Argumentative essays and conceptual incongruities: students mediated by identity and interdisciplinarity

Chandrasoma, R; Jayathilake, C

Argumentative essays and conceptual incongruities: students mediated by identity and interdisciplinarity

Chandrasoma, R

Jayathilake, C

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Publisher:: Informa UK Limited
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 2022, pp. 1-25
Issue Date:: 2022-01-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Chandrasoma, R https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0445-3715
dc.contributor.author	Jayathilake, C
dc.date.accessioned	2023-01-22T00:09:09Z
dc.date.available	2023-01-22T00:09:09Z
dc.date.issued	2022-01-01
dc.identifier.citation	Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 2022, pp. 1-25
dc.identifier.issn	1542-7587
dc.identifier.issn	1542-7595
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/165322
dc.description.abstract	Characterized by specific and rigid boundaries of institutional practices and expectations in the academy, student writing is a synergistic literacy practice where students are required to construct generically diverse texts by yoking concepts with appropriate linguistic resources. This empirical study involving 196 first-year ESL students at a university in Sri Lanka explores why conceptual incongruities occur in argumentative essays constructed by them, and how they defend their arguments. We analyzed all their timed essays and noticed that 72 out of them contained conceptual incongruities. By “conceptual incongruities, we refer to instances where students” conceptualization process is not aligned or coherent with the essay topic. For our analysis of student texts, we have introduced two social cognitive perspectives: untutored competencies and tutored competencies. The former includes inherited, social, and ideological identities emerging from societal epistemologies whereas disciplinarity and interdisciplinarity constitute the latter. This empirical research demonstrates how students’ conceptualization process is mediated by a labyrinthine repertoire of knowledge premised in students’ untutored competencies and tutored competencies, signaling deviations from their essay topic.
dc.language	en
dc.publisher	Informa UK Limited
dc.relation.ispartof	Critical Inquiry in Language Studies
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1080/15427587.2022.2102013
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/embargoedAccess
dc.rights	This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Critical Inquiry in Language Studies on 20 Jul 2022, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/15427587.2022.2102013
dc.subject	2003 Language Studies
dc.title	Argumentative essays and conceptual incongruities: students mediated by identity and interdisciplinarity
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.for	2003 Language Studies
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences/School of International Studies
utslib.copyright.status	open_access	*
utslib.copyright.embargo	2024-01-20T00:00:00+1000Z
dc.date.updated	2023-01-22T00:09:06Z
pubs.publication-status	Published

Abstract:

Characterized by specific and rigid boundaries of institutional practices and expectations in the academy, student writing is a synergistic literacy practice where students are required to construct generically diverse texts by yoking concepts with appropriate linguistic resources. This empirical study involving 196 first-year ESL students at a university in Sri Lanka explores why conceptual incongruities occur in argumentative essays constructed by them, and how they defend their arguments. We analyzed all their timed essays and noticed that 72 out of them contained conceptual incongruities. By “conceptual incongruities, we refer to instances where students” conceptualization process is not aligned or coherent with the essay topic. For our analysis of student texts, we have introduced two social cognitive perspectives: untutored competencies and tutored competencies. The former includes inherited, social, and ideological identities emerging from societal epistemologies whereas disciplinarity and interdisciplinarity constitute the latter. This empirical research demonstrates how students’ conceptualization process is mediated by a labyrinthine repertoire of knowledge premised in students’ untutored competencies and tutored competencies, signaling deviations from their essay topic.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/165322