Brokering practices among EAL international students
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Academic challenges of international students, particularly those with English as an additional language (EAL), have been mostly researched in the classroom context, with little attention paid to students’ informal learning practices. My research looks specifically at the brokering practices of EAL tertiary students in their understanding of academic literacy. Brokering refers to how students seek help from their peers about understanding academic knowledge and skills. I conducted semi-structured interviews and observations to find out who students approached for help, aspects of academic literacy they needed help with, and their perceptions of the experience. The research findings suggest that educators need to pay attention to how students seek peer support in academic learning in order to develop more effective ways of supporting students’ academic literacy needs. This paper was presented at CLESOL 2016 on Saturday 16 July 2016. CLESOL 2016 (Website: http://www.clesol.org.nz) Learners in Context: Bridging the Gaps Ākonga Reo: Aronga Āputa Thursday 14 – Sunday 17 July 2016 The University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand The 15th National Conference for Community Languages and ESOL, brought to you by TESOLANZ (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages Aotearoa New Zealand) and CLANZ (Community Languages Association New Zealand).
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Brokering practices among EAL international students
- 1. Brokering practices among EAL international students Sherrie Lee PhD Candidate University of Waikato
- 2. Singapore ChinaUniversity of Southern California 1 MAT TESOL University of Waikato Temasek Polytechnic
- 3. 1 Focus 2
- 4. International students in higher education Rapidly increasing enrolments 20% of student population at UoW Many from non-native-English speaking countries EAL international students 3 EAL students English as an Additional Language
- 5. EAL international students 4 Research often takes on a deficit perspective (Kumaravadivelu, 2003; Ryan & Louie, 2007) Inadequate English proficiency and differing educational expectations (Johnson, 2008; Lee et al., 2013) Being isolated from the host community (Sawir et al., 2007; Ward & Masgoret, 2004) GAP: Acquiring academic literacy through informal learning practices
- 6. 5
- 7. 6
- 8. Brokering practices among EAL international students at a New Zealand university. 7 Brokering Informal and social but academically-oriented experiences Getting help with academic learning from someone else outside the formal curriculum
- 9. Overview 1 Focus 2 Frame/Re-frame 3 Methods 4 Findings 5 Implications 8
- 11. Academic literacies 10 Intercultural Communicative Competence (Byram, 1997) Alternative ways of meaning making (Lillis & Scott, 2007) Repertoires of social practices (Lea & Street, 1998) multiple fluid intercultural
- 13. What Textual and sociocultural aspects of academic literacy (Che, 2013; Montgomery & McDowell, 2009; Nam & Beckett, 2011 / Li & Collins, 2014; Seloni, 2012; Vine, 2003) Who Co-nationals, other international students, “experts” (Che, 2013; Montgomery & McDowell, 2009; Zappa-Hollman & Duff, 2015) How One-way, sometimes reciprocal (Che, 2013; Cocoya & Lee, 2009) 12 Empirical studies
- 14. 13 Research questions 1. What aspects of academic literacy are brokered? 2. Who are the brokers? 3. How does brokering look like? What is the nature of brokering among EAL international students?
- 15. 3 Methods 14
- 16. Sampling 10 first-time international students from social science faculties 15 China (7) Taiwan (1) Malaysia (1) Japan (1) Undergraduate (7) Postgraduate diploma (2) Honours year (1)
- 17. Ethnographic approach 16 Observations of interactions Interviews with brokers (3) Interviews with participants (46) Screenshots of text exchanges between participant and broker (33) Copies of participant’s writing with comments from broker (10) Observation of interaction between participant and broker (2)
- 18. 4 Findings 17
- 19. Findings 18 1. What aspects of academic literacy are brokered? Course materials lectures, textbooks, handouts, tutorial questions Assignments instructions, sources of information, writing Sociocultural aspects relating to instructors, relating to peers
- 20. Findings 19 Course materials - Frequent Students couldn’t understand lecturers because of speed, vocabulary, organisation Lecture / textbook content was too dense e.g. use of highly academic vocab or professional terms Tutorial questions were confusing, also related to dense course material Sometimes it was a matter of getting a translation, but often, students sought an explanation in their native language.
- 21. Findings 20 Assignments - Frequent Instructions about what to include, how to submit it on learning management system Where to find sources of information, e.g. websites Writing expressing an idea in English organising content sentences structure grammar referencing
- 22. Findings 21 Sociocultural aspects – Less frequent Relating to instructors whether it was appropriate to approach tutor/lecturer to ask questions Relating to peers making decisions to work with “foreign” students, or how to interact with them
- 23. Findings 22 2. Who are the brokers? Brokers Age/Culture Strengths Classmates Usually similar An unusual example: similar age but distant culture Good grades Prior experience Acquaintances Similar Good grades Prior experience
- 24. Findings 23 2. Who are the brokers? Brokers Age/Culture Strengths Friends Similar Common background Learning support staff Distant Academic expertise
- 25. Findings 24 3. How does brokering look like? A working typology of brokering relationships Type Spontaneous Opportunistic Developing Established Formal Description Immediate, unplanned Classmates One-way, one- off As and when needed Classmates, Acquaintances One-way, one- off Part of everyday conversation Classmates, Friends Reciprocal, continuing Part of everyday conversation Classmates, Friends Reciprocal, continuing Planned in advance Learning support staff One-way, one-off
- 26. Findings 25 Type Spontaneous Opportunistic Developing Established Formal Examples Asking someone in tutorial to explain what the teacher said Looking out for someone who has done the paper before Asking someone about an upcoming assignment during a casual conversation Asking someone about opinions about academic /personal issues Looking for someone to help with a particular aspect of writing A working typology of brokering relationships
- 27. Findings 26 Type Spontaneous Opportunistic Developing Established Formal Modeofbrokering Face to face, in the classroom Face to face, outside the classroom Messaging Face to face, outside the classroom Messaging Face to face, outside the classroom Messaging Face to face, outside the classroom A working typology of brokering relationships
- 28. 27
- 30. Implications 29 What kind of culturally relevant support can tertiary institutions offer? How can students’ learning revolve around more peer interactions? Will a move towards e-learning have an impact on this? Can students’ own reflection of their brokering practices help them in their learning? If so, how can they do it?
- 32. References Byram, M. (1997). Teaching and assessing intercultural communicative competence. Clevedon, United Kingdom: Multilingual Matters. Che, J. (2013). How peer social worlds shaped the out-of-class learning experiences of college ESOL students: Examining the impacts of informal peer learning upon their writing and related psychosocial development (Doctoral dissertation). University of Rochester. Retrieved from http://urresearch.rochester.edu/ Coyoca, A. M. A. M., & Lee, J. S. (2009). A typology of language-brokering events in dual- language immersion classrooms. Bilingual Research Journal, 32(3), 260–279. http://doi.org/10.1080/15235880903372837 Johnson, E. (2008). An investigation into pedagogical challenges facing international tertiary‐level students in New Zealand. Higher Education Research & Development, 27(3), 231–243. http://doi.org/10.1080/07294360802183796 Kumaravadivelu, B. (2003). Problematizing Cultural Stereotypes in TESOL. TESOL Quarterly, 37(4), 709–719. Lea, M. R., & Street, B. V. (1998). Student writing in higher education: An academic literacies approach. Studies in Higher Education, 23(2), 157–172. http://doi.org/10.1080/03075079812331380364 31
- 33. References Lee, B., Farruggia, S. P., & Brown, G. T. L. L. (2013). Academic difficulties encountered by East Asian international university students in New Zealand. Higher Education Research & Development, 32(6), 915–931. http://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2013.806444 Li, W., & Collins, C. S. (2014). Chinese doctoral student socialization in the United States: A qualitative study. FIRE: Forum for International Research in Education, 1(2), 32–57. Lillis, T., & Scott, M. (2007). Defining academic literacies research: Issues of epistemology, ideology and strategy. Journal of Applied Linguistics, 4(1), 4–32. http://doi.org/10.1558/japl.v4i1.5 Montgomery, C., & McDowell, L. (2009). Social networks and the international student experience: An international community of practice? Journal of Studies in International Education, 13(4), 455–466. http://doi.org/10.1177/1028315308321994 Nam, M., & Beckett, G. H. (2011). Use of resources in second language writing socialization. The Electronic Journal for English as a Second Language, 15(1), 1–20. Perry, K. H. (2009). Genres, contexts, and literacy practices: Literacy brokering among Sudanese refugee families. Reading Research Quarterly, 44(3), 256–276. Ryan, J., & Louie, K. (2007). False Dichotomy? ‘Western’ and ‘Confucian’ concepts of scholarship and learning. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 39, 404–417. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-5812.2007.00347.x 32
