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Volume 5, Issue 1

ISSN 2397-3072

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ISEJ The International Student Experience Journal

Editorial Phil Horspool, University of Leicester From the Academic Editor. Chris Lima

Articles  Creating a social learning space for International Students. Michael Allhouse  Photograph sharing on social media and intercultural friendships in the US. Hong-Chi Shiau  Investigating the Effects of the Supervisor’s Feedback on International Masters Students’ Dissertation Writing Outcomes in the UK. Ahmad Yusuf Idris Student Articles  My study abroad experience in Perth, Australia. Deniz Karaman  First weeks of Uni life. Desirée Vila Bargiela  Why I love my turtle socks: reflections on being welcomed into a new community as an international exchange student from the UK to the USA. Samantha Lea  A foundation for writing the first academic essay. Sofiya Shkvorchenko  Cultural project. Alex Ludkovsky and Zehra Jazim Ali  Challenges and coping strategies of Asian international students: A personal reflection. Hao Phan

ISEJ – International Student Experience Journal

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Editorial Phil Horspool University of Leicester Welcome to Volume 5 Issue 1 of the International Student Experience Journal (ISEJ). It is definitely more summer than spring although you wouldn’t know it from the weather but I hope you will agree that this is an issue worth waiting for.

In the editorial to the previous issue I wrote ‘we hope….international students continue to come and have a positive learning experience in the UK. We’d love to receive articles from students about their experience of applying and studying here’. So it is extremely rewarding to see no fewer than 6 articles written by students from a range of institutions across the UK and beyond. There is no doubt in my mind that you will enjoy reading all of them, but like me you’ll no doubt be drawn to Samantha Lea’s ‘Why I love my turtle socks:..’. We always envisaged a significant number of articles in each issue coming from students and/or those being published for the first time and we are genuinely delighted that this is the case.

In addition to our student articles, we have three others. Firstly, Michael Allhouse from the University of Bradford tells us all about the development and importance of Room 101 and if you didn’t find ‘turtle socks’ intriguing enough then surely you’ll want to know more about Room 101. Secondly, we have our first article in ISEJ related to photography, as Hong-Chi Shiau talks about the importance of photo sharing on social media from the perspective of Taiwanese students in the US. Finally we are pleased to publish an article by Ahmad Yusuf Idris from the University of Damascus looking at the effects of supervisor feedback on Master’s level students. It is great to see an increasing number of submissions from outside the UK such as Syria.

I hope you enjoy reading all of these articles as much as I did and perhaps feel inspired to write something for our next issue or to inspire someone else to.

For those of you who have followed ISEJ from its conception, or have been involved at any stage in publishing something, supporting us through proof reading or mentoring or simply reading, will know that a key member of our team is Chris Lima. Without Chris there would never have been an issue 1 and the fact that we are now in our fifth year is to a large extent down to Chris’s professionalism, hard work and skill. The role of Academic Editor involves the need to have a multitude of skills and Chris has them all in spades. It is hard to imagine ISEJ without Chris so it is with sadness and some trepidation that I announce that I

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have reluctantly accepted Chris’s decision to relinquish her post. However, it is not all bad news. Firstly, we have a new Academic Editor- Emma Stringer also from the University of Leicester who I know will bring new ideas, new skills and match Chris in enthusiasm and dedication. You can find out more about Emma here: http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/eltu/about/staff-directory/staff-pages/emma-stringer Secondly, Emma and Chris will work together on the next issue and Emma will take full control from 2018.

Happy reading. Please share and please send us your articles for the next issue.

From the Academic Editor Chris Lima University of Leicester The ISEJ started with the brilliant and ‘crazy’ idea Phil had of publishing a journal which would give tutors, administrators, and students an opportunity for sharing ideas and initiatives aimed at enhancing students’ experience at HE institutions. Since its creation, I have had the enormous privilege of working with incredibly committed members of the Editorial Board and the Reviewers Team who managed to find some time in their busy professional and personal schedules to devote to the journal. Many thanks to all of you and most heartfelt thanks to Phil who has always been there to back us up and move us ahead. Thanks also to all the contributors and readers I have had the pleasure to meet while in this position.

However, after five years, I feel the ISEJ will benefit from a new academic editor who will bring to the job new ideas and renewed energy. I welcome my colleague Emma StringerBurns and I wish her all the best in the role.

I truly believe the ISEJ is a unique publication that gives voice to HE staff and students in an area that has become increasingly important with the globalization of education and the significant changes in the sector we have been witnessing in our times. I would like to invite you all to keep reading, supporting, and contributing to the ISEJ in the years to come.

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Article

Creating a Student Union social learning space for international students Michael Allhouse University of Bradford

ABSTRACT This article will trace the development of Room 101 as it moved from a Language Centre resources centre towards being a Student Union social learning space. It will outline the activities provided in the centre and how these have been supported and developed by the Students Union. The article will also provide a rationale for how the activities in Room 101 benefit international students. The article will examine research into student perceptions of Room 101’s service as it transitions to a social learning space, to assess how satisfied they are with the space. ……………………………………………………………………………………………..........

Introduction Room 101 is a student union centre for international students. It used to be the University of Bradford (UoB) language library, providing language learning materials to students on language courses. With the decline of languages at the University, the space was handed over to the University of Bradford Students Union (UBU) who set about transforming it into a space for international student engagement and as a centre for international life at the UoB. It was felt that the UBU was ideally positioned to run the space as they could open up the space to other elements of student life. This move saw the room adapt its approach, moving away from materials-based resources (such as books, CDs and photocopied resources) and towards becoming a staffed, but student-led, social learning space. The centre now aims to provide a friendly space where students feel safe to open up and learn from each other in person, through interaction-based activities, i.e. discussion and culture groups, student-led language classes, and where they can engage with UBU services.

This article will trace the development of Room 101 as it moved from a Language Centre resources centre towards being a Student Union social learning space. It will outline the activities provided in the centre and how these have been supported and developed by the Students Union. The article will also provide a rationale for how the activities in Room 101 benefit international students. The article will examine research into student perceptions of Room 101’s service as it transitions to a social learning space, to assess how satisfied they are with the space.

History and Development of Room 101 Room 101 had functioned as a language Self-Access Centre (SAC) from the 1980s. However, over the last 10-20 years, language degrees at the UoB have declined and ceased leaving the Language Centre only teaching English. Throughout this period online language learning resources were increasingly providing a perceived alternative to physical language learning 3

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resources. The availability of online English practice material, and the increasing affordability of personal computers, meant that students now had other options for access to English practice resources. The author, who manages Room 101, observed over this period that students were becoming less interested in using physical resources such as books, CDs, software packages, and DVDs. This was also observed by writers such as Reinders (2012) in the article “The End of Self-Access?”, which suggested that SACs are in danger of dying out.With so many new ways of connecting with information and learners outside of the classroom emerging via the internet, the need for a physical space for language learning has to be questioned (Reinders, 2012).

In Room 101 the writer has witnessed over the last 10 years that, whilst our language resources are less used, with students (rightly or wrongly) seeing the internet as providing an alternative, when it comes to social interaction, a physical centre is still very appealing. Indeed, I have increasingly observed that many international students actively seek out opportunities to socialise and practice their English inperson with home students or students outside of their ethnic group.

Doyle and Parrish (2012) conducted a study which asked students in several Japanese universities how they liked to learn English outside of class. They found that students did not mention books, electronic, online or multimedia resources, or SACs, but instead spoke about practising speaking. Croker and Ashurova (2012), writing about a social learning space similar to Room 101 in a Japanese language school,found that students were more interested in relaxing and enjoying conversation in English with their peers than in ‘studying’ it.

When Room 101 was still functioning as an SAC, students often commented on how few opportunities there were for international students to interact and speak in English outside of their subject learning, especially at the early stages of their academic journey. Many international students also fed back that even though their academic achievement looked good on paper, lack of opportunity in practising day-to-day English and communication ultimately limited their performance in job interviews once they graduated. Taking this feedback on board, I began to design learning interventions which would give students practice in speaking and listening in a social, fun way.

A number of commentators suggest that social interaction, in various forms, can aid language confidence and achievement (Lowes, 2013, Harmer, 1983). Ellis (1994) asserts that language learners who make the best of opportunities for social interaction in English show the greatest gains in language proficiency. Allwright (1990) and Montgomery & McDowell (2009) found that even though many students recognise that social interaction in English develops confidence and vocabulary comprehension, engaging in such social situations is still a struggle for many international students. Lowes (2013) detailed the need for institutions to help initiate first contacts. This is what Room 101 has tried to do, as I tried to provide a space where students could learn from each other in person, mostly through social interaction in the form of speaking and listening practice, sometimes in structured environments, sometimes unstructured. This took the shape of a discussion group, IELTS speaking practice, a film club, art club, presentation skills practice, foreign language and culture classes, parties, and increasingly sporting activities, cultural celebrations and even singing and dancing activities.

As the Centre became increasingly popular it was decided to hand management of it over to the Students Union to utilise their resources and networks, allowing international students to engage more widely with the culture of UBU and the UoB. I began reaching out to sports clubs, societies, and media groups to try to engage international students with them.

UBU fully embraced Room 101 as a social learning space, by which we mean a place where groups of students can work independently of academic staff either towards their academic 4

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qualification, or towards some other goal which can be said to enrich the experience of being at university (Greenwood et al., 2007; Obligner, 2005). For UBU social learning means ensuring we have; student-centred space usage, student-centred support and opportunities for student groups.

Figure 1: UBU Social Learning Model

Room 101 became a good example of social learning by assigning a specific space to international students to provide them with opportunities for development, in terms of language development, social development and employability. It also meant that more staff support was available to link to other areas of the Union which could complement Room 101’s provision.

These other areas were, for example, volunteering opportunities, international student representatives, cultural development and social impact opportunities (such as forming a country society and the opportunities for leadership which this provides).

UBU have a strategy for engaging with international students through Room 101 which sees an International Student Information Point set up in Room 101 at the start of the academic year in September/October so that newly arrived students can seek friendly guidance from student employees and staff. The Centre continues to provide advice throughout the year through the UBU Advice Centre. Students are then encouraged to develop their skills and capacity through a range of activities like language and culture groups, art exhibitions, and events like cultural celebrations, such as Chinese New Year Parties and national day celebrations. The Students Union engages students through the space with sports clubs, international societies, media areas, democracy, and other activities, like Green weeks, or mental health events.

Room 101 moving to the Union had a knock-on effect across the union, with many more international societies forming, the international students’ forum becoming more significant, and better engagement of international students in UBU sports clubs, democracy, and events. UBU helped Room 101 to run a wider range of events than was possible when its purpose was focussed on language learning, with many country-specific celebrations, foodrelated events and musical events.

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With the transfer to UBU, Room 101 became more student led. Kodate (2012), in a Japanese university, found evidence that the presence and the friendliness of student workers encourages student users to lower their psychological barriers to entering a learning space. In Room 101 we currently have approximately 40 volunteers working in different capacities; as counter assistants (answering enquiries and performing simple admin tasks), foreign language student-teachers (teaching their language to groups of students), English language assistants (helping run English language social learning sessions) and Writing Mentors (students specially trained to get other students to reflect on uses of English in their essays). Our student volunteers are often international students looking for opportunities to gain employability skills or for opportunities to socialise and interact in English. We also attract home students with an interest in becoming English teachers, or with an interest in other cultures. All of these student volunteers are eligible for certificates and awards at the UBU Student Leaders Awards ceremony and for inclusion in their HEAR (Higher Education Achievement Report).

Transfer to UBU has increased usage and activities in Room 101. Figure 2 below shows the current (as of December 2016) term-time weekly timetable of student-organised events in Room 101. It shows that student volunteers organise an exciting and varied programme of learning activities.

Figure 2: Room 101 Student-led Activities Semester 1, 2016-2017.

Our new approach has seen healthy usage, as can be seen from a measure of our usage in one week in 2016 (see Figure 3).

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300

250

200

150

100

50

0 Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Figure 3: Room 101 Usage one week in February 2016 Research With the move to the Union and the new social learning approach we decided to conduct research to see how students felt about Room 101, to see if any of them still wanted resource materials or if our social learning approach was meeting their needs. A questionnaire was created using a webpage called SurveyMonkey which was then distributed electronically. In order to maintain a purposive approach the survey was distributed via Facebook, requesting that only users of Room 101 fill out the survey. It was important that the questions were studentfriendly and simply stated, making the questionnaire easy for students to fill out, as this allowed for promotion of the survey as ‘it will only take a minute to complete’. Over a twoweek period, 75 users completed the survey.

Question 1 asked how often people used various services and gave a number of options which were derived from a list of possible Room 101 activities. The research was conducted in 2015 when Room 101 still had the remains of its materials-based services (i.e. books, CDs, and photocopied resources) and also had an extensive programme of social learning activities.

The list of activities can be seen in Figure 4. The services were divided into three categories: ‘materials-based activities’, ‘interaction-based activities’, and ‘other activities’.

In Question 1 respondents were asked how often they use each service from the list and were given several possible answers on a rating scale of 1 to 5, in order to ascertain frequency of use. The students could respond from ‘never using a service’ (1), to using it ‘many times each day’ (5).

Questions 3; ‘What do you like most about Room 101?’ and 4; ‘How can we improve Room 101?’ resulted in answers which were limited in range and could be grouped according to a number of themes. Using grounded theory analysis (using categories which emerged from the data) (Strauss and Corbin, 1998) the answers were coded into a limited number of categories which could then be analysed.

