The Effects of Students' Previous Learning On Graph-Comprehension in The ESL Textbooks

Educationalfutures Rind, Alhawsawi
Vol.5 (2) June 2013 Previous Learning
The effects of students’ previous learning on graph-comprehension in the

English as second language (ESL) textbooks in a Pakistani university
Irfan A. Rind, IBA-Sukkur Pakistan, and Sajjad Alhawsawi, University of

Sussex
Corresponding author details Irfan A. Rind

Email: Englican_irfan2382@hotmail.com
Tel: +(92)332 2654257
Abstract
The recent emphasis on the importance of English language teaching and

learning in public universities in Pakistan has resulted in the introduction of
a new English as Second Language (ESL) programme including revised
textbooks. The textbooks contains, among others, many exercises and
activities which require learners to comprehend graphs, charts, diagrams
and maps (hereafter ‘graphs’ will be used to refer to all of these terms).
This paper examines the impact of students’ learning experiences of
biology or maths subjects at the intermediate level (the A-level equivalent
in Pakistan) in relation to their graph comprehension in the ESL textbooks
in the first year of university. With a qualitative case study approach, the
findings of this study are based on observations and interviews with
purposively sampled seventeen students and four teachers from a public
university located in the province of Sindh, Pakistan. The findings suggest
that students’ previous learning experiences conflict with the graph based
exercises in the ESL textbooks. When interacting with these exercises,
students constructed their identities as ‘medical’ or ‘engineering’ students;
underperformance in graph comprehension is explained in relation to
being a medical student (and therefore from a biology background), while
good performance is attributed to being an engineering student (and
therefore from a maths background). These findings have implications for
the course designers, teacher trainings and future researchers.
Key words:
ESL, disciplinary identities, graph comprehension, higher education, Pakistan
e-journal of the British Education Studies Association 44

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Introduction
This paper is the part of a PhD study, which examines students’ learning
experiences in an ESL programme at a public sector university in Pakistan (hereafter
‘University X’ will be used to refer to the university). The paper presents the findings
on students’ interaction with the graph based exercises in the ESL textbooks (i.e.
Howe, Kirkpatrick, and Kirkpatrick, 2006; Eastwood, 2006) with a specific focus on (1)
how students’ previous knowledge of graph comprehension affects their interactions
with the graph based exercises in the ESL textbooks; (2) how students construct and
foreground certain identities which are associated with their previous learning
experiences in interaction with these graph based exercises; and (3) the effects of
such interactions on their participation in the classroom. These issues are
understood mainly from students’ perspective, supplemented by teachers’
perspective.
ESL classrooms are viewed as important sites in which learners acquire English
language skills in a formal or instructional setting, and in which teachers support
students in gaining particular linguistic and academic competencies. In order to
acquire these competencies, students’ participation in classroom activities is seen as
essential (Morita, 2004; Hirst, 2007; Barnawi, 2009).
Classroom participation implies that students are engaged actors on socio-cognitive

planes, where cognitive and social properties are reciprocally connected and
essential to solve given problems. Socio-cognitive interactions are inevitably more
complicated in a classroom made up of linguistically and culturally diverse students
(Hirst, 2007). Morita (2004: 573) points out that ‘understanding how these students
participate in their new academic communities and acquire academic discourses in
their second language has become critical’. This paper attempts to understand these
academic discourses by focusing on students’ interaction with graph based
exercises in ESL textbooks and its effects on their participation in the classroom.
Context of the study
The study was conducted in the University X, which is a public sector, multi-
disciplinary university. It accommodates a diverse range of students from all over
Pakistan. Although there are no official statistics on students’ choice of admission at
the University X, there is a general assumption that significant proportion of students
joins University X after being rejected from medical or engineering universities. For
example, one teacher who participated in this study (Teacher 4) described these
students in the following manner:
We have a vast variety [diversity] of students here. First, we have

those who are not able to find any place in medical, engineering or
any other professional fields; they rush back to University X, because
university is a kind of solace, a rescue for these leftover students […]
(Interview with Teacher 4)

