English for Specific Purposes 47 (2017) 52–60

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

English for Specific Purposes

journal homepage: http://ees.elsevier.com/esp/default.asp

Learner characteristics in an EAP thesis-writing class: Looking

into students’ responses to genre-based instruction and
pedagogical tasks
Wei Wang
College of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Fudan University, 220 Handan Road, Shanghai, 200433, People’s Republic of China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The individual differences of learners in genre-focused EAP writing classes, as well as their
Available online 6 May 2017 learning trajectories, have become a subject of focused attention in recent ESP research on
the learning of academic genres. However, questions still remain as to whether learner
Keywords: characteristics and any characteristics they have in common may need to be considered in
Learner characteristics ESP genre-based pedagogy. This study examines the characteristics of the students in an
EAP writing classes
EAP thesis preparatory course at a Chinese university. Drawing on data from interviews,
Genre-based instruction
participants’ process logs, and their written texts in the course, the study identifies two
EAP writing tasks
Genre learning
salient learner characteristics that influenced the learning process. One was the students’
Thesis writing self-direction in response to the general EAP instruction of thesis writing, a characteristic
conditioned by the teacher’s role and the pedagogical writing tasks. The second charac-
teristic was the learners’ positioning themselves as merely doing assignments when doing
thesis-preparation writing tasks, which revealed a potential mismatch between the course
goal of increasing students’ genre awareness and the pedagogical nature of the EAP writing
tasks. The two learner characteristics suggest potential challenges for how students
respond to EAP instruction and tasks, which in turn have pedagogical implications for
genre-focused EAP writing classes.
Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

In English for specific purposes (ESP) research the notion of genre refers to a class of communicative events in a discourse
community to fulfil a specific purpose. Genres have discoursal patterns and lexicogrammatical features that are con-
ventionalized by the discourse communities that use them, such as academic or professional communities (Bhatia, 1993,
2004; Swales, 1990, 2004). To gain genre knowledge, students engage in a process of developing “complex, evolving
mental abstractions held by individuals within communities or larger cultures who share social and textual experiences”
(Johns, 1997, p. 22). Genre learning can be instruction-based or practice-based (Tardy, 2006): the former, as situated in writing
classroom settings, is usually impacted by certain instructional frameworks, while the latter refers to the naturalistic
acquisition of genre through one’s participation in academic or professional communities of practice.
How students learn to produce academic genres has increasingly been a focus of research interest in ESP and second
language (L2) writing (Belcher, 2006; Cheng, 2006; Paltridge, 2014; Tardy, 2006, 2009). Indeed, already a decade ago, Belcher

E-mail address: wangwei9906@fudan.edu.cn.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2017.04.002
0889-4906/Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 W. Wang / English for Specific Purposes 47 (2017) 52–60 53

(2006) argued that ESP had become “more learning-centered . focusing not just on what people do with language but how
they learn it and encouraging learner investment and participation” (p. 136). These studies have focused on a range of issues,
including situated learning actions, learning trajectories, genre knowledge development, and learner characteristics (e.g.,
Cheng, 2008, 2011; Huang, 2014; Kuteeva & Negretti, 2016; Tardy, 2009).
Of the parameters that can shape genre learning and knowledge development, individual learner characteristics are
important (Tardy, 2009). In language learning linguistics individual differences traditionally include motivation, language
aptitude, learning styles, and learning strategies, regarding “why, how long, how hard, how well, how proactively, and in what
way the learner engages in the learning process” (Dörnyei, 2009, p. 232). These factors are now increasingly perceived as
“integrated wholes” inseparable from learners’ social environments (Dörnyei, 2009, p. 243). In ESP genre learning research,
learner characteristics are largely concerned with students’ knowledge base, language proficiency, education and disciplinary
background, cultural background, and social interactions (Cheng, 2006; Tardy, 2006, 2009). These learner characteristics have
been examined in writing classroom settings in recent studies of instruction-based genre learning, and their roles in shaping
students’ learning experiences in ESP instructional contexts are widely discussed (e.g., Cheng, 2008; Kuteeva, 2013; Tardy,
2009). For example, Cheng (2008) reported that his focal students’ personal histories of learning discipline-specific
writing were a learner characteristic that shaped their “individualized engagement” with genre analysis tasks in an En-
glish for academic purposes (EAP) writing class: the learners’ existing disciplinary genre knowledge directed their attention
to different generic features of the target genre (research articles). Tardy (2009) observed that students’ immediate need for
the target genre (job application cover letters) accounted for their diverse experiences with cover letter assignments in a
postgraduate writing course. In a similar line of research, Kuteeva’s (2013) cross-discipline investigation further showed that
learners’ understanding of their discipline-specific ways of knowledge construction, in addition to their learning histories and
learning objectives, led to their different approaches (descriptive, analytical) to genre-analysis tasks in an EAP writing course.
While students’ individual differences (e.g., learning objectives, personal needs, education histories, disciplinary practice),
as well as their individualized learning trajectories, have gained increasing recognition in recent ESP studies of instruction-
based genre learning, the question arises as to whether students learning together in a genre-focused ESP class have any
characteristics in common that may also influence the genre learning process and may need consideration in ESP genre-
focused pedagogy. To address this issue, this study investigates the characteristics of students in a thesis-writing prepara-
tion class at a Chinese university, aiming to answer the following two research questions:

 What are the characteristics common to the learners in an EAP thesis-writing course?
 How do these characteristics influence the students’ learning in the EAP thesis-writing course?

