Examining the contents and implications of threshold concepts in thesis genre education

This study presupposes that there are insufficient textbooks and course for In ternational Graduate Students to refer to when writing theses, and as a solution, review the characteristics and status of ‘Threshold Concepts’. Through theoretical review, the necessity of Threshold Concepts was proved, and the theses completed by International Graduate Students was analyzed to classify certain types of errors that are repeatedly found. Based on this discussion, four macroscopic Threshold Concepts are presented. These concepts are ‘rhetoric’, ‘textuality’, ‘epistemolo gy’, and ‘writing process’. This study is meaningful because it presents threshold concepts that improve learning transfer when international graduate students write their theses alone and instructors provide feedback.