Resultado de la investigación a los tutores y curadores.

The classmate relationship was one of the focal points mentioned by the participants in their experiences with English learning. Mang and Chong both detailed their experiences of being isolated from the majority of the students due to their performance and scores in the subject of English.

When she entered senior high school, Mang found she was in a class where those achieving high scores were popular among students and those with low scores were isolated.

“I had the same feeling as other classmates whose scores were not good…Seeing the classmates whose scores were lower, they directly ignored them.”

In Mang’s class, students were divided into two groups — those who could achieve high scores and those who could not. The high score achievers became the center of the classmates and were surrounded by most of the students. However, if you were neither the high score achievers nor the admirer of them, you were left isolated.

exam, one of our roommates, who played and lived together with us, got the second rank of the class. I was only ranked 40th. Then many classmates surrounded her and played with her. Finally, I became alone, and we separated.”

Mang did not recognize her difference from the roommate when she started her senior school study, because they were like friends who hung out together and lived in the same room. The situation changed overnight when the rankings of the mid-term exam were announced. The friendship between Mang and her roommate was brought to a halt. Her friend was surrounded by many classmates, while Mang was left alone. This event made a profound impact on Mang’s subsequent attitude towards learning. She then determined to study harder and regarded achieving high scores as a way of restoring self-esteem. She said “from then on, I thought I should study hard. I won’t be belittled by others. I had the faith in studying hard from that moment and then I started to make effort.” The desire of “not being belittled” became Mang’s motivation for the extremely hard work on English learning.

“I remember once I didn’t have any desire to read English when I got home, none at all. But I made all my efforts to force myself. I can remember that moment of forcing myself. I sat in the classroom alone, telling myself ‘you have to finish it within some time. If you can’t, you have to do that…’ I tortured myself too much at that time. Just me myself, I pressed myself to read…I was

extremely diligent in the third year. Every Sunday I was in the classroom. No one was there…Everybody worked hard till 12:10 at night, and then went on to read books back in the dorm till one or two o’clock in the morning. We got up at 6:30 early in the morning and read books. We tried our best.”

Mang made her best efforts to learn English, expecting to be a high score achiever in order not to be despised by her classmates. From Mang’s perspective, her lower ranking in the mid-term exam deprived of her friendship and her self-esteem as well. Mang described herself as a lonely, determined and diligent English learner. To regain her self-esteem and self-pride, Mang endured extreme loneliness sitting in the empty classroom on Sundays and struggled with herself to learn English.

Isolation of the majority classmates was also a topic in Chong’s story. Interestingly, it was not the same type as in the case of Mang that those unable to achieve high scores would be isolated. In Chong’s senior high school class, on the contrary, those who appeared diligent in English learning were isolated.

“The key is the study atmosphere. If most of the others are studying, you study unconsciously. My class was different. If you studied, others would say you were pretending. The diligent students were minority…In my class, everyone was playing, while you were learning. You would be excluded. We didn’t compete for who was the best at studying, but for who was the best at playing.

That was a troubled class…there was a diligent student. He didn’t get on well with them, because they were resistant to him.”

Chong’s senior high school class was quite different Mang’s in terms of what kind of students were isolated. In Chong’s class, those who showed their efforts to study would be isolated. As Chong said, it depended upon what the majority of students did, and the others in the minority group would be isolated. Chong was conscious of the indifferent view of English among the majority students and did not want to sacrifice his future education. He figured out his own way of balancing his relationship with classmates and his study of English.

“I was the kind who both played and studied [he laughed]…If possible, I played with them, but I listened attentively in class. I worked extra hours at home. I worked very hard on my own. When I was in the final year in senior high school, I studied till one or two o’clock early morning. I was very exhausted. I played with them most of the time.”

In such a “troubled class”, Chong did not want to be isolated from the majority. Neither did he want to fail his study. To achieve both the classmate-ship and academic success, Chong chose to live a double life. He aligned himself with those who isolated the hard-working students in school during the day. After going back home, he

presented another side--studying hard for long hours until the early morning. Living such a double life helped Chong avoid classmate isolation and succeed in attending the university.