Writing Feedback Groups in International EAL Doctoral Students' Development as Scholarly Writers: Making the Elusive Clear

Introduction

Four hundred thousand international students were enrolled in U.S. graduate programs during the 2016-2017 academic year (Migration Policy Institute, 2018). For many international doctoral students, English is not their native language but rather an additional language. International English as an Additional Language (IEAL) doctoral students must learn and produce disciplinary knowledge and methods along with the linguistic and rhetorical conventions of their research field (Hyland, 2011) in their non-native language. Many doctoral programs require publishing and presenting research as critical academic benchmarks. In some instances, research publications in peer-reviewed journals have replaced the dissertation as a requirement for successful program completion (Badley, 2009). As such, the development of scholarly writing in English for IEAL doctoral students is of the utmost importance.

With increasing scholarly expectations of doctoral programs, an ongoing concern has been the preparation and readiness of IEAL doctoral students for academic publishing in English. A plethora of research has focused on the challenges faced by international students and concludes that international doctoral students are at a cultural and linguistic disadvantage (Chang & Kanno, 2010; Lee et al., 2018). From this perspective, international students have less access than their native English-speaking peers to the sociolinguistic competence necessary to express knowledge appropriately and to create critical personal and professional relationships with advisors and peers (Chang & Kanno, 2010). On the other hand, however, others argue that the stance of cultural and linguistic disadvantage is an incomplete and biased viewpoint. According to this view, cultural and linguistic disadvantage is often assumed and fails to recognize the other competencies international students bring that facilitate the learning in their doctoral program (Chang & Kanno, 2010).

My view is that IEAL doctoral students bring a rich repertoire of cultural and linguistic experiences that are often unrealized and under-emphasized as capital during their doctoral studies. I acknowledge international doctoral students may not have the breadth of linguistic resources that their native English-speaking peers have, but I encourage us to move beyond the argument of privilege and disadvantage to reflection on context and opportunity. For example, do we highlight and build upon students’ strengths as scholars or place a spotlight on the mismatch between their linguistic skills and Standard Academic English? Do we learn about and teach international doctoral students how to use, compare, and apply their native writing systems to academic writing in English? Do we create socialization spaces in which we capitalize rather than minimize IEAL students’ cultural and linguistic resources?

Although some may argue supporting IEAL students’ academic writing is the role of writing centers, my response is that writing centers may not be equipped to provide ongoing feedback or the disciplinary knowledge to effectively support IEAL doctoral students (Cho, 2004; Okuda & Anderson, 2018). Writing centers are not purposed to provide relational support and to wager students’ cultural and linguistic capital in the new academic context. Rather, I propose writing feedback groups create contexts and opportunities that realize and emphasize students’ cultural and linguistic capital and facilitate their development as scholarly writers. Writing feedback groups are small groups of graduate students and faculty who provide targeted, ongoing feedback on one another’s academic writing. This chapter details the development and implementation of a writing feedback group with IEAL doctoral students and to highlight how the opportunity provided the time and space for IEAL doctoral students to develop scholarly habits of mind and writing skills.