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Internationalization of the U of R: Implications for Inclusive Pedagogical and
Institutional PracticesAndrea Sterzuk, PhD
Faculty of Education, University of ReginaDecember 1, 2011
Presentation Overview
1. Overview of previous presentations2. Glocal Realities3. Current Instructor Practices at U of R4. Institutional & instructor considerations5. Conclusions
Overview
Globalization The 21st century has been described as a
time of globalization. Characteristics specific to globalized times
include: 1) a unified global market; 2) innovations in communication technology and 3) increased migration.
Lo Bianco, Liddicoat, and Crozet (1999), suggest that "we are in the midst of the greatest movement of populations of any time”
Internationalization of higher education Internationalization is an institutional
response to globalization. It is an ongoing, future-oriented,
multidimensional, interdisciplinary, leadership-driven vision that involves many stakeholders working to change the internal dynamics of an institution to respond and adapt appropriately to an increasingly diverse, globally focused, ever-changing external environment” (Ellingboe, 1998, p.199).
Internationalization of higher education Bartell (2003, p. 50) explains that the process of
internationalizing universities includes: 1. A curriculum review to ensure emphasis on
international dimensions of issues2. An increase of the proportion of students from
abroad including both developed and newly industrialized countries
3. Further development of the number and types of exchange programs, study abroad programs and internships so that Canadian students can experience other cultures
4. Enhanced utilization of diversity and international experience from faculty, students and the wider community.
D. Internationalization of the U of R
Leader Post - July 19, 2011:
“University of Regina president Vianne Timmons hopes a new partnership with a South Korean university will increase internationalization for both institutions”
3. Research Design & Methodology What are the experiences of students, faculty and
staff negotiating an increasingly linguistically diverse U of R?
My research set out to explore this changing reality, with a focus on language policy & standard language ideologies and the types of pedagogical practices that might result.
Two-year study (April 2009- September 2011) 4 data sources: University websites (3); interviews
(30); policy documents (3); local & national media reports (5)
Interviewed 16 faculty and staff and 14 international students (2 of whom were recent permanent residents)
Four Faculties: Arts, Business Administration, Engineering and Education
Glocal Realities
Glocalization
Glocalization: Intertwined worldwide discourses, processes, and institutions affect local educational practices and policies (Spring, 2008)
Glocalization: An Example from Australia Joseph Lo Bianco: “Over recent
decades, explicit language planning and specifically
language policies announce and enact
new arrangements in the “question of language” in more
and more societies.” Australia: national educational language policies Ideologies influencing LPP in Australia: Britishism;
Australianism; Multiculturalism; Asianism; Economism
Glocalization: An Example from South Africa
Afrikaans and English: combined in courses and programs in several ways. Institution plans for language of instruction, tutorial, and testing
Proficiency classes and translation services offered
Elbie Adendorff: South Africa: institutional educational language policies – bilingual teaching model
Glocalization: An Example from Brazil
Globalization and the global south Brazil: Requests for MOA’s with western
universities increasing in recent years.
Glocalization: An Example from Brazil Canada
March 9, 2010: “Facing a record deficit, province hopes to turn education into export industry by boosting enrolment of international students by 50% over five years”
Glocalization and language Linguistic superdiversity (polylanguaging/translanguaging) in classrooms Q135 And who else, uh, the other students in the class—how big are
those classes? R135 The first class was like twenty students in. And the second one we are
five. Q136 Five. And in the first one, out of twenty students, how many
would be international students? R136 How many? [pause] All. Q137 All? R137 Yeah [chuckling]. Q138 Okay. And second class of the… R138 All. Q139 …five? All. R139 Yeah. Q140 So nobody in either of the classes you took had English as a first
language? R140 No.
Current Practices at U of R:Adaptations and Standards
Current Practices at U of R
Professor: Uh, if it’s a midterm exam where we got seventy-five minutes, um, I’ll—I’ll write an exam, I’ll set an exam that I hope people can do in forty-five minutes, so that those that are taking more time for whatever reason, including language, will still have time to finish. Because I’m just setting up people for defeat if I set an exam that a native English language speaker is going to be pushed to finish in seventy-five minutes
Current Practices at U of R
Professor: In terms of delivery, um, things—things that I do, I, uh, I’ll put my lectures on PowerPoint and I publish them on the Web, on the class page, early, and I urge students to download them, to look at them, to print them, to whatever. And, so, that gives all students a chance and some of the international students clearly are making the effort to read it early, to look at it early, to interpret it, to digest it, um, so—so they’re better ready for the lecture
Current Practices at U of R
Q74 And do you—if students are unsure about words or phrasing of a question on an exam, do you—will you explain in…?