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Sixteen out of the seventeen students interviewed for this study had been rejected
from various medical universities prior to enrolling at University X, while one had
been rejected from an engineering university. Additionally, findings from a small-
scale study conducted at one of the faculties of University X (Rind, 2008) also
suggested that the majority of students enrolled in this university had also joined
after being rejected from different medical universities.
This situation suggests that the medical and engineering universities are the first
choice for admission among the participants of this study in particular and other
students in general. Students choose biology and maths as their major subjects at
the intermediate level, which subsequently eligible them to apply for medical or
engineering universities respectively. The admission in the medical and engineering
universities are based on the score of the Higher Secondary Certificate Examination
(HSCE) and university pre-entrance test. Biology and maths are considered to be
very important subjects in HSCE and university pre-entrance test. Thus, students
focus mainly on these subjects in schools and have private tuition specifically for
these subjects. They also join private institutes for the preparation of university pre-
entrance test with a specific focus on these subjects. During this period students
strongly associate themselves with the practices that their major subjects require.
Moreover, they also identify themselves as ‘medical’ or ‘engineering’ students in
interaction with others. In failing to get admission to medical or engineering
universities, these students join different disciplines of the University X. In their first
year, they usually find it difficult to cope with those disciplines which are not
associated with biology or maths. The focus of this study is to understand the conflict
of students’ biology or math background with the graph based exercises in the ESL
textbooks.
Literature review
Different disciplines require students to adopt different learning approaches (Becher,

1994), and with these learning approaches, students develop specific learning
experiences (Middendorf and Pace, 2004). Students’ identities as learners are said
to become consolidated over time within specific disciplinary settings of a field of
knowledge (Ashwin, 2009); it is therefore unsurprising if they under-perform in
activities and exercises within a new discipline. In the present study, there is a focus
on students’ comprehension of graphs in the ESL textbooks, and we will argue that
students in this study under-perform in graph comprehension activities due to their
previous learning experiences and disciplines. For example, when students interact
with graph comprehension activities in ESL textbooks, students construct identities
based on their previous disciplines (e.g. medicine or engineering), which may hinder
their learning abilities. This section reviews the relevant literature, which starts with a
brief introduction of different approaches to distinguish disciplines, followed by
discussion on graph comprehension on ESL programmes in relation to learners’
previous learning experiences, their identities in relation to different disciplines, and
the ways in which these two areas are relevant to this study.

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Differences and similarities within disciplines
Different universities worldwide offer a wide variety of curricula. To compare these

curricula a standardized method was required. Biglan (1973a, b) offered a uniform
way of categorising the content of different curricula to allow a comparison between
academic disciplines’ representation in the fee-paying curriculum and as open
educational resources within and across institutions. Following Biglan, Becher (1989)
offered an academic typology. Becher categorised the academic disciplines into four
broad intellectual categories: ‘hard pure’, ‘soft pure’, ‘hard applied’, and ‘soft applied’
disciplines. Becher suggested that a hard pure discipline, such as physics or
chemistry, involves a cumulative and atomistic knowledge which involves the
learning of specific facts, principles, and concepts. Soft pure disciplines, such as
history and anthropology, involve a holistic and reiterative knowledge, which requires
learning to be focused predominantly on the understanding and interpreting of ideas,
and establishing a coherent argument. Examples of hard applied disciplines include
computing and engineering, and involve purposive and pragmatic knowledge. Soft
applied disciplines including education and ESL are also considered purposive and
pragmatic; however, these disciplines involve the application of inferred knowledge.
Coughlan and Perryman (2011:13) argue that Becher’s (1989) typology is informed
by the related theory of academic tribes, which has been developed on the bases of
Biglan (1793a, b) and Kolb (1981). This theory has long been applied to researching
disciplinary differences in academia and remains an enduring stand of investigation.
With this approach a number of discipline-related differences were identified in areas
like (1) relationship of academics with knowledge, (2) learners and teachers’
relationship, (3) learners’ interaction with different disciplines, (4) expectation from
learners to gain particular type of knowledge from a specific subject (Parry, 1998;
Ylijoli, 2000; Kemp and Jones, 2007; Coughlan and Perryman, 2011).
However, Smith and Miller (2005) have criticised this approach, and have argued
that Becher’s model does not take into account the possibility that disciplines may
vary along his continuum depending on the area of focus within that discipline. As
Dressen-Hammouda (2007:233) has argued, the most important aspect of these
debates is the idea that a learner’s mastery of a particular discipline is a complex
process, which involves learning relevant ‘discoursal’ forms as well as a wide range
of specialist knowledge patterns. These knowledge patterns are acquired as a
student’s identity is developed in relation to a particular discipline. This identity is
reinforced over time, and significantly affects learning experiences. For example,
Ivanic (1998) argues that
…knowing how to reproduce written academic norms is not an issue

