During the 10 months between the Initial and Intermediate interviews, a transference had taken place in the students’ primary concern over their experiences. ‘Language problems’ had shifted from being a primary concern to a tertiary concern in the student rankings, whilst ‘Pedagogical differences’ and ‘Sociocultural difficulties’ moved up to primary and secondary concerns respectively (see Figures 9 and 12 on pages 90 and 114 respectively).
“First I could not understand tutors when they are talking, now I do not understand the way they are teaching me”. (Student 18, Intermediate interview, page 4).
The data further showed that the students concerns during their intermediate interviews were merging closer together than during the earlier initial interviews; demonstrating that whilst during the initial part of their visit to the UK the majority of the Chinese students were overwhelming concerned about their English language problems, leading almost to the marginalisation of all other concerns, now during the intermediate part of their course they were more concerned with both pedagogic and sociocultural matters. During the intermediate part of their UK visit the top three concerns remained the same as their initial concerns but merely exchanged hierarchy and drew closer together, in relation to student numbers, thereby indicating that the students concerns were by this stage of their education far less diverse than previously.
Whereas the students’ initial shock regarding their inadequate English language skills had kept them pre-occupied at the beginning of their courses, and throughout their initial interviews, it was the disparity in style between the Chinese and UK pedagogies that occupied their thoughts as their studies progressed through to their intermediate interviews.
“I feel great uncertainty for my learning here in UK, as UK tutors will not tell us what is right and what is wrong, they say we must think it through and find it out for ourselves . . . At home, in China, our tutors always helped, they gave out the answers straightaway, but the UK tutors will not, they want us to do it all ourselves”. (Student 12, Intermediate interview, page 3).
Further examination of the data, at this halfway stage, suggested that the greater majority of the adaptation that had so far been achieved had originated from the students themselves, with comparatively little derived from the offices of the tutors or administrators. It was at this point of their two-year visit that some of the students felt their greatest isolation, illustrated by the comment of Student 2 below.
“It is very different from home . . . When I come to the UK I was shocked . . . It is not like Chinese education, because there you are cared for you know, they do everything for you . . . It is just so different here, here they don’t care for us”. (Student 2, Intermediate interview, page 2).
At this mid-point of their postgraduate courses most of the students were aware of the remarkable possibilities that they were being offered in their UK university, but they still felt the pull of the more structured pedagogy that they knew and grew up with back home in China. It will be interesting to discover if or how these Chinese students manage to bring together and align the differences of these two worlds within the last set of interviews of this research study.
Section 3 - Final interviews
Introduction
This final section, whilst following the same structure as the previous two sections, will additionally conclude with an overall interpretation of the findings of all three sets of interviews.
The following three tables (Figures 15 to 17) present the ‘Final’ interview findings of the primary, secondary and tertiary categories of concern of the contributing students. The first of these tables (see Figure 15, page 135) indicates the top three primary concerns of the students from within the Final interview data, and the numbers and percentages linked to each of them. The second table (see Figure 16, page 140) illustrates the three main categories of concern for each student, and denotes the order of importance of these concerns to each individual. The last table (see Figure 17, page 145) presents each student’s separate primary concern, with explanatory theme on an individual basis, and is founded upon the same analytical format as in the previous sections. At the end of section 3, two further tables display all-inclusive guides to the categories of primary concerns (see Figure 18, page 151) and themes of the students
Figure 15: Final interviews – Primary concerns
FINAL INTERVIEWS 1st concern: Sociocultural difficulties,
cited by 15 of the 31 students as their Primary Concern
Overarching Themes
Everyday difficulties of a sociological or cultural kind. For instance they had trouble making friends with (UK) ‘Home’ students but not so much with (Non-Chinese) international students.
2nd concern: Language problems,
cited by 9 of the 31 students as their Primary Concern
Overarching Themes
The initial problems with language concerns were overcome with time and usage, with communication gradually became easier. However, English humour continued to cause confusion amongst Chinese students.
3rd concern: Pedagogical differences,
cited by 7 of the 31 students as their Primary Concern
Overarching Themes
Troubles reported with dissimilar teaching styles from different tutors. Also difficulties recounted by students regarding
disagreements with assessments and differences with examination protocols.
concerns (see Figure 19, page 155) over the entire two years of this study and during all three sets of interviews. These two tables are useful in providing a brief overview of the findings of this chapter.
Analysis of the Final interview data indicated that ‘Sociocultural difficulties’ were the primary concern cited by fifteen of the students. A further nine students cited ‘Language problems’ as their primary concern, whilst the remaining seven indicated ‘Pedagogical differences’ as theirs (see Figure 15, page 135).