AN INVESTIGATION INTO HOW L2 INTERNATIONAL POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS SELECT READING SOURCES FOR THEIR ACADEMIC ASSESSMENTS
INTRODUCTION
In the university assessment process, the student writer is faced with many challenges, including the initial selection of reading sources (Head, 2007). The ability to choose appropriate academic sources is a key step in responding to an academic task (Wingate, 2015). In recent decades, the time-honoured choice of material identified in module handbooks and found on library shelves has been overshadowed by a trend towards reliance on searching online sources. With such an abundance of text, a growing confusion among students has become apparent as to which sources would suit the assignment brief and support their argument (Head, 2007). Despite finding a plethora of
material online, using e-based applications and scouring library database systems, the world wide web seems to have generated more stress for students (Colon-Aguirre & Fleming-May, 2012) than academic enlightenment.
The purpose of this paper is to open up EAP practitioners’ understanding of the factors which affect the choices made by international postgraduate (PG) L2 students when completing a written assignment. De Chazal (2014, p. 150) places searching for and locating ‘potentially appropriate and relevant’ sources firmly in the reading process. Alexander, Argent and Spencer (2008, p. 126) suggest tactics for unpacking the ‘aboutness’ of a text by focusing not only on the subject of a title,
