11.07.2015 Views

Download Document - Office for Learning and Teaching

Download Document - Office for Learning and Teaching

Download Document - Office for Learning and Teaching

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

(14) Do you like presentations? Why / why not?Five of them liked presentations. One of them commented, “I do likepresentations…. At first, when you do presentations, it helps you to practice <strong>and</strong>improve your ability of talking in public. … Once you complete your presentation <strong>and</strong>you get good results, you will feel successful <strong>and</strong> happy, well worth the ef<strong>for</strong>t”. Onegraduate thought it was important but he just did not like it; he commented, “When Iwas a student, I did not like presentations. However, I feel the presentation is a goodexercise …because presentation could occur anywhere you worked. For example,in my company you need to present what you did during the week every Friday”.Another graduate said she did not like presentations because she was too shy. Shecommented, “No, I’m too shy. In Japan, I didn’t really have open presentations. Mypersonality isn’t suited to public speaking. It’s hard to do in front of many people”.(15) What are the main problems with presentation?It was overall agreed that the two main problems faced by international studentswere language problems <strong>and</strong> personality difficulties. Five graduates mentioned thatlanguage was the problem. Shyness <strong>and</strong> feeling nervous be<strong>for</strong>e the public wasanother main problem. One commented, “Probably my personality, I just don’t liketalking in front of many people, I feel my English <strong>and</strong> accent isn’t good enough, I’mnot confident enough. … It’s worse when local students give theirs, <strong>and</strong> then youhave to follow with your own presentation!” Some graduates also mention problemsof technique, such as using PowerPoint <strong>and</strong> time management. However, one ofthem commented, “Shyness is not a huge problem; the only thing is knowing how topresent your material, making it clear … Time is also important, fitting your points<strong>and</strong> ideas into an acceptable time window”.(16) Do you like to work with international students as a group? Why / why not?There were four groups of opinions. The first group liked to work with internationalstudents. One of them commented, “Yes, I like to work with international students asa group…. when you work in groups with international students, you can tradeinteresting ideas from the students who are from the different countries <strong>and</strong>cultures”. The second group contains three students who did not care about this.One of them commented, “It doesn’t really matter to me. I will use English as muchas possible <strong>and</strong> different people have different study methods”. The third groupthought it depends on the situation. One of them said, “It depends on the situation. Ifit is a discussion, I prefer local students,… I don’t like to choose other Asianinternational students… I find it hard to underst<strong>and</strong> some accents”. The fourth groupliked to work with local students. One of them commented, “For me I like localstudents because they can help to improve my English”.(17) Do you think your group will achieve better or worse results if some or most ofthe members are international students?There are two main groups of ideas. The first group believed that working withinternational members could achieve better results. One of them commented, “Lotsof international students obtain good grades <strong>for</strong> their assignments. …When I workedwith the group members who were from Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore <strong>and</strong> Taiwan,they were hard workers <strong>and</strong> their study attitude was earnest. … <strong>and</strong> found I couldget better marks”. The second group was concerned that the ratio of internationalstudents in the group would affect results. One of them commented, “Everything hasa balance. For example, if you are the only international student <strong>and</strong> all others arelocals, the results won’t be like if the group was half international <strong>and</strong> half local. Inmy experience, half <strong>and</strong> half get a good result. Same as when the group is mostlyinternational, with a local student. I don’t think it is a good result”.5.4.3 Education Management Systems(1) Did you have difficulties in selecting subjects, majors, minor or electives whenyou first started your university study in Australia?93

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!