Investigating the perception of causes leading to plagiarism in third year and final year English-majored students at a university

Abstract

In the curriculum of many universities these days, students face many writing reports that represent their proficiency in writing as well as their language competence. These papers are also their marks for the final exam. Therefore, it can be a barrier for some students who are restricted by developing ideas, following the academic writing style, and showing their lacking of understanding of the topic. To tackle this issue, some negative behaviors present the act of plagiarism in students. In the context of School of Foreign Languages (SFL) at Can Tho University, this study is conducted to investigate the students' perception of plagiarism. Moreover, the researcher also examines the main causes that lead to plagiarism. Finally, there is a comparison to show differences in the reasons of doing plagiarism between Third-year and Final-year students about their plagiarism behavior. The study was carried out with the support of 160 students from English Studies and the mix-method was applied. The analysis results reveal that students have a good perception of plagiarism. Following that, they indicate that the pressure of time and many cause combinations are the reasons that lead to plagiarism. Regarding the comparison of motives leading to plagiarism, there are not many differences between the two cohorts except for the two causes relating to writing skills and subjective behavior. Finally, EFL students suggest some ways to avoid plagiarism and websites applied for checking plagiarism.