- 34. References Sawir, E., Marginson, S., Deumert, A., Nyland, C., & Ramia, G. (2007). Loneliness and international students: An Australian study. Journal of Studies in International Education, 12, 148–180. http://doi.org/10.1177/1028315307299699 Seloni, L. (2012). Academic literacy socialization of first year doctoral students in US: A micro-ethnographic perspective. English for Specific Purposes, 31(1), 47–59. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2011.05.004 Vine, E. W. (2003). “My partner”: A five-year-old Samoan boy learns how to participate in class through interactions with his English-speaking peers. Linguistics and Education, 14(1), 99–121. http://doi.org/10.1016/S0898-5898(03)00006-8 Ward, C., Masgoret, A.-M., & Gezentsvey, M. (2009). Investigating attitudes toward international students: Program and policy implications for social integration and international education. Social Issues and Policy Review, 3(1), 79–102. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-2409.2009.01011.x Zappa-Hollman, S., & Duff, P. A. (2015). Academic English socialization through individual networks of practice. TESOL Quarterly, 49(2), 333–368. http://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.188 33
Editor's Notes
- Opener A tutor made a remark to me about first year international students, “Oh, they haven’t got enough literacy. They ought to be spending more time reading and writing, and they should come and see me if they don’t understand. Why don’t they come and see me?” Well, my research tells me that trying to understanding a foreign language and culture goes beyond the classroom walls and talking to teachers. And that is the focus of my presentation today: Brokering practices among EAL international students.
- Personal introduction First, a little about me. My name is Sherrie and I’m from Singapore. I came to New Zealand not too long ago to start my PhD at the University of Waikato, at the Faculty of Education. Before that, I taught business communications at Temasek Polytechnic in Singapore. Earlier on, I also spent a few years in China teaching academic English as part of a preparatory programme for students who looked at completing their degrees in Australia. I did my Masters in TESOL at USC a few years ago and it was during that time that I was first introduced to the concept of language and literacy brokering.
- Focus Before I start to explain brokering, let me set the context of my research.
- Focus - EAL International Students Across the New Zealand and other countries, there has been increasing enrolments of international students. At the University of Waikato, international students make up 20% of the student population. And this university, just as many universities in New Zealand, would like to grow that number. A lot of research on international students focus on students from non-native-English speaking countries and I refer to these students as EAL students, or students with English as an Additional Language.
- Focus – Research on EAL international students Much of this research, unfortunately, takes on a deficit perspective of EAL learners. What I mean by deficit is the focus is on what EAL learners lack. For example, studies often highlight the various challenges EAL students face in academic learning, particularly in the classroom context. Common challenges cited are: Inadequate English proficiency; differing educational expectations; and being isolated from the host community. However, we don’t really know much about how EAL students acquire academic literacy in the informal spaces. In other words, how are students actively using resources in their academic learning, outside classroom activity? To explore these informal learning practices, I find the concept of brokering a useful lens. So what’s brokering?
- Imagine that you want to buy the shares of some company but you don’t have access to make that kind of deal. Now, wouldn’t it be great if you knew someone – a broker – because he or she has the knowledge and expertise to make that deal, and, hopefully, can explain to you the whole process in English – plain and simple.
- Now imagine you’re a new international student at this university with decent IELTS scores but discover this all-English environment is more than you can handle. You have an assignment to complete, it has a list of 15 requirements, most of which you are half-guessing. There’s no point asking the tutor because most of the time he’s half-guessing what you really want. Now, wouldn’t it be great if you knew someone – a broker – who could explain the assignment to you in your own language – plain and simple?
