Dublin Core
Title
Plagiarism: What are the Major Types and Causes among Iranian ELT Students?
Abstract
The present study aims to investigate plagiarism and its major types and causes among Iranian MA students majoring in ELT. It also aims at finding the possible similarities and differences between male and female students in terms of committing plagiarism. To do this, three classes of MA students majoring in ELT from Ilam and Shiraz universities were selected randomly from Iranian National Universities. Relying on the results of the previous studies, the study divides the causes of committing plagiarism into three major types: Time, Motivation and Awareness. To investigate plagiarism and its causes a questionnaire with 19 five-choice items was designed and through pilot study its validity and reliability were obtained. Based on Rajeev (2009) classification, plagiarism was classified into five types: full, self, partial, minimalistic and source-citation plagiarism and these were embedded in the questionnaire. The results of the study showed that as far as gender difference is concerned no significant difference was found between male and female participants with regard to the extent of committing various types of plagiarism. However, it also showed that the males were more familiar with the rules of reporting, quoting, giving reference and citation than the females. As for the causes of committing plagiarism the results showed that concerning Time both males and females had similar attitudes, while their attitudes toward Motivation and Awareness was different. Finally, while most of the females knew the lack of knowledge as a major cause of plagiarizing most males knew Motivation (not being read their term papers by the professors) as the major reason for committing plagiarism.
Keywords
Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed
PeerReviewed
Date
2012
Extent
857