Writing a bachelor thesis in English in the senior year has long been a fixed requirement for English undergraduates in private colleges and universities in China. This study is aimed to find out the major barriers that English seniors have been confronted with in their bachelor’s theses and how they evaluate the academic task they have completed. Data were collected through questionnaires as well as the aid of the English Department in College of Science and Technology of China Three Gorges University by probing into after-writing feedbacks from the writing process of 118 senior English undergraduates in 2021. The study shows that over 85% candidates found the bachelor thesis task no easy job. Meanwhile, various difficulties throughout thesis writing were reported ranging from high standards set on the thesis, absence of systematic academic training offered by the college to the busy senior year schedule, poor self-discipline to lack of supervision, low motives of writing, among others. The results of this study imply that it might not be rational to take a one-size-fits-all approach to English bachelor theses and it is hence suggested that the bachelor’s thesis for English undergraduates in private higher institutions should be optional rather than mandatory by taking into consideration the real conditions of both students and the university.

Chunbao Huang. Insights into Bachelor Thesis Writing for English Undergraduates: A Case Study from a Private University. Frontiers in Educational Research (2022) Vol. 5, Issue 1: 44-49. https://doi.org/10.25236/FER.2022.050108.

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