Academic writing in English: Lessons from an EMI-program in Japan

As international students and English-medium Instruction (EMI) programs increase, Japanese universities need to adapt their programs to fulfill the needs of these students. One often overlooked area is academic writing in English. This paper discusses an action research study examining the challenges of providing formal academic writing support for English-speaking students in an EMI-program at one large private university in Tokyo. The study utilizes a participatory action research approach (Burns, 2009). The study attempted to examine what aspects of academic writing are these students most confident and most insecure about, and what aspects of the writing course did the students feel are most useful for them in preparing them for further academic writing, and how this EMI program can help students overcome these challenges. The data comes from a multiple choice and open answer questionnaire as well as focus group interviews. Suggestions on how to create and implement successful academic writing courses in an EMI context, based on the lessons learned from this course from the administrative point-of-view as well as both from faculty and students’ perspectives will be provided to conclude.