：Continuum.

[7]Lillis，T.，Hewings，A.，Vladimirou，D.，&Curry，M.J.（2010）.The geolinguistics of English as an academic lingua franca： citation practices across English-medium national and English-medium international journals. International Journal of Applied Linguistics，20（1），111-135.

[8]Lu，Y.，&Nelson，G.（2008）.Negotiating online postings and publications：Identity construction through writing.In C.P.Casanave&X.Li（Eds.），Learning the literacy practices of graduate school：Insiders' reflections on academic enculturation （pp.150-165）.Ann Arbor，MI：The University of Michigan Press.

[9]Morton，J.，Storch，N.，&Thompson，C.（2015）.What our students tell us：Perceptions of three multilingual students on their academic writing in first year.Journal of Second Language Writing，30，1-13.

[10]Tang，R.（2012）.The Issues and Challenges Facing Academic Writers from ESL/EFL Contexts：An Overrview.In R.Tang（Ed.）， Academic writing in a second or foreign language：issues and challenges facing ESL/EFL academic writers in higher education contexts（pp.1-20）.New York：Continuum International Publishing.

[11]Thompson，G.，&Ye，Y.（1991）.Evaluation in the reporting verbs used in academic papers. Applied Linguistics，12（4），365-382.

[12]Wenger，E.（1998）.Communities of practice：learning， meaning， and identity.Cambridge，UK：Cambridge University Press.

作者簡介：刘焰华，硕士，讲师，研究方向：学术用途英语、语篇分析。