Academic discourse socialization of culturally and academically diverse students: Exploring legitimacy of (non)oral participation in an international graduate program

This study explores how a group of students from diverse academic and cultural backgrounds in a Canadian TESOL graduate program designed primarily for international students participate in class, how they perceive different modes of participation of other students in the class, and how this affects their academic socialization process. Through semi-structured qualitative interviews, I explore what are considered legitimate modes of (non) oral participation in their classrooms and what affects their academic discourse socialization. The study finds students develop and negotiate a variety of legitimate modes of participation, and the legitimacy of participation is fluid and contextual. That is, there is no definite mode of (non) oral participation that students need to perform for the participation to be perceived as legitimate by their peers.