Exploring Postgraduate Students’ Challenges and Coping Strategies in an Extensive English Course: A Phenomenological Study

Abstract

This study explored postgraduate students’ lived experiences in an Extensive English course at Universitas Jambi. It focused on three issues: the challenges students experienced in extensive reading and extensive writing, the strategies they used to overcome those challenges, and their perceptions of the course for academic literacy development. A qualitative phenomenological design was employed to capture participants’ experiences in depth. Five postgraduate students from the Master of English Education program who had taken the Extensive English course participated voluntarily. Data were collected through reflective journals and Focus Group Discussions and were analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings showed that students faced reading challenges related to unfamiliar vocabulary, complex academic language, low motivation, weak concentration, limited reading habits, time constraints, heavy reading loads, long academic texts, and difficulty finding suitable materials. Writing challenges included grammar problems, limited academic vocabulary, low confidence, difficulty starting writing, weak argument development, procrastination, limited revision time, paraphrasing and summarizing problems, and heavy writing tasks. Students responded through technological support, self-regulated learning, peer discussion, and lecturer feedback. They used AI tools, online dictionaries, rereading, note-taking, outlining, repeated revision, model texts, and collaborative discussion. The course was perceived as necessary because it supported thesis preparation, article writing, research readiness, vocabulary growth, critical thinking, and postgraduate academic literacy. The study suggests that extensive reading and writing courses for postgraduate learners should provide challenging, research-oriented, and academically meaningful tasks.