| This study investigates university students' perceptions of first-year academic writing and of what they need to help them to enhance their writing competence. Special attention is paid to the comparison of students' and professors' perceptions of first-year students' writing needs. First and second-year students as well as professors have been interviewed in order to gather data on their perceptions and their responses analyzed from the Grounded Theory perspective. The study has revealed contradictory perceptions of the students and the professors, particularly regarding the importance of writing at university, the value of feedback on students' written assignments, and the type of explicit instruction each group viewed as necessary for students' optimum learning and performance. The findings of the study suggest that a communication gap between professors and students, based on professors' tacit disciplinary knowledge, a lack of contextualized assignments, and the professors' apparent tendency not to accommodate the students' learning needs while in transition from high school to university may be responsible for these contradictory perceptions. In turn, these perceptions appear to affect professors' teaching and student performance in the first-year of university. |
