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

Recommendations

Info

The importance of the development of the only child is reinforced by the new family structure. If the traditional family structure is seen as a pyramid shape, today‘s family structure in China can be described as an ‗inverse pyramid.‘ In the so-called ‗4-2-1‘ family structure (in which 4 represents the grandparents, 2 represents the couple, and 1 refers to the only child of the couple), the only child is the centre of the family and embodies its future (Women of China, 2006). In the ‗4-2-1‘ family household, the majority of couples are singletons who were born after the launch of China‘s one-child policy in 1979. The parents of the singletons are more likely to have experienced disruption to their education during the ten-year Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). They expect their only child to achieve a higher degree of success than they themselves had had a chance to achieve. They provide their only child with all the necessities, financial support and opportunities that they can for their only child‘s development. The singletons, who used to be called ‗little emperors‘ (spoiled children), have now reached adulthood, and some even have their own child (which is the 1 in the ‗4-2-1‘ family structure). Undoubtedly they would follow their parents and focus all their attention on their only child. The difference is they also have their parents to look after since they are the only child and the only one whom their parents have to depend on. Unlike a child who must share family resources with many siblings, the only child enjoys a heavily concentrated dose of parental investment and attention (Fong, 2004). Today‘s parents in China invest more resources into their only child‘s personal and educational development with high expectations. Parents of the only child share the view of education as an essential means not only of a child‘s personal development but also of their upward social mobility. This understanding is underpinned by Chinese ideological traditions, which is to be discussed in next section. Traditions underpinning Chinese social structure Chinese society has been influenced by various schools of Chinese philosophy including Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, Neo-Confucianism, and Maoism. Chinese philosophy is characterized by humanism – the unity of man and Heaven (Chan, 1973). They embrace a shared understanding of Chinese humanism – the attainment of a ‗simple life, especially the family life, and in harmonious social relationship‘ (Lin, 2000, p.100). However different schools of Chinese thought profess differing approaches to the achievement of humanism. 18
These schools of philosophy pervade Chinese society and culture with different weight. Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, and Maoism are selected in this study for evaluation on the grounds of their profound influence on Chinese society at different levels and time, and their popularity. The main teachings of each school are introduced, with an emphasis on the perception of and approach towards learning and knowledge. The comprehension of these schools of Chinese philosophy would provide an insight into Chinese society and culture from which the participants of this study originate, and into the learning styles and behaviour of the participants. Chinese philosophy is founded on the idea of the unity of man and nature - Heaven (tian) and Earth (di), and the harmonious balance of Yin and Yang. Yijing, the Book of Changes, is regarded as the cosmological foundation of Chinese philosophy and of Chinese culture (Liu 2006). Human relations and relations with nature are symbolized in Yijing as trigrams. The eight trigrams (bagua), later developed as sixty four hexagrams – Qian (Heaven), Kun (Earth), Zhen (Thunder), Kan (Water), Gen (Mountain), Shun (Wind), Li (Fire) and Dui (Lake) represent eight different natural phenomena, and a constantly changing cosmos, are associated with social relations (Liu, 2006). It is recognized that the two major Chinese traditional philosophical schools – Confucianism and Daoism – derived onto-cosmological and moral ideas from the philosophy of Yijing (Liu, 2006; Cheng, 2008). The Table 1.1 below provides an overview of Chinese traditions. Confucianism Confucianism, represented by Confucius (551-479 B.C.), and some early Confucian thinkers including Mencius (371-289 B.C.), Xunzi (fl. 298-238 B.C.), is regarded as a predominant ‗mainstream‘ (Cheng 1991) form of Chinese philosophy. Confucian teaching advocates the idea of individual self-cultivation as the basis of forming a harmonious society. Hwang (2001) understands Confucian teaching as an ethical system of benevolence (ren), righteousness (yi) and propriety (li), as described in one of the Confucian works, the Golden Mean 19
