How to overcome challenges related to English and academic writing skills when studying abroad

MedPharmRes
journal of University of Medicine and Pharmacy at Ho Chi Minh City
homepage:  and 
MedPharmRes, 2018, 2
© 2018 MedPharmRes
3
Case Study
How to overcome challenges related to English and academic writing skills 
when studying abroad
Duong Minh Cuonga
aSPHCM, UNSW Australia
Received March 22, 2018: Accepted March 28, 2018: Published online April 02, 2018
Abstract: Nowadays, pursuing postgraduate study abroad after completing a Medical Doctor (MD) degree in 
their home country is common among Vietnamese doctors. There are several challenges in studying overseas that 
international students need to overcome to ensure a favorable outcome of their learning journey. The presenting 
paper mainly discussed about the challenges related to English and academic writing skills and aimed to provide 
some tips for studying effectively in developed countries. Based on his own experiences as a postgraduate 
international student in Australia, the author found that a successful learning journey could be facilitated by (1) 
feeling free to ask, (2) making friends with the locals and other international students, (3) exploring the local life, 
(4) learning and using a reference management software, and (5) attending all free academic skills workshops and 
consultations provided by the university.
Keywords: study abroad, graduate study, international students.
1. BACKGROUND
Nowadays, going abroad to undertake postgraduate 
trainings in developed countries after completing a Medical 
Doctor (MD) degree in their home country is common among 
Vietnamese doctors. To prepare for this journey, Vietnamese 
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good university, how to study effectively overseas, and how 
to live in the foreign country of their choice from several 
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website of their targeted university. Vietnamese doctors can 
also “FaceTime” with their friends who live in their targeted 
country to see how real life is going. Yet looking back to 
more than 10 years ago, studying overseas was somehow not 
that popular and related information was quite scarce. In this 
context, I was one of the Vietnamese doctors going to Australia 
to undertake a postgraduate training. The presenting paper 
mainly discussed about the challenges related to English and 
academic writing skills and aimed to provide some tips for 
studying effectively in developed countries with Australia as 
an example. The term “postgraduate training” was used in 
this paper to imply Master and PhD training which is not 
related to laboratory work.
2. CASE PRESENTATION
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writing skills
I went to Australia to undertake a master’s degree at 
the University of Sydney right after completing my MD 
degree from the University of Medicine and Pharmacy at 
Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam [1]. It should be noted that 
I had not been abroad for studying purposes before. Like 
other colleagues, to prepare for my adventure, I worked 
really hard on English and got a good International English 
Language Testing System (IELTS) score. Although I had no 
problem in communicating with the locals, I totally did not 
understand what the lecturers said in class. I realized that 
achieving a good IELTS score does not guarantee a smooth 
conversation with the locals due to the differences in using 
English and diverse accents between countries. A student 
who can communicate well with the locals may not be able 
to understand a speech or a lecture due to the differences 
between general and academic English. Especially, 
undertaking postgraduate trainings in medicine abroad 
requires advanced knowledge of health/medical terminology 
which is not considered in IELTS. The communication 
*Address correspondence to this author at the SPHCM, UNSW Australia; 
Email: minh.duong@unsw.edu.au 
DOI: 10.32895/UMP.MPR.2.1.3
MedPharmRes, 2018, Vol. 2, No. 1 Duong et al.4
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remember that I was not willing to respond to a question 
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case in a virology class which I knew the answer. I could not 
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I was afraid of people laughing at me. 
Studying overseas right after completing a MD degree can 
be considered as an advantage to explore the new knowledge 
at a master level. This is because my theory-based medical 
knowledge was still very fresh and considerably updated. Yet 
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due to my English writing problems and failure in adherence 
to reference styles guidance. Written grammar in English 
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writing at postgraduate levels is far more different between 
the two styles. Similar to English communication issues, a 
high IELTS score does not guarantee a competent written 
English at university. Moreover, universities in Australia 
seriously request students to provide references when using 
the work of other people in any format. Correct referencing 
requires both correct in-text citations and a correct reference 
list which are in accordance with the requested style such 
as Harvard, American Psychological Association (APA) 
or Vancouver style [1]. Failure to do this properly may 
constitute plagiarism [3]. Developing a correct referencing 
manually is a real challenge since each style has different 
criteria in presenting the information. I lost my marks in 
assignments because I did not know how to fully follow 
those criteria when manually developing the referencing. 
As a result, my in-text citations and/or referencing list was 
considered incorrect. 
3. SOLUTIONS AND DISCUSSIONS
What were my solutions to overcome these obstacles?
Feeling free to ask
I let the lecturers know my concerns regarding the 
lectures. Now, being an academic in Australia, I understand 
that lecturers have the responsibility to listen to the students 
and address students’ concerns and questions seriously. 
If the lecturers do not have enough time to talk in class, 
they will be pleased to discuss with the student via email 
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suggest some available academic kills and/or English 
workshops for students [4, 5]. Discussing with the lecturers 
and attending similar workshops greatly helped me improve 
my English skills and understand new medical terminology 
when I undertook my master’s course. Indeed, international 
students are expected to reach the required English level 
for the postgraduate training. Yet the lecturers understand 
that students are from both native and non-native English 
speaking countries. Therefore they will take head and 
address their students’ academic issues.
Making friends with the locals and international students
In my opinion, international Vietnamese students tend 
to make friends with students from the same country rather 
than the locals including the Australian-Vietnamese students. 
