LEI: Tareas de Lectura, Escritura e Investigación para el desarrollo de la escritura de tesis

Abstract

Becoming research literate represents a challenge for thesis writing at tertiary level. One possible reason for this challenge results from the many interacting social processes involved in thesis writing, which may not be so evident for novice thesis writers. Frequently, the emphasis is given to writing; leaving aside the reading and research processes (Paltridge, Harbon, Hirsh, Shen, Stevenson, Phakiti and Woodrow, 2009, 22). Moreover, teachers who supervise students’ work may not be able to clearly describe how students become research literate as they read, write and carry out research. Following a qualitative tradition, this paper analyzes transcriptions from a focus group with students who were in the process of writing thesis for an undergraduate ELT program in Central Mexico. The main objectives of this research are (1) to identify the tasks that accompany undergraduate thesis writing and (2) to explore how these tasks work towards building the academic text. Preliminary results corroborate that reading and research tasks are inherent to developing an academic text; therefore Reading, Writing, Research tasks (R-W-R tasks). However, the results suggest that the interrelation of these social practices is not evident while writing a thesis. Tasks may be regarded in isolation by both thesis writers and supervisors, which may prevent a successful completion of the written text. This segmented view also constrains the development of research literacy. This paper may have implications to make thesis supervision and writing more explicit.