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Results and Discussion Question 1 in the survey was, ‘Of the following services provided by Room 101, please state how much you use each one’; this attempted to measure frequency of usage. Tables 1, 2 and 3 below show how often the students state that they access each activity.

Code

1

2

3

4

5

Frequency

Never use

use once a use once a use month week day

every use more than once a day

Table 1. Materials – Based Activities Using English language learning books and CDs Using foreign language books and CDs Using internet resources to learn English Using English language material specially created by Room 101 staff

1 30 28 22 29

2 13 9 9 10

3 5 6 12 9

4 3 6 6 2

5 1 3 3 1

Reading newspapers / magazines Using CD / digital recorders to practise language

15 35

8 8

13 7

14 1

2 1

Table 2. Interaction – Based Activities

1

2

3

4

5

Attending organised English speaking sessions like debating 16 club or IELTS speaking practice

13

16

4

2

Attending foreign language classes taught by students

21

8

15

6

2

Meeting another student for a language exchange Socialising with other students / Room 101 staff

20 5

9 13

12 14

6 8

5 12

Attending special events like parties, art events, cultural 12 celebrations like Chinese New Year, etc

21

8

6

5

Going to Room 101 just to relax

8

13

9

14

10

10

5

4

8

Attending organized clubs like Reading Club / Art Club / 23 Film Club Table 3. Other Activities

1

2

3

4

5

Attending staff one-to-one writing help sessions

31

12

3

5

1

Attending an English language class with a tutor

26

8

14

3

1

Doing work connected to your degree course

20

9

10

8

5

Using computers for pleasure

16

7

14

6

9

A limitation of this research is that the figures need to be contextualised, as some events, for example Debating Club, only happen once a week, so for students to rate it higher than (3) is difficult. However, in the ‘use once a week’ (3) section it scored highest. Other activities, like using books / CDs can be done all day, every day. Some activities, like writing help are 8

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done one-to-one so very few people can attend this in comparison to something like using the internet to learn English, which can be done by many people at the same time.

The most popular activities (5) were socialising, relaxing and (factoring in the limited availability) facilitated interaction-based activities like the Debating Club. It can be suggested that students value most highly the ability to practise English by socialising with other students and staff (interaction-based activities). This seems to confirm our move to UBU-based social learning, although it is clearly important to acknowledge that some materials-based activities are still being used.

Question 2 was ‘What else would you like to see in Room 101?’. This was an attempt to address the gaps in Room 101’s provision and to ascertain whether students want more interaction-based activities or more materials-based provision. A list of choices was given. The most popular responses are illustrated in Figure 4.

What else would you like to see in Room 101?

Specially created resources for English learning Language software More 1-to-1 writing help sessions More speaking practice activities like debating club More clubs like film club / book club More social and cultural events 0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Figure 4 – The results of the question ‘What else would you like to see in Room 101?’

The most popular responses were more social and cultural events, clubs, and more speaking practice. It can be said that it was interaction-based activities that were most requested, as well as more 1-to-1 writing help sessions.

Question 3 was an open-ended question; ‘What do you like most about Room 101?’

The responses were coded (Table 4) according to categories which were presented in the results; ‘social learning activities’, ‘helpful staff’ and ‘friendly and relaxing’, using a grounded theory approach (Strauss and Corbin, 1998). There was no mention at all of any materialsbased learning resources (Figure 5).

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Table 4. Sample responses to Question 3

Code

The friendly atmosphere

1

The atmosphere

1

Amiable atmosphere

1

Always being there some staff to help and ask about certain issues

2

Debating sessions. Organised events and celebrations

3

CODE 3 - Social Learning Activities CODE 2 - Helpful Staff CODE 1 - Friendly and Relaxing 0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Figure 5. Responses to Question 3 ‘What do you like most about Room 101?

The particularly high response rates for ‘Friendly and relaxing’ and ‘Helpful staff’ demonstrate that students value the friendly atmosphere very highly, i.e. the informal use of Room 101 for speaking and socialising. In the answers to this question students repeatedly referred to the value of being able to practise their English in an informal setting: “The friendliness of the place where you can find someone to have conversation with for English practice.”

“I found Room 101 was a place which encouraged me to talk more English and which really helped me to improve my confidence. It is friendly there so I feel encouraged and don’t mind making mistakes.”

“The Room 101 social activities provide a friendly atmosphere to discuss issues. Often foreign students are afraid to speak up due to lack of confidence in their English. In Room 101, the activities give many the confidence to speak up and be heard.”

Question 4 in the survey was, ‘How can we improve Room 101?’ The responses could again be grouped according to grounded theory coding into categories (Table 5), as follows: ‘More 1-to-1 writing help sessions’, ‘operational improvements’, ‘increased awareness of Room 101’s provision’ and ‘more social learning and cultural events’ (Figure 6).

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Table 5. Sample responses to Question 4

Code

More tea parties

1

More conversation groups

1

By promoting more events even to UK friends so they can be involved

2

Advertise it more around University and make it clear how to go

2

More space for sitting down, the language classes were pretty cramped

3

Extend opening time

3

More Writing sessions or one-on-one session

4

CODE 4 - More 1-to-1 writing help sessions

CODE 3 - Operational improvements CODE 2 - Increase awareness of Room 101’s provision CODE 1 - More social learning and cultural events 0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

Figure 6. Responses to Question 4 The answers to Questions 3 and 4 strongly affirm that the social and cultural elements of Room 101 are what the students value most. This, in combination with the results of Question 2; ‘What else would you like to see in Room 101?’ show that more social learning activities, i.e. clubs and cultural events are the most requested elements of Room 101. With UBU’s help, since this research was conducted, Room 101 has embraced social learning and become a centre for international life at the UoB, giving students new skills and opportunities to develop themselves in exciting ways. Other similar social learning spaces have also been developed across the institution; for postgraduate research students, and at the remote campus The Faculty of Management and Law. Conclusion The research in this paper has shown that the move of Room 101 away from physical resources towards social learning opportunities is valued by students, and has contributed to the increasing success of the centre. Room 101 has become a home for international life by providing informal, student-led and semi-structured learning opportunities, as well as organised events and a friendly, student-led atmosphere.

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In trying to design a space for international students, UBU have found that Room 101 has become a space which allows students to engage with language and other opportunities which aid their integration into UK H.E., as well as providing them with new skills and developmental opportunities. The space has grown from the language centre SAC to become something much more significant which has helped generations of students to integrate and improve their English, as well as providing a space on campus for international events and for people to engage with international culture.

Putting together a number of Student Union services into a social learning space, which is encouraged to be led by students, has proven to be beneficial for both the students and the Union, who now have a much better reach with international students. Indeed, UBU was recently voted 5th best student union in the UK in the International Student Barometer for 2016.

CONTACT THE AUTHOR M.L.Allhouse@bradford.ac.uk M.L.Allhouse@bradford.ac.uk References Allwright, D. (1990). Interaction and negotiation in the language classroom: Their role in learner development. Lancaster: Lancaster University Papers. http://www.ling.lancs.ac.uk/groups/crile/docs/crile50allrigh.pdf Croker, R., & Ashurova, U. (2012). Scaffolding students’ initial self-access language centre experiences. Studies in Self-Access Learning Journal, 3(3), 237-253. Retrieved from https://sisaljournal.org/archives/sep12/croker_ashurova Doyle, H., & Parrish, M. (2012). Investigating students’ ways to learn English outside of class: A researchers’ narrative. Studies in Self-Access Learning Journal, 3(2), 196-203.

Retrieved from https://sisaljournal.org/archives/jun12/doyle_parrish/ Ellis, R. (1994). The Study of Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press Harmer, J. (2007). The Practice of English Language Teaching. London: Longman Kodate, A. (2012). JASAL Forum 2011: Growing trends in self-access learning. Studies in Self-Access Learning Journal, 3(1), 122-132. Retrieved from https://sisaljournal.org/archives/march12/kodate/ Lowes, R. (2013). Bringing them together: international students and others. International Student Experience Journal. 1 (1). Available at http://isejournal.weebly.com/uploads/1/6/3/1/16311372/bringing_them_together_inter national_students_and_others.pdf Montgomery, C. & McDowell, L. (2009). ‘Social networks and the international student experience: An international community of practice?’ Journal of Studies in International Educatio,13. pp. 455-466.

Reinders, H. (2012). The end of self-access?: From walled garden to public park’. ELT World Online, 4. Retrieved from http://blog.nus.edu.sg/eltwo/2012/06/13/the-end-of-self-accessfrom-walled-garden-to-public-park/ Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1998). Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory, 2nd edition. London: SAGE. 12

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Article Photograph sharing on social media and intercultural friendships in the US: A perspective from Taiwanese exchange students Hong-Chi Shiau Shih-Hsin University ABSTRACT Drawing on ethnographic interviews and observation with 18 Taiwanese sojourners in the United States (US), this study asked informants to retrospectively recount their photograph sharing experiences on social media with respect to intercultural relationships during their English learning sojourning. Friendships between Taiwanese people and those from other cultures may face linguistic and cultural barriers, and while the use of shared photos through social media can help overcome the tensions and challenges involved in the initial stage of communication, these multimedia communicative tools were phatic and supplementary to textual information. The findings showed that Taiwanese sojourners tended to share more selfies which featured food and places, whereas local American students tended to share pictures of their pets. It is likely that engagement in aesthetic labour to enhance the qualities of photographs by Taiwanese sojourners helped participants socialise with locals. Taiwanese informants rated themselves as better socially supported due to photograph sharing despite little enhancement in English learning. ……………………………………………………………………………………………..........

Introduction As a faculty member working for language exchange programs at a Taiwanese college, I have been actively advising students on planning and applying to study mainly in the US. In over six years of teaching at various exchange programs, I have witnessed the changing media-scape as well as the technological transformation afforded by the use of smartphones. The increasingly heavy dependence on social media to communicate has reconfigured and reshaped my students’ exchange programme experience in terms of how to interact with students with different language and cultural backgrounds. The growth of social media apps affords their users to take and share photographs to communicate their experiences despite the incapability of commanding a common language. The photographs shared among users across different countries on social media –with minimal texting involved – may help them develop, maintain and sustain intercultural friendships. Based on cross-sectional comparisons conducted by earlier studies, a common assumption is that most long-term well-adjusted settlers who live and work in a new environment need, and want, to be better adapted to the local language and cultural practices, so as to achieve some level of efficacy in their daily lives (Kim, Izumi & McKay-Semmler, 2009). While the short-term sojourners may not be expected to live in the hosting culture permanently, the command of the local language and a great acceptance of hosting cultural practices remain key for their adaptation in the hosting culture (Shiau, 2015).

With the rise of visually rich platforms afforded by social media on smartphones, the advantages to sojourners of using visual tools on social media during intercultural adaptation have attracted earlier academic attention (e.g. Trebbe, 2007; Ye, 2006). A number of studies conducted earlier before the rise of social media have shown that computer-mediated 14

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interpersonal communication activities help maintain ethnic ties (Lee et al., 2012; Sawyer & Chen, 2012). These studies, however, emphasized more on the texting aspect, overlooking the significance of visually-rich content exchanges afforded by recent technologies, which is the gap that this research attempts to address.

While there are advantages of using different communicative channels, texting on smartphone social media, in a way, is well-matched to the life circumstance of sojourners at a time when they are abroad and surrounded by a myriad of uncertain weak ties. As Kim et al. (2009) suggested, while talking verbally can advance relationships among those with strong social ties, such as nuclear family, text-based computer-mediated social media were used more to expand relationships in weak social ties, which is exactly the circumstance the exchange students face during their encounter with their first host country. The research focus is more broadly on how the perpetual connectivity afforded by smartphone technologies changes the pattern of usage, reconfiguring social relations among Taiwanese exchange students in the US, during different phases of their staying, people may use social media differently. For instance, in a case involving exchange experiences, Lebedko (2014) examined Chinese and Japanese students and found that they tended to use social media less frequently during the initial stage of experience as a way to alleviate the culture shock and/or devote more efforts to acculturate in the hosting culture. They, however, gradually began using social media sites as they recovered from the culture shock. In this study, Lebedko (2014) suggested that international exchange students began using their own social network (e.g. Renren for Chinese) more frequently to speak with their co-nationals who understand them effectively rather than learning and using Russian to acculturate with the Russian speakers in the hosting culture.

Method: Interpretative ethnographic approach While the increasingly prevalent phenomenon of intercultural friendship can be easily validated in everyday life, few research studies have attempted to understand how these friendships evolve across the borders from different cultures with respect to photograph sharing on social media. The present study aimed to explore how the uses of photograph sharing are related to intercultural friendships among Taiwanese sojourners and people from other cultures in the US. Along the same line, this study intends to offer sojourners’ personal accounts of their experiences with photograph sharing. Do they simply share photographs at their convenience?

Has this practice helped people from different cultures to connect and bond substantially? With the popularity of social media use, the study tries to focus on how intercultural friendships evolve through the sharing of photograph on social media. Two common extreme thoughts can be synthesized as follows: on one side, the use of social media primarily offers a safe and peaceful haven where the sojourners can stay and hibernate within the co-ethnic community.

