'n Verkennende ondersoek na die aanwesigheid van skrywerstem in eerstejaarstudente se akademiese skryfwerk

Abstract

Academic voice is a concept that can facilitate an authoritative and objective argument in academic discourse, on the condition that this writing skill is expressed in an acceptable and balanced manner. However, it seems that even experienced academics consider the expression of voice a challenging concept and skill. This problem can be attributed to not the many varying perceptions regarding the nature and acceptability of the expression of an individual voice in academic writing, but also a degree of uncertainty about what the concept of academic voice actually entails. With reference to this multiplicity and uncertainty, it comes as no surprise that novice academic writers, such as first-year students, may experience this complex and controversial concept as problematic. These students therefore require an effective support base (lecturers, academic literacy modules and writing centres) to master this writing skill. However, there appears to be a lack of required resources for the effective development and expression of academic voice, despite the advanced nature of theoretical and empirical research about this phenomenon both nationally and internationally. Due to this shortage this problem is naturally reflected in the teaching and support (pedagogy) of voice. To add to the problem, the abovementioned research has mainly been conducted in and on English, including the suitable pedagogical frameworks and models for the development and expression of an acceptable academic voice. In this regard, this exploratory study identified a gap in Afrikaans research on this topic, specifically regarding a clear pedagogical framework or resource for students who prefer to write in Afrikaans. Having identified this gap, this study undertook to determine to what extent an academic voice appears in the Afrikaans writing of first-year students, which aspects of it could be regarded as problematic, what lecturers' perceptions are of the expression of an academic voice and to what extent an academic voice can be developed and supported in tertiary education, specifically at the NWU's Potchefstroom campus. To conduct this investigation, an exploratory study of the relevant literature on voice and its context was conducted. Against this backdrop, the theoretical base for this study and an overview of the relevant linguistic approaches to and theories of learning that have had a notable influence on the development of the notion of voice were presented. Subsequently, based on the theoretical basis a working definition for the term 'academic voice' was formulated. Thereafter, Olivier's (2017) pedagogical framework, which incorporates Martin and White's (2005) evaluation framework and Hyland's (2008) metadiscourse model, is presented as a solution for the above mentioned gap. In Olivier's framework, voice is described as a social construct of a multidimensional and dialogic nature. It entails the authoritative expression of an author's individual voice (stance) and the negotiation of an author's social voice (engagement) to express their individual voice in a balanced manner. In this exploratory study, a mixed-methods approach was taken to conduct an exploratory study. The first method entails a corpus-based analysis and comparison of two corpora, namely first-year students' writing assignments and articles from the Tydskrif vir Geesteswetenskappe, to determine to what extent the strategies for expressing academic voice (as presented in the theoretical framework) are used by the respective authors. The second method entailed a questionnaire to gauge lecturers' erceptions of the expression of an academic voice by NWU students. From the keyword analysis it appears that there is a definite difference between the corpora. These results were confirmed by ratio determinations, which indicated a number of problems with the expression of first-year students' academic voices, including 1) obstacles regarding the use of a formal register (vocabulary), 2) their inability to present their argument objectively and 3) balancing this writing skill in their academic discourse. Not enough data could be gathered via the questionnaire to reliably confirm the observations from the corpus study. However, the few answers that were received correspond to some of the findings of the corpus analysis. To finalise this study, an Afrikaans handout was compiled using Olivier's (2017) pedagogical framework and two Afrikaans studies on metadiscourse, namely those of Jordaan (2014) and Meintjes (2015). This framework can be used by students, lecturers and support interventions to help express an academic voice in Afrikaans and develop this voice in a student's academic discipline.