of literacy as much as it is one of identity, where students struggle as
writers because they are also struggling to learn the beliefs and
practices of their disciplines (Dressen-Hammouda, 2007:233)
Ylijoki (2000 in Lindblom-Ylänne, et al, 2006:287) maintained that the core of every
discipline can be conceptualized as a moral order which defines the basic beliefs,
values and norms of the local culture. Her findings highlighted different ways of

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understanding the virtue and vices of studying and in the social identities that are
constructed in different disciplines. On the bases of her findings, Ylijoki argued that
quality teaching can be achieved by influencing the cultural basis of discipline.
Moreover, teachers are required to be aware of disciplinary needs of students and
the ways to meet these needs. As said earlier that the production of knowledge and
means of communication varies in different disciplines, and learners learn tacitly the
norms of their disciplinary culture with the passage of time (Lindblom-Ylänne, et al,
2006)
Graph comprehension in ESL
Research into the use of graphs in ESL has emerged relatively recently (Katz, Xi,
Kim, and Cheng, 2004; Xi 2005; Yu, Rea-Dichins, and Kiely, 2007). These studies
have stressed the important relationship between graph comprehension and learner
characteristics, such as learners’ field of knowledge (e.g. whether they have studied
sciences or arts), and their previous graphic knowledge (whether they have studied
in fields of knowledge such as mathematics, statistics and commerce, which promote
the use of graphs). Several models of graph comprehension have been proposed in
the field of cognitive psychology (e.g. Kintsch, 1988; Carpenter and Shah, 1998;
Freedman and Shah, 2002; Peebles and Cheng, 2003; Shah, Freedman, and Vekiri,
2005), and these models have been used by many second language researchers to
analyse learners’ graph comprehension.
For example, in their study of graph comprehension in the International English

Language Testing System’s (IELTS) academic writing task, Yu, Rea-Dickins, and
Kiely (2007) use Carpenter and Shah’s (1998) Knowledge-Based model. According
to this model, graph comprehension is influenced not only by the display
characteristics of a graph (Lewandowsky and Spence, 1989; Shah and Carpenter,
1995; Shah, Mayer, and Hegarty, 1999), but also by the learner’s discipline (Curcio,
1987), graphical literacy skills, explanatory and other scientific reasoning skills e.g.
spatial reasoning (Feeney, et al, 2004; Trickett and Trafton, 2006; Stewart, Hunter,
and Best, 2008). This emphasis on learner characteristics in graph comprehension is
also supported by empirical evidence. For example, Carpenter and Shah (1998:97)
noted that ‘individual differences in graphic knowledge should play as large a role in
the comprehension process as does variation in the properties of the graph itself’.
Similarly, Friel, Curcio, and Bright (2001) found learner characteristics, including
prior knowledge or bias of the graphic information, as a crucial factor affecting graph
comprehension. Xi (2005) also found that learners’ previous familiarity with graphs
affected their oral reproduction of graphical information. Finally, Aberg-Bengtsson
and Ottosson (2006) found that learners’ graphic knowledge had the strongest
correlation with strong mathematics / science achievements.