On the opposite end of the continuum, the uses of social media are believed to potentially accelerate the growth of intercultural friendships. This study posits that there are contingencies for making aforementioned extreme cases happen. While the aforementioned extreme cases may not address the experiences shared by the Taiwanese students, this study formulate two questions to shed light on the academic inquiry: (1) How did Taiwanese sojourners use social media to make new friends from different cultures? (2) What roles do these social media play in creating, maintaining and sustaining these intercultural friendships?

Drawing on ethnographic interviews with 18 Taiwanese sojourners in the US, this study asked informants to retrospectively recount their photograph sharing experiences on social media with respect to intercultural relationships during their English learning sojourning. The study 15

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adopts an ethnographic research approach, including participant observation and informal interviews. Since most of the informants are connected with the researcher using various smartphone applications, such as LINE, Skype and/or Facebook, the researcher also participated, reviewed and discussed with these informants on social media regularly to understand the overall circumstances of their intercultural friendships on these social media sites. These sojourners sometimes complemented these interviews with visually-rich digital artefacts. Participant observation of the Taiwanese exchange students’ smartphone interactions with their friends was conducted when these students are geographically accessible.

Findings: Photo sharing to recall shared memories Over the first month upon arrival, three types of photographs started to be exchanged, namely: selfies, photos of places a person has visited or that are personally meaningful, and photos of food/meals. Since these graphic communicative resources require some self-disclosure from exchange students, Taiwanese students are also more likely to mention their significant others in posts to American friends, a means by which they showcase their social circles, or cliques, to which they belong. Photographs posted by sojourners often included their families and hometowns as a means of introducing their home culture and explaining their experiences of negotiating life transitions. In terms of photograph sharing, a notable discrepancy between Taiwanese sojourners and Americans is that the former often emphasize the meals/foods they have experienced at home or overseas, even including specific details such as ingredients and cost, while their American counterparts are more likely to disclose a high level of detail about their pets, including how they raise and interact with them. HK and Lima expressed this difference as follows: “I think we “Taiwanese” (quotation gesture) simply inherently love taking pictures before eating anything – like the slice of pizza I had yesterday, which was too boring to for my American friends to see. But to me, the point is that it’s so boring; I want to ask people how a piece of pizza can be so plain. My American friends would probably say I am so easily entertained” (HK, author’s personal interview on 06/28/2015).

“One day we took part in a tour group, accompanying some Americans to see a theatre performance. Before going into the theatre, we first took individual selfies and then took group pictures. But everyone had at least one camera and wanted a group picture taken with her or his camera. We had to reshuffle the group almost five times, but one of the Americans left after we took the first group picture” (Lima, author’s personal interview on 07/24/2015).

The local-American’s perception of Asians as being extremely enthusiastic about taking and sharing photographs is reflected in two common ethnic comments reported by numerous informants that reference excessive taking of photographs as being “Chinese” or “Asian” illustrated by the following comments: “come on, you are so Chinese” as one informant was told as they took a photograph of their food before eating it. “Oh, you are so Asian” as reported by another informant who was told this because they took many pictures during the field trip.

On the other hand, Taiwanese sojourners sometimes found that their American counterparts talked excessively about their pets, mainly dogs and cats. D and Peter expressed being mystified at how best to deal with American friends who constantly uploaded photographs of their dogs and cats in a series of slightly different poses despite their indifference about how 16

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their pets look and behave. As D put it, initially he would look at a cat and say “wow it is cute” but after a hundred pictures he would be running out of words with which to comment.

Enthusiasm for such sharing of pictures can be dampened if the sharing efforts remain onesided.

“In the long run, I only keep my photographs of meals for future retrieval. I find them too trivial for most of my friends, except my mother may want to know” (Jessie, author’s personal interview on 07/28/2015).

“Well, you can’t trade your meal pictures with their doggie pictures. It simply doesn’t work that way” (LKK, author’s personal interview on 07/24/2015).

Despite some perceived differences, photograph sharing can help the informants in intercultural understanding, particularly within the first three months. Many Taiwanese sojourners – or more broadly East Asians (in this study Chinese, Japanese and Korean sojourners in particularly) – were quite skilled at editing (or photo-shopping) pictures and willing to offer others their help in improving the aesthetics of their photographs that represent the quality of their shared memories. Voluntarily helping others through deploying editing skills in this way is rewarding because both parties can tangibly feel the enhancements realized.

For instance, Lima posted pictures that were more “authentically flattering” for all parties involved, and her American friend was instantly impressed by how her free aesthetic labour enhanced their own appearance and common existence. Such digital enhancement requires sophisticated skills, which Lima gained through her previous internship at a start-up company where her work involved “correcting” every incoming picture. Lima said that her objective was to make everyone look “authentically” thinner and beautiful, which she defined as sophistication in editing to a point where most people perceive the final image to be naturally – thus “authentically” enhanced – rather than to be unskilfully photo-shopped. In order to achieve this objective, it required her to adjust many dimensions of the pictures, including lighting and colour. Engagement in such aesthetic labour by Taiwanese sojourners can realize a long-term pay off because these pictures become testimonies of co-existence and shared memories, solidifying their friendships. Besides, if the pictures are sufficiently flattering, they can more easily be circulated through social networks.

The findings suggest that photograph sharing on social media is likely to significantly enhance intercultural friendships during the first few weeks, or the so-called “honeymoon phase”. The pictures shared are often a legacy of common everyday activities but can easily be lost if additional effort is not invested in their preservation and sharing. However, graphic postings shared on social media are mostly just merely complementary to textual information in the long run unless tailor-made for a specific interlocutor.

Conclusion and discussion Photograph sharing can provide a wonderful recipe for intercultural friendships to grow among these participants. The study has some tentative conclusions that need to be further investigated. The posting of photographs is often reciprocal; namely, sojourners typically post photographs in response to an inquiry or request. While both Taiwanese and American students occasionally posted selfies, Taiwanese sojourners used selfies more often, often to situate themselves in a place that was important for them to indicate that “we are here”. In contrast, Americans were perceived as relatively subdued in posting selfies, and typically refrained from

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disclosing too much personal information in accompanying discussions, according to the informants.

This study is challenged by the fact that the informants conceptualize the notion of friendship quite differently from one another. In the age of social-networking, there are novel configurations of user practices and technological capabilities that are altering how we understand and trust intercultural friendship. This research embedded these transformations in an interpersonal, intercultural and technological context, avoiding a naive privileging of technology as the main force driving society, but also avoiding the social media-centric reduction of intercultural relations that are situated within this context (Shiau, 2015). Given the accessibility of various social media, they perceived themselves to be better socially supported.

This study’s findings are in line with the research carried out by Cemalcilar, Falbo, and Stapleton (2005) on social media in the early stages of cross-cultural transition and yields a similar result: interpersonal involvement in real life with members of the host society can effectively facilitate adaptation to that society. The use of photographs can potentially, but not always, help Taiwanese sojourners cope with cultural barriers in forming intercultural friendships. Such use of technology affords sojourners flexibility and various means to simultaneously communicate with both members of the host society and individuals of their own ethnicity. However, in this study the informants suggested that true friendships with Americans remained “remote”. Informants typically felt the need to maintain more than 500 contacts, and felt a stronger sense of both obligation and reward in their established relationships with old friends and parents back home; sojourners from different countries were also important to informants because their lives were following similar trajectories.

Intercultural friendships between Taiwanese sojourners and Americans ultimately depend on how to text in a form of English shared by the local youth – a skill more related to proficiency in vernacular English than standardized formal English.

Despite the importance of knowledge and command of textism, new technologies offer new tools that help alleviate stress and retrieve the shared existence among users who cannot text and communicate well. Given this, this study concludes that intercultural friendships could only be better maintained and sustained with the sojourner’s mastering of textism in vernacular English, and interlocutors can experience greater social bonding as more textual information is created. However, social media unexpectedly nurtures intercultural friendships between sojourners from different East Asian countries more effectively than friendships between Taiwanese sojourners and Americans. They may experience bonding in a similar outlook of using and sharing photographs (e.g. Taiwanese and South Koreans in the US).

CONTACT THE AUTHOR iamhongchi@gmail.com

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References Cemalcilar, Z., Falbo, T., & Stapleton, L. 2005. Cyber communication: A new opportunity for international students’ adaptation? International Journal of Intercultural Relation, 29, 91– 110. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijintrel.2005.04.002.

Chen, G.-M. 2012. Impact of new media on intercultural communication. China Media Research, 8(2), 1–10.

Chen, R. T., Bennett, S., & Maton, K. 2008. The adaptation of Chinese international students to online flexible learning: Two case studies. Distance Education, 29, 307-323.

Ishii, K. 2006. Implications of mobility: The uses of personal communication media in everyday life. Journal of Communication 56 (2), 346-365.

Lebedko, M. G. 2014. Globalization, Networking and Intercultural Communication.

Intercultural Communication Studies, pp. 28-41. Lustyik.

Kim, Y.Y., Izumi, S., & McKay-Semmler, K. 2009. The role of direct and mediated interpersonal communication in cross-cultural adaptation: a study of educated and long-term non-native residents in the United States’. Paper presented at the annual conference of the National Communication Association, Chicago, November 2009.

Lebedko, M. 2014. Communication experience of Chinese and Japanese students. A pilot study of social media and intercultural communication experience of Chinese and Japanese students in Russia. (Chapter 5). In Cui Litang & Michael H. Prosser. Social Media in Asia.

(Chapter 5). Dignity Press. World Dignity University Press.

Lee, J. W. Y., Kim, B. K., Lee, T. L., & Kim, M. S. 2012. Uncovering the use of Facebook during an exchange program. China Media Research, 8(4), 62-76.

Pfister, Damien S., & Soliz, J. 2011. (Re)Conceptualizing intercultural communication in a networked society. Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, 4(4). 246– 251. doi: 10.1080/17513057.2011.598043.

Sawyer, R., & Chen, G. M. 2012. The impact of social media on intercultural adaptation.

Intercultural Communication Studies, 21(2), 151-169.

Shiau, H.-C. 2015. Beyond the cultural dichotomy, what do we share?: An ethnographic study of intergenerational smartphone MMS use in sojourning experiences, Journal of Asian Pacific Communication, 25(1), 42 – 62 Shuter, R. 2012. Intercultural new media studies: The next frontier in intercultural communication. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 41 (3), 219-237.

Trebbe, J. 2007. Types of immigration, acculturation strategies and media use of young Turks in Germany. Communications, 3, 171-191.

Ye, J. 2006. An examination of acculturative stress, interpersonal social support, and use of online ethnic social groups among Chinese international students. The Howard Journal of Communication, 17, 1-20.

Zaharna, R. 1989. Self-shock: the double-binding challenge of identity. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 13(4), 501–25.

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Article Investigating the Effects of Supervisor Feedback on International Masters Students’ Dissertation Writing Outcomes in the UK Ahmad Yusuf Idris University of Damascus ABSTRACT At Anglophone universities, international students find the Masters dissertation challenging, perhaps because they cannot utilize the full potential of the supervisor’s feedback (East, et al.

2012). Employing qualitative data, this study discovers that the supervisor’s feedback can have psycho-affective, interpersonal and developmental effects on international students’ Masters Dissertation Writing (MDW). It suggests that to obtain a fine-grained picture of these effects, supervisors should consider such important variables such as the student’s personal needs, the developmental phase of the dissertation and feedback expectations, with a view to promoting students' motivation and encouraging them to develop their MDW. ……………………………………………………………………………………………..........

In the UK, doing a Masters dissertation poses challenges for both international students and supervisors (see Idris 2016). The supervisor's feedback aims to help international students deal with the complex and unstable feature of writing the Masters dissertation more effectively, how effectively it does this is contested (Woolhouse 2002, Grant 2003, Paltridge and Startfield 2007, Anderson et al. 2008, Bitchener, et al. 2010, East, et al. 2012). However, until recently, surprisingly little research has been carried out on feedback as a process in Masters dissertation writing (MDW). This article makes a genuine contribution to the sparse research on Masters students’ and supervisors' views of the effects of the supervisor’s feedback on international students’ MDW. Woolhouse (2002) provides some useful insights into how the feedback process is a researchable concept in MDW. Woolhouse (2002) compared the findings gained from her study of a Masters student’s and a supervisor’s early expectations of the dissertation tutorial with findings of other research studies (Phillips and Pugh 2000). Both sets of students and supervisors appear to share similar expectations concerning written work in the tutorial. Similar to Phillips and Pugh’s study (2000, pp. 102,167), Woolhouse found that supervisors expect to ‘see some written work early on in the process’, and students expect their supervisors to offer ‘constructive criticism’(2002, p. 142). To make tutorials more efficient, Woolhouse suggested that they should be 'more structured’ by considering ‘the needs of the students by asking them, prior to each tutorial, to identify aspects they wish to include’ (2002, p.143). Woolhouse’s study is of particular interest because it describes a method of conducting face to face tutorials in which both students and supervisors negotiate and discuss their supervision expectations.

Although this study concentrates on the early stage of the Masters dissertation, it paves the way for exploring the potential effects of the supervisor’s 'constructive’ feedback, given during tutorials, on students’ MDW. In a more recent study in New Zealand East, Basturkmen and Bitchener (2012) used questionnaires and interviews to explore how 'effective' written feedback is from the perspective of postgraduate students (both home and international). Their study revealed that a key feature of effective feedback is that it helps foster student 'autonomy' and improve 20

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'intellectual capability', although they may be 'more apprehensive about interpreting' the supervisor's feedback than home students probably because English is not their first language (2012, p. 10). It has also found that in spite of 'language and cultural background', international and home students benefit from 'both direct and indirect' types of written feedback (2012, p.10).

