Saudi Students’ Enculturation into UK Higher Education: Three Case Studies

Abstract

This thesis contributes to the field of academic literacies and disciplinary enculturation by examining how advanced English as a Second Language (ESL) learners—specifically Saudi students—navigate graduate study in UK higher education. Situated within current debates on international student adjustment, academic writing development, and institutional support, the study offers a focused account of how postgraduate students from Saudi Arabia experience and respond to the demands of academic discourse communities in the humanities and social sciences. Drawing on data from an eighteen-month qualitative case study, this research follows three Saudi students enrolled in UK master’s programs. The study is guided by four core research questions. The first two, adapted from Krase (2003), explore (1) the participants’ perspectives on their enculturation into academic discourse communities, and (2) the function of literacy activities in this process. The remaining two questions— (3) the nature of the difficulties students encounter and (4) how they attempt to overcome these—represent an original extension of the field. These final two questions foreground the complexities of understanding academic expectations and developing critical academic literacies. They also allow for an analysis of how individual agency and institutional structures interact in shaping students’ academic trajectories. Data sources include semi-structured interviews with students and lecturers, samples of students’ academic writing, written feedback, and student reflections on that feedback, using the talk around text method (Lillis, 2009). The findings support the core principles of Legitimate Peripheral Participation (Lave & Wenger, 1991) and Communities of Practice (Wenger, 1998), particularly in describing movement from peripheral to more central participation. However, this study also reveals the limitations of these models in accounting for students who do not successfully complete their academic journey, as in the case of one participant. The study contributes to theoretical discussions by refining LPP and CoP to better account for non-linear progressions, individual agency, and institutional constraints. Ultimately, this thesis shows that the enculturation of ESL postgraduate students is not a straightforward process of socialization but a complex negotiation of unfamiliar norms, often marked by struggle, resistance, and adaptation.