Students’ voice in essayist prose: A longitudinal and emic approach to positioning

• Ávila Reyes, Natalia ^[1] ; Léniz, Estrella ; Lagos, Javiera ; Figueroa Miralles, Javiera
  1. [1] Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

     Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

     Santiago, Chile

     
• Localización: Ibérica: Revista de la Asociación Europea de Lenguas para Fines Específicos ( AELFE ), ISSN-e 2340-2784, ISSN 1139-7241, Nº. 48, 2024, págs. 171-192
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.17398/2340-2784.48.171
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo (pdf)
• Resumen
  • español

    La adquisición de la escritura académica plantea retos a los estudiantes, que suelen recibir poca orientación. Este artículo pretende analizar la escritura de los estudiantes en los primeros años de la universidad con una perspectiva longitudinal, centrándose en un género estudiantil -el ensayo- omnipresente en el mundo académico, pero difusamente definido y raramente problematizado. Se utiliza un enfoque émico, complementado con cuantificaciones de uso, para abordar la emergencia de recursos discursivos de posicionamiento que contribuyen a la construcción de la voz en la escritura académica. Se seleccionó una muestra de ocho estudiantes matriculados en programas de ciencias sociales y humanidades de una universidad chilena que participaron en un estudio de tres años de duración, para analizar la emergencia de la voz y el posicionamiento y contribuir, al mismo tiempo, a la descripción del metadiscurso en español. Los resultados muestran que casi todos los usos del metadiscurso aumentan o se sofistican con el tiempo, pero pocos lo hacen de forma estadísticamente significativa. Además, los participantes adhieren a puntos de vista simplificados sobre la escritura académica, que les llevan a creer que debe evitarse el posicionamiento. En consecuencia, surgen tensiones entre el deseo de expresar su voz y el de cumplir las expectativas de la prosa ensayística. Los resultados ofrecen pistas sobre el potencial de la enseñanza del metadiscurso para desarrollar un dominio metalingüístico de los recursos y promover una mayor agencia y expresión de la voz en la escritura académica

  • English

    The acquisition of academic writing poses challenges for students, who are often provided with little guidance. This article aims to analyze student writing in the early years of university education with a longitudinal perspective, focusing on a student genre – the essay – that is ubiquitous in academia, but roughly defined and rarely problematized. An emic approach, complemented with quantifications of usage, is used to address the emergence of discursive resources of positioning that contribute to the construction of voice in academic writing. A sample of eight students enrolled in social sciences and humanities programs at a Chilean university who participated in a three-year study was selected, to analyze the emergence of voice and positioning while contributing to the description of metadiscourse in Spanish. The results show that almost all uses of metadiscourse increase or become more sophisticated over time, but few do so in a statistically significant way. In addition, participants adhere to simplified views about academic writing, which lead them to believe that positioning should be avoided. Consequently, tensions emerge between the desire to express their voice and to meet the expectations of essayist prose. The findings offer clues about the potential of teaching metadiscourse to develop a metalinguistic mastery of resources and promote greater agency and the expression of voice in academic writing.

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