2. The study

2.1. Context of the study

The research adopted a qualitative case study approach to describe and interpret the “rich details about particular learners
in concrete acts of learning in specific contexts” (Cheng, 2006, p. 303). I contacted the Department of English at the university
in which I work (in a different faculty) and conducted my research in the thesis preparatory course run by the department.1
The purpose of the EAP writing course is to prepare master’s students to write theses (15,000 words in English), as required by
their degree programme. Instruction is designed to increase the students’ rhetorical awareness of the discourse conventions
of thesis writing for an English-speaking target audience and to strengthen their English language ability for such advanced
L2 academic writing purposes. In the semester during which I undertook my study, the course enrolled 20 master’s students
from two disciplines of English studies: linguistics and literature. Twelve of the students were in their first year and the
remaining in their second year. All of the students were still taking courses required by their degree programmes, and,
importantly had not yet started their thesis work.2
The thesis preparatory course comprised two 45-min weekly sessions over 17 weeks in the semester, involving lectures (14
weeks) and tutorials (three weeks). The lectures covered three aspects of thesis writing: (a) structure and content, (b) lan-
guage features and writing strategies, and (c) researching and writing processes (see Appendix A in the supplementary
materials). For example, Lecture Four “Introduction Writing,” which centred on “different moves and language focus” (lec-
ture notes of the thesis-writing course, Slide 1 of Lecture Four), included the following content: moves in thesis introduction;
basic steps of writing an introduction chapter; language features of each move (for example, “skeletal” examples of strong
opening statements [Establishing a research territory]; vocabulary for signalling the gap – negative verbs, negative adjectives,
negative opening [Establishing a niche]; purposive statement, descriptive statement, and reference to the present text
[Occupying the niche]; use of tense; use of first-person pronouns); analysis and discussions of sample introduction chapters
from master’s theses in literature and linguistics within the department; and an after-class task that required students to
obtain three master’s theses in their own fields of interest and then analyse the introductory chapter of each. As a preparatory

1
I obtained the Research Site Permission Letter from the Department of English before I conducted my research.
2
Master’s students in the English department start to work on their theses with their supervisors after they finish all compulsory courses (including
disciplinary content courses and general EAP courses) required by their degree programmes.
54 W. Wang / English for Specific Purposes 47 (2017) 52–60

course for novice academic writers, it adopted the common approach to teaching thesis writing, largely focussing on the
generalized patterns of organizing master’s theses in the humanities and in social sciences together with academic style.3 For
her teaching materials, the course instructor synthesized and adapted material pertaining to L2 academic writing in general
and thesis writing in particular from two textbooks – English in Today’s Research World: A Writing Guide, and Academic Writing
for Graduate Students: A Course for Non-native Speakers (2nd edition), particularly those sections that are relevant to master’s
thesis writing. Other materials included the faculty examination guidelines. Teaching materials were distributed to students
in the form of slides. One-on-one conferences to discuss writing and any difficulties in the course were scheduled during the
last three weeks of the semester after lecture sessions had ended.
The primary writing task in the EAP course was the production of two drafts of a thesis introductory chapter4 on a topic of
the students’ own research interest. Throughout the writing process students received assistance and feedback from the
course instructor. The course instructor regarded the tasks as pilot or preparatory thesis-writing practice since students were
not yet actually writing their theses. She expected that by doing these exercises the students would gain some explicit
experience in thesis writing, an advanced academic writing requirement that for novice research students is challenging, but
tends to remain implicitly taught in their study programmes, as found elsewhere (Kwan, 2006; Peters, 2011; Thompson,
2013). The students were required to start writing the first draft in week 12 and to submit it by the end of week 14. They
received the teacher’s feedback on their first drafts in tutorials (weeks 15–17), and then revised and resubmitted their drafts.

