the lived experience of chinese students communicating in ... · the lived experience of chinese...
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Faculty of Education and Arts
The lived experience of Chinese students communicating in English with native speakers while studying abroad
PhD Candidate: Karen Pruis Principal Supervisor: Dr Jane Mummery Associate Supervisor: Dr Xiaoli Jiang
My context • Chinese students’ experiences
communicating in English while studying abroad
• Second language background • Dutch family
• Federation University Library • Indian and Chinese
students • No magic wand • I can listen to their voice
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Image: Selective focus of Netherlands map by Unsplash
Max Van Manen’s phenomenology • Phenomenology • Life experiences as we live
• In the moment • Pre-reflectively
• Student voice to inform change • Self-improvement • Institutional level
• Empower future Chinese students (Van Manen, 1990, 2014)
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Image of Max van Manen from https://www.maxvanmanen.com/
English education in China • Communicative aims of curriculum • Ineffective in developing oral skills • Zhongkao, Gaokao
• Do not test speaking • Listening contributes 15%
• Reading and writing • Grammar, pronunciation,
vocabulary • Little speaking practice
• Daily 20 minute exercise
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Image: Lovely education concept with flat design by Freepik
(Daoyi, 2015; Fang & Garland, 2013; Shaoqian & Jian, 2015 ; Zhang & Liu, 2014)
Communicating in English Functioning in a second language
• Nerve-wracking • Never met a Westerner • Emotive language
English language support • Academic English • Too many Chinese students
Urgently needed conversation practice • Understand lectures • Participate in tutorials • Make friends
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First few months
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• Understood 30% of lectures • Accents, jargon, speed
• In tutorials • Fear making mistakes • Answering random questions • Confucian beliefs
• Expressing own opinion • Making friends
• Poor oral fluency • Different sociocultural backgrounds • Drawn to comfort of Chinese circle
Image: Young student man tired of computer sitting at cafe table with laptop from Freepik
Phenomenological anecdotes • Examples of lived experience
• Evocative language • Stir emotion • Thought provoking • Layers of meaning
• Edmund Husserl • Draw on participant quotes
• Echoed in the literature • Represent a typical experience
(De Boer, 1980; van Manen, 2014)
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Image from https://pixabay.com/en/knife-pocket-knife-schrade-505298/
English Language Support “… everything we learn is academic… We are … living here … we [are] drunk … in [the] English …. situation. We need to use English every day … [with] the Aussie”. “I think if you … can … study with … student[s] from other countries … then [you] can’t talk … Chinese so, that would be helpful”. “the [EAP] course should be designed to help … [Chinese students] to have more opportunity [sic] to communicate with … English speakers”.
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Lectures While “translating the words, I miss … what the lecturers are speaking”. I wish “the lecturer … [would] explain those terms or sentences in a more plain way … so I can understand.” Australian accent: “the speech is not very clear … just like … speak something with eating.” Indian accent: “I just couldn’t understand … not a clue”
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Random questions in tutorials “In China the teacher will not like you to say I don’t know. He will … say … you didn’t work hard enough”. If we “don’t know, we … feel embarrassed. Yeah feel shame”. “I can’t hear anybody’s opinion before me … I’m just too nervous … “Oh my God! What am I going to say?” [I] feel a little … embarrass[ed] … the atmosphere stop[s] for a time. So, not feel good … quickly pass me!“
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Group assignments “I just never say anything… [I] do what I need to do to my parts and … send email to them.” “I truly can’t understand what they are talking to me.” Aussie students “speak very fast!” So, it’s “very hard to get the …idea.” Oral presentation: “I practice, practice, practice … I try not to … make [a] mistake in public.”
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Making friends “I couldn’t communicate with them really well so how can I make friends with them?” “They can’t spend most of [their] time … [with] new students who cannot speak English very well”. “They speak really quick. Like flying! I can’t really … get into their conversation”. “I don’t know your … culture, I don’t know … what questions can I ask so, we have no topic”.
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My participants’ voice • Practice • Mistakes • Chinese circle
• Live with locals • Get a part-time job
• Institutional change • English language support • Teaching practice • Course delivery
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Image: Happy colleagues sitting on floor and eating pizza from Freepik
Importance of student voice • No magic wand • Student voice
• Policy development • Curriculum design • English language support • Conversations with them
(Heng, 2018) • Collaborative solutions • Empowerment of future
students • Support the emotional needs
Image: People's hand overlapping on center by Unsplash
References References Daoyi, L. (2015). English curriculum development for schools in China: Tradition, reform, and innovation. In L. Daoyi & W. Zhaoyi (Eds.), English language education in China: Past and present (pp. 62-116). Beijing: Ren min jiao yu chu ban she.
De Boer, T. (1980). Inleiding. In T. D. Boer (Ed.), Edmund Husserl: Filosofie als strenge wetenschap. Amsterdam: Boom Meppel.
Fang, X., & Garland, P. (2013). Teachers and the new curriculum: An ethnographic study in a Chinese school. Education as Change, 17(1), 53-62. doi:10.1080/16823206.2013.773925
Heng, T. T. (2018). Chinese international students' advice to incoming first-year students: Involving students in conversations with them, not about them. Journal of College Student Development, 59(2), 232-238. doi: https://doi.org//10.1353.csd.2018.0020
Shaoqian, L., & Jian, H. (2015). English language assessment: Shifting from an examination-oriented to a competency-based approach. In L. Daoyi & W. Zhaoyi (Eds.), English language education in China: Past and present (pp. 219-244). Beijing: Ren min jiao yu chu ban she.
van Manen, M. (1990). Researching lived experience: Human science for action sensitive pedagogy. New York, NY: State University of New York Press.
van Manen, M. (2014). Phenomenology of practice: Meaning-giving methods in phenomenological research and writing. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.
Zhang, F., & Liu, Y. (2014). A study of secondary school English teachers' beliefs in the context of curriculum reform in China. Language Teaching Research, 18(2), 187-204. doi:10.1177/1362168813505940
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