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Qualitative Research Methods

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Data were gathered from a self-designed survey, semi-structured bi-weekly interviews for 14 weeks, relevant document collection, and field notes. Each interview took around sixty minutes. The survey was used to understand respondents’ general education background and select suitable participants for the further qualitative data collection. Interviews asked their English and academic learning situations in Taiwan, the processes of studying in graduate programs, present doctoral learning situations, in and out of class academic (writing) activities, academic (writing) challenges they encountered during their academic acculturation, and their perceptions of own academic acculturation. Documents comprised academic information related to …show more content…

Furthermore, they worked with different advisor(s) and/or research teams which formed unique culture. Therefore, utilizing case study to present each participant’s English academic writing situation and academic acculturation could provide more comprehensive research phenomenon. 2. Findings 4.1 Cheng-Rui 4.1.1 Cheng-Rui’s English writing and discipline-specific learning backgrounds (866 words) Cheng-Rui studied in the Material Science and Engineering (MSE) across from college to the doctoral level. When he studied in the college in Taiwan, most teaching materials related to MSE were in English. He wrote assignments and exams mainly in Chinese but occasionally wrote assignments in English to practice his English writing for studying abroad after graduation. Nevertheless, he did not receive any feedback on his English writing. During class, he took notes mostly in English because his instructors also wrote notes in English on a board. In the fourth year, he voluntarily participated in a science fair project. He viewed it as a step for studying abroad later. In this project, he conducted an experiment, presented results in the fair, and wrote a report on it. In order to practice his English, he insisted on writing the report and the poster in English. One notable impediment during his college study was the lack of exposure and training in English academic writing. He stated that “No one taught me how to write the report. I looked

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