Theses and Dissertations Collection

Through a sociocultural lens, this study examines five Saudi Arabian engineering graduate students' valuation of English writing, their self-perceptions of writing, what promoted the development of those self-perceptions and how their self-perceptions compare with engineering industry writing standards. The data collected for this qualitative case study triangulates interviews, focus groups, field notes, syllabi and instructional materials. The findings of this study enhance our understanding of how Saudi graduate students are immersed into literacy practices in engineering at institutions of higher education in the United States. The results reveal that Saudis perceive English writing as important, yet they have varying understandings of their English writing based on a variety of sociocultural factors. Generally speaking, the discoveries suggest the need for a closer examination of how institutions of higher education support writing and specifically communities of practice that enable writing mastery in Intensive English Programs and in graduate coursework.