Such findings reveal how written feedback influences both international students' and supervisors' views throughout the MDW process. Such effects are the focus of investigation in this study.

The present study was carried out at a UK university, including the following three distinct departments: Manufacturing Group (WMG), Law School (LS) and Centre for Translation and Comparative Cultural Studies (CTCCS). It aimed to answer the following overarching research question:

What are the potential effects of the supervisor's feedback on international students' Masters dissertation writing practices at WMG, LS and CTCCS?

Literature Review In broad terms, Laurillard (1993, p. 61) contended that any kind of learning entails feedback to the extent that ‘action without feedback is completely unproductive for a learner.’ It is clear that feedback seeks to foster learning because it is information offered to students about the extent their learning performance has improved. This information can be provided by teacher, peer or self. The challenge, however, is that it may be difficult to identify the actual effects of feedback on improving the learning process. Although research on the feedback process and its effects on MDW is sparse and inadequately theorized, it may be backed up by the extensive research on feedback in L1 and L2 writing. For example, Wiltse (2001) used questionnaires to explore the psycho-affective influence of teacher written feedback on increasing mass communication students’ self-efficacy, i.e. students’ trust in their capacity to improve their journalistic writing in a US context. Students were asked to rate their preferences for teacher written feedback on a journalistic essay with five comments related to ‘local’ (surface) issues and another five comments concerned with ‘global' (meaning) issues. To help students rate their preferences for teacher written commentary effectively, the following four options were used: 1- definitely will use, 2- might use, 3- probably won’t use, and 4-definitely won’t use.

Analysing the data statistically, it was discovered that teacher feedback had an impact on students’ self-efficacy. However, Wiltse (2001) maintained that the ‘Effects sizes were found to be small’ (2001, p.17). Nevertheless, he suggested that such unexpected results may invite writing teachers to ‘seek a balance between comments that facilitate learning and those that cause damaging affective reactions in students’ (2001, p. 20). One advantage of Wiltse’s study is that it shows how teacher feedback may have a motivational impact on inspiring students to work harder to improve their writing.

Hyland and Hyland (2001, p. 208) analyzed the written feedback given by two teachers on six ESL students’ assignments in a full-time proficiency program. They found that feedback is often seen as a key composing process that seeks to ‘transform students’ attitudes to writing and lead them to improvements’ (2001, p. 208). However, they offered a caveat that the ‘words’ used by teachers when commenting on students’ assignments ‘can also confuse and dishearten them’ (2001, p. 208). Undoubtedly, ESL writing contexts differ from Masters supervision ones.

Nevertheless, to support the assumption that the supervisor's written commentary has an affective impact on international students’ MDW motivation with empirical evidence, some genuine exploration is needed at Masters level.

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Specifically, what are the key aspects that the supervisor’s feedback may focus on in MDW? Although little research has addressed this question, Hyatt’s study (2005) may offer some insights into clarifying the feedback focus in a Masters context. Hyatt used a critical analysis of a corpus of written feedback commentaries on Master of Education assignments.

He discovered seven categories of written comments: phatic, developmental, structural, stylistic, content-related, methodological and administrative. When supervisors and students discuss what feedback should focus on, the comments are viewed as ‘the catalyst for a dialogue on how these comment types can construct a hierarchical relationship…’ (2005, p. 350).

However, Hyatt warns that providing 'comprehensive assessment criteria’ is not sufficient to overcome problems arising from this asymmetrical relationship because these criteria may result in misunderstanding. Instead, feedback should provide students with an opportunity to interact within a dynamic community, and 'they are not simply disempowered apprentices whose role is to follow and reproduce’ (2005, p. 351). Hence, there is a strong need to explore the interactional effects of the supervisor's feedback focus on international students’ MDW outcomes.

Data Collection This study involved a qualitative small-scale exploration employing two data gathering instruments: semi-structured interviews and semi-structured questionnaires. The names of both students and supervisors used here are imaginary. Semi-structured interviews were used to investigate views of a small number of international Masters international students', specifically their perceptions of how the feedback process influenced MDW in WMG, LS and CTCCS. Three rounds of student interviews were conducted. The first round, which took place before students actually started the dissertation writing, included 12 international students from WMG, LS and CTCCS (four from each department). The second round took place while students were writing their dissertations and includes interviews with three international students (one from each department: Suha (LS), Martin (WMG) and Shihab (CTCCS). The final round took place while the students were working on the final draft or submission of their dissertation with the interviews being conducted with the same international students interviewed in the second round. Semi-structured questionnaires included open-ended questions that aimed to explore a small number of supervisors’ views of the feedback process on MDW. The questionnaire data consists of fourteen completed questionnaires from WMG, six from LS, and six from CTCCS. Data Analysis The qualitative data includes interview transcripts and written answers to the open-ended questions in the questionnaires. This body of textual data was subjected to analysis using a qualitative content analysis technique. A main merit of this technique is that it begins with the interpretive essence of textual materials (Silverman, 2001). In the following section, the findings will be reported and discussed by developing an ‘unfolding’ story from the database, allowing the students’ and supervisors’ voices to emerge. Data was collected from three complementary groups of participants: twelve student interviewees, three longitudinal cases (Suha’s, Shihab’s and Martin’s) and 26 supervisors. To ensure transparency, I decided to develop a system of referencing the data extracts. This system shows how all quotations can in principle be traced back to a specific data source. It includes some information about the respondent, department and data event, for example Martin, WMG, first interview.

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Findings and Discussion The key question raised in this study is: What are the potential effects of the supervisor’s feedback on international students’ Masters dissertation writing in a UK university? Inbuilt in this question is the assumption that feedback is integral in the process of supervising international students’ MDW. It was discovered that the effects of the supervisor's feedback may be either positive or negative in shaping international students' learning, and supporting (motivating) them to improve their MDW outcomes. The contrast between positive and negative feedback effects may look simple on the surface, however they reflect the complexities of the feedback process. There's a wide degree of variation in how international students perceive feedback, what it means to them, what methods the supervisor uses to deliver the feedback, what aspects the supervisor may focus on at different developmental stages and whether students understand the feedback given. This is a major contribution in the present study. A more comprehensive understanding of the effects of supervisor's feedback is reached by discussing the following three aspects of feedback: psychological/motivational, interpersonal and developmental.

Psychological/Motivational Effects Some students think that their supervisor’s feedback, especially if delivered in person, has a positive impact on fostering their motivation to work on their dissertation at the early stage. In the words of one of the student interviewees: If face to face, perhaps we can discuss and say a lot of things perhaps some problems at that time, we can’t think about a lot but when face to face, we can discuss more.

Supervisor can motivate me to speak a lot, and I can motivate my supervisor to speak a lot, focus on this dissertation. (Joyce, WMG, 1st interview) Joyce suggests that the motivation is mutual because both supervisor and student are motivated by the contributions of the other (see Woolhouse, 2002, p. 142). From the analysis of the longitudinal cases, Suha suggests that the supervisor’s feedback has a profound influence on increasing her self-confidence in handling the challenges of the MDW process: So now I feel like I’m on the right track and I’m doing good. So it encourages me to work better… Otherwise, if it was if it was not good then I think I have to go back to stage one to start writing again and all that. (Suha, LS, 2nd interview) Suha: I feel self-confidence (sic) now. I feel now like I can advise any other student who is going come here.

Ahmad: In what way?

Suha: In writing in what I have been going through yeah. (Suha, LS, questionnaire) Suha now even feels self-confident enough to advise others on how to write the Masters dissertation. Similarly one of Anderson et al.’s student participants also indicates that, I feel confident now to say what I think about a study when people spout, you know, this study and that study and I can say: “Well, that was a good one, that was a bad one (2008, p. 46).

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The following excerpt from Shihab’s second interview also shows how the supervisor’s feedback can foster self-confidence at Masters level: She was satisfied with everything I mean well when somebody just tells you ok you’re going fine. You’re doing good nothing about the language. Just keep connections between the ideas. She was clear… I would say she’s an expert. She would just immediately spot it out for anyone whoever supervised. (Shihab, CTCCS, 2nd interview) This finding provides support for Anderson et al.’s (2008, p. 43) point that the supervisor’s 'genuine’ ‘praise’ can encourage students to believe in themselves. One of their participants mentioned after receiving the supervisor’s feedback: ‘I felt very positive and reinforced… if she gave you praise or said it was good, it was good. It was good.’ Students’ views in this respect are supported by those of supervisors. Nadeen (LS) argues that her feedback can have a motivating effect on improving international students’ individual and ‘intellectual’ abilities.

In her words: To provide support both personal and intellectual by commenting on drafts so that the student feels motivated. (Nadeen, LS,) Similarly, Antony (WMG) argues that his feedback intends to 'encourage them (international students) to strive for a good result’. This finding shows that the supervisor’s feedback can maintain students’ self-efficacy (see Wiltse 2001). East et al.'s (2012) study also supports this finding, especially when they claim that students expect the supervisor's feedback to 'use positive comments as well as … things to change' for 'it’s motivating to receive positive feedback' and 'think about how to develop the writing' (2012, p. 163).

On the other hand, the supervisor’s feedback may have a negative influence on students’ constructions of themselves as writers and their motivation to produce desired outcomes. A number of reasons are given. For example, Jane thinks that the supervisor’s too negative feedback may damage her motivation to improve the quality of her dissertation, as mentioned in the following passage: The way he criticises might point some negative critique, discourage or demotivate rather than motivate you to do. Those are certain problems that I foresee but I think have not to be very conservative. (Jane, LS, 1st interview) Some supervisors also acknowledge that international students may become depressed when receiving excessively negative criticism. For instance, Nadeen (LS) indicates: It is also (sic) the student understand that comments and feedback is not criticism or undermining of their work as in many cultures these things are taken very personally.

(Nadeen, LS) One can infer that instead of criticizing their dissertation work, students may sometimes view negative feedback as a personal criticism (see Hyland and Hyland, 2001, p. 208). The following passage from Christine’s (CTCCS) questionnaire also illustrates this:

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Instead of seeking direct advice, the student chooses to hide away, writes the dissertation in pain, and realises only too late s/he could have utilised the supervisor’s time and feedback.

A further reason is concerned with conflicting feedback expectations. For instance, Martin has high expectations at the beginning because he intends to produce something useful for those working in medical IT management. As he points out: ‘I think it (the dissertation) helps. I want to write a dissertation that really can help people.’ (Martin, WMG, 1st Interview). He relates his motivation to the actual contribution that the dissertation will make. On the other hand, his expectations diminish at later stages of doing the Masters dissertation: Actually, my dissertation is a bit useless, to be honest, because... I say short of company.

Not totally useless but a bit useless. It is under my consideration, expectation. I think the outcome should be more. (Martin, WMG) One main reason is that the ‘outcome’ doesn't meet his expectations. He aspires to develop something but he cannot do it because of insufficient research resources. So it can be intricate for supervisors to offer feedback that will meet all students’ expectations. This mismatch between students’ expectations and feedback is enlightening because it shows how students need to make sure that their expectations are reasonable by negotiating them with those of the supervisor. This finding confirms Woolhouse’s (2002, p. 143) view that stresses the importance of negotiating the expectations with the Masters student at early stages of doing the dissertation.

Interpersonal Effects Findings from student interviews reveal that students value face to face tutorials more than supervisor written commentary and email. A number of advantages of face to face tutorials have been recognized, Laura mentions that face to face tutorials are advantageous because they enhance the dialogic interaction between the supervisee and the supervisor: I always prefer one to one talk... My expectation to be in the meeting room and discuss it because um I think that’s the way I can say synergy. When you’re discussing you produce a lot more than you produce individually. Email is more individual than coming together… that feedback will be I mean especially in guidance. I really need meetings. (Laura, WMG) She regards tutorials as a vibrant ‘synergy’ where both the student and the supervisor communicate their views and discuss particular comments more closely. At later stages of the dissertation, Shihab acknowledges the communicative value of face to face tutorials. He stresses the importance of ‘body language’ in making tutorials more interactive than email. In his words: I would actually agree that it is something cultural. Yes. Maybe for us yeah for my culture...really convey the body language element… But for other people from other cultures, text would do, but for me they at least not always they don’t suffice. (Shihab, CTCCS, 3rd interview)

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So the interpersonal feature of face to face tutorials may be influenced by cultural differences (see Grant 2003). The supervisor questionnaires also mention the interpersonal value of face to face tutorials. For instance, Christine (CTCCS) points out: Sometimes I speak to the student face to face to make sure she/he understands my feedback. It facilitates direct dialogue between the student and myself. (Christine CTCCS) Such findings support East's et al. (2012) students who argue: It’s not just written feedback … we talk about our draft over coffee, which is more relaxing ... Being friendly and [having] communication is very important between supervisors and student, that you keep talking about the work, and other things like life…(2012, p. 11) Another advantage of face to face tutorials is that they require more active negotiation between the student and supervisor concerning the precise meaning of feedback comments.. This kind of negotiation enables the student to ask for immediate explanation of those comments that are not clear, as mentioned by Musharaf: I think in terms of feedback I mean I’m more comfortable if I talk face to face because yeah because I mean you know sometimes on Internet on even talking on MSN you cannot put through your message very clearly if you’re talking face to face. I prefer face to face. (Musharaf, WMG, 1st Interview) This benefit is also mentioned by the supervisors. For instance, Douglas indicates that face to face tutorials are useful because they provide a good opportunity to give students more clarification. In his words: [I] Prefer face to face –… you can get an indication if they understand what you are saying, and if they don’t then you can try to explain it again a different way. (Douglas, WMG) Nadeen (LS) adds: Feedback that is not accompanied by face to face meetings can be problematic for the overseas student who may not understand the comments, or who may have questions but unable to articulate these. It is also important to make the student articulate these.

