Information sequence structure in seminar discussions: a comparative study of Indonesian and Australian students in academic settings.

Abstract

This study investigated: i) whether Indonesian students transfer their Indonesian (L1) schema, rhetorical structures, and cultural conventions when engaged in seminars in English (L2) in Indonesian academic contexts; ii) whether Australian students transfer their Australian English (L1) schema, rhetorical structures, and cultural conventions when engaged in seminar presentations in Indonesian (L2) in Australian academic contexts; iii) the extent to which and in what ways the respective schema, rhetorical structures, and cultural conventions differ; iv) the functions of discourse markers in these seminars; and v) the use of signposts in presentations.The analysis of the schema, the rhetorical structures, and cultural conventions is limited to: i) the overall schema of a seminar; ii) the major components of a presentation; iii) the exchange structure of the question and answer sessions; iv) the rhetorical structure of presentation introductions; iv) the rhetorical structure of questions; and v) the rhetorical structure of answers.The data were obtained from tape and video recordings of four groups of student seminars as presented below.1. Indonesian students' seminars conducted in Indonesian in Indonesian academic settings.2. Indonesian students' seminars conducted in English in Indonesian academic settings.3. Australian students' seminars conducted in English in Australian academic settings.4. Australian students' seminars conducted in Indonesian in Australian academic settings.The Indonesian students' seminars in Indonesian and in English were held at the IKIP (Higher Institution for Teacher Training) Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia. The Australian students' seminars in English were held at Curtin University of Technology, Australia. The Australian students' seminars in Indonesian were held at Curtin University of Technology and Murdoch University, Australia. The seminars were part of students' course assignments. The topics of the seminars were social and educational issues. The age of the students ranged from 20 to 30 years old.A total of 67 seminars comprised the data. The findings have shown that:(i) Indonesian students transfer their Ll schema, rhetorical structures, and cultural conventions when engaging in seminars conducted in English in Indonesian academic settings.(ii) Australian students transfer their Ll schema, rhetorical structures, and cultural conventions when engaging in seminars conducted in Indonesian in Australian academic settings.(iii) Indonesian students' schema, rhetorical structures, and cultural conventions in seminars conducted in Indonesian differ from the Australian students' schema, rhetorical structures, and cultural conventions in seminars conducted in English.(iv) The equivalent discourse markers across the four groups have the same functions.(v) Indonesian students used more signposts in their presentations in English than the rest of the groups.The report of the study is presented in nine sections as shown below.Section A presents the introduction, review of the related literature, and methodology. Section B presents findings of the Indonesian data in Indonesian.Section C presents findings of the Australian data in English.Section D compares the findings of the Indonesian data in Indonesian and the Australian data in English.Section E presents the findings of the Indonesian data in English.Section F compares the findings between: i) the Indonesian data in Indonesian and the Indonesian data in English; and ii) the Indonesian data in English and the Australian data in English.Section G presents the findings of the Australian data in Indonesian.Section H compares the findings between: i) the Australian data in English and the Australian data in Indonesian; and ii) the Australian data in Indonesian and the Indonesian data in Indonesian.Section I presents conclusions, implications, and recommendations for further study.