Is language a barrier to attainment? Dr Karen Ottewell , Director of - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Is language a barrier to attainment?

Dr Karen Ottewell, Director of Academic Development & Training for International Students LCF College Conference: Attainment London College of Fashion, 31st March 2015

Y E S N O

Outline

① International Students in figures ② Entry Requirements ③ General Lack of Academic Skills – at home and abroad ④ So, is language the barrier? ⑤ What we’re doing ⑥ Language as the dress of thought? ⑦ The Way Ahead?

51% International Students

1: IS in Figures

Cambridge

PG IS = 65% UG IS = 20%

International Students in the UK

Made up 14% of full-time first degree students and 13% of all first degree students Made up 70% of full-time taught postgraduates and 46% of all taught postgraduates Made up 48% of full-time research degree students and 41% of all research postgraduates There are now almost as many Chinese students (23%) on full-time postgraduate courses at English universities as there are British students (26%).

2: English Language Entry Criteria

Language Proficiency Home Office Compliance

SELTs: An Overview

Valid until 5th April 2015

22 SELTs of which 16 are valid at B2.

Of these, 5 are for Specific Purposes, 9 are General English , and 2 ACADEMIC.

Valid from 6th April 2015…

Standardised Tests ?

• Standardised benchmark
• Globally accessible
• Secure
• Relative degree of validity
• Relative degree of reliability
• Generalizable results
• ‘Teaching to the test’
• Unauthentic task types
• Ability scale range
• General vs Academic English
• ‘Testing the test’
• Not discipline- or institution-

specific

ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES

The ‘Academic Three’

Spot Tests – with negative effects… (both ways)

3-hr high stakes litmus test The Washback Effect

SELT leads to misconceptions on both sides:

ACADEMICS STUDENTS

Lack of understanding of the limitations of IELTS.

IELTS 7.0

English Language Proficiency Subject- specific Knowledge Academic (English) Skills

UNIVERSITY ENTRANCE

Tested in the SELT (?) Attested for by previous educational achievement

Current position:

Why?

The student may have had no formal training in HE English prior to their application. This is arguably somewhat less

• f

a concern for UG students, but it is a very important consideration for PG students, especially those on one-year courses…

3: General lack of academic skills

UK HEIs are becoming increasingly aware that even British students who have taken either A-Levels or even a first degree through the medium

• f

English do not necessarily have the prerequisite academic skills set. So, it isn’t just all about language proficiency…

Even at Oxbridge : ‘Time to play catch up’

Even Oxbridge has to give remedial classes to poorly prepared students.

“What we can observe is that in some areas students educated in the British school system come in with some skills less well-developed than they were 20 years ago. […] Those that are doing maths-related subjects are certainly much less fluent than they were in the past […] The problems are even more acute in the arts subjects where the experience and skills of extended writing and argumentation and of reading and analysing novels are much less

• developed. For my arts colleagues, more of their work is cut out bringing

students up to an acceptable level.”

News Review, p 10, 08.04.12 Geoff Parks, Senior Lecturer in Nuclear Engineering, University of Cambridge

International Student Issues

Source: Janette Ryan, Presentation to Russell Group in Sept/2011

Satisfied overall but some issues persist...

• Unclear expectations: don’t know the ‘rules’
• Lack required background knowledge
• Language and assessment issues
• Difficulties participating and making friends
• Know they are seen as a ‘problem’
• Do achieve well but need support
• Achievement gap in some areas
• Less satisfied than UK students overall

Academic Language Culture

Three Types of Shock

Dr Janette Ryan, Director, Teaching International Students Project

Outstanding Issues

• 3 phases of ‘shock’ – culture shock, language shock, academic

shock (may persist)

• Lack of understanding of limitations of IELTS
• Current ‘frontloading’ or ‘add on’ leads to ‘deficit’ approach
• Takes responsibility away from academics - ‘someone else’s

problem’

• Harder to make local friends – UK counterparts less mobile

(11:1, OECD, 2011)

• Lack of connection with foundation EAP/programmes
• Not embedded within discipline, extra costs
• Focus on technical skills, e.g. paraphrasing, plagiarism