(Nadeen, LS) Moreover, this negotiation shows how supervisors themselves use this opportunity to check to what extent their students have understood their comments: Conversations help the supervisor to know if the student has understood and if they are worried about anything. (Colin, WMG) It is noteworthy that this negotiation presents the supervisor as a facilitator and not simply an assessor. However, some students and supervisors in the present study argue that face to face 26

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tutorials may have a negative impact on international students’ interaction with the supervisor.

One reason is associated with lack of sufficient time to meet the supervisor on a regular basis.

Shihab puts it in this way: Now it’s the way I’m gonna be frank about this. The way I see, it depends (sic) how busy the supervisor is. The way some students have supervisors which are not really busy so what they do is to meet them in person. Whereas my supervisor the way I see it she is quite busy. Her feedback will take the form of written comments. (Shihab, CTCCS, 1st interview) Lisa, a student, highlights the Japanese linguistic insufficiency of the staff member giving feedback as another negative aspect of supervisor’s feedback: He is not Japanese of course, but I’m studying translation studies. I have to compare English and Japanese. In that case, he has some knowledge about Japanese, but he doesn’t know Japanese well. Can also I rely on him totally or not? Because in my department, the teacher said the supervisor is just supervisor and the study is your own study. So you cannot rely on them totally. (Lisa, CTCCS, 1st interview) Written commentary and email are seen by some students as more convenient because of the option of printing an attached text. Martin explains this in the following quotation: We email a lot… I send the file to my supervisor before I go to meet him. And he revised my work with a pen and on paper. He will print it out for me and give me the copy.

(Martin, WMG, 1st interview) Likewise, Sonia points out: And also because like email is very convenient and also just mentioning the written comments because just like last time I sent her the topic to propose ideas and she has… kind of written comments as well. So I can read her comments at the same time on my own ideas. And I could have the print out as well. (Sonia, CTCCS, 1st interview) One can infer that Sonia prefers the email because the supervisor’s written comments can be saved in a concrete record.

Developmental Effects Some findings show that the supervisor's feedback focus can have a positive effect, improving international students' MDW outcomes. Many student participants believe that although the supervisor’s feedback may cover a variety of aspects (content, ideas, grammar, layout, spelling, presentation), the focus should be on meaning-level issues (e.g. arguments, counterarguments, theory, ideas, topic, opinion) at the early stages of doing the dissertation. The following extract from the interview with Suha shows how meaning-level feedback is expected to focus on 'content': The content of my dissertation, what is actually my arguments. Whatever I’ve been you know the content basically does not mean that structure of it but what it’s being containing my dissertation, the topic which is mostly concerned my opinion which is 27

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the gist of the whole work of it. I think that’s crucially very important. (Suha, LS, 1st interview) According to Helen, meaning-level feedback can also have a direct impact on improving the quality of her MDW: I think first is about content. I mean the main content you’re writing about in your essay that should be the most important thing um because um whether your essay is worth writing or is a good essay, it depends on the content: the ideas, the arguments, the comments the idea about the legal topic and writing in my dissertation. (Helen, LS) Helen argues that content-related issues should be prioritized because they help her develop the quality of her writing. The developmental impact of the supervisor’s feedback is also identified in Martin’s longitudinal cases. The following extracts from Martin’s second interview illustrate how the supervisor’s feedback seems to have had a direct influence on Martin’s writing development: I’m working harder enough. Of course, he said to me the work is nice, but there is still room to improve... Probably that’s the message (Martin, WMG, 2nd interview) Each time I met him. I've got something to submit. So probably I met him 6 times and I submit 6 drafts. He used some email to correct me (sic) thoughts because sometimes I will have some thinking when I want to discuss with him. And he give (sic) me feedback basically those are the directions, questions. Is that a good way to write like that? Or is that a good direction…? (Martin, WMG, 2nd interview) This finding resonates with Paltridge and Startfield’s (2007, p. 44) point that the supervisor’s feedback can be seen as ‘a significant resource for improving not only the content and ideas but also language use and the rhetorical organization of their writing.’ In a similar vein, some supervisors agree that the supervisor’s meaning-level feedback has a key influence on improving students’ writing at early stages of doing the dissertation. The following excerpt offers a good illustration of this finding: [The purpose of the feedback is] to ensure that the student has the opportunity to develop the content to the standard of a pass and subsequently to a level consistent with their ability. (Philip, WMG) A few students think that the supervisor's feedback may have a positive linguistic effect on their writing, improving the quality and accuracy, especially when it focuses on surface-level issues such as grammar because English is not their first language. For instance, Musharaf anticipates that the supervisor will offer feedback on grammar because English is a foreign language for international students: A lot of people have come from different backgrounds and international students. So their first language is not English. So they (supervisors) should give feedback on, I think, not spelling but grammar. (Musharaf, WMG, 1st interview)

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This finding is also backed up by the findings gained from the supervisor questionnaires. A useful example is Nancy (LS): At the proposal stage, choosing to make sure the topic is properly defined (not too wide or … too narrow), realistic but sufficiently challenging intellectually. During the writing of the dissertation picking up from reading draft problems with structure, style or analysis and advising on improvement. (Nancy, Staff, LS) Lucy (WMG) also mentions that her feedback usually tries to identify ‘bad elements of the work (be they linguistic… related)’. Furthermore, in providing feedback on language, some supervisors see their role as partly that of proof-reader. A good example is Antony (WMG): We often have to edit the dissertations ourselves as they progress in order to get the relevant message clear. (Lucy, Staff, WMG) This finding suggests that international students should be offered more assistance with such surface aspects as spelling, grammar and layout to make the text more meaningful. Bitchener et al.'s (2010, pp. 92-93) study offers some support for this finding. As one of their supervisor participants puts it: ‘I give feedback on accuracy on early drafts because I want to set the standard and I do the same again at the end when I am helping my students polish up the writing…' However, some students such as Suha, address this issue by seeking outside support.

It seems that this outside help is useful because it may not over-privilege the supervisor’s role as the sole feedback provider. In her words: I made sure before sending my complete draft to my supervisor that I did give other people in other faculties especially those who are specializing language to proofread that work. So that my aim was that if I give it to my supervisor there should not be much comments from him. I think it worked. (Suha, LS, 3rd interview) Providing detailed correction of written English may have some negative effects on the dissertation process. One problem is that it can consume the supervisor’s valuable time. For example, Lucy (WMG) points out that when it comes to international students ‘more time is spent correcting the English...’ Time spent correcting may also have a negative impact on the quality of the content of the dissertation. To allow more time for the supervisor to concentrate on content related issues, international students are asked by their supervisors 'to get a native English proof-reader but often they do this far too late in the project cycle, so they lose marks for layout, spelling grammar etc.' (Antony, WMG). Bitchener's et al. (2010, p. 92) study claims that supervisors 'expect their students to sort out their own accuracy issues…' because they 'are not editors’.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that the supervisor’s feedback focus can enhance particular interpersonal effects because the supervisor is not only viewed as an evaluator but also as a facilitator. The following extracts from Suha’s third interview offer some explanation of how her supervisor’s role has become a facilitator: Of course, he has requested me that if I need any other problem, I’m always invited and I should always email him in case of anything. That in itself shows that he has been interested, committed. He replied instantly you know. (Suha, LS, 3rd interview) Ahmad: Now, how you respond to your supervisor’s feedback when you receive the comments on that draft?

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Suha: Oh. I become delighted. I just feel like ok at least… he is considerate with me and with my work. Of course, it makes me I become motivated because the time whenever I sent the email I’m always anxious to see his comments and if it happens like if he delays, but he has not done that I become like that I’m worried. (Suha, LS, 3rd interview) Three reasons are associated with Suah’s view: a) offering invitations to Suah to ask questions that need further clarification, b) showing more ‘commitment’ and ‘interest’ in the student’s work, and c) sending timely feedback. In this way the supervisor creates a positive and encouraging atmosphere conducive to interacting more dynamically. Hyatt’s (2005) study offers some support for such findings. He claims that ‘if writing is truly to be understood as a developmental process, and for writing pedagogies to reflect this, then the role and function of tutor feedback needs to be engaged with more critically’ (p. 352).

Conclusion The importance of the present study is that it could make a contribution to the sparse research on the potential effect of the supervisor feedback on international students’ MDW. The effects of supervisor feedback can be grouped into psycho-affective/motivational, interpersonal and developmental effects. To understand these effects more thoroughly, it is important to take into account of such issues as the student’s personal needs, the developmental phase of the dissertation and feedback expectations. One value of these issues is that they can establish an interesting context or framework within which the effects of the supervisor’s feedback can be more effectively interpreted.

International students seem to have a variety of conflicting feedback expectations at different stages of the Masters dissertation process. The interpersonal influence of the supervisor’s feedback may help both supervisors and Masters students communicate their expectations and achieve some clarity about when written work is expected to be submitted by students, when they will get it back, and the kinds of comments supervisors will give on this written work. Supervisory meetings can be a useful means to stimulate both international students and supervisors to negotiate responsibilities, share views, and learn from each other.

Because conflicting feedback expectations may occur at a variety of phases of the Masters dissertation process, more research needs to be conducted on how other departments across UK University address the issue In conclusion, some international students may not be motivated to process supervisor feedback effectively at different stages of the writing process. They may be confused and even disheartened by excessively negative feedback. Therefore, it is advisable and consequently it is necessary to raise awareness of the affective influence of supervisor feedback on international students’ motivation. In contrast when supervisors provide effective feedback to international students, their motivation increases and their attitudes to writing become more positive.

CONTACT THE AUTHOR ahmady1978@windowslive.com

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References Anderson, C., Day, K., and McLaughlin P. 2008. Student perspectives on the dissertation process in a Masters degree concerned with professional practice. Studies in Continuing Education, 3(1), pp. 33- 49.

Bitchener, J., Basturkmen, H., and East M. 2010. The Focus of the Supervisor Written Feedback to Thesis/Dissertation Students. International Journal of English Studies. 10(2), pp.

79-97.

East M., Bitchener, J., Basturkmen, H. 2012. What constitutes effective feedback to postgraduate research students? The students’ perspective. Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, 9 (2), pp. 1-16.

Grant, B. 2003. Mapping the pleasures and risks of supervision. Discourse, 24 (2), pp. 175190.

Hyatt, D. F. 2005. “Yes, a very good point!”: a critical genre analysis of a corpus of feedback commentaries on Master of Education assignments. Teaching in Higher Education, 10 (3), pp.

339- 353.

Hyland, F. and Hyland, K. 2001. Sugaring the pill: Praise and written feedback. Journal of Second Language Writing, 10, pp. 185-212.

Idris, A. Y., 2016. Understanding Masters supervision complexity of international students in the UK. International Student Experience Journal. 4 (2): pp. 1-12.

Laurillard, D. 1993. Rethinking University Teaching: A Framework for the Effective Use of Educational Technology. First Edition. New York: Routledge.

Paltridge, B., and Starfield, S. 2007. Thesis and Dissertation Writing in a Second Language: a handbook for supervisors. London: Routledge.

Phillips, E. M. and Pugh, D. S. 2000. How to get a PhD: A Handbook for Students and their Supervisors. Third Edition. Open University Press, Buckingham.

Silverman, D. 2001. Interpreting Qualitative Data: Methods for Analyzing Talk, Text and Interaction. London: SAGE. Wiltse, E.M.2001. ‘The effects of motivation and anxiety on student’s use of instructor comments.’ Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Educational Journalism and Mass Communication, pp. 26-27.

Woolhouse, M. 2002. Supervising dissertation projects: expectations of supervisors and students. Innovations in Education and Training International, 39(2), pp. 137-144.

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Student Article My study abroad experience in Perth, Australia Deniz Karaman The University of Western Australia ABSTRACT This article considers the differences between studying in the UK and studying in Australia from the perspective of a British exchange student from the University of Sussex. She is a third year student studying Politics and International Relations. In the following article she writes about her experiences as an exchange student at the University of Western Australia (UWA), namely the differences in the social life, the structure of modules and the way in which students are graded. ……………………………………………………………………………………………..........

Social life Before I arrived in Australia, I initially planned to stay in the halls of residence, but after discovering that the rent prices were just shy of $500 (Australian) a week, with an additional acceptance fee of $1000, and a deposit of $2000, I decided that staying in the halls of residence was not financially viable. In addition to this, a major deterrent was also that the halls of residences did not seem like a very sociable option, and after talking to other exchange students, I decided against staying in halls. Instead, I chose to live in a house share. My house share is in close proximity to the university. This is ideal because I can easily walk to and from university every day. I chose to live in a predominantly student-dominated house. Aside from me, there is one other undergraduate student, one Master’s student and one PhD student. I have been very lucky in the sense that my house is very sociable and my Australian housemates have been very good at integrating the international housemates into their friendship circles and immersing them in the wider Australian culture.

