UC Santa Barbara

Driven by the desire to expand and deepen the understanding of the academic performance and multiliteracies development of international Chinese undergraduate students, and the current scarcity of research on the said topic, this study examined first-year international Chinese students' academic writing process, and how this process was situated in the cultural- historical context, and mediated by students' use of web-enabled resources and the their interaction with the social others. This research project comprised two parts, namely, a survey study and a multiple case study. The data were collected through survey responses, interviews, and real-time screen recordings.

The most common challenges and strategies in academic writing for this group of students were investigated. While using digital resources and relying on past ESL training and writing experience were unsurprisingly chosen as the most convenient strategies, asking the instructors and teaching assistants for help was also found popular among the respondents. In addition, the participants were aware of the fact that, so far, digital tools were not able to solve all the challenges they encountered in academic writing, and the challenges were the result of an intricacy of influencing factors.

Students did not demonstrate highly advanced skills in searching for resources and determining their credibility and authorship, and they did not seem to be bothered much by the frequency of all the transactions during the writing process and were generally happy with what they could find at their fingertips for achieving the short-term goal of finishing the academic assignment. Meanwhile, they were able to articulate a series of strategies and criteria to illustrate their basic multiliteracies skills, and they were cognizant of the inadequacy of their multiliteracies.

These students interacted with various social others within the bounded system, and were influenced by and influencing others during this process. They generally preferred working alone and thinking independently on their writing assignments, but they also wished for clearer instructions and communications of expectations from the instructors and more opportunities to exchange views and ideas with other student groups.

These students' academic writing and multiliteracies practices were deeply situated in their cultural, historical, and educational backgrounds, as well as the current social-academic context. Their decision-making process in relation to writing strategies and digital resources use embodied their constant negotiation with their multiple identities evolving from the past into the present.

In addition to verifying previous research findings and filling gaps in the literature, identifying the emerging contradictions was another objective of this study. Gaps and misfits found in different levels and among different components in the bounded system provided implications for pedagogy and curriculum development and student academic support, and were expected to inspire further exploration of the related issues in future academic writing and multiliteracies studies.