2.2. Participants

In the first class lecture, with the permission of the course instructor, I explained my research purpose and procedures to
the whole class. The students were free to decide whether to participate in the study or not. At the end of week 2, eight
students voluntarily contacted me and expressed their interest in taking. After signing the Participant Consent Form, the eight
students formally became participants.
All eight students were native speakers of Chinese for whom English was a foreign language. Five participants (Ling,5 Fei,
Mei, Fan, and Yao) were students in English literature and three (Ping, Ming, and Shu) in English linguistics. All, except for
Ping, were first-year master’s students.6 They had majored in English in their undergraduate degree programs and had passed
the Test for English Majors – Band 8 (a test aimed at advanced English majors given by the Ministry of Education in China). The
students had no systematic prior instruction in thesis writing in English and thus could be categorized as novice writers.

2.3. Data sources

Data were collected from interviews, participants’ process logs (the diaries of their learning process in the EAP course), and
their written texts in the course. Participants were invited to two rounds of semi-structured interviews off-campus (see
Appendix B in the supplementary materials). Interview topics, which were designed to investigate learner characteristics that
influence genre learning, as suggested by the prior literature, included the learning process (e.g., learning actions, strategies,
resources, and problems), students’ personal experiences (e.g., previous English writing experiences, personal learning
needs), and the learning context (e.g., the instruction mode, the course design, and the writing tasks) (see Appendix C in
supplementary materials). These topics served merely as a guide, as participants were encouraged to talk about anything
that they thought was important or relevant to their learning in the course. The technique of discourse-based interviews
(Odell, Goswami, & Herrington, 1983), a method of examining interviewees’ assumptions and reasons behind particular
composing choices, was used in the second-round interviews to complement participants’ self-reported retrospection of
learning (Reiff & Bawarshi, 2011) and to explore their knowledge of the genre and conventions. Specifically, participants were
provided with some excerpts from their own written texts and were asked to explain their reasons for choosing specific
discoursal patterns or lexicogrammatical devices and for revising their original drafts; the purpose, as clarified to the students
beforehand, was merely to understand rather than question their composing choices. All interviews were conducted in
Chinese, under the assumption that this would put the students at ease and improve the quality of their explanations. The
interviews were audio-recorded with the participants’ permission. All interviews were transcribed verbatim; any ambiguity
in the transcripts was checked with the students through email communication. The transcripts were then divided into
extracts and numbered in sequence. Relevant extracts of the interview transcripts were translated into English by profes-
sional translators.

3
The course was designed on the grounds that thesis types and macrostructures tend to blur disciplinary boundaries (more determined by specific topics
and methodologies) and that the cross-discipline thesis-writing class can provide more possibilities for students to decide how to write their own theses in
the future (Dudley-Evans, 1995; Johns & Swales, 2002; Paltridge, 2002; Starfield, 2003; Swales, 2004; Thompson, 2005). Students were expected to adapt
what they had learned in the preparation course to meet the specific requirements of their future disciplinary writing of theses. Similar EAP thesis-writing
classes have been reported in previous research, for example, Starfield (2003) and Kuteeva and Negretti (2016).
4
The course instructor explained that, as it was impossible to write a complete thesis in a one-semester course, she designed the task of writing an
introduction chapter, which, according to her teaching experience, was the most difficult part for students.
5
All names are pseudonyms.
6
The inclusion of only one second-year master’s student in the study was the result of voluntary participation, but not surprising, because second-year
master’s students were the minority in the class (eight of 20). All participants were female.
 W. Wang / English for Specific Purposes 47 (2017) 52–60 55

Participants were invited to keep process logs (not required by the writing course) in which they engaged in introspection
about their learning experiences. A list of questions was provided to help them record details, such as “what did you learn
today?” “did you encounter any problems in your learning today?” and “what did you write today?” (see Appendix D in
supplementary materials). Participants started to write process logs as soon as they began participating in the study and
submitted the logs when they finished the course. These process logs were written in Chinese and were translated into
English by professional translators.7
The participants’ texts written for the writing course were also collected, including the first and second drafts of their
thesis introduction chapters (see details in Appendix E of the supplementary materials). These documents, as well as the
course instructor’s feedback on the texts, were analysed and triangulated with data from the interviews and process logs.
Excerpts from the written texts that displayed specific discoursal patterns and lexicogrammatical features likely related to the
students’ learning process and genre knowledge were selected for discussion in the discourse-based interviews.

