WRITING ABSTRACTS IN THE UNIVERSITY CONTEXT: COMBINING GENRE-BASED AND PROCESS-ORIENTED APPROACHES

ABSTRACT Abstracts play an essential role in the academic field since they are the first section of a research article readers have at their disposal to determine its relevancy. Their main goal is to give a concise view of the articles that accompany them. Grounded on recent theoretical studies, this paper discusses the principles of a pedagogical learning cycle that can assist students in the development of their academic writing literacies in English. This cycle combines two methodologies traditionally used to develop writing literacies, the process-oriented approach and the genre-based one. Additionally, it presents classroom practices developed for the university context regarding the teaching of the academic genre “abstract” to undergraduates taking English at a Faculty of Letters in a public university of Minas Gerais. The participants were freshmen who were taking English One, in their first term in the context of higher education. The classes took place in September of 2017 and ran for one third of a sixty-hour mandatory course. They were aimed at discussing the stages of the learning cycle to help students’ understanding of how to write abstracts in English. The learning activities are thoroughly explained to demonstrate how the stages can be pedagogically applied to teaching practices. A brief analysis of one of the abstracts written by a participating group is given to show that the learning cycle can work well in assisting university students to adequately write abstracts. In a world where English is the major means of sharing scientific knowledge among members of academia, this writing pedagogy may be useful to learners in the process of composing abstracts in English as well as to professors teaching writing in the university context.

摘要 摘要是学术领域的核心组成部分，因其是读者用以判定研究论文相关性的首个阅览章节。其核心宗旨在于简明扼要地呈现与之配套的研究论文核心内容。本文立足于近期理论研究，探讨了一套可助力学生提升英语学术写作素养的教学学习循环（pedagogical learning cycle）。该循环整合了两种传统上用于培育写作素养的教学方法：过程导向教学法（process-oriented approach）与体裁导向教学法（genre-based approach）。此外，本文还介绍了针对巴西米纳斯吉拉斯州（Minas Gerais）某公立大学文学院面向修习英语课程的本科生开展的学术体裁“摘要”教学的课堂实践方案。研究参与者为修习大学英语1课程的大一新生，彼时他们正处于高等教育的首个学期。课程于2017年9月开展，覆盖60学时必修课程的三分之一时长。本次教学旨在探讨该学习循环的各个阶段，以帮助学生理解如何撰写英语学术摘要。文中对各项学习活动进行了详尽阐释，以展示该循环各阶段如何在教学实践中落地应用。此外，本文还选取了一组参与学生撰写的摘要进行简要分析，以证明该教学学习循环可有效助力高校学生规范撰写英语学术摘要。在英语已然成为学术界共享科研知识的主要媒介的当下，该写作教学法不仅可协助学习者完成英语学术摘要的撰写，亦可为高校写作课程教师提供有益参考。