“Maybe the communication between us was not enough”: Inside a dysfunctional advisor/L2 advisee relationship

Reporting findings from a 5-month qualitative study of an ESL graduate student as she worked on her master's thesis with the assistance of her advisor, this study offers a detailed portrait of the complicated challenges ESL learners and their advisors may face as they attempt to negotiate working relationships with one another. The study examines the ways the advisor/advisee relationship impacted the ESL learner as she participated in the knowledge-making practices of her academic discipline. The study also aims to enrich our understanding of ESL graduate students and the professors who advise them by exploring how they are situated in socially, culturally, and politically complex academic relationships.