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All these studies emphasise that learners’ graph comprehension is significantly

influenced by their previous learning experiences and their disciplines. Ashwin (2009)
argues that students develop these learning experiences over time within the
disciplinary settings of their field of knowledge. Each field of knowledge requires a
different way of learning, which subsequently exposes learners to particular
knowledge patterns (Middendorf and Pace, 2004). Knowledge patterns may be
unique to certain disciplines, and ‘can impact on the development of [students] as
learners’ (Ashwin, 2009:79).
Overall, then, students are seen to develop particular learning experiences and
construct identities within the disciplinary settings of a field of knowledge. Within the
context of this study, students had spent two and a half years studying biology or
maths as specialised subjects before joining the University X. At the intermediate
level, students had chosen biology or maths as their major subjects in order to join
medical or engineering universities respectively. This involved studying these
subjects for two years at school level, and six months in private institutions in
preparation for the medical or engineering university’s pre-entrance test. During this
period, students will have inevitably developed certain learning experiences which
are specific to these subjects.
In this study, it was observed that students recall their previous learning experiences
while interacting with ESL exercises which are based on graph comprehension, and
in these interactions, they foreground identities of being ‘medical’ or ‘engineering’
students. The focus of this study is to understand these interactions and their
implications on students’ participation in the classroom.
Methodology
With the epistemological stance of interpretivism and a qualitative research

orientation, we used case study approach to understand students’ interaction with
graph based exercises of ESL textbooks and their effect on their participation in the
classrooms. Seventeen students and four teachers from the University X were
purposively selected for in-depth investigation. The selection of ten students was
based on their diversity. They come from different regions (rural /urban areas),
ethnicities, families and education backgrounds. The four teachers were of different
genders (two male and two female), but have almost same years of teaching
experience (one to two years) and same qualification (an M.A in English literature).
We refer to these teachers as ‘novice’ because they did not have any previous
teaching experience and did not receive any training.
Semi-structured interviews and observations were used as the main tools to collect
data. All interviews were conducted in regional languages (Urdu and Sindhi), tape
recorded, translated, and transcribed. Since participants responded in regional
languages, great care was taken to translate their responses in a way that maintains
the natural quality of their contributions. The interview process began with students;

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after interviewing two students, one teacher was interviewed. Although this pattern
was not strictly followed throughout the research process, this approach helped in
accessing teachers’ perspectives on issues raised by students in their interviews,
and vice versa. This meant that a dialogue of sorts could be established between
students’ and teachers’ perspectives during the transcription and analysis process.
The observations were mainly used for three purposes: firstly, to understand the
context ESL classrooms; secondly, to understand and explore the sensitive issues
which participants were uncomfortable to discuss in interviews; and thirdly, to verify
interviewees’ certain responses and claims.
Findings and discussion
This section analyses how students’ previous learning experience interacted with the
ESL exercises/activities which were based on graph comprehension, and the ways
in which students constructed and foregrounded the identities of being medical and
engineering students in these interactions. The focus was to understand how these
interactions affect students’ participation in the ESL classroom, as well as their
learning experiences. In doing so, this section first focuses on students’ motivation to
study biology or maths subjects in the Intermediate for the HSCE, which is linked
with their prior learning experiences.
As discussed in earlier, parents mainly encourage their children to join professional
medical or engineering universities in contemporary Pakistan. If a child is asked what
they want to do in the future, the most common answers are to be a doctor or an
engineer; it is instilled from a young age that these professions offer the highest level
of economic prosperity. Alternative career options are therefore rarely considered,
and so biology or maths are frequently chosen as major subjects at Intermediate
level in order to become eligible for medical or engineering universities respectively.
Arts subjects can also be chosen as majors, and all major subjects are studied for
two years.
Of the students participating in this study, all have therefore studied either biology or
maths intensively for two and a half years. During this period, these students will
have developed certain learning experiences (Dressen-Hammouda, 2007) which are
associated with biology and maths. Moreover, these students had expected to gain
admission to medical or engineering universities, but having failed to do this, they
joined the English department of University X; during their first year, many of the
students reported finding themselves in conflict with the new disciplinary setting in
English department. The conflict between their previous learning experiences and
the ESL programme is of particular relevance to the present study and it was found
that this conflict largely arose during ESL exercises which required graph
comprehension. When interacting with these exercises, students constructed their
identities as medical or engineering students; underperformance in graph
comprehension is explained in relation to being a medical student (and therefore

