Academic Writing Support Practices for International Students:

Reflections on Dialogic Support by Japanese Language Teachers

Abstract

This paper examines four years of practice at the Japanese Academic Writing Support Desk (AWSD) at Yokohama National University, drawing on collaborative reflections by four Japanese language instructors. The study shows that, with the spread of generative AI and translation tools, instructional support has shifted from error correction to guidance on paragraph structure, cohesion, and stylistic naturalness. Central to this support is dialogue in which students explain their ideas and instructors collaboratively consider revisions. This process highlights the unique value of teacher-led support that cannot be replaced by AI.