2.4. Data analysis

Two methods were used for data analysis: the constant-comparative method (Corbin & Strauss, 2008) and textual analysis
(Hyland & Paltridge, 2011). The constant-comparative method was used to conduct a grounded analysis of the interview
transcripts and process logs to generate recurrent themes regarding the participants’ characteristics as learners in the EAP
writing class. Following Cheng (2008) the participant interviews were marked for any unit of data that had heuristic sig-
nificance for understanding learner characteristics. For example, Extract 17 of Ling’s interview transcript shows her personal
decision to predominantly use integral citations; hence, this extract was marked and categorized as “selective assimilation of
course instruction on the basis of personal habits.” Such marked units of data were constantly compared with subsequent
units to identify similarities and differences. For example, Extract 18 reveals that Ling did not fully utilize the course in-
structor’s (Ms. Yang) suggestion on citations, but decided on her own to extensively use direct quotations; hence, this extract
was categorized the same as Extract 17 (see Appendix F in the supplementary materials for an example of the data coding and
analysing). Each participant’s interview transcript was similarly analysed and was compared across cases to generate initial
themes such as “selective assimilation of course instruction on the basis of personal habits” and “adoption of course in-
struction on the basis of personal writing needs.” The preliminary themes were then analysed and integrated to produce key
concepts following Neuman (2011). To illustrate, the above mentioned two themes were integrated to shape the key concept
“self-direction in response to the general EAP instruction of thesis writing” as one student characteristic. The key concepts
were used to reanalyse the participants’ interview transcripts for verification. For example, in Ling’s case, the concept of “self-
direction in response to the general EAP instruction of thesis writing” was further verified by Extract 33, in which she em-
phasizes her own personal understanding of how to write a literature review after a lesson from Ms. Yang. All participants’
process logs were analysed in this same way.
The participants’ two draft introductions were analysed in terms of the move-step structure (typical moves in thesis
introduction, according to Paltridge & Starfield, 2007; variation of the structural moves in the students’ written texts was
considered in analysis) and lexicogrammatical features of intertextuality and authorial stance in academic genres (elements
highlighted as important by Gray & Biber, 2012; Hyland, 2000; Swales, 1990).
To establish the trustworthiness of the study, peer debriefing and data triangulation (Denzin, 1997; Lincoln & Guba,
1985) were an integral part of data analysis. I invited a colleague in the same research field with rich experience in
qualitative data analysis and textual analysis to probe possible biases in my analysis and to question the basis of my
interpretation. When we crosschecked the categorization and interpretation of the interview transcripts, process logs and
participants’ written texts, any emerging inconsistencies were carefully examined and further discussed to resolve them.
This helped to identify points missed in my initial coding and to remove ambiguous points. In addition, all sources of data
(interviews, process logs, and written texts) were triangulated to corroborate findings from the data analysis; that is, each
finding was verified by at least two sources of data. To illustrate, the finding of learners’ self-direction in response to the
general EAP instruction of thesis writing was confirmed by the participants’ interview transcripts, process logs, and written
texts.

3. Findings

Two salient learner characteristics were identified as influencing the students’ learning in the EAP thesis-writing course:
one was their self-direction in response to the general EAP instruction of thesis writing; and the other was the learners’
positioning themselves as doing assignments when doing thesis-preparation writing tasks as opposed to actually learning
to inform their future thesis writing. The findings are reported in detail with reference to extracts from interviews, process
logs, and participants’ written texts. Each extract is labelled with the participant’s name, data source, and the extract
number.

7
As a Chinese native speaker and professional English teacher, I checked the translation of interview transcripts and process logs, and then asked the
main supervisor of my doctoral study, a Chinese–English bilingual scholar of L2 academic writing at an Australian university, to double-check the accuracy
of the translated data.
56 W. Wang / English for Specific Purposes 47 (2017) 52–60