Page 1 and 2: TRANSFORMATIONS THROUGH LEARNING: T
Page 3 and 4: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I have many people
Page 5 and 6: ABSTRACT This thesis explores the e
Page 7 and 8: CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .........
Page 9 and 10: Learning and teaching styles ......
Page 11 and 12: LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1: Layers of
Page 13 and 14: CHAPTER 1: CONTEXTS OF ORIGIN Intro
Page 15 and 16: of openness (Deng 1984). China‘s
Page 17: p.249). They are restricted by the
Page 21 and 22: and Northern Dynasties (386 - 581)
Page 23 and 24: Benevolence (ren) is the characteri
Page 25 and 26: Daoism‘s doctrine of non-action (
Page 27 and 28: Neo-Confucianism Neo-Confucianism w
Page 29 and 30: Chinese education values / underlin
Page 31 and 32: imperial civil service examination.
Page 33 and 34: The Chinese education system As the
Page 35 and 36: National College Entrance Examinati
Page 37 and 38: eferred to as a ‗jargon of broken
Page 39 and 40: Private learning of English has bee
Page 41 and 42: proficiency by taking the Test of E
Page 43 and 44: CHAPTER 2: CONTEXTS OF DESTINATION
Page 45 and 46: The original six civic universities
Page 47 and 48: University and Liverpool Hope Unive
Page 49 and 50: People‘s (1949) to policy change
Page 51 and 52: Massification of higher education T
Page 53 and 54: Thatcher‘s Conservative governmen
Page 55 and 56: Internationalisation ‘at home’
Page 57 and 58: modules at the University of Wales
Page 59 and 60: prospective students would certainl
Page 61 and 62: The lower satisfaction of East Asia
Page 63 and 64: Some international students take up
Page 65 and 66: challenged linguistically and cultu
Page 67 and 68: From the perspectives of psychologi
Page 69 and 70:
four-stage acculturation theory, an
Page 71 and 72:
ange of disciplines and areas. The
Page 73 and 74:
settings; when reaching the end of
Page 75 and 76:
(comprehension) in order to grasp e
Page 77 and 78:
overwhelming advantage over any oth
Page 79 and 80:
approach - by Biggs. The strategic
Page 81 and 82:
version of the SBQ inventory - Stud
Page 83 and 84:
The concepts and constructs of appr
Page 85 and 86:
attend not only to his or her own t
Page 87 and 88:
L2 research on transfer in writing
Page 89 and 90:
their native language to assist the
Page 91 and 92:
The next section of this chapter ex
Page 93 and 94:
the teacher‘s role is consistent
Page 95 and 96:
PART II - RESEARCH DESIGN This part
Page 97 and 98:
I started primary school at the age
Page 99 and 100:
after my study. However, in 1998, t
Page 101 and 102:
In my previous studies, I taught th
Page 103 and 104:
- and I use that capability to push
Page 105 and 106:
education from medieval or ‗ancie
Page 107 and 108:
The methodology has built on - grow
Page 109 and 110:
esearch, reliability and validity n
Page 111 and 112:
Its total student population is rel
Page 113 and 114:
contacts. The researcher once taugh
Page 115 and 116:
Data collection phase two Value of
Page 117 and 118:
PART III - INTERPRETATIONS This par
Page 119 and 120:
These particular six student storie
Page 121 and 122:
I think this culture shapes a very
Page 123 and 124:
much in the first year except I mad
Page 125 and 126:
was like a nightmare with fear and
Page 127 and 128:
Figure 5.6: Ridi‘s perception of
Page 129 and 130:
Again I was especially weak in list
Page 131 and 132:
ecause I knew too little English to
Page 133 and 134:
Figure 5.11: Peter‘s perception o
Page 135 and 136:
The academic life here is higher th
Page 137 and 138:
High School. In the second year, I
Page 139 and 140:
CHAPTER 6: COMMUNITIES OF LEARNING
Page 141 and 142:
