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

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I am an overseas student doing a BA Business with Law in Liverpool Hope University since 2006. My home town is located in the middle of China, and is famous for the coal industry and vinegar products. I am from a typical three member family in China. I have received an education from the age of 5, I used to study in the school during the day and join the evening special skill classes every day: the reason for this was that my parents wanted me to have a bright future, therefore, I learned painting, dancing and singing and many more other skills at an early age. I enjoyed spending time with my family. I am always fascinated by language. This passion for language has driven me to attend different language courses, such as taking General Japanese as my second language course outside school. Luckily, my parents supported me to study overseas after I finished high school. I believed that was a great opportunity to develop my skills further, and therefore, I decided to study in a Japanese college in Tokyo in 2002. Things were not as easy as I thought in the beginning of my life in Japan, as a teenager, because I was used to growing up beside my parents--they looked after my daily life. After I went to Japan, my life changed dramatically. I stayed in accommodation which was on the top floor of my college, I started to learn how to cook meals and get on with foreign tutors and class mates. Unfortunately, about half year after I started studying in that college, I received the first exam result, which was not good at all. It shocked me more than ever. I started to notice that a good balance of study and life was hard. Maybe because of my childish age, I blamed the cruel environment at that time, and did not think that I could do better if I tried harder. However, I am a very competitive person and do not like losing, because I do not want to waste my life and parents‘ money, so I started to do my best in the study and making more friends. Since then, my life was getting better and better, I started to hang out with many friends and felt happier, and I got my first class Japanese language certification in 2004, then a year later I finished college, which was also the end of my days in Japan. There was no particular reason for coming to England. It was only out of my interest. I love to know new stuff and experience different life styles, maybe because of the historical building design and the attractiveness of the special European romantic city life style, or the world famous higher education system or maybe because I am meant to be here in my life, who knows. I went on the plane to this unknown country – England—in the summer of 2005. I came here and entered the higher level education in Liverpool Hope University. Refreshing my memory of the last 4 years, I went through a lot. In the beginning of my International Foundation Programme year, I missed Japan and my friends over there so much, I was used to the ‗easy-busy-Japanesy‘ days, when I came to England, after the exciting fresh period, everything in my life suddenly turned to be so boring and slow, however, as I learned from the life experience in Japan that if you cannot change the environment, change yourself. So I started to work hard at ‗academic English‘ and make new friends, enjoy the new life, then I was slowly accepted by this historical and passionate place. I started to think this life is not bad at all. It is all about the way to enjoy it. English is my third language. In the beginning of my university life, how to use proper academic English to finish the report was hard work for me. I was always mixed up in my head between Japanese and English. Luckily, I did not try to think about those two languages in Chinese, otherwise it would be a nightmare. In my opinion, a good way to master a language is to use it as much as you could. At the same time, try not to think it in the same 264
way as your first language. In other words, try to use and think English in English, then you may have the feeling of English (if you know what I mean here). I am also passionate to work with people from different cultures. This was mainly influenced throughout my seven years overseas study and work in Japan and England. During that period of time, I was given the opportunity to travel, to meet new people, to experience a new culture, and, above all, to master good Japanese and English. Studying in Japan and England is a worthwhile experience for me. Until now, I have been studying and working in different countries, and one skill in particular that contributed was my confident public speaking. The study and working experience is both inspiring and educational. I am looking forward to completing my degree in Liverpool Hope University this year and joining the postgraduate study in Liverpool University after then. I would like to challenge myself to go hunt for a great job in the future. For instance, in 5 years, I would like to try to open my own business, work in a business administration department, or go travelling around the world, those are all my dreams. Finally, I would like to give myself a 10 for my learning experience, because it is an incredible asset to my life. Rita Rita is a 21 years old female Chinese student. She is in her 2 nd year of a BA Business and English Study course. She came to the UK in September 2008, and she has been studying here for almost one year. Prior to that, she studied in a university in China for two years. Her Chinese university has a ‗2+2‘ exchange undergraduate programme (2 years study in China plus 2 years in the UK) with her current university in the UK. She is from a small town in southern China. I got to know Rita via another participant in this study in February 2009. Rita‘s graphs of her learning experiences between the age of 6 and 21, and of her learning experience in the UK between September 2008 and April 2009 are shown in Figure 8.3 and 8.4 respectively. Figure 8.3: Rita‘s perception of her own learning experience between the ages of 6 and 21 years old 265
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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
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found in Appendix 9. This finding c
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It was the kind of student-tutor re
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Chinese students are studying in co
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confidence gradually increased with
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in exams, such as grammar practice.
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prior English learning experiences
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een aware of the differences in rel
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learning and study skills, research
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Writing for academic purposes All p
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insufficient subject knowledge. In
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Previous studies (Arndt, 1987; Cumm
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perceived better practice than that
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factors, two other driving elements
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I believed that it would be more ch
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they spent some time studying in th
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get to learn their culture and to l
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of consulting with their parents ha
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awareness or intercultural understa
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I‘m disappointed with things are
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the interview that they have develo
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CHAPTER 9: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMEN
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elationship for these students is t
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students in this study value learni
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students from their home country an
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elated to professional practices, c
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Academic and pedagogical support Th
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their place of origin. They appreci
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are felt being genuinely accepted a
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support services and departmental a
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assistance to facilitate the achiev
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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: Appendix 8: Student learning journe
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
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