3.1. Self-direction in response to the general EAP instruction of thesis writing

The majority of participants (seven of eight) exhibited self-direction in their study: they showed a tendency to make their
own decisions in response to and despite explicit instruction and teacher feedback. Further, their self-decisions were largely
influenced by their personal habits of, or preferences for, L2 writing that had been shaped by their previous writing experiences.
For example, Ling (in literature) reported that she had her own preferred citation type. Different from the citation strategies
introduced by Ms. Yang, Ling predominantly used direct quotations and the integral reporting style (the cited author’s name
included as a grammatical component of the sentence Swales, 1990). She justified her citation practice stating that it allowed her
to highlight the relevance of the cited literature and to construct “a sense of dialogue” with the cited scholars, shown as follows:
I have used quite a lot of direct quotations.. Ms. Yang also mentioned this problem.. she suggested that I make sum-
maries. But I cannot fully agree with her [emphasis added] .. I think the use of direct quotations can highlight that the
cited literature is highly relevant to my study. If the literature is not so relevant, I don’t make direct quotations from it.
(Ling, interview, Extract 18)
It is my personal habit [emphasis added].. I think “who said what” [the integral reporting pattern] can make a sense of
dialogue. For example, if a scholar said something, and I said something, then there was a connection between us. If the
scholar’s name is put in parentheses [the non-integral reporting pattern].. I think this form puts the scholar in a
subordinate position, but actually the scholar is leading my study; they [cited scholars] are very important to my study.
(Ling, interview, Extract 17)
Ling’s written texts show that 21 of 30 citations in Draft 1 and nine of 13 citations in Draft 2 are direct quotations; all
citations (except one in Draft 2) use the integral reporting style. Ling’s citation practice is illustrated in the following excerpt:
Ingersoll sees the coda as a “postmodernist ploy,” the “‘deconstruction’ of the boundaries between ‘fiction’ and ‘re-
ality.’” Here, what Ingersoll refers to is Briony’s fiction and reality, instead of McEwan’s. The epilogue, what he calls a
“‘real’ fiction,” serves a crucial function as is perceived by him: it “subverts the illusion of a ‘real world’ in which the
lovers would have died away anyway by offering them an ‘eternity’ of youth, beauty and love in the transcendent but
frozen world of Art” (254). (Ling, written text, Draft 1, p. 8, Paragraph 18)
In a similar vein, Ping (in linguistics) mentioned that she would make certain adjustments to Ms. Yang’s general in-
struction, out of concern that she needed to “write a thesis to [her] supervisor’s satisfaction,” as shown below:
For my future thesis writing, I would refer to the lecture notes [of the EAP thesis preparatory course]. I got a basic sense of
writing a thesis from Ms. Yang’s instruction . but I would also consider my supervisor’s advice. I find that my supervisor’s
advice is different from Ms. Yang’s in some aspects. I may make some adjustments when applying the thesis form I’ve learned in
this course. Anyway, I need to write a thesis to my supervisor’s satisfaction [emphasis added]. (Ping, interview, Extract 8)
Another participant, Fei (in literature), recalled that she applied the move-step structure of the Create a Research Space
model in her “own way”:
Ms. Yang taught us the structure [of thesis introductions]. I think the three moves [establishing a research territory,
establishing a niche, and occupying the niche] provide a general framework, but they can be used flexibly in practice. In my
writing, I included the three moves, but in my own way [emphasis added]. (Fei, interview, Extract 11)
Fei’s flexible application of the move-step structure is evident in the introduction of her text. For example, the obligatory
Move 3-Step a (stating the purpose, nature, or research questions of the present research; Swales, 1990) appears at the very
beginning of her text:
Edward Said (1935–2003) was a prolific writer and energetic academic, probably best known for his seminal works
Orientalism (1978) and Culture and Imperialism (1993).. It is hardly disputable that both his scholarship and his life are
complex, and in this paper [thesis], I will examine one of such ambiguities [complexities] d the late style of Said’s writing,
by a comparative analysis of his two memoirs [emphasis added]. (Fei, written text, Draft 2, p. 1, Paragraph 1)
As seen in the extract, the purpose of Fei’s study (Move 3) is stated in the first paragraph of the introduction chapter before
Move 1 (Establishing a research territory) and Move 2 (Establishing a niche) are presented. This appears to be Fei’s personal
way of arranging moves in a thesis introduction.
Similarly, Mei (in literature) spoke of her own personal way of applying the move-step structure to suit her writing habits
and needs:
In my writing, I considered the three moves [of thesis introductions] that Ms. Yang taught in class, but I also kept my
personal preference for the textual organization. I think the structure should serve my own writing need [emphasis added].
(Mei, interview, Extract 16)
Mei’s texts included the structural moves of a thesis introduction, and these elements were implicit in her personal
argumentation of the theme of her writing. For example, the following excerpts show Mei’s highlighting personal argu-
mentation when establishing and occupying a niche (Move 2 and 3):
 W. Wang / English for Specific Purposes 47 (2017) 52–60 57

. Consequently, SGGK [Sir Gawain and Green Knight] was deeply imbued with Christian moral values and matters of
contemporary Christian concerns.
However, the role of Morgan le Fay has seldom been talked in a medieval Christian context. . The issue of misogyny of
the Middle Ages was so long and complicated, but we should not hold the belief that [emphasis added] the hatred of
women was normal for men in the medieval world .. Therefore I believe that, in order to . , we need to [emphasis
added] not only develop a women-centered point of view, but also take contemporary (late medieval) social and
religious conditions into consideration.
Because Morgan le Fay is ., I would like to say [emphasis added] it is Morgan who must be responsible for the action
and motivation of the Green Knight .. I take it as [emphasis added] reconciliation between the Christian orthodox
world represented by Gawain and the pagan secular world represented by Morgan or the Green Knight.
So in this article, by taking medieval Christian beliefs and social ethics into consideration, I will analyse [emphasis
added] the role of Morgan le Fay in a more detailed way to illustrate that .
(Mei, written text, Draft 2, pp. 3–5, Paragraph 4, Sentence 6; Paragraph 5, Sentence 1, 3, 9; Paragraph 6, Sentence 1, 9;
Paragraph 7, Sentence 1)
Another participant, Fan (in literature), also remarked that she took her own L2 writing preference into consideration
when incorporating Ms. Yang’s teaching into her writing practice:
I don’t see the structure and content [of theses] as a strict formula [emphasis added]. In my writing, I also considered my
personal [writing] habit. For some parts, I followed my own writing habit instead of strictly following the structure
model . (Fan, interview, Extract 18)
. I’d like to have an enjoyable writing process, . I’d like to have an enjoyable writing process. I don’t feel like being
restricted by many rules in writing . (Fan, interview, Extract 45)
Fan pointed out in the discourse-based interview that she had written some parts in her own personal way. For example,
following the statement and description of the purpose of her study (to examine Keats’ Negative Capability by interpreting
“Ode to a Nightingale”), Fan wrote a detailed interpretation of the poem, illustrated as follows:
. Emotions intensify with the poet dissolving himself into the nightingale’s fancy world, and finding Death easeful
with no pains. This meditative indulgence within the poem bespeaks immortality in a different vein – let death, an ever
insidious and most primal termination of all existential entities, embellish and invigorate this life of Beauty and Truth,
however as transient and evanescent in reality as timeless and eternal in dream it can be. (Fan, written text, Draft 2,
Paragraph 6, Sentences 5, 6)
Fan explained that the part was included here simply because she personally appreciated the poem and preferred to write
this way (interview, Extract 45). This is evidence of Fan’s self-direction in response to the general EAP instruction of thesis
writing, which was observed in other learners as well.

