Exploring English as an Additional Language Students’ Difficulties and Learning Needs in Academic Writing for International Publication

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Yvette Umwari1, et. al.

Abstract

Disseminating the findings of a research study in an international journal is necessary for the process of developing any field of study. The relationship between the language of choice for publishing and the author’s proficiency in it, its clarity, the size of the audience, and the prestige proportionally deserve to be considered in the publishing industry. Ideally, postgraduate students can write a research article in English to be published in an international journal. Thus, the article should be written in good English and fulfill the requirements of a good journal article. To this preliminary study, however, the situation is far from desirable. Through a quantitative questionnaire, this study used 70 international students in Indonesia to explore the difficulties faced by EAL students when writing a paper for international publication, divulge their learning needs, along with finding out if there is a difference between EFL and ESL regarding difficulties and needs. Using SPSS, the findings of t-test and descriptive statistics indicated the high level of many EAL students’ difficulties and needs in academic writing. Furthermore, the results find no significant difference between EFL and ESL students’ difficulties and needs in terms of academic writing style required by the Anglophone international publication. This study found that such students lack adequate academic writing instruction. This implies the importance of equipping them with good English knowledge and adequate academic writing skills.

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