An examination of the factors predicting verbatim plagiarism in English academic writing in Thai contexts

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate the predicting factors for verbatim plagiarism. In this study, quantitative and qualitative data were employed. The participants were 103 Thai undergraduate English-majored students from the Faculty of Education in 5 public universities in Thailand studying in the first semester of the academic year 2012 selected by using purposive sampling technique. The research instruments for quantitative data were an essay writing task and a questionnaire. For qualitative data, a semi-structured interview was conducted with 10 participants conducting verbatim plagiarism in their essay papers at high levels. The quantitative data were analyzed by using mean scores, standard deviation, Pearson correlation coefficiency, and regression analysis. The qualitative data were analyzed by using content analysis. The findings revealed that verbatim plagiarism had a positive relationship with positive attitudes toward plagiarism at the significant level of .01 (r = .29), with subjective norms toward plagiarism at the significant level of .05 (r = .25), and with performance-approach goal orientation at the significant level of .05 (r = .20) and had a negative relationship with perception on plagiarism (r = -.30) and with English proficiency (r = -.39) at the significant level of .01. In addition, the best predicting factors for verbatim plagiarism were perception on plagiarism and English proficiency at the significant level of .01 (R²= .22). The findings suggest that English instructors should educate students about plagiarism and how to avoid plagiarism along with enhancing their English proficiency. Besides, to address plagiarism effectively, students should also have negative attitudes toward plagiarism and set their learning goal for self improvement.