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

classmates, I do not know why. Probably I am not a good speaker or I cannot talk with them
well. I just think they are not friendly sometimes. Maybe this is due to our different culture
which I cannot understand well. But I believe that I will do it better in the future.
My aim is to get a master‘s degree, so it is clear that when I finish my undergraduate studies,
I am going to choose a good university to complete my master‘s degree, probably in UK or
other countries. I prefer to get a job abroad if I have enough ability. I think though there are
many chances and opportunities in China, its environment is still not enough good for us. But
if I have enough experience of work, I will choose to go back to China immediately. When all
is said and done, China is my home country and my family is there. I want to do something
for the development of my home country.
If I am asked to measure the quality of my learning experience in a range of 1 to 10 (1 is the
lowest while 10 is the highest score), my answer is 5 which is a middle one. Though I have
earned much experience of study, it is still not enough for me. Life is cruel, I need more
knowledge to face various challenge in the future. I am a student and I am still learning.
Ellie
Ellie is a 23 years old female Chinese student. She is in her 3 rd year of a BA Business and
English Language course. She came to the UK in September 2007, and she has been studying
here for almost two years. 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. She is from a coastal metropolitan city in
southern China. I got to know Ellie via a Chinese students gathering in 2007. Later, she
kindly agreed to participate in the research when I invited her to be a research subject.
Ellie‘s graphs of her learning experiences between the ages of 6 and 22, and of her learning
experiences in the UK between September 2007 and April 2009 are shown in Figure 8.13 and
8.14 respectively.
Figure 8.13: Ellie‘s perception of her own learning experience between the ages of 6 and 22
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