Resistance and agency in second language academic discourse socialisation: Undergraduate students? experiences of an EAP course

Resistance is a common issue in academic discourse socialisation (ADS), especially for learners who study in their second language. How learners enact agency to negotiate their resistance can largely determine the outcomes of their ADS. In this article, we report the findings of a case study on four Chinese undergraduate students' experiences of an English-for-Academic-Purposes course in an EFL setting. Data sources of the study consist of individual and group interviews with students, observation notes of students' learning processes, students' written reflections, and instructors' teaching journals. By comparing the four individual cases, we analyse the processes and conceptual basis for learners to enact their agency in ADS, underlying their resistance and negotiation of resistance. Specifically, we unravel how their existing conceptions of learning objectives and of learning processes frame their enactment of agency, including their identification of affordances and resources, their formation and development of present-directed intentions, and possibilities for them to construct new future-directed intentions.