R74Yeah, I’m careful about that. If it’s something they should have learned in class, sorry. But if it’s something, if it’s something that’s in the wording of the question, they’ll ask the question and I’ll give them clarification. I always permit students to bring, the book, the translator book. With the rule that, uh, there’s nothing handwritten in it. Right, no marks at all. And that’s consistent with the Faculty. So, I’ll give them that…
Q75 …So you’ll let them have a bilingual dictionary? R75Yes. Q76 And it’s consistent with the Faculty? They’re allowed
that? R76And it’s consistent with the Faculty, they’re allowed that, and
the rule is there is no marks at all, nothing written it, ‘cause somebody can write something in.
Current Practices at U of R
Professor: I haven’t allowed them to bring in dictionaries, ‘cause I, you know, you hear stories, whether they’re true or not, of people writing notes in dictionary margins and things like that.
Current Practices at U of R
Professor: My—my expectation, and I believe it is reflective of the Faculty’s, is that they perform at the same level that we would expect the Canadians to perform at. Having said that, not a lot of our Canadian students are achieving that expectation, either. So, um, I think they’re treated equally, um, however, the proportion of foreign students that would maybe lose marks because of their ability related to their language skills would be higher than the Canadian students.
Current Practices at U of R
Professor: Well, depends on what you mean by “adaptation.” We don’t adapt our standard and we don’t adapt our requirements.
Current Practices at U of R
Professor: I’ve run into students who have been asked to repeat the Zero-Fifty and I thought that they were sufficient already and I wondered if—why they were repeating. Again I think it comes down to what standard are we trying to get. Is a sixty good enough? Or do we want the all of the foreign students to be getting eighties? Because, I don’t think the—you look at the Canadians who supposedly know the language and communicate. They’re getting sixties, too, sometimes, right? So is the language the part that is the missing component from the eighties? I don’t necessarily think that it is
Current Practices at U of R
Professor: I always let the groups decide how they’re going to distribute the work. Some groups have each person write a section, and they’ve always been instructed to edit that compilation so that it flows as though one person wrote it. Of course, not a lot of them always do that and you could definitely tell when it is switched author. Um, the Chinese writers, in particular, you can, uh, tell when, uh, when they have switched over. Um, some groups will assign a Canadian to write the whole thing and then they don’t get involved in the project. I don’t necessarily agree with that, but it’s their choice to distribute the work that they want to, um, ‘cause the idea is that everybody should be practicing their writing skills, right? Um, the—and that’s for the group project. There are individual assignments as well where they do have to write, but there’s—there’s a group component and an individual component. Um, for—but for most of the groups, I would say they allow their foreign speakers to have a contribution
Current Practices at U of R
Professor: I haven’t changed anything about my teaching style. I haven’t heard anything of other people saying that they’ve changed because of that [the presence of international students in classes]. However, uh, we talk about it all the time. You know, “we did this, uh, and it didn’t work with the, it didn’t work with the Chinese students.”
Current Practices at U of R
Professor: Hmm. [long pause] Yea, yea, I think so. It would
affect my teaching. I mean, for instance, time-to-time I would need to repeat things…for instance. Uh, and, uh, sometimes I feel that, uh, if I speak loudly, it will be, uh, easier to understand……with students. Um, [to self] what else? [to interviewer] I avoid using, uh, difficult words or…vocabulary in my teaching. Uh, whenever I say a new word, I try my best to explain what it…exactly means. Uh, usually the only way I can get feedback is through, uh, facial……you know.
Q221 So you watch. You watch your students. R221 Yeah, I—I watch them, so…
Current Practices at U of R
Q240 If you had an X-speaking student in one of your classes and they were struggling with understanding a question, would you ever use an X word to help them understand the question?
R240 I tend not to do so. Q241 You tend not to? R241 No. Q242 Any reason why? R242 Uh, [pause] I’m not ever sure about the regulations,
but I always tell them that uh—uh—uh, [pause] uh, the language that we speak here would be English.
Q243 Mmhmm. R243 And, uh, normally they are not even allowed to use
non-English textbooks.
Current Practices at U of R
Q77 Do you ever speak with them in X? R77 I speak with them in X, yeah, definitely I have to do that to explain to them.
