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

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either in parallel with or incorporated into language support courses, which requires departmental involvement, and close collaboration between academic departments and language support units. Academic writing was identified by the participants of the research as the most challenging aspect of their academic study in the UK. The participants were generally aware of the writing support services at the university. Some participants found it useful while others voiced their dissatisfaction. The most salient concern is writing tutors‘ lack of subject knowledge, and therefore they are not able to provide subject-specific support, which is in great demand among Chinese students. It might be a good practice that subject tutors have greater involvement into the academic writing support at university level, and regular writing workshops or tutorials can be run at departmental level and organized by subject tutors, during which subject-specific questions related to writing can be raised and answered, and subject-specific writing rules and individual tutor‘s expectations can be clarified. The structured academic writing courses, covering general introduction to types of academic writing, academic writing skills and strategies, and references requirement, might be beneficial to students who are unfamiliar with or had minimal trainings on the UK academic writing. The participants also voiced the worry that they have a shortage of time to seek writing support. So the department might need to take measures to encourage the access to the support, for instance by designing the writing courses as add-on credited courses or integrated with students‘ degree studies. As mentioned in the context chapter, the development of globalisation has seen the tendency toward the internationalisation of higher education. It is imperative for the UK HEIs to develop strategies and policies infused with international dimensions. One of the efforts toward the internationalisation of higher education is the internationalisation of curricula. There are many approaches to the internationalisation of curricula. Based on the findings of this study, two approaches are considered of most relevance – developing the curriculum with an international orientation in outcomes, assessment, content, learning activities and resources (Leask, 2005) and developing a cultural synergy (Kingston & Forland, 2008). The participants highlighted the cultural disorientation they encountered in case studies and examples designed by their tutors in humanities subjects. The students complained about the prevalence of UK culture in the course content and no reference to cultural examples from 202
their place of origin. They appreciated acquiring the knowledge of UK culture, but would like to see the inclusion of cultural examples they are familiar with and can relate to. Moreover, there is urgency for the UK HEIs to develop cultural literacy to become more inter-culturally responsive (Kingston & Forland, 2008; MacKinnon & Manathunga, 2003). Currently pedagogical approaches and assessment methods of the UK HEIs are designed with the dominant cultural values, which would cause learning dislocation and isolation of students who are from different cultural backgrounds. The development of cultural synergy requires the appreciation of and integration into pedagogy of international students‘ experiences and their cultural values. The notion of the ‗third place‘ is relevant to students‘ mediation of a meeting place between two differing academic cultures. This has implications for academic staff development to help international students. Intercultural training programmes may be offered for academic staff to develop the understanding of cultural values and ideologies of their international students, which would facilitate the awareness and appreciation of their students‘ learning and teaching preferences. At the institutional level, inclusive learning, teaching and assessment strategies embedding intercultural perspectives might be formed to enable the development of new skills, knowledge, attitudes and values for academic staff (Caruana & Hanstock, 2003). Likewise, intercultural training programmes for international students would help increase their understanding of the UK cultural norms. Student support Student support is an integral part of university provisions to its students. Kinnell (1990) points out that the special needs of international students should be recognized notwithstanding the claim that all students, irrespective whether home or international students, were in need of support services, that there were essentially no difference between the needs of international students and home students, and that the existing support facilities should be able to meet the needs of international students. Therefore, special support provision should be duly provided to ensure a quality service for international students and that they have a positive experience in the UK. Support provision should start in their home country. Pre-departure information and guidance would help them prepare for the arrival and life in the UK. The orientation and induction programmes, designed specifically for international students, are essential to familiarize students with the academic and social community of the university, and support provision available at the university. Ongoing 203
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TRANSFORMATIONS THROUGH LEARNING: T
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I have many people
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ABSTRACT This thesis explores the e
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CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .........
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Learning and teaching styles ......
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LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1: Layers of
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CHAPTER 1: CONTEXTS OF ORIGIN Intro
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of openness (Deng 1984). China‘s
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p.249). They are restricted by the
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These schools of philosophy pervade
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and Northern Dynasties (386 - 581)
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Benevolence (ren) is the characteri
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Daoism‘s doctrine of non-action (
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Neo-Confucianism Neo-Confucianism w
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Chinese education values / underlin
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imperial civil service examination.
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The Chinese education system As the
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National College Entrance Examinati
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eferred to as a ‗jargon of broken
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Private learning of English has bee
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proficiency by taking the Test of E
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CHAPTER 2: CONTEXTS OF DESTINATION
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The original six civic universities
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University and Liverpool Hope Unive
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People‘s (1949) to policy change
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Massification of higher education T
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Thatcher‘s Conservative governmen
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Internationalisation ‘at home’
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modules at the University of Wales
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prospective students would certainl
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The lower satisfaction of East Asia
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Some international students take up
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challenged linguistically and cultu
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From the perspectives of psychologi
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four-stage acculturation theory, an
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ange of disciplines and areas. The
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settings; when reaching the end of
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(comprehension) in order to grasp e
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overwhelming advantage over any oth
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approach - by Biggs. The strategic
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version of the SBQ inventory - Stud
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The concepts and constructs of appr
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attend not only to his or her own t
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L2 research on transfer in writing
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their native language to assist the
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The next section of this chapter ex
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the teacher‘s role is consistent
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PART II - RESEARCH DESIGN This part
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I started primary school at the age
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after my study. However, in 1998, t
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In my previous studies, I taught th
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- and I use that capability to push
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education from medieval or ‗ancie
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The methodology has built on - grow
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esearch, reliability and validity n
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Its total student population is rel
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contacts. The researcher once taugh
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Data collection phase two Value of
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PART III - INTERPRETATIONS This par
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These particular six student storie
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I think this culture shapes a very
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much in the first year except I mad
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was like a nightmare with fear and
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Figure 5.6: Ridi‘s perception of
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Again I was especially weak in list
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ecause I knew too little English to
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Figure 5.11: Peter‘s perception o
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The academic life here is higher th
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High School. In the second year, I
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CHAPTER 6: COMMUNITIES OF LEARNING
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… Since I was a child, my father
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would love to repay my family by be
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Chris was another participant who h
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having them completed as soon as po
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just have some short conversations
Page 151 and 152: found in Appendix 9. This finding c
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Page 167 and 168: Writing for academic purposes All p
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Page 171 and 172: Previous studies (Arndt, 1987; Cumm
Page 173 and 174: perceived better practice than that
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Page 179 and 180: they spent some time studying in th
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Page 189 and 190: the interview that they have develo
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Page 201: Academic and pedagogical support Th
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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
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Notes: 1. Prompts for each question
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to come back and I regrouped with m
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Peter: I came to the UK in Septembe
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with them even more. Let me give yo
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second, or to say, my third languag
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Appendix 8: Student learning journe
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way as your first language. In othe
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When I recall my high school years,
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Figure 8.6: Mia‘s perception of h
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Max Max is a 24 years old male Chin
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My father arranged a house for me t
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Figure 8.10: Vincent‘s perception
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Alex‘s graphs of his learning exp
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classmates, I do not know why. Prob
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cultures, economic and legal system
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the fame of Foshan‘s china indust
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Figure 8.17: Kent‘s perception of
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languages. They had been chosen by
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teaching styles were different. In
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I have studied in UK for almost two
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Figure 8.24: Andy‘s perception of
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