This qualitative descriptive case study investigates four Chinese international students’
use of online resources for academic writing in a western Canadian university. This
study has direct implications for English as a Foreign Language/English as a Second
Language writing instruction as well as international students’ use of university library.
Methodological triangulation was used to collect data. This included a semi-structured
interview, a computer-based writing task, and a think-aloud activity. Data was coded
and analyzed within cases and re-analyzed across the four cases. The salient themes
that emerged from this analysis include: indispensable role of online resources in
academic writing; a solution to language problems; ability of evaluation; a solution to
plagiarism; influences of search habits; concerns about graduate students; and the
importance of professors. Four major findings of the study include: important uses of
online resources for solving language problems; students’ search skills in online
databases; students’ use of the UVic library; and the importance of professors’
instruction. These findings will be helpful for educators to consider as they work to
integrate online resources for international students’ writing instruction; and for
academic libraries to consider as they offer services to assist EFL/ESL learners. / Graduate / 2017-12-05 / 0727 / 0399 / 0515 / ketien0421@gmail.com
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uvic.ca/oai:dspace.library.uvic.ca:1828/7680 |
| Date | 21 December 2016 |
| Creators | Tian, Ke |
| Contributors | Nahachewsky, James |
| Source Sets | University of Victoria |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | Available to the World Wide Web, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/ |
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