But, when it comes to technicalities, I need to get back to my English…
R186 …and I try to tell them that think about it in this way. No, even when they speak to me in X, I—I reply back in, uh, English, just to teach them…
Q187 Okay. R187 …just to teach them. Uh, and they don’t take it personally. They always
understand. Q188 Yeah? R188 And they—they will not keep speak to me in X but, uh, when they are
really stuck [chuckles] they do that. Q189 Yea. Would you ever do that though? With an exam question?
Would you quickly say it in X just to…? R189 I—I won’t do that… Q190 No? R190 I won’t do that, no. Q191 Okay. R191 Just out of, uh, being professional
Current Practices at U of R
R248 The effects, definitely, I need to take that extra step to, uh, ease my English number one, uh, relate more to what they understand industry-speaking, back home. Uhh, but, uh, when it comes to…
Q249 Do you explain vocabulary? R249 Many times, I do. Uhh, I—I—I take this extra English explanation step
uhh, when I, even when I put the project, for example, mostly a lot—a lot—a lot of the X courses are demanding in terms of projects and papers that they write research, so I can see that, uh, I can’t run as fast as I like because they’re, they are really going through hard times. So, uh, I ask them, for example there’s a topic we are going to do some literature review on it And you can see the amount of hardship they are going through. And, uh, so definitely if they make up…
Q250 Would you ever adjust the, uh, output that you require of them? Like shorten the…
R250 Definitely, yeah. The assignments and the projects definitely I choose to—to…I don’t want to torture them. At the end of the day it’s a learning process. I don’t change, of course, my—the core of the content. This is what I need to teach and I would like to teach but definitely the expectations are different. And, uh, when it comes to undergraduate, uh, I try to be fair when it comes definitely uh, you see the mix between very outspoken English people and, uh, the international students. And, uh, you feel that they are a little bit uh—um, not unfair but, uh, they lose that advantage when it comes to presentation of the project.
Current Practices at U of R
Student: I don’t want to be marked with different criteria with other students, because that’s—that’s not a purpose for being here. But she told that “You can hand it in another revision after—after having one revision.” So I could hand in more—more and more essay that I have revised any time. So she gave me a lot chance to improve my skill and, yeah. I think this course is best course that I take here.
Current Practices at U of R
Student: In my, uh, English 100 class, I had to write some essays which is about responding some poems and novels. But I did similar things in Korea, so, for me, it was not that hard, ‘cause I was writing similar essays. But, I, actually, I was trying to more higher classes here this semester, so I registered, um, poetry class. And, uh, I handed in one essay, and my professor talked to me [imitates professor’s words] “You’re not eligible to take 200-level course, which is in English.” So—but I wanted to take the class because I wanted to do some challenge works here before I leave here. But professor didn’t answer me, even though I send emails, like, three times, yeah, but he didn’t answer me at all, so I just dropped the course. Yeah, that is the one negative thing that I had here.
Current Practices at U of R
Student: the—the professor told me “Okay, you have to—you have to explain about the poem in ten minutes.” But I—I need ten minutes to understand the poem. So I—I couldn’t say anything about the poem. But maybe the poem is, like, short and for native English speaker is easy to get the meaning and they can explain about the meaning in ten minutes. But I needed ten minutes to understand the poem, so I dropped the class.
Current Practices at U of R
So, um, I told her that before she did her comps. she had to do this or—or—because I can’t help her with her comps. That was the reason.
Q43 That was the reason, because you can help her with the other academic writing, but not the comps.
R46 Um, well I mean it—it wasn’t that hard but it mattered to me who it was and so I just wanted somebody who would really do a good job and I had—I had some extra money for the X and so I paid the coach.
Q47 You paid for this? R47 Yeah and it was, you know, it—it was necessary and it,
um… Q48 How much did you pay this person? R48 [Pause] Um, I—no I gave the money to my student and I
said “You do this.” Now I, let me think how much it was. Um [long pause] it might have been about a thousand dollars.
