The challenge of academic writing for Chinese students within ...

CHAPTER 7: LEARNING ACROSS LANGUAGE BOUNDARIES
Introduction
This chapter investigates the participants‘ learning experiences across language boundaries.
The findings are categorized into three sections - prior learning experiences, current learning
situation and aspirations for the future. In the prior learning experiences section, the
participants‘ early linguistic influences and English language education are explored. The
current learning situation mainly focuses on the linguistic challenges they face, differences in
learning and teaching styles, and their experience of academic writing. The issues I intend to
address in this chapter are a) how their previous learning experiences have shaped their
current learning behaviours; b) to what extent their prior English language education has
influenced their current learning in either positive or negative ways; c) what impacts their
previous learning and teaching styles have on the participants‘ learning in UK; d) how the
experience of learning across language boundaries will shape their aspirations for the future.
Prior learning experience
In this section I am interested in exploring how participants‘ early linguistic experiences in
China and English language education have influenced their current learning in the UK. The
experiences of learning to speak different dialects and learning different languages with the
changing environment have, to some extent, raised the participant‘s awareness of difficulties
they would encounter in a new learning environment. This study shows that the English
language learning that the participants obtained in their previous education have direct impact
on their learning in UK in terms of their English language competence.
Early linguistic influences
Some student participants experienced language differences at certain stages of their life.
Many regional dialects prevail in China. The dialects are distinct in spoken forms of the
language and they vary across north and south, urban and rural areas, coastal area and inland.
For instance, one participant recalled that in the beginning he had difficulties in
communicating with local students when he moved from his northern hometown to
Guangzhou to study. He felt isolated and afraid of speaking to others. With time, his
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