EFL students at universities have major challenges to overcome. Great attention has paid to improving such students the academic literacy skill they will need to succeed in higher education. Students at postgraduate level, especially those EAL stu?dents, tend to suffer growing difficulties in their academic writing. The essay focuses on the difficulties caused by cultural differ?ence and insufficient language proficiency, especially faced by the Chinese EAL student writers. Finally, possible solutions will be brought forward in the conclusion.