Abstract:

In Canada, the number of international students enrolled in post-secondary institutions has been on the rise for the past two decades. However, international students face academic challenges, particularly with second language writing. Based on the growing evidence that the lack of competence of international undergraduate students in academic writing affects their overall academic performance, this paper reports on a study that investigates the academic English (L2) writing challenges faced by the multilingual international undergraduate students (MIUS) in a university in Canada, and the strategies that are most effective in alleviating those challenges. There are many studies that confirmed that the academic challenges faced by international students are mainly because of the inadequate level of their language proficiency (Phakiti, Hirsch, & Woodrow, 2013; Sawir, Marginson, Forbes-Mewett, Nyland, & Ramia, 2012; Robertson, Line, Jones, & Thomas, 2000). However, many international students with strong English language skills report that it takes them extremely long to understand and follow the rules and conventions of second language writing. Most international students also say that in spite of meticulous efforts and practice, it is still difficult for them to write according to the expectations of the native English speakers. However, there is a gap in research in regards to understanding the L2 writing challenges and strategies from the perspective of the international students themselves. Therefore, framed by the Contrastive Rhetoric theory, the research questions of this study are as follows: 1. What are the academic L2 writing challenges faced by the MIUS? 2. What strategies help to alleviate the academic L2 writing challenges of the MIUS? The study employs a sequential mixed-methods approach, drawing on a quantitative questionnaire to gather data from 400 MIUS at a university in Ontario, Canada followed by qualitative semi-structured interviews with 20 MIUS participants. The findings of this mixed-methods study will contribute both to the improvement of practice and the advancement of research. It will help the universities in Canada to understand the academic writing challenges from the perspective of the MIUS themselves and identify the strategies that work most effectively in alleviating the second language writing challenges.

Keywords:

Academic writing, writing challenges, writing strategies, L1 culture, cultural influences.