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from a biology background), while good performance is attributed to being an

engineering student (and therefore from a maths background).
Both students and teachers viewed these graph comprehension exercises as
requiring technical knowledge, and, more specifically, it was argued that engineering
students already have this technical knowledge as they have studied graphs in the
past, and so are comfortable interacting with these exercises. By contrast, it was
asserted that medical students struggle with these exercises due to their lack of
previous exposure to graphs when studying biology, and so they take more time to
understand them in the ESL courses. Medical students therefore have to focus on
understanding these graphs, rather than using them as indicators to improve their
English language skills, as is intended. Student 13 was one of the students with a
biology background, and struggled with graph comprehension:
We medical students had so many problems with graphs and maps.
This was a very difficult part for us. These [exercises] took a lot of
time. At first, we didn't even understand what the purpose of these
exercises was… maybe because we are medical students… it was
the waste of time […]. I didn't learn anything about English in these
exercises (Interview with Student 13)
Student 4 similarly cited graph comprehension when asked to discuss the aspects of
ESL textbooks he found difficult:
These books have some exercises that are typical. Like there are
maps and charts [graphs]. So, these were not clear to me […]. Yeah,
when we were discussing in group then it got clearer to me with the
help of a friend […]. Personally I was not able to do that […]
(Interview with Student 4)
The group referred to here by Student 4 was almost entirely made up of students
from a biology background, with one student from a maths background. This latter
student was the only one to quickly understand the graphs, and subsequently
explained them to the rest of the group:
In our group we have many students from different backgrounds.
Like, X [avoiding name] is very good in these exercises. He
understood them very quickly. You know, he is an engineering
student, so it’s easy for him. We are medical students. We need
some support in these exercises to understand them. And they take
so much time. If I would have done it alone, the class time would
have finished but I couldn't have understood it [graphs] […]. If I spent
the whole time only to understand it [graph], then how would I learn
English? (Interview with Student 4)

