본 연구에서는 외국인 유학생들이 학술적 글쓰기 과정에서 직면하는 어려움으로 인해 쓰기가 원만하게 진행되지 못하는 쓰기 막힘(writing block) 현상에 접근하여, 학술적 글쓰기 막힘의 본질을 탐색한 후, 쓰기 막힘을 발생시키는 요인들을 해결하기 위한 체계적인 방안을 마련하였다. 연구를 위해 외국인 유학생들을 대상으로 쓰기 막힘 설문조사와 사례연구를 실시하였으며, 결과를 종합하여 다음과 같은 문제점이 진단되었다. 첫째, 쓰기 막힘에 통계적으로 유의미하게 영향을 미치는 요인은 인지․정의․과제․환경 요인의 하위 요인 중 ‘텍스트 이해 및 내용 생성, 내용 조직, 쓰기 불안 및 부정적 태도, 쓰기 효능감, 과제 평가, 과제 환경, 학술적 글쓰기 지식 부족’ 등으로 나타났다. 단, 각 요인들이 쓰기 막힘에 미치는 영향력은 다소 차이를 보인다. 둘째, 쓰기 막힘을 발생시키는 각 요인들은 독립적으로 존재하지 않고 상호작용하여 쓰기 막힘 문제를 강화시키기도 하고 완화시키기도 한다. 셋째, 유학생들은 학술적 글쓰기 과정에 필요한 지식 부족과 제2 언어 사용 등의 어려움으로 인해 쓰기가 진행되지 못하는 모든 순간을 쓰기 막힘으로 인식하고 있는 것으로 드러났다. 넷째, 유학생들의 학술적 글쓰기 과정에서 공동체의 조력이 필수적이지만 현재 공동체의 조력은 효과적인 방향으로 이루어지지 못하고 있으며, 유학생들의 개별 차를 반영한 효과적인 조력 방안이 필요하다. 문제점 진단을 바탕으로 설계된 쓰기 막힘 해결 방안은 쓰기 막힘을 유발하는 인지적 영역에서 부족한 부분을 지원하는 방안, 유학생의 정서적 차원에서 발생하는 문제를 조절할 수 있는 방안, 장기 기억으로 이어지는 장르 표현 관련 오류 수정 방안, 유학생들이 스스로 자신의 학술적 글쓰기 막힘 상태와 막힘이 발생하는 원인을 인식할 수 있도록 하는 방안 등의 4가지로 마련하였다.
This study explores the difficulty that international students face when writing academic papers, after investigating the nature of the writing block that international students experience, we prepared a systematic method to combat the factors leading to this issue. The research involved administering a questionnaire of writing block and conducting a case study on international students; the results were collected and used to diagnose the following problems: First, among the sub-factors of comprehension, interpretation of meaning, the assigned task, and the environment, the following were shown to have the most statistically significant impact on writing block: text understanding and content creation, content structure, writing anxiety and negative attitude, writing efficacy, evaluation of the task, environment in which the task is done, and lack of academic writing knowledge. However, the influence that each of these factors has on writing block is somewhat different. Second, each factor that contributes to writing block does not exist independently but interacts with the other factors to either strengthen or weaken the writing block. Third, the students identified writing block as any time that they were unable to progress in their writing due to either lack of necessary knowledge or difficulty using a second language. Fourth, although the support of the community is necessary for international students in an academic writing course, the community is not established in a way that effectively provides this support. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce effective assistance measures that reflect the individual differences between students. Based on the diagnosis of the problem, four methods were designed to help international students struggling with writing block. These methods include: supporting students struggling with comprehension problems, helping students control problems that occur at the emotional level, correcting repeated errors students make in regards to the kinds of expressions used in used in different writing genres, and recognizing the problems students have in academic writing as well as the causes of these problems.
This study explores the difficulty that international students face when writing academic papers, after investigating the nature of the writing block that international students experience, we prepared a systematic method to combat the factors leading to this issue. The research involved administering a questionnaire of writing block and conducting a case study on international students; the results were collected and used to diagnose the following problems: First, among the sub-factors of comprehension, interpretation of meaning, the assigned task, and the environment, the following were shown to have the most statistically significant impact on writing block: text understanding and content creation, content structure, writing anxiety and negative attitude, writing efficacy, evaluation of the task, environment in which the task is done, and lack of academic writing knowledge. However, the influence that each of these factors has on writing block is somewhat different. Second, each factor that contributes to writing block does not exist independently but interacts with the other factors to either strengthen or weaken the writing block. Third, the students identified writing block as any time that they were unable to progress in their writing due to either lack of necessary knowledge or difficulty using a second language. Fourth, although the support of the community is necessary for international students in an academic writing course, the community is not established in a way that effectively provides this support. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce effective assistance measures that reflect the individual differences between students. Based on the diagnosis of the problem, four methods were designed to help international students struggling with writing block. These methods include: supporting students struggling with comprehension problems, helping students control problems that occur at the emotional level, correcting repeated errors students make in regards to the kinds of expressions used in used in different writing genres, and recognizing the problems students have in academic writing as well as the causes of these problems.
