Academic Writing in An English for Specific Purpose Context: A Japanese Perspective.

This paper outlines an academic writing course that was taught in Japan to 100 students who took the course as a precursor to a study abroad program at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver, Canada. The steps taken to ensure that the students would be properly prepared for their academic life in Canada and their study abroad experience as a whole are also delineated. The results demonstrate that upon returning from an 8-month stay in Vancouver, the students showed a dramatic improvement in their writing abilities. Indeed, they displayed not only high writing abilities, but the ability to maintain solid grades in their other courses during their time in Canada. Finally, overall enjoyment of the course was deemed to be extremely high, further adding to the students' satisfaction with the program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]