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These findings confirm Roth’s (2002:9) arguments, which suggest that if learners are
unfamiliar with graphs, ‘most of the reading activity is then concerned with structuring
the graph [and accompanying text] itself […] rather than with relating it to some
phenomenon’.
These findings also stress the important issue of time allowed to complete certain
activities (Fischer, Dewulf, and Hill, 2005; Yu, Rea-Dichins, and Kiely, 2007).
Students from biology backgrounds tend to take more time to comprehend graphs
than those from maths backgrounds. An average of fifteen minutes in total is
allocated for students to complete graph exercises in the class; however, it was
observed that students from biology background spent these fifteen minutes simply
trying to understand the information presented by the graphs. Students from maths
backgrounds, by contrast, were able to finish the entire exercise in the given time.
Learners who were unfamiliar with graphs due to their lack of exposure to them in
their previous fields of knowledge were therefore left feeling confused and frustrated,
as evident from the quotation from Student 6 below:
Graphs are bit confusing in start. I was puzzled to see them, and
then I have to go twice to understand them, but you know how much
time we have in the classes! […] engineering students are really
good in these activities, and of course only they talk [participate] in
the classes. Medical students like me are slow in these activities I
think. It is very frustrating sometimes because we didn't study them
before and we cannot understand them here. These [activities] are
not for medical students, you know what I mean. I always get bore in
these activities […] (Interview with Student 6)
This struggle to comprehend graphs also extended to novice teachers who had
previously studied biology or arts as major subjects. These novice teachers
acknowledged that they found activities involving graphs time-consuming and
confusing, and realised that students from non-maths backgrounds had similar
difficulties:
There are certain exercises that are boring, lengthy… like map and
graphs are given; you have to work on them. See these are technical
things. These are technical not from language learning point of view.
Like a graph is given here and how to study that! A teacher of
Science can explain a graph in a better than a teacher of arts. We try
our level best to explain, because we have studied these only at
intermediate level. But think of a person who comes from arts side
[…]. Those [students] who know the graphs [participate in the
classes]. Maybe they are engineering students. They show interest,
make their own explanations out of these graphs, and participate in
the classes (Interview with Teacher 3)
Overall, then, students seemed to construct and foreground the identities as medical
and engineering students when interacting with graph-based exercises in ESL
textbooks. These identities reflect students’ previous learning experiences, acquired
during two and half years’ learning biology or maths. As students from maths

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backgrounds were familiar with graphs from school, they seemed more comfortable
with graph comprehension, and demonstrated a high level of interest in these
exercises. Indeed, these were the only students to participate in the class during
graph comprehension exercises.
By contrast, students from biology backgrounds had little or no previous knowledge
of graphs, as their biology-related topics did not require graphical literacy skills. This
lack of prior knowledge significantly affected their use of the allocated time for graph
comprehension exercises, with most of their time taken up in trying to understand the
information presented by the graphs. In spite of good English language skills and
usual confidence when participating in the class, students from biology backgrounds
were observed to be passive and uninvolved during graph exercises. It was also
noticed that teachers mainly focus their attention on students who respond actively
and promptly in the class. Engineering students are therefore engaged and
participate in the class during graph comprehension exercises, and receive teachers’
attention and approval, while medical students feel ignored.
Implications and Conclusion
Due to the use of a case study, there are evidently certain limitations in terms of the
generalizability of the study’s findings in different contexts. However, findings from
this research study may prove useful not only for the course designers and ESL
teachers, but also as an empirical example to other higher education institutions
offering ESL programmes. The insights offered into how students of different
educational backgrounds interact with the graph based exercises of the ESL
textbooks could prove particularly useful. The implications which have emerged from
this research have been classified into three main areas: implications for course
designers, teachers training, and for further research.
Course designers
This study acknowledges that the new ESL textbooks covers a wide variety of topics
and issues that appeal to students from different disciplinary backgrounds. However,
there were problems associated with the sequencing of certain topics in ESL
textbooks. For example, it was observed that students from medical backgrounds
faced significant challenges with graph-based exercises. Although it is clearly
important for these students to understand and study the information presented in
these graphs, more consideration should be given to when these exercises are
presented. Currently, the sequence of the ESL textbooks means that graph-based
are studied in the first semester. Since students’ previous learning experience, which
may not support the interpretation of graph-based exercises, are still fresh during the
first semester, many students struggle with these exercises at this time. Introducing
graph-based exercises in the third or fourth semester may therefore be more
effective. These findings therefore lead to a recommendation of re-considering the
sequence of certain exercises in ESL textbooks.
Teacher training

