First-Year Doctoral Students' Academic Writing Development: The Native- and Nonnative-Speaking Perspectives

• In Event: International and Mentoring Graduate Students

Abstract

Research on doctoral writing development is divided between studies of native-speaking and non-native speaking students. To explore the similarities and differences in academic writing development, we studied three first-year native- and nonnative-speaking students in a PhD program. Data sources included observations, interviews, audio diaries, and writing samples. Ethnographic data analysis yielded descriptions of how text production and composing processes developed during their first year and how that development was influenced by social, cultural, and contextual factors. Commonalities and differences among the participants were not determined by their native or nonnative status, but by participants’ individual differences. Native-nonnative differences existed but were relatively trivial, suggesting that the two sub-populations at the doctoral level may share more similarities than differences.

Authors

• Ying Xiong

• David N. Boote, University of Central Florida