Writing academic english as a doctoral student in sweden: narrative perspectives

Abstract

The expectation that doctoral students publish during their studies has increased in recent years. The standard of having international academic publications before entering the job market has long been perceived to pose an even greater challenge to doctoral students in non-English speaking countries who are often expected to publish in English, rather than their national language. This deficient perspective has, however, recently been questioned. We undertook a narrative inquiry at a Swedish university in order to better understand the experience, self-perception, and needs of doctoral students writing academic English. From these narratives, two themes relating to the doctoral students' journeys towards academic writing emerged: deficit and commonality. After reviewing the data, we argue that it is important to support doctoral students in their journey into bi-literate academic writers, rather than focus on the notion of the privileged position of the native speaker.