Faculty Perspectives on Synthesizing at the Graduate Level: ESL Doctoral Students’ Challenges and Mentoring Strategies

Abstract

There are various ways that English as a Second Language (ESL) doctoral students’ academic experiences in the US are influenced. For example, advisor-advisee relationships are significant ones that shape doctoral students experiences and one essential feature of this relationship is the guidance that students are provided with. Additionally, synthesizing which is another academic literacy adjustment for them is a frequently assigned task at universities in the US and is an important and demanding source-based writing assignment. If they are not well prepared, they could end up leaving their doctoral programs. In this article, I report findings from a qualitative study that focused on four faculty members’ perspectives on the challenges that ESL doctoral students encounter when synthesizing candidacy exam essays and explored the techniques professors adopted in providing them with guidance during coursework. This study is part of a larger qualitative research that explores four ESL graduate students’ experiences composing a doctoral candidacy exam essay. This study was informed by interviewing four participants at a large midwestern university, data was analyzed inductively and recursively. Findings revealed that faculty perceived ESL doctoral students had varying challenges depending on their diverse backgrounds and experiences. Furthermore, faculty provided different types of guidance to ESL doctoral students during course work to help them gain some experience before they wrote their candidacy exams. Broader implications of this study and future research directions were discussed.

Keywords: International students, ESL, second language literacy, writing from sources, higher education, candidacy exam, advisor-advisee relationships

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-15-08

Publication date:May 31^st 2020