An ethnographic exploration of the experience of transition to higher education in Australia of international students with English as an additional language
Creators: name: Walpole, Ros
Publisher: name: Southern Cross University
Year: 2022
Subjects: Australia
Higher education
Universities
English as an additional language
IEAL
Literacy
Online learning
Study experience

description: International students are financially and culturally valuable to Australia’s higher education sector. The large majority of these students come from countries in which English is not the spoken language. This sub-group of international students is widely referred to as international English as an additional language (IEAL) students. IEAL students, in addition to experiencing the usual pressures of commencing university studies in a foreign country, must address the challenge of communicating skilfully in English in an academic setting.
description: This investigation charts the experiences of 24 IEAL students who made the transition to first-year undergraduate studies at an Australian university early in 2019. Drawing primarily upon Tinto’s (2017b) Model of Student Motivation and Persistence, the investigation addresses themes of adjustment, preparedness and fulfilment. The SOLO Taxonomy (Biggs &amp; Collis, 1982; Biggs &amp; Tang, 2011) also provides some guidance on the levels of academic preparedness and counters the notion that low English language proficiency is the only cause for the challenges experienced by IEAL students. For purposes of triangulation, and to obtain additional insights, the experiences of a small group of academic staff members responsible for teaching these students are also reported.
description: The research methodology chosen for the investigation is naturalistic inquiry (Lincoln &amp; Guba, 1985). This methodology requires an inductive analysis of the experiences reported by the participants, as well as audio recordings of interviews. A feature of this methodology is the importance it attaches to the trustworthiness of the findings and their interpretation.
description: The investigation confirms in many respects the results of a major national survey conducted by the Australian Department of Education (2018) concerning the extent to which international students are fulfilled with life as a student in Australia. However, it also points to particular challenges for IEAL students. These include difficulties encountered with online learning, meeting academic expectations, and engaging in learning approaches that require discussion and group participation. These difficulties were accentuated if the students also experienced problems with communication in English. Other challenges related to loneliness, limited financial resources, and the loss of face associated with not obtaining high grades.
description: The investigation concludes that it would be beneficial if more effort is invested by Australian universities in preparing IEAL students to ensure students selected are adequately equipped to engage with Australian study experience. The view of academic staff member participants was that the incidence of IEAL students with inadequate levels of academic preparation for university studies was too high. The individual stories of the student participants tended to support this view.