Speaking to other exchange students from the UK, I have found that the halls experience is not what they thought it would be. Firstly, all of the residences are catered, which means that students are restricted to sticking to certain time blocks for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Catered accommodation also means that there is no kitchen on each floor of each residential building.

This makes it harder for people to socialize, as the kitchen is generally the main social space between students when living in halls of residence. In the UK, you have the option of catered accommodation; however, self-catering is a significantly more popular option allowing the kitchen to be used as a social space.

While the absence of a kitchen means that there is no immediate social space between the students on each floor, there are other common spaces at the residences. However, they are in separate buildings, and are usually patrolled by residential staff. This means that the level of noise you can make is strictly regulated. It is also difficult to enjoy company in your private rooms as noise is forbidden after 10pm. In addition to this, the residences are privately owned, which means that rooms are leased to those other than UWA students. For example, I have met students who share their floor with high school students. For this reason, I am glad that I chose to live in a house share as it means that I have more freedom and also because it has allowed me to interact with local Australians and immerse myself into Australian culture.

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The drawbacks with regards to the halls of residence fits into my wider criticism of university life in Australia in terms of it being generally less social overall. This may be because it is not very common for Australian students to move out of their family homes for university.

I have noticed that the large majority of students live fairly local to the university and still live with their parents. This is a striking difference compared to the UK where the vast majority of students leave their home town when they begin university. The suggested motivation for British students to do this is so they can seek new friendships and experiences, which can make going to university in the UK a very sociable affair. In contrast, starting university in Australia is not typically a life changing event for Australians as most of them do not move away from home. In turn, they do not feel the need to form as many new friendships, or seek new experiences. Having said this, there are Australian students who do move to different states to study, and others who have moved from the local country towns. However, in my experience, they are in the minority. For this reason, I have found it significantly harder to make friends at university in Australia.

Grading and module structure The second major difference is the way in which professors structure their modules and grade students. For every module I have taken, attendance counts for between five to ten per cent of my overall grade. This is very different to the UK because even though attendance is compulsory, it is not graded. In Australia, my level of participation in tutorials is also weighted.

Aside from the differences in attendance and participation, students are examined each week, be it in the form of short online tests, journal entries, or a summarization of their readings. In the UK, students are not examined weekly, but only a handful of times throughout the semester and in the form of examinations, essays and lab reports. In addition to this, there is a far greater emphasis on group work in Australian universities. I have been set graded group exercises for nearly every module I have taken at UWA, in comparison to Sussex, where I only had individual assessments. I have found this particularly difficult because I am much more used to planning and managing my own time opposed to group planning and time management.

Conclusion In summary, I have found the university experience to be quite different in Australia. The first being the difference in the social atmosphere. The emphasis on the university social life is much greater in the UK. Australian students tend not to be as social as they don't have the same need to meet new people due to the fact that they typically don’t move to new cities when they go to university. The second major difference I have experienced is the structure of the modules and the number of different ways in which students are graded. This makes the workload feel heavier due to the overall grade being divided into many different areas and testing being administered on a more frequent basis.

Overall, despite the slower social life and heavier workload, I am having a fantastic time at UWA and have learnt that where meeting people isn’t effortless, you need to go out and do it yourself. I have also taken the heavier workload as a positive as I know that the weekly tests will keep me from getting too distracted. My experiences here have been invaluable and I look forward to expanding on them in the time I have left here as an exchange student.

CONTACT THE AUTHOR d_karaman@hotmail.co.uk

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Student Article First weeks of Uni life Desirée Vila Bargiela Canterbury Christ Church University I arrived in Canterbury on the 14th of September. When I first saw my bedroom I thought that it was not going to be difficult to call it “home”. As it was my first time living alone, and really far away from my country, Spain, the first days were completely strange. I had to do a lot of things, such as cooking, ironing and laundry. Despite these things, I found the time to enjoy Fresher´s Week, which was awesome. I already knew a Spanish student who I had met during the open days in June. However, I was able to make more friends at all the parties, meet people from many other countries and share similar experiences with those new students. Everyone was kind and I was feeling myself with a lot of energy and positivity to start university!

The coolest thing about it was the society´s fair. In Spanish universities, these do not exist so I found it fascinating to have this opportunity to join a club about my interest and make friends with people with the same hobbies as me. I took advantage of this to improve my English. So, I have since participated in political speeches, even though at the beginning I did not understand it most of the time.

What impressed me the most about living here was that many of the students also work.

This is possibly because the way of studying here is very different. When I realized that I did not have lessons on Tuesdays nor on Wednesdays, I felt really confused. I enjoy attending my lectures because I really like my course and my subjects. However, although it was hard for me to catch the rhythm, I was cheerful that I would have more free time to study and prepare my assignments. We have many seminars in which we have to carry out group work to put into practice the theory we learn in class. Each group member must organize themselves to look for information on their own and be interested in expanding their knowledge. In this way, those who know how to make the most of their time are able to work, study and have fun. While in Spain, students at university have lectures from Monday to Friday during the morning, but here I barely have 12 hours per week. As well, my Spanish friends have lots of exams and less holidays, but in my case, I have to do a lot of researching for my assignments, which makes me learn at the time as study about the subject I am working on. Personally, I think that this is a better way of learning rather than memorizing what your teacher wants you to repeat in your exams. It is also more practical approach as the student is not a passive element anymore.

My university, besides being enormous, is very well organized. Everything works automatically through the student card and via online in a program with a personal account to which we access the information about our course, our schedules or the duties that the teachers send. The university also has lots of other information points and help areas. For example, during the first few days we were given all the information to be able to take full advantage of our career years, and all the places are accessible to the disabled. The university has a lot of study areas, dining rooms and a spectacular library, and very often we are offered special talks of orientation to the labour market or specific topics about our degree. It is true that university fees in England are much higher than in Spain i.e. approximately £9000 compared with £2000, but at least I believe it is worth it.

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I would also say that Spanish culture is completely different to British culture, and sometimes I wonder how amazing is it that both countries are not that far away but this country has its own peculiar aspects. For example, English people say “sorry” for almost everything, and they work upside down in many ways. For example, they use particular plugs and switches and they have a distinct side for driving. As well, many people have dinner at 6pm when the Spanish have dinner at 10pm despite going to bed at 12am, as the Spanish people do. I wonder, how aren´t they hungry when they go to sleep? Finally, the worst thing about being Spanish in a country where it is raining all the time, is that in winter it gets dark at 4pm in the afternoon.

That is just depressing.

Nevertheless, to sum up, I just want to say that I am living an incredible experience and, at the same time as learning English, I am also learning about new cultures and new ways of living that will make me grow as a person. Spanish and British higher education systems work in absolutely different ways, and as a person who has studied in both contexts, I personally think that Spain still has a lot to learn from English universities in some aspects.

Although, in other fields such as gastronomy, I would be faithful to my country.

CONTACT THE AUTHOR desivilabargiela98@gmail.com

Student Article Why I love my turtle socks: reflections on being welcomed into a new community as an international exchange student from the UK to the USA Samantha Lea University of York (UK) /Beloit College (US) Many new students chose to arrive at Beloit College wearing their new ‘turtle socks’ – a fun gift sent from the admissions department to welcome all new students prior to their arrival. The turtles represent the college’s ‘un-official’ mascot, but for me the socks themselves represent something more. Gifting 400 new students the same pair of custom-socks each year seems like a clever way to foster a sense of belonging. I have later come to realise that the arrival of these socks was the first sign that my new college would make welcoming me a priority of theirs, and that a great deal of time and energy would be used in trying to show us that we had now become a ‘Beloiter’ and that we were important to the Beloit community.

There were a great many differences between my first ten days as a first-year undergraduate student at my home institution, the University of York, and as a new exchange student at Beloit College in Wisconsin. My transition into university life in York was made easier by having grown up just 80 miles from the city and being familiar with what to expect from a typical British university’s ‘Fresher’s Week’. However, the arrival period at Beloit

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College surprised me in many ways, and although it was a hectic and tiring time, I can reflect positively on the ways in which my host institution was able to assist me in feeling welcomed.

Beloit College is a small liberal arts college with just 1,350 students, of which almost all live on the campus or within a five-minute walking distance. With almost the entire student body living in its provided accommodation, the college is able to easily direct when different groups of students can arrive. New international students arrive amongst the earliest in order to participate in a three-day weekend of ‘international orientation’. They are then joined by new students from US and a week-long ‘New Student Days’ programme begins, at the end of which the existing students return to campus and classes begin.

Having experienced the very relaxed culture of a typical British ‘Fresher’s Week’, I was greatly surprised by the huge number of requirements of my ten-day orientation period at Beloit. There were compulsory activities and events scheduled for each of the ten days, beginning early and continuing into the evening. It was a challenge to find time to take a moment for myself, sleep off my jet lag, or even properly unpack. We were required to prepare for each day by completing homework the night before, often taking over an hour, something I could not imagine being included as part of a typical ‘Fresher’s Week’ in the UK. Most activities took place in classrooms, usually with small groups of other exchange students and sometimes together with new US transfer students with which we the shared experience of previously being at another college or university.

Many of the activities were memorable. We gave each other ‘nicknames’ to help learn names, gave short presentations about our ‘life journeys’, and together read the beautiful graphic novel The Arrival by Shaun Tan in which the character encounters a new and unfamiliar culture. Towards the end of the week we brought in objects that were important to us and told their stories. I remember one young man in the group becoming very emotional as he spoke; over-come with homesickness. We also discussed what we were finding difficult so far, giving our orientation leaders an opportunity to resolve some student’s previously unmentioned problems, such as accommodation issues.

Outside of the classroom, we explored college facilities and places in the local area, met informally with professors to discuss academic opportunities, and socialised with other new students. Another very prominent difference between my US orientation and my UK orientation was the absence of alcohol. Given that the legal drinking age is 21 in the US, there were no organised or advertised events that involved alcohol. As someone that seldom drinks, I found it extremely refreshing to be able to attend popular social events that did not centre on alcohol consumption.

The orientation period also covered serious topics. We spoke in depth about the college’s drug and alcohol policy, learnt what we might expect in terms of how sexuality and gender preference is expressed and recognised on campus, and discussed issues surrounding students’ race and class. Following a six-hour online video seminar we had a serious discussion surrounding sexual assault on college campuses. Every member of the student body at Beloit is required to complete this seminar and attend a discussion group prior to beginning class. It is likely that this choice to extensively educate students about these issues contributes to the fact the college has proportionately one of the highest rates of reported sexual assaults of all US colleges and universities. This does not necessarily show that more assaults are happening at Beloit, but that more people feel able to report incidents.

The orientation period ended with a very touching and memorable celebration. After the first day of classes a ‘convocation ceremony’ was held to celebrate the beginning of the new school year. The ceremony began with a large parade through the campus led by myself 37

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and 40 other international students, each holding their country’s flag to signify the 41 countries represented by the student body. We were followed by almost 400 other students, all the new exchange students, transfer students, and the entirety of the new class of 2020. As we approached the campus’s chapel we were greeted by every faculty member, all wearing their full academic dress of colourful gowns and caps. They formed a long pathway and cheered and applauded as we walked between them and into the chapel.

Inside we listened to speeches and watched live performances. The event was broadcast live on the college’s website, and my family tuned in from at home in England and watched me approach the stage and place my flag amongst the others. At the end of the ceremony, the flag bearers stood and retrieved the flags and formed a line standing in pairs ready to lead the exit from the chapel. I found myself standing at the front with another exchange student and together we led the group down the aisle of the chapel. The doors were opened as we approached revealing a large crowd of students waiting outside, ready to cheer and applaud us.

We walked through the crowd, leading 400 new students and the entire dressed faculty behind us. The event ended with a sunny picnic for the whole campus with games, activities and music.

I felt more than ever that Beloit was proud of its international community and had succeeded in welcoming us to America and to Beloit College.

CONTACT THE AUTHOR sfjl501@york.ac.uk

Student Article A foundation for writing your first academic essay Sofiya Shkvorchenko University of St Andrews

There is a feeling of frustration when trying to recall a word, which seems to be close, but unreachable. It seems to happen much more often when it comes to using a second language, in this case, English, especially for academic purposes. One way to deal with this situation is to try to rephrase the whole sentence. Another option is to write the word using simple language and after, use a thesaurus to find a suitably academic synonym. However, there are nuances with nearly every word in the language, so they do not always collocate well and keep the same meaning when put together. Thus, it is not always the most ideal approach. This article will discuss the process of writing an essay and it will focus on how to start writing especially when it is a new experience for a student.

Firstly, this essay will take an in-depth look at the academic writing process in English.

The main problem, from the perspective of Russian students, is that we do not write essays at school. We typically write compositions after finishing reading a book, such as the following based on the title "Crime and Punishment" by Dostoevsky: 38

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"What pushed Raskolnikov to kill the old pawnbroker?" Do not worry, this happens right at the beginning of the book, so it is not a spoiler…

Creativity is not expected at school, whereas a good essay in university in the U.K is a combination of one’s own thoughts and prior research. Exploring resources for arguments and finding examples for an essay is another thing Russian students are not normally asked to do.

All the information and ideas are provided by the teacher. Students are merely expected to show that they have listened. On the contrary, when writing an essay at university in the U.K, every student is expected to provide evidence that they have understood and interacted with information.

