Challenges Faced by Thai NNES Postgraduate Students in English Research Paper Writing

Difficulties in Writing English Language Research Paper: The Experience of Thai NNES Postgraduate Students *Thapanee Khemanuwong1, Patcharee Muangnakin1, Ekkapon Phairot2, Siaw Hui Kho3 1Faculty of Liberal Arts, King Mongkut s institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Thailand 2College of Innovation and Management, Songkhla Rajabhat University, Thailand 3School of Educational Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia *Corresponding author, email: thapaneekhe@gmail.com

Introduction English is accepted as a dominant language of academic and international publication. Researchers have written their research in English to make their contributions accessible in a wide community at an international level. The universities in Thailand have placed emphasis on disseminating and publishing research articles in English with restigious English-language scholarly journals and academic conference proceedings.

Problem Statement For nonnative, English-speaking novice researchers, composing research articles in English as a foreign language is a very difficult and demanding task and it appears to generate a lot of stress, anxiety, and burden (Hanauer & Englander, 2011). Writing difficulties are often contributed from a lack of English proficiency and research writing skills and experiences (Hanauer & Englander, 2011).

Research Objective To investigate specific types of research article writing difficulties that postgraduate students at a tertiary institution in Thailand in various disciplinary fields have been facing.

Research Questions RQ1: To what extent does each part of paper writing would cause difficulties to postgraduate students? RQ2: To what extent do the students have problems in writing academic paper in English?

Literature Review Research article writing difficulties experienced by nonnative, English-speaking novice researchers. English for academic purposes in higher education and teaching English publications. for research article

Research Article (RA) Genres Introduction Discussion Method Result

Methodology Questionnaire of difficulties in writing different parts of research article and language use of English. Cronbach s alpha value was 0.76.

Methodology (Continued) Demographic Information of the Participants Demographic Information Frequency Percentage Male 89 56.70 Gender Female 68 43.30 Less than 36 years old 130 82.80 36-40 years old 22 14.00 Age 41-45 years old 3 1.90 More than 45 years old 2 1.30 Master s degree 100 63.69 Degrees of study Doctoral degree 57 36.31 Beginning 91 57.96 In-process of writing 41 26.11 Current stages of writing After submission 25 15.92 157 100.00 Total

Research Results RQ1: To what extent does each part of paper writing would cause difficulties to postgraduate students?

Research Results (Continued)

Research Results (Continued) RQ2: To what extent do the students have problems in writing academic paper in English?

Research Results (Continued)

Conclusion The postgraduate students were able to handle writing research paper in English at moderate level. present study illustrated that the However, the participants had difficulties in different parts of producing academic paper in English.

Suggestions It is recommended that instructors should suggest sample articles that correspond with the fields of the students in order to augment their basic knowledge of article writing before they advance to learning at higher levels. Academic writing should be considered as an integral part of universities postgraduate students need effective writing skills to facilitate their research writing in English to fulfill their experience in publishing their work with local and international journals. programs as