3.2. Self-positioning as doing assignments when performing the pilot thesis-writing task

Another important finding was that most learners (seven of eight), when engaged in the general thesis-writing EAP task,
regarded it as simply an assignment – a paper or article to meet the course requirements. This self-positioning in relation to
task performance constituted a significant deviation from the expectations of the course instructor and the task design – to
write a draft introduction as practice for their future thesis writing.
Ming (in linguistics) recalled in the interview that she did not feel that she was doing thesis-writing practice in the EAP
class, but simply doing a course assignment. She referred to her introduction as a “paper” because she had not started her
actual disciplinary thesis work yet:
My topic is about the curriculum design to develop learners’ transfer competence in translation pedagogy. But I didn’t
get an idea on how to research this topic; I just wrote the introduction, with no idea what would follow [emphasis added].
(Ming, interview, Extract 20)
This [the draft introduction] is a paper [emphasis added] I wrote for the course assignment. I didn’t do research seriously. I
viewed myself as a course student and I needed to finish a course assignment [emphasis added]. (Ming, interview, Extract 19)
Ming’s position on her task performance is also seen in the following excerpt of her written text:
For this reason, this paper [emphasis added] is trying to provide feasible methods to implement the fostering of transfer
competence in undergraduate translator training program. (Ming, written text, Draft 2, p. 5, Paragraph 12, Sentence 1)
Fei held a similar position on her task performance, also referring to her writing as a “paper” in the submitted text (Fei,
written text, Draft 2, p. 1, Paragraph 1) and remarking, “.it’s totally different from writing a real thesis.” Even her topic was
chosen simply to finish the assigned writing:
58 W. Wang / English for Specific Purposes 47 (2017) 52–60

I didn’t know much about the research on Said’s late style. I wrote about Said’s late style just to finish the assignment..
It’s totally different from writing a real thesis [emphasis added]. I didn’t feel that I was presenting my research to the
examiners. I regarded myself just as a student, I was still learning in this course [emphasis added]. (Fei, interview, Extract
12)
Similarly, Ling reported that she “just wrote [her] assignment” (interview, Extract 34), which was not based on solid
disciplinary research, but rather on a topic chosen to fulfil the requirement:
Actually, I was not clear about how to approach my topic [McEwan’s novel Atonement as metafiction]. I just wrote down
my current understanding of the topic.. It was just a presumption . (Ling, interview, Extract 23)
Ling’s response to the writing task is reflected in her text as well, as shown below:
What this paper [emphasis added] intends to discuss, in the light of Waugh’s “alternative worlds” theory, is the dif-
ficulty in telling fiction and reality apart. . (Ling, written text, Draft 2, p. 6, Paragraph 13, Sentence 1)
Shu (in linguistics) admitted that she simply aimed to write about something that could be handled for the course
assignment; thus, she chose a topic that she happened to read some literature about, but was not her research interest:
I didn’t explore this topic [translation textbook writing]. My field is applied linguistics, not translation pedagogy
[emphasis added]. I wrote about translation textbook writing just because I was attending a translation course at that
time [when the writing task was assigned] and I happened to read some literature on translation studies. That’s all.
(Shu, interview, Extract 10)
Other students, Fan, Mei, and Ping, offered similar responses. For example, Fan said, “I still felt myself to be a student
writing assignments in the course” (interview, Extract 21) and “I didn’t regard my writing as a part of a thesis” (interview,
Extract 22). And in Mei and Ping’s writing their texts were referred to as an “article” (So in this article [emphasis added] .)
(Mei, written text, Draft 2, pp. 4-5, Paragraph 7, Sentence 1) or a “paper” (The purpose of this paper [emphasis added] is to .)
(Ping, written text, Draft 2, p. 5, Paragraph 10, Sentence 1), revealing their perception of the writing as an independent piece
of assignment writing instead of a simulation of a thesis chapter, as observed in other learners as well.