Source: Janette Ryan, Presentation to Russell Group in Sept/2011

Key Points – Academic Staff

• Increased support services for IS but little change in teaching and

learning approaches

• Misconceptions about IS learning needs – rote learners, lack

critical thinking skills, prone to plagiarism

• Don’t consider teaching, learning and assessment factors and

role of previous expectations

• May conflate lack of language proficiency with lack of ability
• Don’t understand the complexities of language learning
• Little awareness of the influence of cultural and linguistic

backgrounds on writing

• Complacency – ‘they come here for a British education’

Source: Janette Ryan, Presentation to Russell Group in Sept/2011

Internationalisation of UK HE

http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/internationalisation

‘This brings particular challenges and opportunities for pedagogic practice – developing the way we teach and support those students […] We know that teaching practice and learner support that works for international students also works for the benefit of all students.’

What the Papers say…

And how was this improved?

http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/international-student-lifecycle http://www.prepareforsuccess.org.uk

LANGUAGE?

SOMETHING ELSE?

Unclear Expectations

STUDENT UNIVERSITY

How we communicate

SPOKEN WRITTEN NON-VERBAL RECEPTIVE

But, of course, we primarily use… … to communicate.

Cultural Influence

• n

Language

Kaplan’s Doodles

Source: Robert B. Kaplan, ‘Cultural thought patterns in intercultural education’, Language Learning, 16 (1966), 11-25.

CONTRASTIVE RHETORIC

Kaplan’s fallacy

‘A fallacy

• f

some repute and some duration is the one which assumes that because a student can write an adequate essay in his native language, he can necessarily write an adequate essay in a second language.’ “The material is all here, but it somehow seems

• ut
• f

focus”,

• r

“Lacks

• rganisation”, or “Lacks cohesion”.

‘The foreign-student paper is out of focus because the foreign student is employing a rhetoric and a sequence of thought which violate the expectations of the native reader.’

Source: Robert B. Kaplan, ‘Cultural thought patterns in intercultural education’, Language Learning, 16 (1966), 11-25, p.13.

① What are these ‘expectations of the native reader’ ? ② Where have they come from? ③ How can an L2 student adopt them?

Three Important Questions

Academic writing skills are not innate … They need to be actively learned, practised and continually trained and honed … – even for native speakers.

And there’s the rub…

Source: Robert B. Kaplan, The Anatomy of Rhetoric (1972)

Rhetoric – the basis

• f argument – is

‘language’-specific In English, this is rather assumed than clearly defined.

With respect to language:

Mechanical Manipulation Extent of communication competence But there appears to be no significant link between the two.

Communicative competence subsumes the recognition and analysis of, and response to, a context.

Awareness-raising to address this:

BLIND SPOT

AND, MORE IMPORTANTLY , WHY WHY . TO LOOK AT HOW (ACADEMIC) ENGLISH WORKS

Rhetorical Heritage

Writer Responsible

Low Context

Linear

Conceptual Foundations of English

Rhetorical Heritage

Logic is not universal – It is culturally defined. The language and related approach to expression of… … have evolved out of the Anglo-European cultural pattern. The expected sequence

• f thought in English

is essentially a Platonic- Aristotelian sequence.

The Rhetorical Triangle of Effective Communication

LOGOS

Information; argument; structure; reasons; evidence

PATHOS

Audience; knowledge; belief; values;

ETHOS

Credibility; authority; correctness; eloquence

CONTEXT PURPOSE

Argumentative structural preference

INDUCTIVE DEDUCTIVE ABDUCTIVE

In terms

• f

argumentation, we therefore tend to prefer a tight chain of reasoning: But not all cultures share this preference…

Our cultural heritage: Graeco-Roman

How we

structure

argument How we

construct

argument

Whether we are aware of it or not, we put together a logical argument following principles laid down by Aristotle.

Writer-Responsibility

John Hinds, ‘Reader versus Writer Responsibility: A New Typology’, Writing Across Languages: Analysis of L2 Text, eds. U. Connor and R Kaplan (Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1987), pp.141-152

‘I take as a starting point the position that English speakers, by and large, charge the writer, or speaker, with the responsibility to make clear and well-organised statements. If there is a breakdown in communication, for instance, it is because the speaker/writer has not been clear enough, not because the listener/reader has not exerted enough effort in an attempt to understand.’

