Investigating attitudes toward plagiarism among post-graduate ELT students

Year 2023, Volume: 9 Issue: 3, 115 - 134, 31.12.2023

Esin Çiftçi Birincibubar

https://doi.org/10.47216/literacytrek.1396406

Abstract

The students’ awareness level and attitudes toward plagiarism, which is using others’ words, thoughts and work without giving reference to the original author, are a matter of study at the higher education level and have implications in English Language Teaching (ELT). However, upon researching the literature, it has turned out that there has been a limited number of studies on attitudes toward plagiarism among post-graduate ELT students. To this end, this study aimed to investigate their attitudes toward plagiarism in a descriptive survey design extending to the existing literature. Data were collected by utilizing a questionnaire. The study’s participants were post-graduate ELT students from universities in Türkiye (N = 30). According to the results, they seemed to oppose supporting or justifying plagiarism. The results also revealed that the participants approached plagiarism quite negatively. They considered it an unacceptable issue to be taken seriously. However, their attitudes toward self-plagiarism tend to be moderate rather than negative. The current investigation uncovered that the participants did not fully understand plagiarism. Based on the findings, there was a need to raise post-graduate ELT students’ awareness levels Furthermore, necessary recommendations were made to broaden the post-graduate ELT students' knowledge and awareness levels about plagiarism.