Personally, I have two states of mind when I am writing, whether it is in Russian or English. Either I have no idea what I want to say, or my thoughts are too fast for my fingers.

Thus, I either agonize over every word and achieve nothing, or turn the paper into messy ungrammatical notes, which can be understood only by me and needs a general edit. Neither of these situations is very helpful for writing the first couple of essays. This is why, from my observation, many undergraduate students have difficulties writing essays in English.

With experience, it becomes easier to put all thoughts together. As far as I am concerned, the first stage is to unpick the title. Then, you need to make a plan with bullet points and spend some time reading in order to find support and evidence for arguments. The next step is to connect all your ideas and concepts, so your thoughts eventually appear to flow logically. Essentially, this makes it easier for the reader to follow.

Some students find it difficult to start with an introduction, while others struggle to write a conclusion. Thus, it is better to begin with the part you find easiest to start with because you know what you want to say, and use this as a base to develop other thoughts. When your brain has warmed up, writing becomes less intimidating than when you are sitting in front of a blank page. However, it is important to remember that writing an academic essay does not work in the same way as creative writing when the only constraint is imagination; there are a number of conventions and guidelines to make writing truly academic by which I mean developing a clear argument that the reader will be able to follow easily.

The conclusion to be reached can be that the most important aim of a foundation course is to teach us the basic principles of writing an essay and developing our voice. This is because during the first year of university, all students are treated equally, regardless of their nationality and mother tongue. After the preparation in the foundation year, international students should have learned to adjust to the U.K’s higher education writing requirements, and may even have an advantage over the native speakers. I am in the process of writing my first academic essay, which is the hardest task for me at this point and I hope I will deal with it the best way I can.

The only way to proceed in writing an essay is to put some words on paper. This can be a problem not only with essay writing, but also with any creative and evaluative pieces of work. Every writer is afraid of being imperfect and that is probably the reason why it is so difficult to make a start. One solution could be simply to write down ideas as they come, and worry about the language later, after finishing the draft. Basically, there is no other way of writing something other than starting.

Another issue for many students is thinking about the word limit; this can simply prevent thoughts developing naturally. On the one hand, it may seem easier to reduce the word count by editing i.e. replacing longer phrases with shorter synonymous language which take 39

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less space and by deleting sentences with the repetitive ideas. On the other hand, if an essay is coherently written, every phrase and sentence is connected to the next and the previous ones, so replacing phrases or getting rid of sentences can break the flow. Thankfully, this problem can be solved upon further editing of the first draft.

In conclusion, writing is quite simply a matter of concentration and putting yourself in a writing mood. If this is achieved, there is nothing to stop you from writing the best work you have ever done. Good luck with your writing, both creative and academic, and remember – at university there is always an essay that you should be working on, so you need to work on making it an enjoyable pursuit.

CONTACT THE AUTHOR ss348@st-andrews.ac.uk

Student Article Cultural project Alex Ludkovsky and Zehra Jazim Ali University of Birmingham Supervised by our class EAP teacher, Jane Sjoberg, a class of Advanced C2 Foundation students at the BIA (Birmingham International Academy, University of Birmingham) took part in a cultural project that aimed to identify aspects that international students found strange or even shocking upon moving to England. This interactive approach was taken in order to share different experiences from different cultures, and to see the similarities between the U.K and other countries. The project also helped us students overcome the problem of homesickness since by sharing we were able to feel less alone and less embarrassed about this experience.

The students were divided into four groups where a range of nationalities was present, namely Swedish, Indian, Bermudian, Sri Lankan, Pakistani, Saudi Arabian, American, Kenyan, Nigerian, Ghanaian, and Bahraini. The task was to present cultural awareness in a creative way.

Students commented on how different ways of behaving in the U.K which were different from their culture made them feel. To start us off, the teacher gave us some subject headings and content to think about and comment on in an online discussion board on our VLE, Canvas. The questions regarding ‘Expectations vs Reality’ were particularly interesting. From the discussion comments we saw that students either had significant expectations about the life in the U.K before they arrived or had thought that life would not be very different. After reflecting on the project, most students agreed that thinking about their cultural experiences helped them realise things about their own culture. One common theme was differences in the concept of time. Several students agreed that they were having time management issues in the U.K because of a more laid back attitude towards deadlines in their home countries. Similarly, many 40

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students found the U.K to be a rather gloomy place to live because public places close down quite early, whereas in students' home towns life starts after 8 p.m.

In each case, after the starter discussions online the groups explored the comments they had posted extensively in face-to-face meetings, and thought about how they could represent their ideas in an interesting way i.e. virtually for sharing purposes.

Group 1 (Alex - USA, Kwame - Ghana, Nadun – Sri Lanka & Zehra – Pakistan) made a comic strip describing several students’ experience of university life: “The idea behind our cultural project was to compare and contrast the expectations versus reality of the Foundation students. The purpose of this was to see how the overall university experience had been for students.

We asked the students questions on three topics: people, living and accommodation.

There were some cases where expectations were met and others where people were surprised at what they got. Moreover, we, as a group, found ourselves relating to the other students.

Perhaps the most contradictory answers we read were regarding "people at university."

All students were looking forward to meeting new people before they arrived. Some students made a lot of new friends. However, some were greatly dissatisfied. They felt that people in the U.K were not the most forthcoming and therefore it was harder to socialize.”

Group 2 (Hamad – Bahrain, Reshma - India, Jayson – Kenya) made a humorous comic strip which consisted of the members’ experiences adjusting to the customs and regulations in the U.K: “To start the project off, we began our discussion by bringing our own cultural backgrounds into the picture. We summarized our discussion on a piece of paper and categorized all the differences into four main groups; food, driving, weather, and social norms.

We decided to translate our ideas into a comic as a form of presentation. The comic followed the post-high school life of Bob, the family’s disappointment. He suddenly finds himself alone in the U.K after being sent there by his parents to study. Bob is a character that represents a holistic summary of our experience of culture shock in the U.K. Bob leads an eventful first day in the U.K; he finds himself confused over why Britons appear to have lunch at 11:30 and not breakfast. He’s also extremely shocked as to how quickly the weather changes in the U.K. Finally, Bob finds out that he hasn’t adjusted to the driving patterns in the U.K. After looking the wrong way before crossing i.e. he looks left first, not right, Bob ends up getting run over by a truck which ultimately leads to his death.”

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Figure 1: Comic Strip by Group 1

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Figure 2: Comic strip by Group 2

Group 3 (Daksh - India, David – Nigeria, Raif – Saudi Arabia) made a video which was hosted on the university’s internal VLE and shown in the EAP classroom. The video mainly 44

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highlighted the differences between individual experiences of two international students who came to study in the U.K. It showed that one student adjusted well to the changes and made friends quickly and as a result he was able to cope with the educational strain. However, the other student struggled socially which eventually impacted his academic success. In the end, the student with the better grades and social life helped his course-mate overcome the problems.

The video displayed how different people can face different problems in the same environment.

It also emphasizes the importance of having friends who can help overcome struggles and make certain situations less stressful.

In their discussion board comments, Daksh, Raif and David also talked about study, culture shock and culture clash, which international students frequently face. They further elaborated on how to deal with these problems tactfully: “Study shock is when a student finds it difficult to adapt to a new style of learning. An example of study shock could be the difference in the surroundings of a School and University. In school a student is in a class of 40 students, whereas in university a student can be in a lecture with 200+ students. When at university, the student is expected to be independent and to self-study. There can be a language barrier between the student and lecturer. Different accents and dialects may difficult for the student to understand and can affect learning.

Culture shock is when a person moves to a different location and has to learn to adapt to the local culture. When a person experiences culture shock, they should try and make friends with the locals of that country so that they are able to adapt to the culture and learn more about the country.

Culture clash is when 2 or more people from different cultural backgrounds have opposing ideas or beliefs about a certain topic. To try and avoid culture clash, one should be more open-minded and try to see the situation from the other person’s perspective.”

Group 4 (Filippa - Sweden, Salman - Pakistan, Tariq - Bermuda) made an online discussion board where all the members described their overall experience of moving to a new country. They talked about the different learning experiences, new people, culture shock and whether their overall expectations were met or not: “Through sharing and discussing as a group, we have found that our views are relatively alike with slight variations when it comes to living and learning as a Foundation Year student in Birmingham. Previously all of us have been exposed to international people and so that in particular is not very new to any of us. However, we have all agreed that an international environment enables us to obtain a wider base of knowledge and helps us in the future by allowing us to be more open-minded.

In general none of us have experienced extreme culture or study shock but rather small changes; some being as simple as the direction of traffic or the differences in climate.

Interestingly, the biggest shock we have experienced is in realizing that we are not so different from each other after all. It's quite amazing to discover through our discussion that as students we have similar views when it comes to studying and living in the U.K.” URL: https://padlet.com/tariqbasden/o47kn6s0t4d8

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The cultural project we were involved in demonstrates some, but not all, of the typical problems mentioned in the literature about the cultural adjustment of international students. Lee (2014) proposes that one of the main reasons that international students struggle is due to the language barrier. However, since this EAP class was advanced and most of the students had previously studied English as an additional first language, this was not an issue for us. Instead, as discussed

by Group 2, most of us had difficulties with acclimatising to British culture. This may be due to the fact that most of us came from more slow-paced environments and were not punctual.

Similarly, we were unfamiliar with public places closing down early as well as driving patterns in the U.K. Consequently, talking about these differences and about homesickness has helped us to bond more with fellow international students.

The Foundation Programme at the University of Birmingham mostly consists of international students as well as some local students studying on non-EAP subject modules.

An outsider in the class would immediately notice that students with the same nationality mostly socialised together while the local students intermixed. Similarly, the interview by Group 1 highlighted that international students felt that domestic students were not the most forthcoming. Williams and Johnson, 2011 (cited by Lee, 2014) confirms that friendships between international and local students is rare due to the differences in social expectations.

Schweisfurth and Gu (2009) point out that the lack of friendship between international and local students at an early stage results in international students missing out on valuable cultural experiences. This data shows that international students may be deprived of a chance to fully understand the local youth culture due to this lack of interaction.

Sherry et al. (2010) point out that the number of friends which a student has may be a reflection of their success. This means if international students are unable to make friends, they might suffer academically. The problem is further heightened because of homesickness. This was shown in the video by Group 3 in which the student was suffering socially, and this negatively affected their academic performance.

The cultural project was an enjoyable way to introduce a rather serious subject of cultural shock and how people deal with it. Following the cultural project, we participated in an online tutorial discussion which gave us further opportunity to reflect on the cultural experiences we had shared and to consider what advice we would give on how to deal with the differences we encountered. Below is an example of one discussion contribution:

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After reflecting on the project, the students and also the teacher noticed a significant change in class dynamics. There was a significant improvement in class participation and interaction between different nationalities and, interestingly, genders. Since the project had a more creative outlook compared to a presentation, students felt they shared more ideas and perspectives and ultimately ended up with closer friendships. The project also helped the students academically. They learned how to manage time and work independently without the teacher’s supervision.

It is not uncommon that at times international students, and especially foundation students who are usually younger, find it hard to fit in and make friends. This can have a significant impact on their mental state, especially because often they do not have families in this country to rely on. This issue should be further stressed. In her article about international students, Andrade (2006) cites research which shows that international students often suffer from a lack of support available to them regarding social adaptation. Sherry et al. (2010) also note that this is often linked to language issues. Most students during their studies had problems in holding a general conversation with local students and some international students suggested having a “slang” class to help them communicate more effectively. As a suggestion, other university subjects and programmes outside Academic English could be made more aware of their students’ experience by setting up similar projects to this one in order to give students the opportunity to converse and share ideas in a less formal environment. This could not only help the University to deal effectively with student issues, but it may also enhance the overall experience of international students.

Contributors: EPS/MLGS1 Class, BIA International Foundation Pathway, 2016/17 (Raif Abdulrahman, Zehra Jazim Ali, Hamad Aljalahma, Tariq Basden, Salman Farrukh, Kwame Frimpong-Manso, Filippa Kiviniemi, Alex Ludkovsky, Jayson Muli, Daksh Pahlajani, Reshma Rajendran Padmaja Nair, Nadun Siriwardana, David Udeagha) CONTACT THE AUTHOR zxj604@student.bham.ac.uk References Andrade, M.S., 2006. International students in English-speaking universities: Adjustment factors. Journal of Research in International Education, 5(2), pp.131-154.

Lee, K. C. G. 2014. Tips for International students’ Success and Adjustment. International Student Experience Journal, 2(1) [Online] Available at http://isejournal.weebly.com/uploads/1/6/3/1/16311372/isej_lee_final.pdf [Accessed 29th May, 2017] Schweisfurth, M. and Gu, Q., 2009. Exploring the experiences of international students in UK higher education: possibilities and limits of interculturality in university life. Intercultural Education, 20(5), pp.463-473.

Sherry, M., Thomas, P. and Chui, W.H., 2010. International students: A vulnerable student population. Higher Education, 60(1), pp.33-46.

