Transitions: Orienting to Reading and Writing Assignments in EAP and MBA Contexts

Abstract

With the increased enrolment of non-native speakers from diverse cultural backgrounds in university programs, researchers have begun to explore how such students cope with the academic challenges awaiting them (Leki, 2001; Spack, 1997). The present paper draws on data from a 2-year qualitative study of Chinese students enrolled in an English-medium Masters in Business Administration in a Canadian university. Specifically, we focus on how students' orientations to reading and writing assignments changed as they moved from an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) program to their MBA courses. Drawing on genre theory and activity theory, we suggest how these changes were related to differences in what was valued as learning in these two contexts (i.e., the construal or epistemic motive). Although as in Spack (1997), students adapted their reading and writing strategies to cope with assignments in the MBA program, the study also suggests how historically inscribed academic practices may mitigate against students' ability to appropriate relevant literacy resources.