Graduate students’ evaluation of the use of critiquing to teach academic language skills

Abstract

This paper investigates graduate students’ views on the use of critiquing as an instructional approach to teaching academic language skills. It addresses three research questions: Do the students think that critiquing has enhanced their academic language skills? How effective do the students think the methodology is as a means of receiving instruction? And how relevant is the methodology to their professions? A questionnaire comprising 19 items was used to elicit data for answering the research questions from 10 graduate students who had been taught using the approach. Although the students reported that critiquing was unfamiliar, burdensome and emotionally trying, they, nevertheless, indicated that it is a viable teaching approach that addressed their longstanding academic writing needs and enhanced multi-faceted student-teacher and student-student interactions. They reported that they became more confident in expressing their opinions inside the classroom and in fora related to their professional engagements. The study notes that the search for instructional approaches to teaching academic language skills should be instructor driven and that students should have a sense of achievement and fulfilment as a result of the use of the teaching method.