General Academic Difficulties and Reading and Writing Difficulties among Asian ESL Postgraduate Students in TESOL at an Australian University

This article reports on an empirical study that examines general academic difficulties, and academic reading and writing difficulties among Asian ESL (English as a Second Language) international postgraduate students who are completing a Master’s Degree in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) at an Australian university. The data were collected through the use of a Likert-scale questionnaire from 51 students and a follow-up, semi-structured interview technique with 11 participants who took part in the questionnaire survey. It was found that: (1) students reported different types of academic difficulties including reading and writing such as synthesizing information and academic writing; (2) there were strong associations among general academic difficulties, academic reading and writing difficulties; and (3) factors such as academic English proficiency, self-regulation, motivation, self-efficacy, former learning experience and academic adjustment had an impact on their academic difficulties. This article will articulate the implications for second language teacher education research and future research.