Thesis writing course: Students’ perceptions and attitudes toward the impact of the course on their thesis writing knowledge and skills

Abstract

While the ESP (English for Specific Purposes) approach to genre-based pedagogy has enjoyed considerable popularity in the teaching of ESL (English as a Second Language) academic writing (Swales, 1990, 2004; Swales & Feak, 1994, 2000), discussion on the efficacy of such an approach on students’ learning of specific genres has so far remained theoretical and anecdotal (Tardy, 2009). Few empirical studies have been done to assess whether such an approach has benefited the learners in their learning of a target genre. This paper examines the extent to which a 48-hour PhD thesis writing course has contributed to ESL/EFL doctoral students’ understanding of the thesis genre and their attitudes towards it. The study also investigates the extent to which participants consider the various course activities useful to their learning of the genre. The study employs both pre-course and post-course survey questionnaires for an entire cohort of 136 third or fourth year PhD candidates who are mostly students from non-English speaking backgrounds. Results show that these students have gained a better understanding of the thesis genre and are more confident in writing such a genre after taking the course. Results also show that while tutor-directed activities such as tutorials and tutor-student feedback sessions are highly regarded by the students, peer-directed activities such as peer feedback sessions and student-led analysis of thesis segments are less popular. Implications of the findings for a thesis writing module as well as for genre-based pedagogy are also discussed.