This is absolutely a good practice. Given they have the same 
culture and language, international Vietnamese students can 
easily communicate with and support each other. Yet this 
cannot help in improving the English skills as they tend 
to use Vietnamese in group communications. Even if they 
use English in group communications, their English slowly 
improves as Vietnamese people usually have the same accent 
and acquire the same grammatical mistakes and typos. 
Indeed, there is a negative impact of few opportunities to 
use the language outside the classroom on learning English 
among international students in Australia [6]. In addition 
to this, using Vietnamese in group communications may 
adversely lead to self-isolation. I made friends with non-
Vietnamese students to improve my English, to support 
each other in understanding the lectures, and to share 
knowledge about medicine, culture and life. My English was 
strongly improved when working with the locals and other 
international students in several activities such as tutorials, 
journal club, and group presentation. I also realized that 
understanding a new culture or even a few simple words in 
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Exploring the local life 
I undertook my master’s course under sponsorship of 
the Australia Awards (e.g. Endeavour Scholarship). The 
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during my stay in Australia. However, the disadvantage 
is that I was not allowed to fail in any subject according 
to the scholarship policy at that time. This was actually 
a real pressure even though no-one wants to fail when 
studying overseas. To ensure my expected study outcome, 
I studied harder than other colleagues. Attending Fisher 
library (e.g. one of the largest libraries of the University of 
Sydney) every day after the lectures for self-learning was 
my choice. Unfortunately, apart from studying, I did not 
manage my time very well to explore the local life. After 
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was just the Sydney Central Business District (CBD) and 
Kiama (a coastal town south of Sydney). This resulted in 
my bad mood, homesickness and limited knowledge and 
experience about Australia. To me, Sydney was boring and 
had nothing except the famous Opera House and Harbour 
Bridge. I would have never come to know the true beauty 
of Australia until several years later when I completed my 
PhD and had the opportunity to fully explore Australia. Like 
making friends with non-Vietnamese students, exploring 
MedPharmRes, 2018, Vol. 2, No. 1How to overcome challenges related to English 5
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only improved my English, but also enriched my overseas 
experiences through interaction with the locals. It is well 
documented that having cultural knowledge and living in an 
English speaking language environment facilitate the success 
in learning English language [6]. Yet, to balance this, time 
management skill is a must.
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There is several reference management software that can 
help to manage references. As advised by my course convenor, 
I learnt to use EndNote to search, organize, write, publish and 
share the references [7]. Available EndNote output styles can 
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There was no problem for me to learn to use EndNote as it is 
user-friendly. Yet it is completely important to understand the 
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Universities in Australia always offer a wide range of free 
academic skills workshops that support students’ learning. 
For example, the Learning Centre at UNSW Australia offers 
referencing, plagiarism, writing skills, critical thinking, 
reading and note-taking workshops [4]. Students can also ask 
for a reference management software instruction or request 
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online databases at the library. I found that these workshops 
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me improve my writing skills. 
4. OUTCOMES
Through the above-mentioned activities, I improved my 
knowledge regarding the local accent, academic English, 
and health/medical terminology which in turn enhanced 
my English listening, reading, speaking and writing skills. 
Attending academic skills workshops such as referencing, 
plagiarism and reference management software instruction 
helped me understand the importance of acknowledging 
the sources of information that I use and develop a correct 
referencing. These improvements strongly facilitated my 
successful learning journey in Australia.
Being an academic at UNSW Australia provides me a 
unique chance to have a look at all my issues through the 
lens of a lecturer. This also helps me understand that lecturers 
always want to improve students’ learning experience at 
university. Yet students need to actively explore all available 
supports and speak out when needed to ensure that lecturers 
know their issues to offer appropriate help. It is noticed that 
the paper was based on the author’s own experience, and thus 
might not be able to apply to everyone. Yet the information 
discussed in this paper is general tips which will strongly 
assist in achieving a fruitful outcome when studying overseas. 
LEARNING POINTS
A successful learning journey could be facilitated by 
x Feeling free to ask
x Making friends with the locals and other international 
students
x Exploring the local life
x Learning and using a reference management software
x Attending all free academic skills workshops and 
consultations provided by the university.
REFERENCES
1. University of Medicine and Pharmacy at Ho Chi Minh 
City. Academic programs. 2018. – [accessed on 27 
Mar, 2018]. Available from: 
yds2/?Content=thongtinDV&idTin=14124&menu=448.
2. Nguyen CT. The Differences between Spoken and Written 
Grammar in English, in Comparison with Vietnamese. Gist 
Education and Learning Research Journal. 2015;11:138-53.
3. UNSW Australia. Academic Integrity and Plagiarism. 
2018. – [Accessed on 20 Mar, 2018]. Available from: 
https://student.unsw.edu.au/plagiarism. 
4. UNSW Australia. Academic skills. 2018. – [Accessed on 
20 Mar, 2018]. Available from: https://student.unsw.edu.
au/skills. 
5. UNSW Australia. Language and Conversation Skills. 2018. 
– [ Accessed on 27 Mar, 2018]. Available from: https://
student.unsw.edu.au/english.
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in Australia: The effects of prior learning experience. 
International Education Journal. 2005;6(5):567-80.
7. EndNote. EndNote product details. – [Accessed on 20 Mar, 
2018]. Available from: