Summer pre-sessional English course – interim assessment: writing
When writing the essay:
You will need to support your arguments you use in your essay with information or ideas from two of the sources below, correctly referenced and using your own words (do not copy directly from the article).
During the assessment, you will need to:
plan the essay and produce evidence (in English) of this (e.g. notes or a concept map);
write a successful introduction and conclusion, showing necessary elements;
write well-constructed paragraphs that have a clear focus and argument;
incorporate information from other writers in a paragraph by either quoting or summarising from the sources below and including: a) in text citations, and, b) a list of references
to those sources you have used;
show some understanding of the style of academic writing.
Source 1:
Journal of Studies in International Education, Vol. 5 No. 1, Spring 2008 5-25
Internationalization and Exchanges in a Globalised University. Philip G. Altback and Ulrich Teichler
The last few decades of the 20th century were characterized by a substantial growth of student mobility. Based on the available UNESCO statistics, it is estimated that almost 2 million students studied abroad.
Source 2:
Intercultural Education, Vol. 14, No. 1, 2009
Internationalisation, Ethnic Diversity and the Acquisition of Intercultural Competencies, Jonas Stier.
Of particular importance is language competence, that is to say, skills in the host culture’s language. Students do not need to be “perfectly fluent”, since language skills tend to improve over time. But a sufficient degree of language proficiency is essential for academic results. Occasionally, students lacking adequate language proficiency are accepted into study programmes where they struggle and sometimes fail.
Source 3:
‘The development of EAP oral discussion ability’ by Peter Robinson, Gregory Strong, Jennifer Whittle and Shuichi Nobe in Research Perspectives on English for Academic Purposes, John Flowerdew and Matthew Peacock (eds.), 2001.
Findings from previous studies that have focused on speaking requirements of university students in a variety of settings provide numerous reasons for the difficulties overseas students experience when participating in group discussions. These include students’ lack of confidence in their ability to express themselves, and in the quality of their ideas, and in their inability to formulate ideas in English and to respond quickly in a discussion.
Summer pre-sessional English course – interim assessment: writing
Source 4:
The Higher Education Academy. ‘Reflective Practice and Learning Styles with International Students’ by Jacqueline Lynch (2008), University of Westminster.
By focusing on learning styles, students increased their awareness of the differences in terms of approach to studying, especially in group work. It helped students to understand their individual behaviour and that of their peers in a group situation. They realised that it was not acceptable to remain silent during discussions and that they were expected to contribute and offer their views. As a result, they learned to listen actively and to ask for input from each other.
Source 5:
‘Meeting the needs of Chinese students – in British Higher Education. Viv Edwards, The University of Reading and An Ran, South China University of Technology (2006). The University of Reading.
Oral presentation was another area for concern. British lecturers tended to assume that poor performance in oral presentations was caused by fear, lack of confidence and concerns about criticism by others. Reports by Chinese students in the University of Central Lancashire (Davey and Higgins, 2005) seem to confirm this belief. Lecturers considered that learning through examples as an important strategy for helping the students to make the transition from Chinese to Western learning methods.
Source 6:
‘Meeting the needs of Chinese students – in British Higher Education. Viv Edwards, The University of Reading and An Ran, South China University of Technology (2006). The University of Reading.
Lecturers became aware that group work is a new experience for Chinese students. They were also concerned about groups where all, or almost all, of the students were Chinese, particularly when this led to the use of Chinese in discussion. However, there was general agreement that the use of the Chinese can be helpful in developing students’ understanding of basic ideas.
Source 7:
The International Students’ Guide. R. Lowes, H. Peters and M. Turner. Sage Publications, 2004.
It has been calculated that students spend over 50% of their time listening. It is often thought of as being a passive skill but in fact to listen well you need to be very active. In order to understand more, students can adopt some useful strategies in lectures. They need to know in advance what the lecture is going to be about and prepare the topic by some background reading, preparing some questions they would like answered and, if possible, find out what other students know about the topic. It may be helpful to read texts at a simpler level as preparation.
