Iglesia de San Mateo (Figueroles)

From the start of the interview process it was evident from the interviews that three specific concerns were their most significant challenges, and as such the students continually spoke of these throughout the course of their interviews. These three concerns were language problems, pedagogical differences and sociocultural difficulties. Within this study the term Language problems refers to the problems that the Chinese students had in communicating in a second language, in this case English, within their UK environment. The form taken by these communication problems were written, printed and spoken, but with speech undoubtedly the primary problem of the three. Pedagogical differences refer to the differences that the students reported between the style of teaching and learning that they had experienced in the PRC and the style expected of them in the UK. Sociocultural difficulties relate to the difficulties the Chinese students experienced, within the UK, during social interaction with fellow (non-Chinese) students, university staff and sometimes with members of the general public.

There were, understandably, other points of concern besides these three that were discussed (from food, weather and personal relationships to loneliness and artistic freedom) but overwhelmingly, time and again, the students brought the focus of the interviews back to the three main concerns mentioned above. It was an early but important finding, so it was decided to probe more deeply when these concerns were subsequently raised. By these indirect means a clearer understanding of the main experiences of these students was uncovered.

Overview

This chapter is divided into three related sections, with the first describing and analysing the findings from the initial set of interviews that began in December 2009. The following two sections will employ the same format with regard to the intermediate (begun in September 2010) and the final sets of interviews (begun in May 2011), with each section concluding with an overall interpretation of their findings.

Figure 8: Numbers of students and their concerns across all interviews

This first section begins with an analysis of the initial set of interview findings divided into three groups (labelled Primary, Secondary and Tertiary), indicating, in descending order, the largest or predominant number of students that have the same primary category of concern, followed by the second largest number with their own primary concern, and lastly the third with their particular primary concern. These ‘categories of concern’ were classified as such by the order, frequency, duration and intensity of each of these statements. These concerns emerged from the reading, and re-reading of the transcripts, when pertinent comments by the students were beginning to be identified and divided into groupings that reflected the students stated experiences. This selection process found significant verbatim statements from within the interview data and interpreted their importance to this study via extensive literature exploration and methodical research. The most appropriate extrapolations were made and selected into a series of organised themes, those themes were then elaborated upon through rich interpretive description to ultimately deliver a definitive analysis. The quotations that I draw upon within this chapter are predominantly taken from the primary concern expressed by the students, and is clearly specified as such.

Figure 9: Initial interviews – three main concerns of each interviewee STUDENT PRIMARY CONCERN SECONDARY CONCERN TERTIARY CONCERN

1 LANGUAGE PEDAGOGICAL SOCIOCULTURAL

2 LANGUAGE PEDAGOGICAL SOCIOCULTURAL

3 SOCIOCULTURAL PEDAGOGICAL LANGUAGE

4 LANGUAGE SOCIOCULTURAL PEDAGOGICAL

5 SOCIOCULTURAL PEDAGOGICAL LANGUAGE

6 LANGUAGE PEDAGOGICAL SOCIOCULTURAL

7 PEDAGOGICAL SOCIOCULTURAL LANGUAGE

8 LANGUAGE PEDAGOGICAL SOCIOCULTURAL

9 LANGUAGE SOCIOCULTURAL PEDAGOGICAL

10 LANGUAGE PEDAGOGICAL SOCIOCULTURAL

11 LANGUAGE PEDAGOGICAL SOCIOCULTURAL

12 LANGUAGE PEDAGOGICAL SOCIOCULTURAL

13 LANGUAGE PEDAGOGICAL SOCIOCULTURAL

14 LANGUAGE SOCIOCULTURAL PEDAGOGICAL

15 PEDAGOGICAL SOCIOCULTURAL LANGUAGE

16 PEDAGOGICAL LANGUAGE SOCIOCULTURAL

17 LANGUAGE SOCIOCULTURAL PEDAGOGICAL

18 PEDAGOGICAL SOCIOCULTURAL LANGUAGE

19 LANGUAGE SOCIOCULTURAL PEDAGOGICAL

20 LANGUAGE SOCIOCULTURAL PEDAGOGICAL

21 LANGUAGE SOCIOCULTURAL PEDAGOGICAL

22 LANGUAGE SOCIOCULTURAL PEDAGOGICAL

23 PEDAGOGICAL LANGUAGE SOCIOCULTURAL

24 PEDAGOGICAL SOCIOCULTURAL LANGUAGE

25 SOCIOCULTURAL PEDAGOGICAL LANGUAGE

26 PEDAGOGICAL LANGUAGE SOCIOCULTURAL

27 LANGUAGE PEDAGOGICAL SOCIOCULTURAL

28 SOCIOCULTURAL PEDAGOGICAL LANGUAGE

29 LANGUAGE PEDAGOGICAL SOCIOCULTURAL

30 PEDAGOGICAL SOCIOCULTURAL LANGUAGE

31 LANGUAGE PEDAGOGICAL SOCIOCULTURAL

TOTALS: Language = 19 of 31 Pedagogical = 15 of 31 Sociocultural = 14 of 31

Pedagogical = 8 of 31 Sociocultural = 13 of 31 Language = 9 of 31 Sociocultural = 4 of 31 Language = 3 of 31 Pedagogical = 8 of 31

Occasionally, and I have indicated where this is the case, I have also selected quotes to illustrate other non-primary responses as they were especially helpful in elaborating good examples of the students range of concerns.