… Since I was a child, my father
Page 143 and 144:
would love to repay my family by be
Page 145 and 146:
Chris was another participant who h
Page 147 and 148:
having them completed as soon as po
Page 149 and 150:
just have some short conversations
Page 151 and 152:
found in Appendix 9. This finding c
Page 153 and 154:
It was the kind of student-tutor re
Page 155 and 156:
Chinese students are studying in co
Page 157 and 158:
confidence gradually increased with
Page 159 and 160:
in exams, such as grammar practice.
Page 161 and 162:
prior English learning experiences
Page 163 and 164:
een aware of the differences in rel
Page 165 and 166:
learning and study skills, research
Page 167 and 168:
Writing for academic purposes All p
Page 169 and 170:
insufficient subject knowledge. In
Page 171 and 172:
Previous studies (Arndt, 1987; Cumm
Page 173 and 174:
perceived better practice than that
Page 175 and 176:
factors, two other driving elements
Page 177 and 178:
I believed that it would be more ch
Page 179 and 180:
they spent some time studying in th
Page 181 and 182:
get to learn their culture and to l
Page 183 and 184:
of consulting with their parents ha
Page 185 and 186:
awareness or intercultural understa
Page 187 and 188:
I‘m disappointed with things are
Page 189 and 190:
the interview that they have develo
Page 191 and 192:
CHAPTER 9: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMEN
Page 193 and 194:
elationship for these students is t
Page 195 and 196:
students in this study value learni
Page 197 and 198:
students from their home country an
Page 199 and 200:
elated to professional practices, c
Page 201 and 202:
Academic and pedagogical support Th
Page 203 and 204:
their place of origin. They appreci
Page 205 and 206:
are felt being genuinely accepted a
Page 207 and 208:
support services and departmental a
Page 209 and 210:
assistance to facilitate the achiev
Page 211 and 212:
Having said all this, academics nee
Page 213 and 214:
students‘ voices which are not of
Page 215 and 216:
Angelova, M. and Riazantseva, A. (1
Page 217 and 218:
Brown, R. (2009) The Operation of t
Page 219 and 220:
Coffield et al. (2004) Learning Sty
Page 221 and 222:
Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum, cited in
Page 223 and 224:
Guclu, N. (1993) A Study to Identif
Page 225 and 226:
T. Duffy (2002) Psychometric Proper
Page 227 and 228:
Krapels, A. R. (1990) An Overview o
Page 229 and 230:
MacLeod, D. (2005) Colleges to Gain
Page 231 and 232:
Ministry of Education of the People
Page 233 and 234:
Perl, S. (1979) The Composing Proce
Page 235 and 236:
Shi, L. (2006) The Successors to Co
Page 237 and 238:
Thomas, G. (2002) Who Should Call t
Page 239 and 240:
Ward, C. and Kennedy, A. (1996) Cro
Page 241 and 242:
Zamel, V. (1984) In Search of the K
Page 243 and 244:
Appendix 2: Consent form Title of r
Page 245 and 246:
SECTION 4. CONSENT Is written conse
Page 247 and 248:
SECTION 5. RISKS AND ETHICAL PROCUD
Page 249 and 250:
Deanery Research Ethics Coordinator
Page 251 and 252:
Appendix 5: Instruction on writing
Page 253 and 254:
Notes: 1. Prompts for each question
Page 255 and 256:
to come back and I regrouped with m
Page 257 and 258:
Peter: I came to the UK in Septembe
Page 259 and 260:
with them even more. Let me give yo
Page 261 and 262:
second, or to say, my third languag
Page 263 and 264:
Appendix 8: Student learning journe
Page 265 and 266:
way as your first language. In othe
Page 267 and 268:
When I recall my high school years,
Page 269 and 270:
Figure 8.6: Mia‘s perception of h
Page 271 and 272:
Max Max is a 24 years old male Chin
Page 273 and 274:
My father arranged a house for me t
Page 275 and 276:
Figure 8.10: Vincent‘s perception
Page 277 and 278:
Alex‘s graphs of his learning exp
Page 279 and 280:
classmates, I do not know why. Prob
Page 281 and 282:
cultures, economic and legal system
Page 283 and 284:
the fame of Foshan‘s china indust
Page 285 and 286:
Figure 8.17: Kent‘s perception of
Page 287 and 288:
languages. They had been chosen by
Page 289 and 290:
teaching styles were different. In
Page 291 and 292:
I have studied in UK for almost two
Page 293 and 294:
Figure 8.24: Andy‘s perception of
show all

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

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?