Holistic Pedagogical Support to Address Postgraduate Students’ Challenges in Academic Publishing: The Case of a Business School in Indonesia

The research literature is rife with studies that explicate how novice academic writers face fears and experience anxieties when writing in English as a Second Language (ESL) contexts. However, many studies have failed to put forward a holistic approach to address the issue. This study fills in this gap by reporting how integrating language and content instruction and providing out-of-classroom assistance for students at a master’s level in an Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB)-accredited business school can help them become more confident academic writers and accomplish their publishing goals. This research employed a qualitative research approach through which ten students were interviewed in-depth. The findings of the study reveal that students do not only experience language and content related fears and challenges, but also challenges that are existential in nature. This implies that finding meaning and purpose in their research endeavors which aligns with their professional careers is important. The study makes a case for a holistic pedagogical support for students within a Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) approach, while putting in place a definitive mentoring system outside of class sessions. Future research may evaluate the effectiveness of such a support program for academic publishing and explore ways to adequately address the need for a research agenda that is meaningful for students’ professional and academic careers.