Modeling higher degree by research student writing feedback based on Systemic Functional Linguistics: A collaboration of student, supervisor and academic language and learning adviser

Abstract

Higher degree by research students contact academic language and learning (ALL) advisers, or are referred by their supervisors, with a wide range of problems associated with writing at all stages of the PhD thesis. Collaborating with an ALL adviser may enable the student to better develop their academic writing style during the writing process and for supervisors to focus on providing feedback on content knowledge. This study examined a systematic model of feedback negotiated with the student, the supervisor and the ALL adviser. The research design comprised of a case study of feedback on a student’s draft thesis chapter. During feedback among the student, adviser, and supervisor, the student’s chapter was analysed using an adapted version of a Systemic Functional Linguistics based framework. Feedback using the framework enabled the student to understand feedback organised at the level of whole text, paragraph, and sentence. The feedback allowed the student and ALL adviser to focus, systematically, on one aspect of the text per cycle of feedback, in order to build an understanding about writing based on a theory driven model of writing, using meta-language. The findings suggest that student feedback should be organised and contain sufficient explanation. To achieve this, collaborative relationships should be considered between the student, the supervisor, and the ALL adviser.