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Successful overseas students

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Well, the pictures may not be very good, but I think the ideas they show are very important. We finished our summer course by thinking about the habits of successful overseas students. I think the most important things to take away from your summer school are a positive mental attitude and an awareness of how you can continue to improve your language skills.

Many students have commented that they want more listening practice and that we don’t do enough in class. There is never enough time to do everything you want in class, so it may be true that listening is often one of the things overlooked. But, you can listen outside class! The link today is to the online lectures provided by the Self-Access Centre for Language Learning at Reading University. This is a wonderful collection of real lectures given to English language students at Reading, complete with clearly typed transcripts so you can read what the lecturer says (after listening!) when there are things you did not understand. What I really like about these lectures is their authenticity (which means they are real) and they are accessible to everyone – you don’t need to be an expert on the topic to enjoy the lecture, they are aimed at a general audience. Here’s the link to these lectures.

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Incorporating sources into your writing

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I met some new international students yesterday and they were complaining about the weather in the UK. It’s official – August this year was the worst August that we have ever had according to records, but that’s not a bad thing if you are sitting in class! Brits try to make themselves feel better by saying things like “Maybe we’ll have an Indian summer!” ( a warm period in autumn) but really we know the autumn will be equally dismal (and I think you can guess the meaning of ‘dismal’!).

Referring to other people’s ideas in your writing is a critical part of using English for Academic Purposes, and doing it well is hard! Today I am going to show you one way of structuring a paragraph which includes a reference to other people’s work.

Here’s an example paragraph in an essay discussing the difficulties faced by international students at universities:

One of the biggest difficulties facing overseas students in British universities is the issue of English language competence. Robertson et al (2000) report that overseas students were often unable to play a full role in classrooms because they were so conscious of their restricted command of English. Clearly any university which is serious about recruiting and teaching international students needs to make sure that those students receive adequate language support.

We can see that in this paragraph there is:

1. A topic sentence:
One of the biggest difficulties facing overseas students in British universities is the issue of English language competence.
This sentence clearly puts forward an idea (or thesis) . It is the topic for the whole sentence.

2. Evidence from an outside source which supports the topic sentence:
Robertson et al (2000) report that students were often unable to play a full role in classrooms because they were so conscious of their restricted command of English.

3. Input from the writer on the implications (effect, consequences) of the evidence and topic sentence:
Clearly any university which is serious about recruiting and teaching international students needs to make sure that those students receive adequate language support.

As usual I am pointing you to a resource which helps you practise this language point, and today this comes from the University of Victoria, Wellington. Their Academic Writing Module neatly encapsulates writing paragraphs in Academic English. The first units focus on topic sentences and building paragraphs and I particularly like section 3 on incorporating sources. This material is here.

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Improving your academic vocabulary

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Isn’t the Olympics just great? I have nearly been late for class because I’ve been enjoying Olympic breakfasts and can’t drag myself away to drive to work. However, when I get to class I am helping students to improve their academic vocabulary, and one way you can do that is by doing some exercises on words taken from the Academic Word List. If you don’t know what the Academic Word List is then you’ve got some reading to do through some of my other posts on Academic Vocabulary! Today I am pointing you towards some exercises designed by Gerry Luton from the University of Victoria in Canada. This is one of those resources that I can hardly believe is available for free on the Internet. The AWL is divided into 10 sublists and Gerry has written exercises for each of those sublists. Read Gerry’s instructions and do these exercises here.

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Surviving your summer school

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I hope that overseas students on summer schools are surviving their experiences! If you are doing a pre-sessional course at a university then you should take advantage of this opportunity to settle in and find your way around. Some general words of advice to help you complete your course successfully:
1. Hand in your work on time. Teachers hate it when students hand in work late! If you do this, you are more likely to get a lower mark because there will be less time to revise it and you will lose the sympathy of your teacher. Weaker students often hand in work late because they find the work hard and need more time to do it but when this happens they often miss chances to improve their work, meaning they don’t get any better! It’s a vicious circle (which means the problem goes round and round getting worse and worse). Even if you think your work is not a high standard hand it in on time so you can get feedback on it and improve on it. Your pre-sessional course is a chance for you to learn about the university systems for handing in work and it is your chance to start good habits.
2. Go to your classes. Obvious really, but there are students who drift in late, missing the occasional morning or afternoon. Your teachers put in a lot of thought in planning and teaching your classes and you are putting yourself at a disadvantage if you don’t attend every session.
3. Ask for help! Do not suffer in silence! You have paid for your course and you are going to pay good money for your degree programme. Make sure you get your money’s worth by asking for help when you need it. Your teachers will probably be overworked, but they mean well and they will do their best to help you! I have never met an English language teacher who doesn’t care about their students (why else would they be there? It’s not for the money!!).
4. Work through the ‘Prepare for Success’ university orientation materials produced by the University of Southampton. I have only had a chance to look at the first of the videos here, but what I’ve seen so far is excellent. There are students from Japan and China talking about the differences in education in the West, and there are university staff talking too about cultural differences in education systems. This great material can be found here.
5. Sign up to receive my posts by e mail so you can follow my links to free Internet resources for improving your Academic English! You can see the subscription form at the top right of the page and of course you will only receive posts from this blog and you will not be spammed!
Good luck!

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