Abstract
Having been investigated from different perspectives across a broad range of disciplines, plagiarism in English as a Second Language (ESL)/English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts has not received much attention until very recently. This mixed-methods case study in the Turkish context is a critical analysis of EFL preservice teachers' perceptions, motives, knowledge of, and practices regarding plagiarism, as well as their academic integrity awareness and plagiarism detection ability in a freshman academic writing course at a state university. The quantitative data from the pre- and post-test questionnaires in the study were analyzed through descriptive statistics while the qualitative data from the questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with the preservice teachers were analyzed via thematic analysis. Findings suggested the favorable impact of Turnitin on preservice teachers' self-discovery to overcome and reduce possible plagiarism attempts in the Turkish context.
TopIntroduction
Plagiarism in English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts is a topic that has engaged researchers in a heated discussion in recent years (Amin & Mohammadkarimi, 2019; Balbay & Kilis, 2018; Bailey, 2015; Gokmenoğlu, 2017; Jereb et al., 2018; Rets & Ilya, 2018). As pointed out in a recent study by Rets and Ilya (2018), there is still no consensus on a comprehensive definition of the notion of plagiarism that has a “longstanding history” (p.195), despite an escalating rate in plagiarism in higher education suggested by Jackson (2006). The ambiguity that resides in plagiarism demonstrates itself in diverse types of plagiarism depicted in the research literature, revealing its global prevalence (Decoo, 2008, Lei & Hu, 2015). In fact, over the last two decades, in the related literature, plagiarism incidents have become an issue of immediate relevance (Rets & Ilya, 2018). Although in the first /native language (L1) context the focus has been on whether it should be judged as ‘stealing’ (Kolich, 1983, p. 143) and ‘cheating’ (Murphy, 1990, p. 889), in ESL/EFL literature, with a different outlook due to the “language factor”, research has centered around differences of cultural perceptions of texts and textual borrowing (Yamada, 2003). Several studies have been concerned with contrasting the viewpoints of ESL/EFL writers and those of American and North European teachers as regards to the practice of copying source texts without acknowledgement (Buranen, 1999; Dryden, 1999; Sherman, 1992). Others have investigated the attitudes of Asian ESL/EFL writers toward Western literary conventions (Curie, 1998; Deckert, 1993; LoCastro & Masuko, 1997). Another line of research has adopted a more ideological approach and questioned the authorship of texts as well as the relevance of plagiarism (Pennycook, 1996; Scollon, 1994, 1995) in connection to the writing habits of ESL/EFL writers whose backgrounds do not value textual ownership. Thus, it is evident that more studies are still needed to bridge the global and local concerns and practices.
This debate on plagiarism with a distinct focus on differences in cultural perceptions in textual borrowing has provided interesting descriptions for researchers and teachers, enabling them to develop valuable insights into the developmental discourse practices and cultural notions of ESL/EFL writers (Gibson & Chester-Fangman, 2011; McCabe & Trevino, 1993; Scollon, 1995). There is still a growing need to look into the reasons why plagiarism is still regarded as a growing concern and how classroom practices and technology can help.
These concerns provided an impetus to the present study in this book chapter which investigated the plagiarism-related perceptions, knowledge and practices of 80 EFL pre-service teachers and how the use of a text-matching software (i.e., Turnitin) altered them.
The research questions that guided the current study are as follows:
- 1.
What are EFL pre-service teachers’ perceptions regarding plagiarism?
- 2.
What are EFL pre-service teachers’ knowledge and practices regarding plagiarism?
- a.
To what extent do they know how to document sources appropriately?
- b.
What are the major difficulties they face in source documentation practices?
- c.
What are the culture-based contextual motives that underlie their misconduct in plagiarism-related practices?
- 3.
Does plagiarism training and the use of Turnitin affect EFL pre-service teachers’ perceptions, knowledge and practices in plagiarism?
- a.
Does plagiarism training affect their ability to notice plagiarized materials/texts?
- b.
How do they view the integration of Turnitin into coursework, the advantages and shortcomings of using Turnitin?
Key Terms in this Chapter
Textual Borrowing: A natural process underlying academic writing which involves students reading from other sources and integrating facts, research, and scholarship from these sources into their own text. Therefore, textual borrowing should be dealt in such a way that it highlights the improvement of students’ critical use of other texts in developing their argument rather than for accusing students of their unorthodox practice, referred to as plagiarism.
Plagiarism: Stating, or presenting someone else’s work or ideas as one’s own, with or without their consent and incorporate it into one’s work without acknowledging it fully. Plagiarism cases involve one of the following actions: submitting a paper to be graded or reviewed that one has not written on his/her own, copying answers or text from another classmate and submit it as his/her own, quoting or paraphrasing from another paper without crediting the original author, citing data without giving credit to the original source, proposing another author’s idea as if it were one’s own, inventing references or using incorrect references, submitting someone else’s presentation, work, with only minor alterations.
Academic Integrity: Academic practices which involve the submission of original work and the act of giving credit to other people’s ideas, which involves the following practices at the tertiary level. The creation and expression of one’s own ideas in course work, the acknowledgement of all sources of information, the independent completion of assignments or the acknowledgement of collaboration, the accurate reporting of the results in the course of research conduct and honesty during examination.
Plagiarism Detection Software: Online computer programs or web interfaces of such programs developed specifically to identify cases where someone’s work is presented totally or partially without giving credit to its owner and without applying proper citation practices.
Authorship: Usually attributed to persons responsible for the intellectual content of a published work. In the context of articles arising from a research study authorship requires ongoing (rather than occasional) contributions to the study and actual writing/critical review of the paper. It involves, therefore, not only those who do the actual writing but also those who have made substantial scientific contributions to a study.
Source Documentation: The provision of evidence (including the primary and secondary sources) in a research paper.
Textual Ownership: Stating explicitly which ideas in the text come from the writer and which ideas come from outside sources.