4. Discussion

This study explored learner characteristics common to the students in a thesis preparatory course at a Chinese university
and identified two relevant responses to the general EAP thesis-writing instruction and pedagogical writing tasks in the class.
The students’ self-directed response to the course instructor’s teaching indicates their exercise of personal agency, that is, the
“power to control [their] learning through self-regulation” (Oxford, 2003, p. 78). It appears that this learner characteristic was
particularly shaped by the specific EAP instructional context, including the generalized instruction of thesis writing, the
course instructor being a writing teacher instead of a disciplinary specialist or the students’ supervisor, and the pedagogical
nature of the thesis-writing tasks. As seen in the interviews, the students regarded Ms. Yang’s instruction as “[providing] a
general framework” (e.g., Fei, interview, Extract 11) and input to consider as opposed to offering discipline-specific guidance
essential to their own future, high stakes writing. This could be attributed to the general approach to teaching thesis writing in
the course design. The introduction writing task was regarded as simply a course assignment or an exercise, “different from
writing a real thesis” (e.g., Fei, interview, Extract 12; Fan, interview, Extract 22), because the teacher was a disciplinary
outsider who had neither the last say on their actual thesis writing (as different from their supervisors’ role) nor adequate
knowledge to address their specific disciplinary writing. This finding is consistent with Hansen (2000), who concluded that
students perceive more value in guidance from disciplinary experts than from EAP instructors. The students therefore chose
to take more self-directed learning actions that considered, but often rejected the course instruction. In this light, the learners’
exercise of personal agency can be considered a form of selective autonomy that was conditioned by the EAP instructional
context, reflecting the interplay between learner characteristics and learning environment (Dörnyei, 2009).
The students’ self-directed learning actions emerged from their prior learning about writing in their areas. By drawing
from their antecedent writing knowledge, students have the ability to flexibly assimilate and adapt the generalized genre
knowledge for their future disciplinary writing. This supports the idea that students do not necessarily simply do what their
teacher prescribes when it comes to learning about written academic genres (Cheng, 2008; Hyland, 2007; Wingate & Tribble,
2012). For example, Fei’ own personal way of arranging the structural moves (Fei, written text, Draft 2, p. 1, Paragraph 1) and
Mei’s highlighting of her personal argumentation when creating the research niche (Mei, written text, Draft 2, pp. 3–5,
Paragraphs 5–7) can be seen as probably connected to the specific rhetorical style of writing in the field of literature study,
suggesting the integration of their new genre knowledge with the knowledge of disciplinary practice (Kuteeva & Negretti,
2016). However, given that the students were novice academic writers, without much experience in the practices of their
disciplines (most of them were first-year master’s), it is possible that self-directed responses to the general EAP instruction of
thesis writing, with reliance on their previous L2 writing experiences, could sometimes be misguided. For example, in Ling’s
case, although the use of direct quotations and the integral citation style might align with the rhetorical features of academic
writing in literature research, her personal eagerness to highlight each theorist in her field (Ling, interview, Extracts 17 and
18) has the potential to weaken her own authorial presence, stance and argument (Hyland, 2000; Swales, 2004); likewise,
 W. Wang / English for Specific Purposes 47 (2017) 52–60 59

Fan’s inclusion of a detailed interpretation of the literary work at the end of the introductory chapter could be redundant,
possibly weakening the unity of the content. A concern thus arises as to whether the students’ reliance on their prior L2
writing experiences in the self-directed learning process is disadvantageous to increasing their rhetorical awareness of the
expectations of a thesis – a new academic genre required by their current study programmes – and to the development of
their ability to engage in such advanced academic writing practice. This indicates the need to consider both the potential
advantages and disadvantages of self-direction in EAP writing instruction.
The second important finding here is that the learners’ self-positioning in response to the general thesis-writing EAP tasks
may be related to the timing of the writing course – they were taking courses required by their degree programmes and had
not yet started their disciplinary thesis work. In line with Hansen’s (2000) conclusion, this is likely not the most appropriate
time for them to take an EAP thesis-writing course. Given that the students were at the pre-research stage, they had no urgent
need for the instruction and no solid research to write up. It is therefore not surprising that the students viewed the general
EAP thesis-writing tasks to be more writing exercises than actual practice for research writing. Nonetheless, the students’
inability to recognize the relationship between the course and their future writing highlights a potential mismatch between
pedagogical writing tasks and the goal of increasing students’ genre awareness in an EAP class. In this light, the students
actually engaged in a pedagogical genre (an assigned thesis chapter) rather than the intended writing of an authentic
disciplinary genre (master’s theses in the students’ disciplines) (Dudley-Evans, 1995; Johns & Swales, 2002). Understanding
how students view assigned writing is essential to EAP pedagogy since students’ self-positioning can be a potential disad-
vantage to increasing their genre awareness of their writing and their “understanding of academic language and values”
(Johns & Swales, 2002, p. 21). How to deal with the pedagogical dilemma about designing EAP writing tasks is unclear. On the
one hand, writing tasks constitute a necessary part of EAP course design (Johns & Swales, 2002) and provide research students
with explicit practice in advanced academic writing; on the other hand, the writing tasks may possibly fail to strengthen
students’ genre awareness. This pedagogical dilemma is worth further consideration as it may undermine the value of some
EAP courses.

