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

ABSTRACT
This thesis explores the experiences of the increasing number of Chinese undergraduate
students located within the UK higher education system. In order to ensure a positive learning
experience for these students, and to facilitate the development of their confidence and
independence in learning, it is essential that the particular needs of the Chinese students are
fully understood and addressed. This thesis is premised on the assumption that students‘ own
perceptions of their needs are central to this task.
The study contributes to the literature on international undergraduate students‘ experience
within the UK. It develops an analytical framework based upon the Chinese ‗contexts of
origin‘ of these students, their UK ‗contexts of destination‘ and the ‗institutional learning
contexts‘. The framework as outlined in the chapters comprising Part 1 views the mediation
of cultural difference as central to the resolution of academic challenges faced by Chinese
students. Within this framework the ‗contexts of origin‘ are understood with reference to
Chinese geopolitical and geo-economic environments, Chinese traditions and education
values, and the Chinese education system; the UK ‗contexts of destination‘ are elaborated in
terms of the development of UK higher education, the internationalisation and marketisation
of UK higher education, and the literature on international students‘ overall experience;
finally, the ‗institutional learning contexts‘ involve an examination of the challenges posed
by the academic conventions of UK higher education and of the coping strategies developed
by the students.
As outlined in Part 2, the study is based on semi-structured interviews and autobiographical
accounts of 18 Chinese undergraduate students in an English university. Following from a
discussion of the methodology employed, Part 3 provides an analysis of the evidence
gathered in the course of the study. This analysis is organized around three interconnected
themes: ‗communities of learning‘, ‗learning across language boundaries‘, and ‗becoming an
independent learner‘. These themes emerged from both the development of the analytical
framework and from the initial round of data analysis. The study argues that the challenges
faced by Chinese undergraduate students within the UK are culturally, socially and
linguistically constituted and cannot therefore be understood simply as technical and
narrowly study-related concerns. Their development as independent learners is formed by
their motivation to learn and a wide range of capabilities acquired during their study in the
UK.
Part 4, which comprises the concluding chapter of the thesis, draws out some wider
implications of the study for the education of overseas students within the UK higher
education system. These include stronger institutional and departmental support, enhanced
professional awareness and practice to facilitate transition, and the creation of a social space
for cultural mediation – a ‗third place‘ – within which to negotiate common understandings
and practices. Throughout, the emphasis is on the support needs of overseas students as
defined and understood by the students themselves and as interpreted by a researcher who is
himself a Chinese student studying within the UK higher education system.
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