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The findings suggest that novice teachers also struggled in understanding the graph
based exercises and could not manage to involve students of different educational
backgrounds. As a result they only involved those students who were prompt in
responding (in this case the students of maths background) and ignored the others
(students of biology background). This is due to the lack of proper teacher training.
The Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan launched a number of teacher
training courses specifically for the ESL teachers in public universities (HEC, 2011).
However, these training courses miss out many aspects of the ESL textbooks which
may continue to create problems for teachers in the classrooms. This situation
suggests the need to conduct an excusive curriculum analysis on ESL textbooks.
Such analysis would highlight many aspects of ESL textbooks that the HEC may
consider in their teachers’ training.
Further research
The findings of this study highlight the issues related to the graph comprehension in
the ESL textbooks. Although these findings are based on a small sample, they do
highlight the importance of further research in this area in different contexts. There is
a gap in literature on graph comprehension in relation to English language teaching
and learning. The main research in this area is conducted in relation to the IELTS
(Fry, 1981; Wainer, 1992; Mickan, Slater, and Gibson, 2000; Friel, Curcio, and
Bright, 2001; O'Loughlin and Wigglesworth, 2003; Yu, Rea-Dichins, and Kiely, 2007).
There is a strong need to further explore the graph comprehension in, for example,
English as foreign language (EFL) courses, English for specific purposes (ESP)
courses and English for academic purposes (EAP) courses.
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The Effects of Students' Previous Learning On Graph-Comprehension in The ESL Textbooks

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Educationalfutures Rind, Alhawsawi

Vol.5 (2) June 2013 Previous Learning

The effects of students’ previous learning on graph-comprehension in the

Irfan A. Rind, IBA-Sukkur Pakistan, and Sajjad Alhawsawi, University of

Corresponding author details Irfan A. Rind

The recent emphasis on the importance of English language teaching and

ESL, disciplinary identities, graph comprehension, higher education, Pakistan

e-journal of the British Education Studies Association 44

Classroom participation implies that students are engaged actors on socio-cognitive

Context of the study

We have a vast variety [diversity] of students here. First, we have

e-journal of the British Education Studies Association 45

Different disciplines require students to adopt different learning approaches (Becher,

e-journal of the British Education Studies Association 46

Differences and similarities within disciplines

Different universities worldwide offer a wide variety of curricula. To compare these

…knowing how to reproduce written academic norms is not an issue

e-journal of the British Education Studies Association 47

Graph comprehension in ESL

For example, in their study of graph comprehension in the International English

e-journal of the British Education Studies Association 48

All these studies emphasise that learners’ graph comprehension is significantly

With the epistemological stance of interpretivism and a qualitative research

e-journal of the British Education Studies Association 49

Findings and discussion

e-journal of the British Education Studies Association 50

from a biology background), while good performance is attributed to being an

e-journal of the British Education Studies Association 51

e-journal of the British Education Studies Association 52

Implications and Conclusion

e-journal of the British Education Studies Association 53

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e-journal of the British Education Studies Association 54

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e-journal of the British Education Studies Association 55

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Ivanic, R. (1998) Writing and Identity: the discoursal construction of identity in

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Kintsch, W. (1988) The role of knowledge in discourse comprehension: A

Kolb, D. A. (1981) Learning styles and disciplinary differences. In. A. W. Chickering

Lewandowsky, S. & Spence, I. (1989) The perception of statistical graphs.

Morita, N. (2004) Negotiating participation and identity in second language academic

e-journal of the British Education Studies Association 56

O'Loughlin, K. & Wigglesworth, G. (2003) Task design in IELTS academic writing

Parry, S. (1998) Disciplinary discourse in doctoral theses. Higher Education, 3, 273-

Roth, W. M. (2002) Reading graphs: Contributions to an integrative concept of

Shah, P. & Carpenter, P. A. (1995) Conceptual limitations in comprehending line

Shah, P., Mayer, R. E. &Hegarty, M. (1999) Graphs as aids to knowledge

Shah, P., Freedman, E. G. & Vekiri, I. (2005) The comprehension of quantitative

Smith, S. N. & Miler, R. J. (2005) Learning approaches: examination type, discipline

Trickett, S. B. & Trafton, J. G. (2006) Toward a comprehensive model of graph

Wainer, H. (1992) Understanding graphs and tables. Educational Researcher, 21(1),