Doctoral Students and Writing Group Pedagogy for English Communication: Coaching Research Writing at a Japanese University

The student-advisor relationship is critical within the academic research environment in doctoral education. Like academic staff, doctoral students write papers, present data, and teach. As such, doctoral students communicate with academic staff to learn academic discourse as well as contribute to the output of research. In Japan, the relationship between doctoral student and advisor in a Japanese university context can be complicated by a lack of a common language between international doctoral students and Japanese advisors. Not all Japanese faculty are proficient in English and many international doctoral students are English Foreign Language (EFL) learners not proficient in Japanese. In addition, cultural traditions such as the senpai-kohai relationship that require deep respect of teachers by students can stifle communication between doctoral students and Japanese advisors. This qualitative study examines the use of English writing groups as a pedagogical tool and third-party facilitator as part of a communities of practice approach to improve English communication skills of doctoral student EFL learners in a Japanese university context. At a Japanese national university, we organized English speaking writing groups that consisted of eleven international doctoral students, three non-Japanese professors and one Japanese professor who met over a sixteen-week period. Despite the writing group’s aim to produce a research paper in English, results from this study show improvement in workplace communication skills of dialogue, presentation, and the ability to ask questions.