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 在学术领域发挥着至关重要的作用，因其是科研论文中读者最先用以判断其研究相关性的章节。其核心目标是为读者简明呈现其所附属论文的核心内容。本文基于近期理论研究，探讨了可助力学生提升英语学术写作素养（academic writing literacies）的教学学习周期（learning cycle）原则。该周期融合了两类传统用于培养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，本文还介绍了针对大学场景开发的课堂教学实践，面向米纳斯吉拉斯州（Minas Gerais）某公立大学文学院（Faculty of Letters）英语专业的本科生，教授其学术体裁“摘要”的写作。研究参与者为修读《英语一》课程的大一新生，彼时他们正处于高等教育的第一学期。课程于2017年9月开展，时长占60学时必修课程（mandatory course）的三分之一。本次课程旨在通过探讨学习周期的各个阶段，帮助学生理解如何用英语撰写学术摘要。本文详细阐释了各项学习活动，以说明该周期各阶段如何可应用于教学实践。同时，文中还对一个参与小组撰写的摘要进行简要分析，以此证明该学习周期能够有效协助高校学生规范撰写英语学术摘要。在英语已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助力学习者撰写英语学术摘要，也可为高校写作课程教师提供实用参考。