A Study On Academic English Literacies Of The Graduate Students Majoring In Science And Engineering From The Perspective Of Foreign Language Education Planning

Academic English learning is a "must" for graduate students majoring in science and engineering.But the present studies restrict the research interest within language learning and teaching.This study intends to construct China's local theory for academic literacies for Chinese graduate students majoring in science and engineering by conducting the values analysis,the objective analysis and the implementation analysis from the perspective of foreign language education planning to broaden the research horizon and enrich existing theories.This study also sheds some light on three basic questions in practice: why to teach,what to teach and how to teach it.The purpose of this study is to answer the following three questions:(1)What is the value construction of academic English literacies for graduate students majoring in science and engineering?(2)What are the key elements of academic English literacies for Chinese postgraduate students majoring in science and engineering?(3)What are the influencing factors of academic English literacies for Chinese students majoring in science and engineering?What is the effective path?In view of the above-mentioned research questions,this research adopts a mixed-method approach.It employs a “qualitative-quantitative-qualitative”sequential research design.By literature analysis,exploratory interviews,discourse analysis,questionnaires and in-depth interviews,the research realizes triangulation between various research methods to ensure the reliability and validity.Besides,this study conforms to the ethics of researches by adhering to the principles of willingness,confidentiality and fidelity.Firstly,based on the three core concepts of “Graduate students majoring in science and engineering”,“Foreign language education planning”and“Academic English literacies ”,this study proposes relevant theories and establishes the conceptual framework of academic English literacies for graduate students majoring in science and engineering.Secondly,the researcher conducts exploratory data collection,including national planning texts,the universityplanning texts,and the exploratory interview data with graduate students,their tutors,and academic English teachers in preparation for the follow-up research.Thirdly,this study answers the first research question by a discourse analysis of relevant planning documents and exploratory interview data,namely,the value constructions of academic literacies.Fourthly,the researcher answers the second question by the construction of the verification model,namely,the key elements of academic English literacies for graduate students majoring in science and engineering.Finally,the researcher answers the third question by the construction of the verification model and the path model with reference to the qualitative analysis of interview data,namely,the influencing factors and the influencing path of academic English literacies.This study draws the following research conclusions:(1)The values construction of academic English literacies for Chinese graduate students majoring in science and engineering suffers from the loss of subjectivity at the national level,and insufficient integration into the postgraduate cultivation system and the internationalization process at the university level,and the poor transformation of “instrumental values”to“humanity values”at individual level.(2)The elements involved in academic English literacies of science and engineering graduates are presented at two levels: the static level and the dynamic level.At the static level,the academic English literacies for graduates majoring in science and engineering include academic English knowledge,academic English skills and academic English ability.At the dynamic level,the three elements are transformed through practice.(3)The influencing factors include academic English belief,academic English practice,academic English environment and English learning experience.Among them,academic English belief has the greatest effect.We should not only pay attention to the direct effect of each individual factor,but also the transformation effect of all the factors in the impact path.Based on the above conclusions,the researcher revises the conceptual framework of academic English literacies for graduates majoring in science and engineering and constructs a theoretical model.Theoretically,this study attempts to explore the theory of foreign language education from the perspective of foreign language education planning in order to rationalize the academic English literacies of postgraduate students in China atthe macro,meso and micro level of foreign language education planning and guide practice.However,this study still has limitations on the scope,the content,and the research instrument.In the future,we can take measures such as expanding the research subjects,further exploring the transformation mechanism,applying more research instruments such as coups technology,participatory observation,field study in order to explore this topic in more depth,improve the existing theories and better guide practice.