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

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Style Strengths Weaknesses Activists Reflectors Theorists Pragmatists Flexible and open-minded; Ready to take action; Like to be exposed to new situations; Optimistic about anything new and therefore unlikely to resist change Careful; Thorough and methodical; Thoughtful; Good at listening to others and assimilating information; Rarely jump to conclusions Logical, ‗vertical‘ thinkers; Rational and objective; Good at asking probing questions; Disciplined approach; Grasp of the ‗big picture‘ Eager to test things out in practice; Practical, down to earth, realistic; Businesslike – get straight to the point; Technique-oriented Tendency to take the immediately obvious action without thinking through possible consequences; Often take unnecessary risks; Tendency to do too much themselves and to hog the limelight; Rush into action without sufficient preparation; Get bored with implementation/ consolidation/follow through Tendency to hold back from direct participation; Slow to make up their minds and reach a decision; Tendency to be too cautious and not take enough risks; Not assertive; not particularly forthcoming and have no ‗small talk‘ Restricted in lateral thinking; Low tolerance for uncertainty, disorder and ambiguity; Intolerant of anything subjective or intuitive; Full of ‗shoulds, oughts and musts‘ Tendency to reject anything without an obvious application; Not very interested in theory or basic principles; Tendency to seize on the first expedient solution to a problem; Impatient with indecision; More task-oriented than people-oriented Table 3.1: Strengths and weaknesses of Honey and Mumford (2000)‘s learning styles (Coffield et al., 2004) According to Marton and Saljo (1997), students using a deep approach initiate an active dialogue with the learning materials, trying to understand the meaning of the text by looking for the relations within the text, between the text and phenomena of the real world, between the text and its underlying structure; in contrast students adopting a surface approach have a tendency to memorise the facts in the text with the intention of being assessed. A third approach was added to the category – the strategic 78
approach – by Biggs. The strategic approach is employed by students to obtain high marks in assessment. The most prominent single characteristic of students adopting the strategic approach is the ability to adapt, in a positive way, to the demands made by the context of learning (Ramsden, 1979). Students using the strategic approach tend to put a lot of effort in organizing study, managing time, obtaining appropriate resources and conditions for successful study, ensuring the successful completion of an assignment (Biggs, 1979; Coffeld et al., 2004; Entwistle, 2001; Sadler-Smith, 1997). Contrasting features of different approaches to learning are summarized in Table 3.2: Approach Intention Methods Deep approach Surface approach Strategic approach To understand ideas for yourself To cope with course requirements To achieve the highest possible grades Relating ideas to previous knowledge and experience; Looking for patterns and underlying principles; Checking evidence and relating it to conclusions; Examining logic and argument cautiously and critically; Being aware of understanding, developing while learning; Becoming actively interested in the course content Treating the course as unrelated bits of knowledge; Memorising facts and carrying out procedures routinely; Finding difficulty in making sense of new ideas presented; Seeing little value or meaning in either courses or tasks set; Studying without reflecting on either purpose or strategy; Feeling undue pressure and worry about work Putting consistent effort into studying; Managing time and effort effectively; Finding the right conditions and materials for studying; Monitoring the effectiveness of ways of studying; Being alert to assessment requirements and criteria; Gearing work to the perceived preferences of lecturers. Table 3.2: defining features of approaches to learning (Entwistle et al., 2001) As shown in the table, the three approaches to learning are associated with three distinct intentions and motivators: deep approach learners tend to be motivated by intrinsic factors (understanding the meaning of the materials); the learner with a surface approach is motivated by extrinsic factor (meeting course requirements); and the learner with a strategic approach is motivated by the successful completion of assessment task with the highest possible marks. Students‘ selection of approaches to 79
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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 (
Page 27 and 28: Neo-Confucianism Neo-Confucianism w
Page 29 and 30: Chinese education values / underlin
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Page 33 and 34: The Chinese education system As the
Page 35 and 36: National College Entrance Examinati
Page 37 and 38: eferred to as a ‗jargon of broken
Page 39 and 40: Private learning of English has bee
Page 41 and 42: proficiency by taking the Test of E
Page 43 and 44: CHAPTER 2: CONTEXTS OF DESTINATION
Page 45 and 46: The original six civic universities
Page 47 and 48: University and Liverpool Hope Unive
Page 49 and 50: People‘s (1949) to policy change
Page 51 and 52: Massification of higher education T
Page 53 and 54: Thatcher‘s Conservative governmen
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Page 57 and 58: modules at the University of Wales
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Page 61 and 62: The lower satisfaction of East Asia
Page 63 and 64: Some international students take up
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Page 67 and 68: From the perspectives of psychologi
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Page 71 and 72: ange of disciplines and areas. The
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Page 81 and 82: version of the SBQ inventory - Stud
Page 83 and 84: The concepts and constructs of appr
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Page 87 and 88: L2 research on transfer in writing
Page 89 and 90: their native language to assist the
Page 91 and 92: The next section of this chapter ex
Page 93 and 94: the teacher‘s role is consistent
Page 95 and 96: PART II - RESEARCH DESIGN This part
Page 97 and 98: I started primary school at the age
Page 99 and 100: after my study. However, in 1998, t
Page 101 and 102: In my previous studies, I taught th
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Page 107 and 108: The methodology has built on - grow
Page 109 and 110: esearch, reliability and validity n
Page 111 and 112: Its total student population is rel
Page 113 and 114: contacts. The researcher once taugh
Page 115 and 116: Data collection phase two Value of
Page 117 and 118: PART III - INTERPRETATIONS This par
Page 119 and 120: These particular six student storie
Page 121 and 122: I think this culture shapes a very
Page 123 and 124: much in the first year except I mad
Page 125 and 126: was like a nightmare with fear and
Page 127 and 128: 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
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students‘ voices which are not of
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Angelova, M. and Riazantseva, A. (1
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Brown, R. (2009) The Operation of t
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Coffield et al. (2004) Learning Sty
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Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum, cited in
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Guclu, N. (1993) A Study to Identif
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T. Duffy (2002) Psychometric Proper
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Krapels, A. R. (1990) An Overview o
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MacLeod, D. (2005) Colleges to Gain
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Ministry of Education of the People
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Perl, S. (1979) The Composing Proce
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Shi, L. (2006) The Successors to Co
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Thomas, G. (2002) Who Should Call t
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Ward, C. and Kennedy, A. (1996) Cro
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Zamel, V. (1984) In Search of the K
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Appendix 2: Consent form Title of r
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SECTION 4. CONSENT Is written conse
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SECTION 5. RISKS AND ETHICAL PROCUD
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Deanery Research Ethics Coordinator
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Appendix 5: Instruction on writing
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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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