What our students tell us: Perceptions of three multilingual students on their academic writing in first year

•Australian student perceptions of academic writing are similar to those in UK and U.S.•Academic writing is seen as skills, interpersonal relations or authorial identity.•Case studies provide useful insights into students’ negotiations of academic writing.•Challenge of EAP pedagogy includes recognizing diversity of multilingual students.

Over the last couple of decades, there has been a growing recognition of the complexity of academic writing, including an interest in how learners negotiate the contexts within which they learn to write. As teachers in an EAP program, we approached this study with an interest in how our multilingual students negotiate the demands of their written assignments within particular disciplinary communities. The focus of the paper is thus on students’ perceptions of what it means to “do” academic writing in their first year at university. A case study approach revealed the diversity of student perceptions of academic writing (as an issue of “skills” development, interpersonal relations, or the negotiation of authorial identities), as well as the multiplicity of resources that the multilingual students had at their disposal. It also allowed for insights into unexpected practices contributing to the students’ progress as academic writers. Our findings suggest that the social context relevant for student writing includes but extends beyond the formal and academic, and embraces spaces and practices outside the institution. The current study was conducted in an Australian university, and one of its purposes is to add an Australian perspective to the growing body of case study research in academic literacy.