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Student Article Challenges and coping strategies of Asian international students in higher education: A personal reflection Hao Phan University of East Anglia ABSTRACT This paper captures my experiences as a post-graduate student in two educational institutions, namely the National University of Singapore (Singapore) and the University of East Anglia (United Kingdom). These experiences will be relevant to and, I hope, helpful for those who are planning to apply for or currently undertaking their postgraduate studies overseas. I will first provide a brief overview of my undergraduate background at Hanoi National University, Vietnam. I will then reflect on my coping mechanisms in different learning environments from the perspective of an international student. I will conclude with some notes on how my learning experiences have shaped my own learning goals. ……………………………………………………………………………………………..........

Introduction International students, especially Asian international students, often experience considerable difficulties in adapting to cultural differences and new learning styles when they embark on their postgraduate studies overseas. In most cases they often experience study shock, which sometimes results in low performance and stress (Burns 1991). Developing an adequate coping mechanism in learning, therefore, may be useful to overcome these challenges enhance their learning skills and boost self-confidence while studying in different countries. As an Asian international student, I also encountered these challenges when I moved to Singapore and then the United Kingdom to undertake the Master’s and Doctoral Programmes respectively. This paper captures my experiences as a post-graduate student in two educational institutions, namely the National University of Singapore (NUS) (Singapore) and the University of East Anglia (UEA) (United Kingdom). These experiences may be helpful for those who are planning to apply for or currently undertaking their postgraduate studies overseas and for those who are working to support international students. This is because these experiences help to inform both sides what may constitute a challenge in a new learning environment, what coping mechanisms may prove helpful and what can be done in advance to better prepare for the challenge. However, since this paper is based on my personal reflection, it is likely to be more relevant to Asian international students studying in English-speaking countries and so its conclusions cannot be generalised.

In the following sections, I will first provide a brief overview of my undergraduate background at Hanoi National University, Vietnam. I will then reflect on my coping mechanisms in different learning environments from the perspective of an international student. I will conclude with some notes on how my learning experiences have shaped my own learning goals.

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My undergraduate background My undergraduate background was closely linked to my choice of post-graduate courses in Singapore and the United Kingdom. I started the Bachelor’s Programme at the Faculty of History, Hanoi National University, and took Cultural Studies as my sub-major. During my undergraduate study, the typical teaching method in social sciences and humanities in Vietnamese universities was the delivery of lectures in the classroom. The objective of these lectures was to provide us with factual knowledge and not to educate us with regard to thinking critically synthesising and analysing data creating knowledge or looking for additional information to advance our knowledge (Azer 2009). As a consequence, I was not encouraged to develop a deeper understanding of the concepts taught.

Since the teaching methods were dominated by one-way lectures, most undergraduate lecturers would read out their notes or slides and students would take notes and memorise information. During these lectures, there was no opportunity to question the lecturers or to engage in discussions and debates to further understand the topics. Occasionally, some lecturers would hold mini-seminars in class. To prepare for these seminars, we were divided into small groups and each group would be given a set of readings on the topic in order that we could present our findings to other groups and lead a discussion. These seminars were quite interesting since they encouraged us to carefully research the materials in advance, summarise the crucial points, attempt to identify links between the readings and present our findings on slides. In addition, there were brief debates following each group’s presentation and some students were keen to engage in further discussion. However, since these mini-seminars comprised only a small percentage of our coursework and there was no follow-up discussion or guidance from lecturers to help us explore our actual learning needs and abilities, they did not prepare me well to engage in discussion-based classes during my post-graduate studies.

The methods of assessment employed whilst I was an undergraduate were not effective either. In fact, assessments, such as written and oral exams, were designed to classify students into different categories. Our performance during these exams, which often entailed considerable stress, would demonstrate our learning abilities and determine the probability of our gaining a scholarship or award. Therefore, we would mainly try to memorise and repeat what the lecturers had said in the hope of achieving high grades.

To the new learning environments: challenges and coping mechanisms As expected, my undergraduate background in Vietnam put me at a disadvantage when adapting to higher education; these were not generally experienced by other MA and PhD fellow students from more Western-oriented educational institutions like the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the University of East Anglia (UEA).

When I joined the Master’s programme in Southeast Asian Studies at NUS, I had to familiarise myself with a completely new way of learning and teaching. During the first year of the MA, we were required to take one compulsory module and one elective module. The second year was dedicated to a studies module, a graduate research seminar and thesis writing.

Although I only had two modules during the first semester, I struggled most of the time. As postgraduate students, we were expected to be able to articulate the core theories or debates on the relevant topic. We were also expected to prepare all the readings before attending the class as we had to present our ideas in groups and then join the open discussion. My limited experience with discussion-based lectures did not help much in this new learning environment.

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When the learning contexts changed, I was removed from my comfort zone of traditional pedagogy in which I could count on memorization and rote learning to achieve high grades. Without a deep understanding of concepts, theories and current debates, I found it more difficult to comprehend the readings, use them in the discussions, present my own argument and generate original ideas. Moreover, as I had previously depended on my lecturers for knowledge acquisition, I did not have the essential skills to search for, and process, related materials. This limited my ability to delve into the readings and critique them apart from simply summarising them. As a result, I was unable to keep up with much of the discussion and often remained silent in class during the first half of the module. More importantly, I became less confident about my abilities since I was not aware that these were common problems experienced by many students in such intercultural learning contexts. Ippolito (2007:757) identifies “four factors creating barriers to intercultural learning including academic and time pressure, indifference, language difference and privileged knowledge�. From my own experiences, I found that I was more affected by the last two factors: language difference and privileged knowledge.

The language barrier is seen as the greatest challenge when moving to an English speaking learning environment. Asian international students, such as I am, have to completely switch to English to read materials, prepare notes for group discussions, present in class, participate in open discussions and write reflective essays for assessment. Unfamiliarity with academic English and the various English accents of lecturers and classmates made it more difficult for me and other international students to process the materials and actively engage in the discussion. Improving language proficiency, therefore, is the key to solving such learning difficulties.

The second problem, a lack of privileged knowledge, is also crucial, especially for international students. Privileged knowledge in higher education refers to the body of knowledge obtained by local/home students during undergraduate studies and continuously circulated by lecturers at the postgraduate level. This body of knowledge is normally considered universal but it might or might not be fully comprehended by Asian international students when they first begin their postgraduate studies. From my experience, I believe that this privileged knowledge, which is a challenge for international students, can work in different ways. For example, during my undergraduate studies, I was trained as a researcher in Vietnamese history and culture. As such, the main body of literature was written by Vietnamese researchers. Occasionally, I was asked to read a few articles written by foreign scholars in English, but my whole perspective was shaped by the so-called domestic scholars and mainstream schools of thought. When I began my MA in Southeast Asian Studies, I also embarked on a new journey to learn about how foreign scholars wrote about Southeast Asia and Vietnam. My previous knowledge of Vietnamese history and culture could have been useful in discussions when my lecturers invited students from Southeast Asia to contribute case studies to the lectures. I was, however, convinced that the knowledge obtained during my undergraduate studies was out of date and I was, therefore, reluctant to contribute to the discussion. Furthermore, since I was not used to the way lecturers and students in Singapore engage in a discussion, I sometimes misunderstood their intention when they asked me questions. I used to think that both lecturers and classmates wanted to challenge me or correct me because my knowledge was not adequate, or simply because I was not good enough to defend my own argument. My insecurity and inferiority complex could be the main reason for this. In addition, it was the power relations between lecturers and learners and among learners themselves that created barriers for knowledge exchange in the classroom. The pressure might have originated from some of the lecturers due to their lack of experience in working with students from diverse socio-cultural backgrounds.

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The challenges inherent in intercultural learning at NUS and UEA, however, were not the same. When I moved to the UK to complete a Doctoral Programme, I experienced a new set of challenges and some of the lessons learnt at NUS no longer seemed relevant. The new learning environment at UEA required more independence, creativity and self-discipline, which aligns with the universal requirements for doctoral training. For me, the challenge of studying at UEA is mostly due to the transition from master to doctoral level rather than the unfamiliarity with intercultural learning. Compared to my studies at NUS, I struggled less with the language difference and more with the privileged knowledge at UEA. Instead of debating different research topics or theories, I was asked to debate specific topics and research questions proposed by my fellow PhD students and me. On the surface, it seemed that our scope of learning had become narrower, but in fact it had been expanded and I had to constantly learn new things, read new materials and produce authentic and original ideas. Unlike completing coursework when I was provided with key readings and topics or issues to prepare and discuss, during the PhD in the UK it was the students who came up with the readings and topics to be discussed. Lecturers sometimes merely acted as facilitators who provided minimal guidance. As a PhD student, I was encouraged to select which bodies of literature to include, which theories would work for my set of data and which methods I could employ to collect data. Switching from a discussion-based classroom to a student-centered classroom was a little perplexing at first.

However, as I became more aware of what was causing me to struggle with intercultural learning, I gradually developed my own strategies to enable me to adapt to the new learning environment(s). The most effective strategy, for me, was working in groups. When completing the MA in Singapore, I joined a learning group comprised of both home and international students. We would meet up before each lecture to discuss the readings and summarise the findings based on each individual’s opinions. These informal discussions helped in many ways as they provided me with opportunities to (1) familiarise myself with different English accents so as to communicate more easily with my classmates in discussions; (2) ask questions in a friendly and informal manner about what I found difficult to understand and (3) practice speaking skills through receiving constructive feedback from classmates and building confidence to speak in public. Moreover, through a regular exchange and discussion with classmates, I was becoming used to the debating style in Western-oriented learning environments and thus felt more comfortable taking part in an open discussion. Another strategy which I found useful was auditing undergraduate modules to equip myself with the basic knowledge of the research topics I was interested in. This allowed me to broaden and deepen my understanding of specific concepts and theories and reflect on how I could apply the new perspective to my previous knowledge. A better understanding of a new body of knowledge also meant that I could be more active in introducing a Vietnamese voice, or in other words, using my own knowledge of Vietnam as a case study, to feed into the theoretical framework proposed during lectures.

When I undertook my PhD in the UK, peer support through learning and writing groups proved to be more useful. In sharing the same experiences in learning and the same expectations of PhD students, such as the need to be independent, creative and self-disciplined, I found that peer support served as a main coping strategy for international students in general. Although at UEA, there were various forms of support for international students, especially language classes, buddy schemes and individual tutors to help with academic writing, I mostly relied on peer support during my first year of PhD. I was not, at that time, aware of the available academic and non-academic support for international students. Therefore, to better aid the international student, I think the University should promote and make these forms of support

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more accessible, for example through giving prioritised slots to those international students who are particularly in need.

Implications of my learning experiences Reflecting on my learning experiences in higher education in three different countries and learning environments (Vietnam, Singapore and the United Kingdom), I would also like to underline their implications for reconceptualising my learning goals. Beginning as an undergraduate student striving to achieve high grades by memorizing and repeating what lecturers say in class, I have come to realize that this is not the right learning goal regardless of which stage a learner is at. Instead of prioritising memorisation or high grades, I should first and foremost ask myself what I really want to learn and achieve from my learning process, be it at an undergraduate or postgraduate level. An effective learning goal, for me, should come from the aspiration to explore new knowledge and to apply this body of knowledge in practice.

As I progressed with the MA and then PhD, I became more informed about active learning which gave me more room to decide what and how to learn in order to contribute to the broader literature. My learning experiences also remind me of what I should take into consideration in my teaching career in the future. From the perspective of an international student who had to struggle in multicultural learning contexts, I believe that I now understand how important it is to convey the right message to students about choosing learning goals and styles that are right for them. I am also confident that I will be more sensitive to the learning needs of my students, especially those coming from different educational systems. For example, instead of blaming them for being lazy or making them worried about their own learning performance, I will attempt to attend to their needs and offer as much support as I can. Being aware of their challenges, for me, is crucial in helping them learn better. This is in line with Ramburuth et al.’s research which highlights “the need for learning institutions and their teaching staff to become more sensitive to students’ learning style preferences, and differences that may exist, in order to maximise student learning” (2001:346).

CONTACT THE AUTHOR h.phan@uea.ac.uk References Azer, A. (2009). What Makes a Great Lecture? Use of Lectures in a Hybrid PBL Curriculum. The Kaohsiung Journal of Medical Sciences, 25 (3), 2009, pp. 109-115.

Burns, R.B. (1991). Study and Stress among First Year Overseas Students in an Australian University. Higher Education Research & Development, 10 (1), 1991, pp. 61-77.

Ippolito, K. (2007).Promoting intercultural learning in a multicultural university: ideals and realities. Teaching in Higher Education, 12 (5-6), pp. 749-763.

Mulryan-Kyne, C. (2010). Teaching large classes at college and university level: challenges and Opportunities.

Teaching in Higher Education, 15 (3), pp. 175 -185.

Ramburuth, P. and McCornick, J. (2001). Learning Diversity in Higher Education: A Comparative Study of Asian International and Australian Students. Higher Education, 43 (2), pp. 333 -350.

Shupe, D. (2007). Significantly better: the benefits for an academic institution focused on student learning outcomes. On the Horizon, 15 (2), 2007, pp. 48 -57.

Yuen, K.M. (2006) Constructivist teaching and teacher-centred teaching: a comparison of students’ learning in a university course. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 43(3), 2006, pp. 279 -290.

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ISSN 2397-3072

The International Student Experience Journal is a peerreviewed online publication for those involved in researching, teaching and providing services to international students in Higher Education in the UK and other English speaking countries. The Journal links the everyday concerns of university staff including academics, researchers, EAP practitioners and the students themselves with insights gained from related academic disciplines such as applied linguistics, education, psychology, and sociology.

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