‘Even (if) I choose the right answer, that goes wrong’

Abstract

While studies on second language academic discourse socialization are increasing, how less academically prepared undergraduate multilingual students, such as RBSs, negotiate literacy challenges across the curriculum is still under-researched. As part of a larger qualitative study, which explored how three Bhutanese/Nepali youths negotiated the discursive, interactional, material and perceptual challenges they faced across their undergraduate curriculum in a US university, this article focuses on assessment-related textual challenges across the curriculum in a research university. Initiated as a teacher research-based study in an undergraduate ESL writing class, this longitudinal multiple-case study followed three RBSs for five years during their undergraduate study. While all three participants persistently struggled throughout their degree in various academic literacy events, they managed to graduate within five years because of various kinds of support they received. While there was no formal support tailored to RBSs at the university, this article illustrates how some literacy sponsors were able to create informal support mechanisms for these students. It also highlights how the most common literacy support at the university – that is, teaching of essayist literacies, was inadequate for preparing RBSs well in successfully negotiating academic literacy challenges.