5. Pedagogical implications and suggestions for future research

As indicated above, how students view and take up genre-based instruction and pedagogical tasks in an EAP thesis-writing
course is worthy of consideration when designing courses focused on academic genres, especially in classes with students
from different disciplines. While students are encouraged to exercise personal agency for the flexible and dynamic transfer of
instruction to meet specific expectations in their own disciplines, their self-directed learning actions are probably condi-
tioned by the specific EAP instructional context, as discussed above. Teachers may need to acknowledge the reasons behind
students’ self-directed learning activity in class. For example, self-direction could be driven by a reluctance to abandon in-
dividual prior writing strategies, as highlighted in the above examples. This suggests that teachers need to provide specific
guidance to assist students’ decision-making with a view toward facilitating their genre learning. For example, EAP in-
structors could encourage students to reshape their prior L2 writing knowledge to better develop the new genre knowledge
(Reiff & Bawarshi, 2011), which may prevent the possibility of their being “hampered by residual practices [previous expe-
riences and practices] that conflict with current [writing] expectations” (Tardy, 2006, p. 95). It may also be necessary to
improve learners’ engagement in EAP writing tasks, given the potential pedagogical dilemma of task design in EAP classes. For
instance, before students embark on writing tasks perhaps teachers may need to explicitly interpret the rationale of a genre-
based writing task (Tardy, 2009) and lead students to construe it as more a simulation of an authentic academic genre
(Dudley-Evans, 1995) than simply a course exercise. As Reiff and Bawarshi (2011) put it, genre learners need to engage in “a
metacognitive reflection” on tasks, that is, to “consider how they come to recognize a task” (p. 332). Such reflection and
understanding may improve their self-positioning and strengthen their genre awareness. Another important implication is
that careful consideration needs to be given to the timing of writing instruction. When student are already involved in their
thesis research and writing, they are likely better positioned to benefit from assigned writing tasks that can be concurrently
integrated to their actual thesis work.
The study here largely investigated how the learner characteristics and decision making can influence learning processes in
an EAP writing course. It remains to be further explored how learning processes, as influenced by particular learner traits, can
affect the results of instruction-based genre learning, that is, learners’ development of multidimensional genre knowledge
(Tardy, 2009). The study was limited by its research context, scope, and participant sampling. As a case study of eight students
in a one-semester EAP writing course at a Chinese university it is by no means exhaustive in describing and interpreting
learner characteristics in EAP classrooms. Future research could compare learner characteristics in instruction-based contexts
and practice-based contexts, for example, to compare students’ learning of thesis writing in EAP classes and their actual thesis
writing under the guidance of their supervisors. It would be also worthwhile to investigate various EAP pedagogical contexts
(e.g., the teaching of academic genres other than theses, the use of different instructional frameworks) and investigate
students at different stages of their academic careers. Further, EAP instructors’ perspectives on students’ responses to explicit
instruction and pedagogical tasks, an aspect not included in this study, could yield valuable pedagogical implications for EAP
classes. This may be especially important when instructors are not specialists in students’ disciplines. Finally, it needs to be
noted that the data from the interview transcripts and process logs in the study were not analysed in their original language,
but in a translated version, which could have influenced data analysis (Pavlenko, 2007; Temple & Young, 2004) and therefore
needs to be considered when conducting qualitative research in EFL contexts. While the teaching and learning of academic
60 W. Wang / English for Specific Purposes 47 (2017) 52–60

genres in EAP classes calls for continuing research efforts, the attempt of this study to examine learner characteristics in a
thesis preparatory course provides an empirical basis for deepening our insights into learners, learning actions, genre-based
instruction, and pedagogical tasks, as well as the interplay in between, in EAP instructional contexts.

Appendix A. Supplementary material

Supplementary materials related to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2017.04.002.

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Wei Wang recently received her PhD from the University of Sydney. She is a lecturer in college English at Fudan University, China. Her research areas include
English for academic purposes, learning of academic genres, and genre analysis.