Web-Based English Writing Courses for Graduate Students

As globalization and rapid development of science and technology has brought huge impact on today’s world, it is important for non-English speaking countries such as Taiwan, Republic of China, to actively participate in the international community through communication in the international language, English. In higher education, dissemination of research achievements through publication of international journals has been a common degree requirement, the practice in public researchoriented universities being the noticeable example. However, graduate students who have such needs are often unprepared to demonstrate acceptable academic writing abilities in English. To facilitate effective access to research information and to promote national academic excellence through international publications, it is essential to promote writing instruction of English for Academic Purposes (EAP). Meanwhile, Web-based environments provide a viable choice of delivery of EAP courses and the computer-mediated communication tools help formation of the student body as virtual organizations as they learn with one another. The current project targets at promoting graduate students’ academic English writing performance via digital learning in higher education contexts of Taiwan. The research builds upon the most updated EAP research and practices in English-speaking countries as well as the development of natural language processing (NLP), and constructs Web-based writing courses that develop students’ knowledge and skills for writing publishable conference and research articles in two academic areas: computer science and English teaching. Recently, research and teaching practices of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) have prospered with focuses on theoretical premises, methodological approaches, and pedagogical issues including curriculum design, materials development, and assessment (e.g., Flowerdew, 2002; Hyland, 2002; Jordan, 1997; Kuo, stead of basing digital content only on EAP teaching experiences, our rationale of selecting digital content is