Investigating First Year Undergraduate EAL Students' Academic Literacy Experiences.

Abstract

Australian universities have become places where students from diverse backgrounds and cultures come together to pursue tertiary education. This study contributes to current understandings of how universities have responded to their now diverse student body, and adds insight into curricula and classroom practices which might better accommodate learners who have English as an Additional Language (EAL). While issues surrounding EAL students have been examined and discussed for two decades, Lea and Street (2006), Leask (2013), and Wingate (2015) contend that university pedagogies and practices are yet to adequately cater for students from diverse backgrounds. In particular, disciplinary pedagogies tend to be dominated by assumptions that EAL students’ linguistic, cultural, and educational backgrounds are deficits, which limit their capacity to adapt to Australian tertiary learning environments. Accordingly, research which focuses on first year EAL students’ academic expectations and experiences is critical so that Australian universities can enhance current pedagogies which guide curricula and classroom practices. This study employed Lea and Street’s (1998) academic literacies approach to examine how first year undergraduate EAL students from a range of educational and cultural backgrounds, and fields of study, mediated their first year at an English-speaking university. The study investigated participants’ academic expectations, academic socialisation, and academic literacies, including their experiences constructing new student identities, and engaging with teachers and peers. Such research is important to provide evidence of best practice strategies to support EAL students’ literacy and learning, and foster a sense of belonging. This study also examined participants’ academic reading, a fundamental aspect of academic literacy which has been under researched (Hill & Meo, 2015; Wingate, 2015). Three research questions guided the study: Research Question 1 investigated participants’ expectations of their new learning environment; Research Question 2 examined how the students mediated their academic socialisation; and Research Question 3 investigated what factors enabled and constrained participants’ academic literacies. The primary research method was a multiple case study approach in which eight units of analysis were embedded within the research setting, a university in South East Queensland. The study employed a three phase explanatory qualitative and quantitative research design. A self-administered questionnaire with a convenience sample size of 159 first year EAL students was implemented in Phase I. The questionnaire examined respondents’ expectations of academic conventions and skills, academic reading, and engagement with teachers and peers. The survey data were analysed using SPSS software to generate descriptive statistics. The findings informed the qualitative case study inquiry. Phase II was the first stage of the multiple case studies. Eight case study participants were recruited through purposive sampling. Phase II examined participants’ academic socialisation experiences. Data was collected through weekly structured interviews, and course document analysis. In Phase III, semi-structured interviews investigated participants’ classroom experiences, student identities, and academic relationships with teachers and peers. The case study data were analysed using thematic analysis, which involved an iterative process of reading, rereading, and coding the data into themes related to the issues under investigation. The multiple sources of data revealed that participants’ expectations and experiences were homogenous, despite their diverse backgrounds. This suggests that first year EAL students share similar literacy and learning needs. Participants demonstrated an understanding of disciplinary literacy practices and conventions. They expected to enhance their language, academic, and intercultural communication skills, with the help of course teachers. They believed it was important to feel a sense of belonging in their new academic community, and engage with domestic peers. However, these expectations were largely unfulfilled. The findings also showed that EAL students often underestimate the reality of course reading demands. Nevertheless, participants demonstrated positive student identities by adapting and extending their literacy practices to successfully mediate disciplinary requirements. They read strategically by engaging with academic texts they believed were relevant to their literacy and learning. Participants’ academic achievements indicated that their linguistic, cultural, and educational backgrounds did not hinder their capability to engage in their courses and complete assessment tasks. This suggests that the prevailing perception about EAL students’ cultural and educational backgrounds being barriers to learning is misguided. However, the participants’ academic literacies were hindered when they encountered classroom learning environments which did not incorporate language and literacy instruction, constructive feedback on assessments, or peer engagement. There was also little evidence that courses applied reading pedagogies. These challenges, in particular the lack of classroom engagement with domestic peers, negatively affected their sense of belonging in their new academic community. The study findings reveal a disparity between EAL students’ classroom experiences, and best practice first year and internationalisation strategies recommended in the literature (e.g., Lea & Street, 2006; Leask, 2013; Wingate, 2015). A noteworthy finding is that the teaching practices which help EAL students’ communicative confidence and learning require little effort. That is, when teachers show interest, and facilitate cross-cultural classroom interactions, there is a positive impact on students’ feelings of belonging. The implication is teachers are in the best position to provide supportive and inclusive classroom learning environments that fulfil