An investigation of English academic writing strategies employed by Indonesian graduate students in an English medium instruction (EMI) context

Abstract Academic writing presents significant challenges for L2 English-speaking students in EMI contexts. This study investigates Indonesian graduate students’ writing strategies for academic essay assignments in such a context, at Hungarian universities. The aim is to investigate the stages of academic essay writing and strategies used during the writing process: pre-writing, writing, and post-writing. The study provides valuable insights into the utilization of academic writing strategies. Despite a wealth of studies in academic writing in EAP classrooms, empirical research focusing on the process of writing high stakes assignments within the framework of disciplinary courses in EMI contexts is scarce. This study aims to bridge this gap. Employing a qualitative approach, data were collected via semi-structured interviews. Eleven Indonesian students from six universities in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Economics were involved in the study. Transcription and data analysis were performed using Web Speech API and ATLAS t.i. respectively. Results indicate that the students move through a total of sixteen stages and employ 89 strategies when completing their academic essays. During pre-writing, the participants went through five specific stages. During writing, a total of eight stages were, while during post-writing, three stages were identified. The strategies include recalling prior knowledge, consulting the topic with lecturers, creating a source database, taking notes using the OneNote application, utilizing writing tools (e.g., QuillBot), removing redundant paragraphs, and celebrating task completion. The findings offers practical implications for supporting the academic writing process of international students in overcoming challenges in EMI contexts.