- Focus - Brokering So here’s how I’m using the concept of brokering in my research on EAL international students: The brokering practices I’m looking at are informal and social but academically-oriented experiences that EAL international students have with others. Brokering takes place when students get help with their academic learning such as reading, writing, and doing assignments, from someone else outside the formal curriculum.
- Overview Now that I’ve established my focus, I’ll now go on to frame my research with some background literature, then move on to my research methods, present to you my initial findings, and finally touch on some implications.
- Frame/Re-frame Framing the research is also about reframing what we already know. I’ll look at just two key concepts in today’ presentation – academic literacy and brokering.
- Academic literacies When I talk about academic literacy, I’m adopting an academic literacies approach. It’s not just about knowing how to read, write, speak and listen. 1) It’s about how students interact with various aspects of academic literacy – their repertoires of social practices; 2) It’s about looking at how they engage with resources – being open to alternative ways of meaning making 3) With EAL students, there are also aspects of intercultural interaction, or what Byram (1997) terms ’ intercultural communicative competence. So I’m re-framing academic literacy as being: multiple, fluid and intercultural
- Brokering Now, moving on to the concept of brokering. Briefly speaking, it is concept that has been used in sociology, knowledge management, and learning in migrant communities. I’d like to bring your attention to literacy brokering and a particular study that got me thinking about brokering among international students. Kristen Perry’s 2009 study examined literacy brokering among Sudanese refugee families in the United States. She documented how the families sought or provided informal assistance about certain aspects of unfamiliar texts and practices. For example, the children translated school notices for their parents; and parents asked friends how to fill in job application forms. The researcher herself explained to her participants that the mailer which seemed to indicate to them that they had won one million dollars, was, in fact, junk mail. So now I’m re-framing brokering in the context of the university - how do EAL students may seek help with the various academic texts and tasks they have to do?
- Brokering is not a concept that has been widely used in studies on academic learning, but several studies have alluded to this sort of help-seeking behaviour. Here are some insights: Brokering includes textual and sociocultural aspects. Textual aspects are things like homework and assignments. Sociocultural aspects refer to the conventions of student interaction, particularly with local students and instructors. A brokering relationship may evolve from existing social relationships, typically with co-nationals or other international students; and/or be based on a recognition of sought-after expertise in others, sometimes the local students. Brokering appears to be mostly unidirectional, although reciprocal brokering can also take place.
- Research Questions So the questions I ask in my research is: What is the nature of brokering among EAL international students? And today, I will focus on three specific focal questions: What aspects of academic literacy are brokered? Who are the brokers? How does brokering look like?
- Methods Let me know talk briefly about my research methods.
- Sampling I recruited ten students from social science faculties at this university. They were all first-time international students. 7 of them were undergraduates, 2 were starting their postgrad diplomas, and one of them was enrolled in an honours year. 7 were from China, 1 from Taiwan, 1 from Malaysia, and 1 from Japan. The research was conducted over a period of one academic semester or 16 weeks.
- Ethnographic approach I used an ethnographic approach, which means I aimed at using a variety of methods to put together a rich picture of brokering interactions. Although I wanted to conduct observations of interactions, this proved to be very challenging, and a large part of my data is based on interviews. In the end, access to participants’ brokering interactions were gained through the following ways: 46 participant interviews, 3 broker interviews – 2 of these brokers were not part of the ten main participants. 33 instances of text interactions 10 samples of writing feedback from learning support 2 observations.
- Findings I recently completed data collection and so here are some of my initial findings.
- Findings 1. What aspects of academic literacy are brokered? Course materials – lectures, textbooks, handouts, tutorial questions Assignments – instructions, sources of information, writing Sociocultural aspects - Relating to instructors, relating to peers
- Findings Course materials - Frequent Students couldn’t understand lecturers because of speed, vocabulary, organisation Lecture / textbook content was too dense e.g. use of highly academic vocab or professional terms Tutorial questions were confusing, also related to dense course material Sometimes it was a matter of getting a translation, but often, students sought an explanation in their native language.