Keywords

plagiarism, post graduate students, attitudes toward plagiarism

References

• Adam, L. (2016). Student perspectives on plagiarism. In T. Bretag (Ed.), Handbook of Academic Integrity (pp. 519-535). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-098-8_67
• Amin, M. Y. M., & Mohammadkarimi, E. (2019). ELT Students’ attitudes toward the effectiveness the anti-plagiarism software, Turnitin, Applied Linguistics Research Journal, 3(5), 63-75. https://doi.org/10.14744/alrj.2019.66376
• Amiri, F., & Razmjoo, S. A. (2016). On Iranian EFL undergraduate students' perceptions of plagiarism. Journal of Academic Ethics, 14(2), 115-131. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-015-9245-3
• Bretag, T. (2013). Challenges in addressing plagiarism in education. PLoS Medicine, 10(12), e1001574. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001574
• Cheema, Z. A., Mahmood, S. T., Mahmood, A., & Shah, M. A. (2011). Conceptual awareness of research scholars about plagiarism at higher education level: Intellectual property right and patent. International Journal of Academic Research, 3(1), 666-671.
• Devlin, M. (2006) Policy, preparation, and prevention: Proactive minimization of student plagiarism. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 28(1), 45-58. https://doi.org/10.1080/13600800500283791
• Enamudu, J.O., & Akonedo, S.O. (2021) Academic motivation and attitude towards plagiarism by undergraduates in faculty of education, University of Ibadan. Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal). 5750. Available at https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/5750/
• Erarslan, A., & Topkaya, E. Z. (2018). Micro-Level Policies and Practices Regarding Plagiarism in Advanced Reading and Writing Courses in Turkey. In S. Razı, I. Glendinning, & T. Foltynek (Eds.), Towards Consistency and Transparency in Academic Integrity (pp.117-130). Peter Lang.
• Eret, E., & Gokmenoglu, T. (2010). Plagiarism in higher education: A case study with prospective academicians. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2(2), 3303-3307. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.03.505
• Fishman, T. (2009). “We know it when we see it” is not good enough: Toward a standard defnition of plagiarism that transcends the_, fraud, and copyright. Paper presented at the 4th Asia Pacific Conference on Educational Integrity (4APCEI) 28–30 September, Australia. Retrieved from http://www.bmartin.cc/pubs/09-4apcei/4apcei-Fishman.pdf
• Grigg G. A. (2010). Plagiarism in higher education: Confronting the policy dilemma. [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. University of Melbourne.
• Hosny, M., & Fatima, S. (2014). Attitude of students towards cheating and Plagiarism: University case study. Journal of applied sciences. 14(8), 748-757. https://doi:10.3923/jas.2014.748.757
• Howard, R. M. (1995). Plagiarisms, authorships, and the academic death penalty. College English, 57(7), 788-806. https://doi.org/10.2307/378403
• Howard, R. M. (2016). Plagiarism in higher education: An academic literacies issue? – Introduction. In T. Bretag (Ed.), Handbook of Academic Integrity (pp. 499–501). Springer Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-098-8_70
• Idiegbeyan-ose, J., Nkiko, C., & Osinulu, I. (2016). Awareness and perception of plagiarism of postgraduate students in selected universities in Ogun state, Nigeria. Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal). 1322. Available at http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/1322.
• Kaçar, I. G., & Işık-Güler, H. (2021). Internet-based text-matching software and EFL preservice teachers' awareness of academic integrity: A case study in the Turkish context. In A. Wang (Ed.), Redefining the Role of Language in a Globalized World (pp. 243-305). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-2831-0.ch013
• Kirthi, P.B., Pratp, K., Padma, T.M., & Kalyan, V.S. (2015) Attitudes towards plagiarism among post-graduate students and faculty members of a teaching health care institution in Telangana - A cross-sectional questionnaire based study. International Journal of Advanced Research. 3(8), 1257-1263.
• Lopera Medina, S. A. (2018). A reflection about self-plagiarism. GiST Education and Learning Research Journal, 16, 164-184. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.430
• Mavrinac, M., Brumini, G., Bilic-Zulle, L., & Petrovecki, M. (2010). Construction and validation of attitudes toward plagiarism questionnaire. Croatian Medical Journal, 51(3), 195–201. https://doi.org/10.3325/cmj.2010.51.195
• Morris, E. J. (2016). Academic integrity: A teaching and learning approach. In T. Bretag (Ed.), Handbook of academic integrity (pp. 1037–1053). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-098-8_11
• Mustafa, F. (2019). I think it is not plagiarism”: How little do Indonesian undergraduate EFL students understand plagiarism. Asian EFL Journal, 21(2), 74-91. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331547836
• Nagi, K., & John, V. K. (2021) A study of attitude towards plagiarism among Thai university students. European Journal of Foreign Language Teaching, 5(4), 21-35. https://doi:10.46827/ejfl.v5i4.3725
• Nushi, M., & Firoozkohi, A. H. (2017). Plagiarism policies in Iranian university TEFL teachers’ syllabuses: An exploratory study. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 13(1), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40979-017-0023-4
• Orluwene, G. W., & Magnus-Arewa, A. E. (2020) Attitude of postgraduate students towards plagiarism in University of Port Harcourt. Asian Journal of Education and Social Studies, 7(2), 28-38. https://doi.org/10.9734/ajess/2020/v7i230193
• Pecorari, D. (2003). Good and original: Plagiarism and patchwriting in academic second-language writing. Journal of Second Language Writing, 12(4), 317–345. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2003.08.004
• Pecorari, D. (2008). Academic writing and plagiarism: A linguistic analysis. Bloomsbury Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1558/wap.v2i2.325
• Pecorari, D. (2016). Plagiarism, international students, and the second-language writer. In T. Bretag (Ed.), Handbook of Academic Integrity (pp. 537-550). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-098-8_69
• Pupovac, V., Bilic-Zulle, L., Mavrinac, M., & Petrovecki, M. (2010). Attitudes toward plagiarism among pharmacy and medical biochemistry students – cross-sectional survey study. Biochemia Medica, 20(3), 307-313. https://doi.org/10.11613/BM.2010.039
• Rets, I., & Ilya, A. (2018). Eliciting ELT students’ understanding of plagiarism in academic writing. Eurasian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 4(2), 193–211. https://doi.org/10.32601/ejal.464115
• Sankar, P. (2020). Measuring the attitude towards plagiarism: a study. Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal). 4121. Available at https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/4121
• Selemani, A. Chawinga, W. D., & Dube, G. (2018). Why do postgraduate students commit plagiarism? An empirical study. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 14(7), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40979-018-0029-6
• Vassileva, I., & Chankova, M. (2019). Attitudes towards plagiarism in academia. English Studies at NBU, 5(1), 135-163. https://doi.org/10.33919/esnbu.19.1.7
• Yıldırım, B., & Razı, S. (2018) English language teaching students’ attitudes towards plagiarism and their locus of control. In S. Razı, I. Glendinning, & T. Foltynek, (Eds.), Towards consistency and transparency in academic integrity (pp. 3-16). Peter Lang.
• Zafarghandi, A. M., Khoshroo, F., & Barkat, B. (2012) An investigation of Iranian EFL masters students’ perceptions of plagiarism. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 8(2). 69-85. https://doi.org/10.21913/IJEI.v8i2.811