Developing an Instructional Model to Teach Thai Research Assistants to Write English Scientific Research Articles

Abstract

Researchers in science working in non-English contexts have been found to have problems with publication of their research articles (RAs). This study sought to explore outline ways in which explicit instruction, also called Scholarly Writing Builder (SWB), the instructional model originally constructed with the aim to coach Thai research assistants to write for publication. In response to the problems observed in realistic Thai settings and occurring in the literature, the study resorted to a research-and-development design with three phases: surveying problems and needs, constructing the instructional model for effective use, and retesting the revised model for further actual use.  Phase One initially explored the problems and needs of 125 Thai research assistants and researchers in 2009/2010. The participants revealed writing problems in sentences, paragraphs, essays, and various sub-skills for RA writing. Also, the research assistants showed stronger needs in developing their writing abilities than the researchers. These results informed construction of the model implemented in Phases Two and Three in 2011 (N=25) and 2012 (N=30), where science research assistants were taught to write RAs in their field. The findings drawn from these phases revealed that the participants could write their scientific RAs effectively as a result of being trained for academic writing through the instructional model. Their L1content was expressed in English more fluently from sentences to paragraphs to form their complete RAs. However, with awareness of RAs’ generic features in their fields, they could write professionally despite some Thai linguistic patterns occasionally hindering English writing. The findings suggest that the SWB model resting on the participants’ backgrounds and actual problems is of use to educators/researchers to develop scholarly-writing abilities of the apprentices working in non-English science institutes.