Innovative Pedagogy to Overcome Student Struggles with Plagiarism

Abstract

Plagiarism is a problem that affects English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learner all over the world. Rather than simply labelling students who plagiarize as “offenders,” finding solutions to guide them away from it is of primary importance. Ten instructors teaching a 30-week EFL academic writing course at a large urban university in Japan were interviewed about their methodologies to do so. Two academic writing classes (N=40) were asked to write reflections on what they were learning and how it was being taught to them. The student reflections and instructor interview transcripts were coded and analysed, instructor strategies to deal with plagiarism proactively in this context identified, and student responses to these strategies explored. The strategies were largely found to be a combination of existing methods with one notable exception, which is introduced in detail here. It is based on Rubin’s Four Tendencies personality framework, which is a method that relies on instructors recognizing learners as responding to expectations in one of four ways and harnessing this to help them achieve. This personalized instruction can be seen as one of the modern approaches to facilitate learning and engagement outlined by Owens and Kadakia (2016). Student responses to it were positive, and the instructor using it felt that it both reduced stress and improved relationships with students. As such, the method has been added to the departmental pedagogy for the next intake of students.