Chinese university EFL teachers' knowledge of and stance on plagiarism

Guangwei Hu, Xiaoya Sun

Research output: Journal article publicationJournal articleAcademic researchpeer-review

17 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Plagiarism has engendered increasing concern in academia in the past few decades. While previous studies have investigated student plagiarism from various perspectives, how plagiarism is understood and responded to by university teachers, especially those in English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) writing contexts, has been under-researched. As academic insiders and educators of future academics, university teachers play a key role in educating students against plagiarism and upholding academic integrity. Their knowledge of and attitudes toward plagiarism not only have a crucial influence on their students' perceptions of plagiarism but can also provide insights into how institutions of higher education are tackling the problem. The study reported in this paper aims to address this imbalance in research on plagiarism by focusing on a sample of 108 teachers from 38 Chinese universities. Drawing on both quantitative and qualitative data that comprise textual judgments and writing samples, it examines whether EFL teachers in Chinese universities share Anglo-American conceptions of plagiarism, what stance they take on detected cases of plagiarism, and what factors may have influenced their perceptions. Findings from this study problematize the popular, yet over-simplistic, view that Chinese EFL writers are tolerant of plagiarism and point to academic and teaching experience as influences on their perceptions and attitudes concerning plagiarism.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)29-37
Number of pages9
JournalComunicar
Volume24
Issue number48
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jul 2016
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Academic integrity
  • Academic socialization
  • Attitude
  • Chinese universities
  • English language teachers
  • Knowledge
  • Plagiarism
  • Second language

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Cultural Studies
  • Communication
  • Education

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