Abstract:

Publishing academic papers in English is a must for all graduate students in the programs conducted in English (Hyland, 2018; Katila et al., 2020). Students must be able to use specific language features, discourse practices, communicative skills of target academic groups, as well as students’ subject-matter needs and expertise (Hyland, 2018). Therefore, doctoral students of non- English-speaking background may struggle to acquire the ability to construct knowledge in disciplinary-oriented ways at an internationally accepted level (Acker & Haque, 2015; Huang 2010) and to complete their dissertation within a contract period. Therefore, it is important for them to sustain motivation to be able to achieve their objectives in a timely fashion. Even though motivation is a key driving force in academic advancement (Gardner, 1985; Hadfield & Dörnyei, 2013; Rogers, 1959; Schunk et al., 2012), the nature of motivation is dynamic, as it changes second by second (Dörnyei, 2015). Also, motivation can be negatively affected by anxiety and stress (Dörnyei & Ryan, 2015). A survey conducted in the spring of 2022 examined how 254 (124 female; 127 male) students, non-native users of English, maintained their motivation and coped with stress and anxiety during their doctoral studies in English in 68 Ph.D. programs at 14 Hungarian universities. The current study is part of a larger research project using a 1 to 6 Likert scale questionnaire. We found that students were positive about their progress in academic writing (M=4.98, SD=.97). Regarding self- regulation practices, they believed that they had managed to maintain their motivation to complete their doctoral work (M=4.70, SD=1.29) and to overcome the challenges they faced in English academic writing (M=4.83, SD=1.01). Participants believed that they were autonomous in writing good quality academic texts (M=4.88, SD=1.03). In terms of handling stress and anxiety, they believed that they were able to manage them well (M=4.90, SD=.98). Additionally, students strongly agreed that feedback on their strengths motivated them to work harder (M=5.15, SD= 0.87). However, students agreed to the lesser degree with the statement that they felt discouraged when feedback was on their weaknesses (M=3.28, SD=1.44), which indicated that students were mature enough to understand why feedback on weaknesses is necessary to improve their writing. Female students tended to agree with this statement more (M=3.51, SD=1.41) than their male peers (M=3.05, SD=1.44); the difference was significant (p<.05). In conclusion, the means on these statements ranged from 4.49 to 4.88 (SD between 1.01 and 1.30), indicating that students considered themselves successful and resilient. We found significant differences (p<.05) between genders: male students were more confident about their abilities, except the item regarding feedback on weaknesses. A significant difference (p<.05) characterized students in different years: between first- and fourth-year PhD students. Our results complement previous findings on student attrition (Devos et al.,2017; Lindsay, 2015) and offer new insights into factors contributing to retention of students pursuing doctoral studies (Beasy et al.,2020; Davis et al, 2016; Jameson & Torres, 2019; Wellington, 2010).

Keywords:

Doctoral students, completing dissertation, motivation, stress, anxiety, academic writing, self-assessments.