The purpose of this research is to analyse the experiences of 10 Chinese pre-sessional students preparing for study at a British university. Specifically, the aim is to better understand their English language learning experiences before and during their pre-sessional courses, and the potential impact these experiences will have on future L2 English interaction and use. The number of studies focusing on the large L1 Chinese cohorts on pre-sessional programmes and the consequent impact this has on L2 English use, is limited. This research aims to make a contribution to the growing body of pre-sessional English language research, and demonstrate its connection to cross cultural interaction research.
The constructivist-interpretive approach adopted in this research focuses on the distinct accounts of individuals, often homogenised in the extant literature. However, through Narrative inquiry, this study will challenge the, often unintentional, essentialist perspectives on Chinese international students at British universities. The research framework applies a three-dimensional narrative inquiry space (Clandinin and Connelly, 2000) to investigate how the experiences of the participants may have influenced their L2 interaction, and development of a L2 communicative repertoire. It focuses on key concepts from Dewey’s (1938) theory of experience: situation, continuity and interaction. For this study, the situation refers to the notion of place (English language learning experiences in China, and in Britain), continuity (interrelation of language learning experiences in the past, present and future), and interaction (personal, social, and within the educational context).
The main research finding is that the internationalisation of higher education has impacted on the L2 interaction of the participants. This is largely due to the large numbers of same L1 students on the preparatory courses and limited interaction with other L1 groups during this time. As a consequence, this has had a negative impact on the development of an L2 communicative repertoire. In addition to this, past learning experiences and future aspirations will also influence the extent to which developing an L2 communicative repertoire is an objective for all the participants of the study. The main conclusion drawn from the narrative data is that higher education institutions need to take a much more active role in promoting wider interaction across different groups. The starting point should be on the pre-sessional programmes within their role of preparing individuals for the internationalised higher education setting, as once the participants start their postgraduate programmes it will be necessary to interact with the wider university population. The current demographic of the pre-sessional programme results in few opportunities to gain experience in this type of diverse interaction. This could be achieved, however, through institution-led initiatives to promote more diversity and intergroup contact on pre-sessional programmes, and for the provision of institution and faculty level training, promoting and providing multicultural and cross-cultural interaction at university. Thus, providing adequate training for an internationalised higher education context.
