Exploring Algerian doctoral students’ English academic writing transformation at UK universities

This study explores the transformation of English academic writing among Algerian students writing their doctoral theses in the UK, with myself participating as both a researcher and a subject. The study primarily aimed to (1) understand the Algerian doctoral students' perceptions of their transformation in English academic writing, (2) understand the role of their supervisor feedback in that transformation, and (3) understand the role that researching this topic, as a complete insider might play in my writing experience in the UK. The study adopted a qualitative approach theoretically inspired by phenomenology and autoethnography to design the methodology. It also used a triangulation of semi-structured interviews, feedback analysis, and my self-interview to collect the data. The data from the participants and me was qualitatively coded and analyzed using a thematic analysis approach. Overall, the findings show correspondence to adult transformative learning theory. They revealed that our doctoral writing experience in the UK was transformative (i.e., It was categorized by a positive change and enhancement in our academic level and style of writing for a doctoral thesis). The findings also show that our transformation occurred in most of the steps suggested by Mezirow (1978), mainly facing a disorienting dilemma, planning a course for action, and transformation and integration. Further, the findings show consistency with contrastive rhetoric because our knowledge of French and Arabic writing styles interfered with our writing in English and influenced it negatively and positively. The negative effect touched lexical and stylistic elements in our writing in English (e.g., structures of sentences and paragraphs, use of rhetorical devices, and use of cognates/false friends). The positive effect occurred at the cognitive level, where Arabic and French helped us develop knowledge of our thesis topics. The thesis suggested that PhD and non-PhD students should be flexible in learning new writing conventions and acquiring new writing styles when studying in host universities/institutions.