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

Appendix 7: A sample of interview transcription and translation
Interview date and time: 14.20 on 15th April 2009
Interview duration: 80.00 minutes
Interview language: Mandarin Chinese
Persons presented: Interviewer – Feng Su (FS)
Narrator – Peter
BEGIN OF TRANSCRIPT AND TRANSLATION
FS:
Thanks for coming to this interview. First, can we talk about the measure of
learning experience graphs you draw
Peter: No problem and glad to participate in your research.
FS:
Let’s start with the first graph. Please could you tell me how you decide the measure
of your learning experience at a different age
Peter: My memory ability isn‘t that good and I only remember from age of eight. I started to
go to school at that age. For the first two years in a primary school at my home town, I
felt it was ok and happy to play with friends from the same place. So, I gave it a
measurement of 7. However, two years later, when I was 10 years old, I transferred to
an elite private primary school which was away from my home. At the first time to be
away from the home, I found it difficult. So, I gave it a score of 6 for this dramatic
change of my early school years.
As the time went on, it became fun to study away from home. In the next two years, I
started to get know my classmates who were also first-timer of studying away from
home. There were about 20 students in my class. I lived with another three boys. Once
I overcame the initial uncomforting feelings, I became to get on well with other
students, and started to enjoy these two years. I think it‘s mainly because parents were
not around you to tell you what you need to do. Also, all classmates were at a similar
age. I found the subjects in the school very interesting. For example, I studied piano
after the classes. My English name of Peter was given by an old English teacher in
this school. He was an old gentleman who‘s from England to teach us English
language. He gave each of us an English name based on our Chinese names‘
pronunciations. Since then, I‘m also known as Peter.
FS:
Seems like you had a good time in this school
Peter: Yes, I very much enjoyed these two years. As a result, I gave it a score of 8. When I
was 12 years old, I returned to the local school in my home town. It was because the
reputation of this private school started to be faded. Anyone can attend this school as
long as their parent could pay a big amount of money. It was very good when I
started. We, 20 classmates, decided to boycott this school by not attending this school
anymore. You now can understand why I had returned my local school. It was not bad
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