The students’ primary concerns (i.e. those initially identified and stressed by the majority of respondents) within the interviews have been categorised within this thesis as ‘Primary concerns’, the second most-important as identified by the next largest number of students have been termed ‘Secondary concerns’; and ‘Tertiary concerns’ are those identified as being of concern to the third largest number of students. These three terms have been used throughout this study, in both text and charts, to signify a three-tiered, sequential level of importance to better explain the student experiences and concerns as they occurred.

The number of participating students and their particular concerns across all three sets of interviews are shown in Figure 8 on page 91. This figure also identifies how many students are linked to each concern in sequence through the three sets of interviews.

Figure 9, on page 92, will identify the three main concerns of each of the individual thirty-one students, all gathered from within the Initial interview data. It is also notable from Figure 9 that the repetition of the sequence of these three main concerns of each interviewee from the initial interviews (Language, Pedagogical and Sociocultural) was repeated eleven times, or more than a third of the total, within this figure. The data presented in Figure 10, on page 95, illustrates the related theme of the primary concern of each separate student and is based upon an analysis of how often these concerns were repeated and the length and intensity of the statements made about them by each student during the period of their Initial interview.

It should be noted that while some very minor differences in experiences and responses between the four Chinese national groupings (PRC, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau) did emerge from the interviews none were of any pronounced significance to this study. Additionally as the number of students involved, other than those from the PRC, were so small (1 from Macau, 3 from Hong Kong and 4 from Taiwan) it was decided that this was not a variable needing consideration and

as such it did not contribute to the overall analysis. In terms of gender differences however; it did become more apparent that the female students seemed to adapt and cope with their new environment more quickly than the males.

The student’s quotations, within the text of this chapter, are verbatim extracts taken directly from their individual interviews (see Appendix 9 for an exemplar of a complete verbatim transcript) followed by an analysis of both the said quotations and the conditions and circumstances that surrounded them.

Figure 10: Initial interviews – Themes of primary concerns

STUDENT PRIMARY

CONCERN ILLUSTRATION . . .

1 L Language skills good but reticent in dialogue with UK native speakers

2 L Difficulty understanding Tutors & Administrators produces confusion

3 S Lack of UK friendships causes withdrawal into national grouping

4 L Difficulties communicating with non-Chinese personnel

5 S Complications settling into UK surroundings

6 L Lack of everyday speaking skills becoming apparent

7 P Misunderstandings over teaching methods causes student anxiety

8 L Extent of inadequate language skills causes academic complications

9 L 1st year student looks to 2nd years for help with language problems

10 L Reports of difficulties understanding tutors regional accents

11 L Chinese language tuition focused on reading, and not the spoken word

12 L Lack of understanding of UK tutors impacts negatively

13 L Repeatedly requests tutors to speak slower during lectures

14 L Chinese student asks for English language classes, here in the UK

15 P Difference in Chinese / UK pedagogy negatively affecting learning

16 P Confusion and anxiety due to students idealistic teaching expectations

17 L Their lack of language skills necessitates more printed handouts

18 P Expectation of UK tutors to teach the same as Chinese tutors do

19 L Reports of language problems inside and outside of university

20 L Chinese student uncertain of what is required of them here in UK

21 L Student reports tutors using ‘slang’ words that are not understood

22 L Lack of English language obliges student to resume ethnic grouping

23 P Pedagogical differences between GCR and UK causes unease

24 P Unrealistic expectations by teachers said to cause learning difficulties

25 S Problems with UK society, both inside and outside of university

26 P Disagreements with GCR student over UK assessment protocols

27 L Student prefers speaking to international rather than UK students

28 S More difficult making friends with UK students than internationals

29 L Student persistently requests handouts in place of his note-taking

30 P General misunderstandings with UK educational policies

31 L Conversations with UK students causes confusion to this student

KEY to Primary Concerns:

L = Language problems P = Pedagogical differences S = Sociocultural difficulties

[19 of 31 students cited this [8 of 31 students cited this [4 of 31 students cited this as their Primary category] as their Primary category] as their Primary category]

Section 1 - Initial Interviews