Undergraduate thesis supervisory conference: Academic discourse socialisation multiple-case study

Abstract

It is widely understood that research experience is important for university graduates. Japanese undergraduates in Arts/Humanities are commonly required to conduct research and write a thesis. Adopting academic language socialization (Duff, 2010) as a theoretical and analytical approach and the triangulation of multiple data sources, this multiple-case study examines the processes of two Japanese undergraduate students' socialization into the thesis genre with focus on face-to-face supervisory conferences and oral feedback. Findings revealed that the supervisors mostly dominated the conferences and frequently gave disapproval feedback and reinforcement. However, they employed some mitigation strategies to soften the critical nature of their feedback. The students favourably and constructively accepted their supervisors' feedback. The student who established a closer relationship with his supervisor, had more academic and social interactions with both his supervisor and peers and received more academic and affective support appeared to be socialized into the undergraduate thesis writing more comfortably.