Writing Instruction for ESL Graduate Students: Examining Issues and Raising Questions

In an attempt to explore salient issues involved in writing instruction for ESL graduate students, this paper will examine a writing course developed especially for them in terms both of its context, content, and practices, and of student and teacher reactions to it. This examination culminates in an account of the numerous questions about writing requirements, testing policies and procedures, and instructional matters that were raised during the development, implementation, and assessment of the course. It is hoped that this discussion will prove to be a useful heuristic for ESL professionals in similar situations, and encourage further enquiry and dialogue in this area. Introduction In recent years, writing instruction for international students has become an area of increasing interest at colleges and universities in the USA. While almost half of the nearly 400,000 international students attending American institutions of higher education are in graduate programmes of study (Institute of International Education 1990), the literature on ES