A qualitative perspective on academic speaking challenges among international graduate students

International graduate students in Malaysian higher education institutions are faced with challenges in fulfilling the academic literacy demands at graduate level. One of the components of academic literacy that impose challenges for the students in coping with their academic tasks is academic speaking. This purposive sampling based qualitative research investigated the challenges faced by these students in their academic speaking practices and the overcoming strategies employed to overcome the challenges. Focus group interviews were conducted with 70 students in 10 taught Master programs at a public university. Findings indicate the challenges faced in academic speaking practices are affected by first language influence on academic speaking, lack of English language proficiency, lack of self-confidence, lack of feedback from their lecturers and lastly, the influence of their socio-cultural identity. The strategies employed by the students to overcome the academic speaking challenges are also discussed. The findings are beneficial for the management of higher education institutions to provide avenues for the students to improve their academic speaking practices experience prior to embarking on graduate study and also during their graduate study