A more globalised world community has led to an influx of Chinese international students into Australian universities. This has been a call to action as tertiary institutions confront the challenges of the increasingly multicultural landscape of student populations in Australian lecture theatres. Of these issues, inadequate academic language competence is one of the most salient.  Academic writing has been consistently identified by teaching staff and students alike as being an especially problematic area (Bretag et. al, 2002; Sawir 2005).  Research has indicated that, despite gate-keeping measures such as IELTS and alternative non-test entry pathways, Chinese students continue to face challenges with aspects of academic writing such as the rhetorical organization of extended pieces of discourse and the appropriate and ethical use of sources.  While some Chinese students are able to overcome these issues and navigate the waters of their ‘language shock’, many students are unable to do so and become lost along the way.  This not only has tangible negative consequences in terms of academic performance but can also result in strong feelings of disappointment and frustration in the early stages of their study experience.  Therefore, educational research is needed in order to provide solutions which will ultimately maximize the educational outcomes and freedom of this cohort of students.

This paper draws on qualitative data from a small group of Chinese students in their first year of study in Australia.  The analysis of the data was underpinned by Language Socialization Theory (Duff, 2007).  This paper argues that the participants of this study experienced ‘critical incidents’ when undertaking academic writing tasks.  These incidents had the effect of raising the students’ awareness of the gap between their existing skills and those that they needed to perform the required task.  This paper aims to illustrate how the participants of this study negotiated the 'critical incidents' that they encountered in their English academic writing in order to advance as English academic writers in a new educational context.

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