ESRC-sponsored seminar series entitled ‘Rethinking the Needs of International Students: Critical Perspectives on the Internationalisation of UK Higher Education’.
SEMINAR 2: EXAMINING THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE
Situated Learning: The experience of international postgraduate students
Richard Kiely – University of Bristol
Summary
Universities like to see themselves as communities of learning. Postgraduate programmes, where traditional modes of apprenticeship and legitimate peripheral participation pervade institutional memory, claim to reflect the principles of Wenger’s Communities of Practice, and thus afford a rich, transformative learning experience for students. For some students this happens. For many, however, it does not, because the core features of communities of practice are limited by the role and impact of assessment in such programmes. This impact is likely to be disproportionately felt by international students, for whom the pressures of assessment combine with cultural alienation and language difficulties to leave them marginalized rather than participating. Their language status becomes a prism which transforms other problems, and amplifies their affective impact.
Projects
Socialisation And Identity in Learning in Applied Linguistics (SAIL), funded by the Pedagogical Research Fund for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies in Higher Education (Phase 3 (2007/08), and directed by Richard Kiely, CREOLE, University of Bristol.
Summary
This report presents the research design and methodology, the approach to data analysis and interpretation,and the pedagogical implications of this small scale study into the learning experience of FT internationalstudents on a Masters programme in the TESOL Applied Linguistics field. The focus of learning is the widercurriculum, constituted by optional activities, interactions and opportunities for learning in a researchoriented department. The findings indicate that students in general manage their learning effectively: theymake decisions based on personal dispositions and strategic factors. There is much variation in bothlearning trajectory and outcome. Such variation appears due in part to learning identity, already well-formed
at the start of the programme, and in part to the extent to which socialization processes are invested in. Thepedagogical implications for tutors on this and other programmes relate to the roles of tutors and students,the use of VLE (Blackboard), and the value of opportunities to reflect and interact as components oflearning.
Student Identity, Learning and Progression(SILP): with specific reference to the affective and academic impact of IELTS on 'successful' IELTS students, funded by the British Council IELTS Joint-funded Research Programme, directed by Pauline Rea-Dickins CREOLE, University of Bristol.
Summary
The institutional use of IELTS for university admissions reflects an implicit claim for a student's language development and growth. The extent to which such potential is realized, or not, can therefore be considered a consequential validity issue of the IELTS examination. To date, there has been relatively little focus in IELTS impact studies on the different IELTS profiles of 'successful IELTS students'.
This research - framed as a post-IELTS impact study - tracks - over a 9 month period - the possible affective (emotional, motivation, confidence) and academic impact ofIELTS results in terms of students' sociocultural experiences of learning once they have gained admission to an institution, with specific reference to the IELTS profile of students in the four language skills areas.
Some references
Barton, D. & K. Tusting (2005) Beyond Communities of Practice – Language Power and Social Context. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press
Billet, S. (2007) Including the missing subject. In J.Hughes, N. Jewson & L.Unwin (2007) Communities of Practice: Critical perspectives. London: Routledge. Pp 55-67
Grimshaw, T. (2008) Negotiating an identity in English: the discursive construction and reconstruction of Chinese students. HEA/SWAP
Hughes, J., N. Jewson & L.Unwin (2007) Communities of Practice: Critical perspectives. London: Routledge
Kiely, R. & J. Askham (2008) Socialisation and identity in Learning. Research report for the Languages, linguistics and Area Studies learning and Teaching Support Network. Southampton: HEFCE LTSN
Lave, J. & E. Wenger (1991) Situated Learning – Peripheral Participation. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press
Morita, N. (2000) Discourse socialisation through oral classroom activities in a TESOL graduate programme. TESOL Quarterly34/2: 279-310
Morita, N. (2004) Negotiating participation and identity in second language academic communities. TESOL Quarterly 38/4:573-603
Pavlenko, A. (2007) Autobiographical narratives as data in Applied Linguistics. Applied Linguistics 28/2: 163-188
Ranson, S. (1998). Inside the learning society. London: Cassell.
Rea-Dickins, P., R. Kiely and G. Yu (2007) Student Identity, Learning and Progression. In IELTS Research Report, Volume 7: 59-136
Shi, X. (2006) Intercultural Transformation and Second Language Socialization.
Journal of Intercultural Communication. Issue 11:2-17
Wenger, E. (1998) Communities of Practice – Learning, Meaning and Identity. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press
Wenger, E., McDermott, R. A., & Snyder, W. M. (2002). Cultivating communities of practice: A guide to managing knowledge. Boston, MA: HarvardBusinessSchool Press.