CULTURE SHOCK - Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University

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information that your tutor has given you, your marks will be low. He/she will wantyou to introduce other ideas and arguments - ones that you have found out foryourself.However, many Chinese students find it very strange that they might be allowed, oreven be expected, to argue with their tutors. The basis of Chinese teaching has alwaysbeen that one should avoid arguing and debating with the tutor, although there is ofcourse no reason why this should be a problem - in fact it is to be encouraged. Thatway everybody learns and benefits mutually. Chinese students do, however, find itdifficult to argue with tutors, and sometimes even to ask questions. This can give thetutor the wrong impression of the student, as he/she will feel that the student does notunderstand the classes or lectures.Students’ adjustment to examinationsIn the opinion of many of the lecturers interviewed, the good marks their studentsobtained were partly the reflection of the pivotal role of examinations in Chineseschools. There, students are selected even for key elementary schools throughentrance exams, and this practice is repeated in high schools and universities. The factthat even permission to attend advanced classes in a particular school is contingentupon passing an exam places tremendous pressure on students to pursue high marks.For instance, students are used to memorizing verbatim the definitions of concepts,rules and facts to obtain maximum marks. This rote memorization does notnecessarily help them at the University of Port Elizabeth (from 2005 the NelsonMandela Metropolitan University), and although it may be helpful to quote from thetext in exams, it will not necessarily guarantee the highest marks. As one lecturerexplained, the demands on students are more complex than in the past, and to befamiliar with an issue, students may have to watch TV programmes, read newspapers,magazines or other reference books in order to provide a comprehensive answer to aparticular question.24
Even for a science exam, not all pertinent aspects are discussed in the textbooks. Onestudent mentioned that his social studies teachers liked to ask questions about the'long-term' and the 'short-term' significance of an historical event, aspects that had notalways been addressed by the textbook authors.Nonetheless, another student felt that lecturers in his course did not take exams asseriously as teachers in China did. They did not spend much time helping students toreview the material that had to be covered for the exam, so that students would obtainthe best possible marks. In contrast, Chinese teachers would look at the scores of theirstudents as a means for measuring the quality of their teaching as well as measuringthe ability of their students.English language learning and cultural adjustmentMastering the English language as a means of communication is certainly the majorhurdle for all Chinese students. A lecturer commented as follows on the problemsthey experienced:“Except for the students with disruptive refugee backgrounds who missed much oftheir formal schooling, Chinese students are the group who have the hardest timelearning English. Their main problem is spoken English, whereas they do well ingrammar and understanding. The typical student from China, I can see, can getthrough a demanding reading test with the use of a dictionary, looking words up andgetting the main ideas.”Although English has long been part of the elementary and secondary school curriculain China, the results are mediocre. Students' comments have confirmed the findings ofthe literature. As Wong (1989) has pointed out, (in China) English is taught byteachers for whom English is a foreign language, and many of them are also poorlytrained. Most importantly, Chinese teaching methodology usually lacks the emphasison communicative competence which Western language teachers consider essentialfor effective second language learning.25
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CULTURE SHOCK - Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University

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