The challenge of academic writing for Chinese students within ...

No one tells me what I should do, how to write, that I should do research before
starting to write… I had no idea about referencing… I received very low marks on
my first essay and I was so disappointed. (Andy, interview)
I did not know there were many types of written assignments with different
requirements. I wasn‘t told what the differences were between essay writing and
writing a report. (Holly, interview)
English language proficiency was reported to have caused problems in their academic
writing, although it was not regarded as being a major issue. Previous research on L2 writing
had similar findings that English language competence was least a concern for L2 writers
(e.g. Jacobs, 1982; Zamel, 1984). Some participants were struggling between using formal
and informal English; some were distressed by not being able to find an appropriate word to
express what they meant; some found too many repetitive words in their writing; and some
expressions in their writing were misunderstood by tutors. Unfamiliarity with disciplinary
terminology was an obstacle. Their reading for writing was reported to have slowed down
and understanding impaired since they spent more time consulting dictionary and textbooks.
One participant commented:
I‘m required to read widely in the field and find literature to support my views. It
has proven a very difficult task for me. Reading and understanding the literature in
my degree subject is very difficult. Psychology as a subject has a lot of unusual
vocabulary and phases. I spent most of my time checking the dictionary and trying
to figure out what the term meant, then I found I had lost the whole picture of the
texts. (Holly, interview)
The deficiency in using English was reported to have affected the quality of their writing.
One participant remembered one of his final-year essays was marked down due to the poor
usage of English (i.e. grammatical errors, wrong spellings, incorrect use of words and
phrases, unclear expression of meanings) in spite of fine structure and demonstration of
extensive research involved. This has attested to the findings of previous research that
English language proficiency did have an impact on the overall quality of the written texts
(e.g. Pennington & So, 1993; Sasaki & Hirose, 1996) although it was an ‗additive factor‘
(Cumming, 1989, p.81).
The academic writing process was perceived by the participants as the most challenging in
terms of generating ideas, organizing arguments, utilizing materials, and critically analysing
scholars‘ work. They found themselves struggling to generate ideas for writing since they had
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