| المستخلص: |
International students for whom English is not their first language are required to study at English language pre-enrolment centres prior to commencing their academic studies at English-medium or English-language universities in South Australia. They must do this in order to meet the level or standard of English they will need for the academic challenges and demands they will encounter in their studies. Included in the large cohort of international students in Australia are Saudi students whose aim is to successfully complete their academic studies. English for Specific Purposes (ESP) taught at English language pre-enrolment centres exposes English-language students to a range of texts or genres of writing which they will commonly encounter in their academic studies. Although Saudi students learn English as a second language at English language leaning institutions or pre-enrolment programs before undertaking their tertiary studies in South Australia, many report they experience difficulties in writing in the required genres of their specific academic disciplines when they study in Australia. This study aims to investigate the academic writing texts of a Saudi Arabian postgraduate student commencing her studies after studying in an English language learning pre-enrolment program. The study seeks to identify the literacy practices, literacy events and the required genre of writing in the Vision Impairment (VI) topic of the Special Education that this postgraduate student is doing. It also investigates the challenges that the student experiences during the conceptualizing and writing phases of the academic text type required in her first assignment. Findings suggest a mismatch between the kinds of texts or genres the student was taught and wrote at the English language learning pre-enrolment centre and the discipline-specific kinds of texts or genres the student is required to conceptualise and write in her chosen postgraduate discipline. This study argues for the importance of cooperation between university faculties and English language pre-enrolment centres so that international students who are specializing in a particular discipline are taught the written texts or genres of that discipline, rather than the most common academic texts or genres experienced across higher education.
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