(p.143)

What are the differences?

• linear
• parallel progression
• accumulative
• tight chain of reasoning
• LOGOS
• clear and concise
• 3-part structure
• Unit of composition:

paragraph

WRITER

• non-linear or quasi-linear
• sequential progression
• tangential
• looser, with richer detail and

context

• ETHOS & PATHOS
• elaborate and complex
• multi-part structure
• Unit of composition: larger

conceptual blocks

READER

Parallel Progression: AB BC CD

High Context vs. Low Context

A HIGH context culture is one in which the communicators assume a great deal of commonality of knowledge and views, so that less is spelled out explicitly and much more is implicit or communicated in indirect ways. A LOW context culture is one in which things are fully (though concisely) spelled out. Things are made explicit, and there is considerable dependence on what is actually said or written.

Closely linked to the concept of Writer Responsibility

In a low-context culture, such as English, most of the information must be in the transmitted message in order to make up for what is missing in the context.

Therefore in terms of language…

To members

• f

a high- context culture, speakers in a low-context culture seem to be too explicit and direct… whereas to members of a low-context culture, speakers in a high-context culture seem to talk around a subject and never get to the point. HIGH LOW

Linear

English is basically a language that is linear in structure in that sentences usually follow the Subject–Verb–Object order and are cumulative. English is also an uninflected language, which makes playing around with the internal structure of a sentence more difficult…

Both VERTICAL and HORIZONTAL

LOGICAL SEQUENTIAL CUMULATIVE LINEAR ARGUMENT LANGUAGE

Linearity is embedded into the overall approach …

Why?

Two Examples:

Reader-Responsible Approach Weight-Time-Importance Allocation

IMPLICIT EXPLICIT

CLARITY OF COMMUNICATION

in academic English CULTURAL INFLUENCES ON COMMUNICATION & ARGUMENTATION

Developing arguments is a culturally embedded topic: different cultures have different ways of approaching the initial formation and development of an argument.

Cultures do not write using the same assumptions, strategies and goals.

5: What we’re doing In Cambridge Pre-Arrival LOs

In development:

Test of Academic Literacy

Part of the preparation for study at UK HEIs

6: So…

Is Johnson right?

CREATIVITY

‘[…] however, it should rather be, language is the flesh-garment, the body, of thought.’

Thomas Carlyle

After all… … is all about…

communicate

This is an English-speaking university… … which comes with a set of expectations.

Yet whilst this may be a UK university…

But UK HE is one of the most highly internationalised in the world.

Not a one-way street …

The growth in IS numbers can be attributed to the sector’s ability to attract students from around the world to study in the UK. Being entrusted with the education

• f

students who will become professional and business leaders in their countries is both a great privilege for UK universities as well as a testament to their high standing internationally. It also brings with it many advantages and benefits for the country more widely. Students from overseas enrich the learning experience of all students, and enable British students to benefit from an education that has a strong international dimension. Source: Patterns and Trends in HE 2012, Universities UK

One obvious way UK HEIs could benefit

International Cultural Awareness and Foreign Language Skills Chamber of Commerce

NEW HORIZONS NEW CHALLENGES

Draw on the EAP expertise within the University

EAP Best Practice across the Wider University Better prepared for Study at UK HEIs Support is embedded

Let’s start unpacking…

Thank you for listening.

Suggested Reading:

① Robert B. Kaplan, ‘Cultural thought patterns in intercultural education’, Language Learning, 16 (1966) 11-25. ② Robert B. Kaplan, The Anatomy of Rhetoric (New York, 1972). ③ Ulla Connor, Contrastive Rhetoric (CUP, 1996). ④ Ulla Connor, Intercultural Rhetoric (Ann Arbor, 2011). ⑤ Edward T. Hall, Beyond Culture (Random House, 1976). ⑥ Matthew McCool, Writing Around the World (London, 2009). ⑦ John Hinds, ‘Reader versus Writer Responsibility: A New Typology’, Writing Across Languages: Analysis of L2 Text, eds. U. Connor and R Kaplan (Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1987), pp.141-152. ⑧ Janette Ryan, A Guide to Teaching International Students (Oxford, 1999) ⑨ Rachel Scudamore, Engaging home and international students (HEA, 2013 )