Comparison of a Student and a Professional Writer’s Literacy Competence as Reflected in their Business E-mails

Sri Rahayu Zees, Mursid Saleh, - Warsono, Rudi Hartono

Abstract


This research is an evaluation study using context, input, process, and product (CIPP) evaluation model to analyze whether the literacy developed in educational institution has met the acceptable literacy level used in the workplace. Two business E-mails about sales written by a professional writer and a student were analyzed to investigate the contexts and products. Input analysis was carried out on the data from observations and texts while process analyis was performed on the data elicited from observations. All four analyses were also supported by data elicited through interviews from both writers. The results of CIPP analysis indicated both similarities and differences between the two E-mails which reflected the literacy levels of both writers. In context analysis, both E-mails used mixed literacy types which were realized in 11 language aspects. The differences were in the cognitive process involved in the professional writer’s performance that showed a high literacy level while the student’s E-mail presented a low to medium literacy level. According to the input analysis results, both writers used most of the available designs as intangible resources except for style and declarative knowledge. There were differences in using the instructional materials and people as tangible resources. In process analysis, although there were similarities in some steps of knowledge building phase; however, some differences were still found between the two writers in this phase and in the phases of modelling, joint construction and independent construction of the text. The results of product analysis showed that the professional writer’s E-mail presented a good to excellent literacy level while the literacy level of the student’s E-mail ranged between inadequate and fair. The differences indicate that the literacy developed in educational institution does not meet the requirements of literacy used genuinely.

Keywords


Literacy, Business E-mail, CIPP Evaluation Model

Full Text:

PDF

References


Aimoldina, A., Zharkynbekova, S., & Akynova, D. (2016). Investigating pragmatic failures in business letters of Kazakhstani professionals. Procedia Economics and Finance, 39, 65-70.

Anderson, L. W. & Krathwohl, D. R. (2001). A taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. New York: Longman.

Baron, R. A. (2000). Psychological perspectives on entrepreneurship: Cognitive and social factors in entrepreneurs' success. Current directions in psychological science, 9(1), 15-18.

Bhatia, V. K. & Bremner, S. (2012). State-of-the-Art Article English for Business Communication. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/S0261444812000171

Biber, D., Conrad, S., & Leech, G. (2007). Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Harlow: Longman.

Butt, D., Fahey, R., Spinks, R., & Yallop, C. (2000). Using Functional Grammar: An Explorer’s Guide. Sydney: National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research. Macquarie University Sydney.

Cobuild, C. (1999). English Grammar: Helping learners with real English. London: HarperCollins Publishers

Crystal, D. (2006). Language and the internet (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Evans, S. (2014). Teaching business correspondence: Lessons from the globalised workplace. The Asian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 1(2), 102-20.

Gall, M. D., Gall, J. P., & Borg, W. R. (2003). Educational Research: An Introduction (8th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson Education.

Giménez-Moreno, R. (2011). Register Variation in Electronic Business Correspondence. International Journal of English Studies (IJES), 11(1), 15-34

Halliday, M. A. K. (1978). Language as social semiotic: The social interpretation of language and meaning. London: Edward Arnold.

Hauser, R. M., Edley Jr, C. F., Koenig, J. A., & Elliott, S. W. (2005). Measuring Literacy: Performance Levels for Adults. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.

Holme, R. (2004). Literacy: An Introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Ippolito, J., Steele, J. L., & Samson, J. F. (2008). Introduction: Why adolescent literacy matters now? Harvard Educational Review, 78(1), 1-6.

Judge, T. M. (2005). Spanish Business Writing Genre Research: Electronic Mail Memoranda (Doctoral Dissertation). Iowa State University, Ames, USA.

Kern, R. (2000). Literacy and Language Teaching. Oxford: OUP.

Koriche, H. (2015). The Emergence of a New Discourse for Business Communication: A Case Study of e-mails in Shipping Company. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 199, 539-547.

Leu, D. J., Kinzer, C.K., Coiro, J., & Cammack, D. (2004). Towards a theory of new literacies emerging from the Internet and other ICT. In R.B. Ruddell & N. Unrau (Eds.), Theoretical models and processes of reading (5th ed.),1570–1613. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Pahl, K. & Roswell, J. (2005). Literacy and Education. California: SAGE Publications Inc.

Street, B. V. & Lefstein, A. (2007). Literacy: an advanced resource book. New York: Routledge.

Stufflebeam, D. L. (1983). The CIPP model for program evaluation. In Evaluation models. Dordrecht: Springer.

Taylor, C. (2003). New kinds of literacy, and the world of visual information: An exploratory paper for the EIGVIL workshop: Explanatory &Instructional Graphics and Visual Information. Literacy. London Metropolitan University. Retrieved from http://www.conradiator.com/resources/pdf/literacies4eigvil_ct2003.pdf

UNESCO (2004). The Plurality of literacy and its Implications for Policies and Programmes. UNESCO Education Sector Position Paper. Published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization 7, place de Fontenoy, 75352 PARIS 07 SP Composed and printed in the workshops of UNESCO © UNESCO 2004 Printed in France ED-2004/WS/31 cld.16763

UNESCO (2006). Education for All Global Monitoring report. Chapter 6: Understanding of literacy (www.unesco.org/education/GMR2006/ full/chapter6. engl.pdf

International Reading Association. (2009). New literacies and 21st-century technologies. A position statement of the International Reading Association. Newark, DE: International Reading Association. Retrieved from https://www.literacyworldwide.org/docs/default-source/where-we-stand/new-literacies-21st-century-position-statement.pdf?sfvrsn=6

Zees, S. R. (2018). What Teacher should Evaluate before Planning and Operating the Teaching and Learning Process. Proceedings65(1). TEFLIN International Conference. Universitas Negeri Makasar South Sulawesi Indonesia 12-14 July 2018.

Zees, S. R. (2015). Kajian Korespondensi Bisnis dalam Perdagangan Internasional pada Perusahaan Ekspor Impor di Jawa Tengah & DIY. Unpublished Research Report to P3M Politeknik Negeri Semarang.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijels.v.6n.4p.65

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Bookmark and Share


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

2013-2024 (CC-BY) Australian International Academic Centre PTY.LTD.

International Journal of Education and Literacy Studies  

You may require to add the 'aiac.org.au' domain to your e-mail 'safe list’ If you do not receive e-mail in your 'inbox'. Otherwise, you may check your 'Spam mail' or 'junk mail' folders.