- Findings Assignments - Frequent Instructions about what to include, how to submit it on learning management system Where to find sources of information, e.g. websites Writing – expressing an idea in English, organising content, sentences structure, grammar, referencing
- Findings Sociocultural aspects – less frequent Relating to instructors – whether it was appropriate to approach tutor/lecturer to ask questions Relating to peers – making decisions to work with “foreign” students, or how to interact with them
- Findings Who are the brokers? They were classmates, acquaintances, friends and learning support staff. Classmates were usually similar in age and culture. However I had an unusual example of a Chinese student who regularly interacted with a Kiwi classmate. I’ll be sharing with you a sample of their interaction later on. Generally, classmates were approached because they were ‘star students’ – they had done well in their assignments. Sometimes, classmates may have had already studied for a few semesters and so had prior knowledge and experience. The case is similar for acquaintances. By acquaintances, I mean friends of friends, and social media contacts.
- Findings Participants also found brokers among their friends. Sometimes it was because they had some prior knowledge or experience, but I would say that the greatest strength of their brokering relationship is that they had a common background, such as educational background or they could have very similar values and ideals. The last group of brokers I found in my research are the learning support staff. These are people employed on a full-time or part-time basis by the university and their role is to assist students with their learning, but in particular, their academic writing. In most cases, they were socially and culturally distant from the participants, and it was their academic expertise that was sought after.
- Findings Finally, let me share with you what are some characteristics of these brokering relationships. I have developed a working typology of brokering relationships. There are shades of grey in each category, and one can cross into another, but I’ll treat them as separate for now. I’ll talk about three aspects: descriptions, examples and modes of brokering. As you can see, spontaneous, opportunistic and formal relationships tend to be one way and one off. The broker would provide the assistance, and after that interaction, they might not be another one with the same person. For the developing and established relationships, they tend to be reciprocal and their interactions build on one another. Also, brokering often takes place as part of everyday conversation. Let’s look at some examples.
- Findings A spontaneous brokering interaction typically takes place during the lesson, for example, asking someone sitting next to you on what the teacher said. For opportunistic interactions, the student is looking out for someone who can help in a particular way, for example, explaining how a test will be conducted. For developing and established relationships, brokering interactions seem to be part and parcel of their social interactions. And for more formal interactions with learning support tutors, a lot more thought goes into planning for it to happen.
- Findings Finally, the mode of brokering relationships or interactions. Across all types, you can expect face to face interactions, mostly outside the classroom. What I found interesting was that a lot of brokering interaction was taking place through messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger and WeChat. It was clearly the case for participants who had developing and established relationships with their brokers.
- Back to the unusual example of the Chinese participant and her Kiwi broker. I chose to share this with you primarily because it’s in English. Most of the 33 instances of text exchanges are in Chinese. The Chinese participant is Green, let’s call her A. And her classmate, a Kiwi student is grey, let’s call her B. They met during the first lecture and now it is several weeks into the semester. This is one of several instances of how the participant asks for help or clarification about the particular paper they are both doing. Here A is asking B what it means to answer multi-choice questions in an upcoming test. The conversation continues about the test with B asking A about her preparations. A few turns later, A offers to show B her study notes. With knowledge of their other exchanges, I see here an example of a developing friendship that allows the student to engage with her broker in a friendly way and ask for help. It looks like A is able to reciprocate with her study notes, but more often than not, A is the one who needs and asks for the academic assistance.
- Implications As I come to the end of my presentation, I want to go back to the tutor’s remarks I shared at the beginning of my presentation. Why don’t they go to the tutor for help? Students face questions and obstacles at many levels of their academic work. Often, they are looking for an explanation that makes sense to them – in their native language, or in a non-threatening way. These questions and obstacles need to be resolved quickly – through their “brokers”. If students actively seek help from others, and are dependent on others to be reliable brokers, then what should be our response? I leave you with a few questions.
- Implications There is comfort in having a broker from a similar cultural background. What kind of culturally relevant support can tertiary institutions offer? Students often seek out peers to be their brokers. How can students’ learning revolve around more peer interactions? Will a move towards e-learning have an impact on this? Finally, can students’ own reflection of their brokering practices help them in their learning? If so, how can they do it?
- Thank you for spending your Saturday afternoon with me. Please feel free to get in touch with me. My email and twitter details are on the screen.