" Paraphrasing in Academic writing: challenges and solutions. A survey at Can Tho University"

Abstract

This descriptive research explored the topic of paraphrasing practice and its challenges in writing academic English encountered by Vietnamese students. The research was conducted with third-year students from High-Quality Program in English Language, School of Foreign Languages, Can Tho University, to identify the challenges that they faced in paraphrasing when writing academic English and the strategies they used to solve the challenges. In collecting the data, a set of questionnaire was distributed to 104 students and 6 interviews with 6 students to examine their awareness of paraphrasing, their preferences and struggles with paraphrasing, and their progress in developing their paraphrasing skills. The results of this study highlighted the following: (1) The challenges mostly faced by the students in writing academic English were difficulty rephrasing the text while still maintaining the original meaning. (2) The strategies used by the students in solving those challenges in writing academic English included: breaking down the text into smaller parts, practicing regularly, using online paraphrasing tools, utilizing a thesaurus for finding synonyms, and thoroughly reading and understanding the text before paraphrasing. These findings implied that most students had difficulties effectively paraphrasing texts or topics, finding the right synonyms, and practicing paraphrasing regularly. When they wrote academic English, the strategies that were mostly used by the students to solve those challenges were to use digital tools such as online dictionaries and thesaurus to paraphrase a text more effectively.