How university students write from sources has been an issue of long-standing interest among researchers of advanced academic literacy. Previous research in this regard in the context of L2 writing has tended to focus on novices' textual borrowing; less attention has been given to exploring the potential light that theories from other intellectual…

This mixed-method study investigates the citation behaviour of a successful L2 postgraduate management student, Sofie, in two pieces of writing, written in response to two assignment tasks in two management modules. The tasks belonged to the same assignment type, but differed in the level of direction provided: one was a directed task, accompanied…

Knowing how to use sources effectively often poses considerable challenges for first year undergraduate students for whom English is a second language (L2). In this longitudinal case study we investigated the selection and self-reported use of source materials by thirteen first year L2 undergraduate students from a range of disciplines enrolled at…

The purpose of this study is to determine whether differences in academic attainment between university students could be correlated with their use of English for academic purposes. Using the diagnostic language assessment procedure known as Measuring the Academic Skills of University Students (MASUS), as well as informal analysis of assignment…

In this article, I explore the often difficult transfer of theory to practice in respect to promoting the conceptual role of transformative intellectual/practitioner through a pre-service "social issues project" for future EAP and ESL teachers. Following an examination of more established role options in EAP (e.g. technician, reflective…

Although academic writing in higher education has been the focus of research efforts for more than two decades, the specific writing experiences, needs and difficulties of undergraduate nursing and midwifery students have remained largely under-researched. This article reports on a project that investigated the nature and dynamics of academic…

Considerable research has now been undertaken into the development of different approaches to exploiting language corpora for pedagogic purposes in the context of ESP. The question of how language corpora might be utilized by students beyond the immediate language-teaching context is, however, one as yet seldom addressed in the literature. This…