ESL Students’ Awareness of Plagiarism Avoidance

When acknowledging scholarly and other sources in academic writing, ESL students at American universities face different challenges from the ones their American counterparts face. Cultural differences and low writing proficiency in English are the main reasons why plagiarism is such a complex issue to address by ESL teachers. The development of appropriate strategies for acknowledging sources effectively is a process that requires multiple instructional activities in order for students to fully master the most basic standards. This study will evaluate ESL students’ perceptions on the importance of acknowledging sources effectively. The development of their perceptions will be assessed before and after they carry out some instructional activities on the topic of plagiarism. These activities are intended to scaffold students’ learning of quotation criteria and to progressively develop students’ awareness of the importance of appropriate acknowledgement of sources