Current Practices at U of R
Professor: I recognize that’s it’s much more of a challenge for those who do not have English as a first language, but I don’t know how to deal with it. If I didn’t have to mark, I’d know how to deal with it. Right? Um, but I have to judge that student in terms of what they’re producing
I mean is it going to be required that they, uh, demonstrate a—a level of—of writing competency, communication of ideas before doing class? Or is that necessary? I mean I’m at a stage where I’m sort of throwing my hands up and saying I don’t—I don’t know what to do because, uh, I don’t—I don’t want students to fail but I also feel that I do have fairly high expectations,
Institutional & Instructor Considerations
or“You can’t leave these things
up to chance” (Lo Bianco, 2011)
Instructor Considerations - Communication Make use of non-verbal cues: gestures, facial expressions. Point to contextual cues in your environment. Scaffold instruction in any way you can. Refer back to
previous knowledge or discussions. Write down numbers, and new words, watch their faces for understanding, encourage them to look up unknown words in bilingual dictionaries.
Allow sufficient time for in-class reading. Design exams and quizzes with the time requirements of all students in mind. Do not use native-speakers as benchmark for “normal” performance.
In interaction with students, be aware of your own linguistic flexibility. Can you adjust your ear to their accent? Can you grab hold of a familiar word or a contextual clue that allows your ear to make that leap?
Instructor Considerations - CommunicationWhat can I do about gaps between my vocabulary,
verbs, word order, and comprehensibility and that of my interlocuteur?
Slow down Leave spaces between your words Choose simple language. Avoid slang, jargon, and
acronyms. If a word seems unknown to your conversation partner, don’t repeat it again with increased volume, rephrase your utterance or choose another word. Be aware of features of your own variety of English and how you might adapt your speech. Example: half-ton = truck = pick-up = lorry
Try to anticipate the linguistic knowledge of your conversation partner. Example: They may not know “student union building” but they might recognize “Riddell Centre.”
Instructor Considerations - Gatekeeping Gatekeeping – controlling access L2 Participants in this study described instances of
gatekeeping (access or encouragement to pursue sessional work; being allowed to enrol in a 200-level course; “allowed” to participate in group work).
Instances of gatekeeping such as these can have real material effects. For example, the PhD on the job market with no teaching experience is far less likely to secure an academic position.
Classmates can serve as gatekeepers as well. The student “not allowed” by Canadian students to participate in group work loses out on language- and content-learning opportunities.
L2 students need to be supported and encouraged in their academic pursuits, not restricted because their English is deemed insufficient or lacking in some way.
Instructor Considerations - EAP University instructor teaching styles are
increasingly less formal and more interactive. This has implications for classes in English for
Academic purposes (EAP). This shift in teaching style may require an
increased focus on genre-specific listening/speaking courses and tasks. EAP teachers need to prepare students for comprehension of and participation in a variety of lecture/discussion formats
Instructor Considerations - Writing Many instructors focus heavily on grammar or language
issues of L2 writers. Instructors need to be reminded that “these students and their texts represent a broad range of needs, strengths, and challenges and to structure their feedback accordingly” (Ferris, 2011: 224).
Instructors “should not simply tell their L2 students to see a tutor or go to the writing center or read the handbook or consult a particular Web site. Rather, classroom instructors should (a) ensure the resources to which they are sending their students are appropriate and of good quality; (b) prepare students to use those resources effectively by suggesting to them specific issues to learn about or get help with; and (c) work cooperatively with tutors or writing centers” (Ferris, 2011: 224).
Institutional Considerations Policies: Languages used in instruction, tutorials, and
assessment When the instructor or TA has fluency in a student’s first
language, they should consider code-switching/translanguaging as an effective teaching strategy
Faculties might consider hiring TA’s & faculty with fluency in particular L1’s
Policies may be required around the use of bilingual dictionaries in testing
Policies: English language proficiency and assessment At the moment, a monolithic, monolingual, native-speaker model
of English is privileged in campus language policies reviewed for this study. These policies may need to be re-written with a more hybrid, expansive and fluid understanding of English.
Differentiated assessment needs to be considered and imbedded in policies in all faculties
Institutional Considerations Translation services Requirements for foreign language studies:
Faculty programs may need to consider making the study of foreign languages compulsory/encouraged
Technical & Academic writing courses Faculty-specific composition courses may need to
be created Reconsiderations around compulsory courses
Is a course centred around English literature the best/only way to assist L2 (& L1) writers with academic writing.
Conclusions There is a spectrum of instructor responses to
increased linguistic diversity at the U of R. Many are inclusive and others prevent students from participating fully in learning
Things are less clear cut than a statement like “We will not adapt our standards.” Adjusting to linguistic change is not the same as “lowering our standards.”Adaptations in teaching and evaluation are necessary.
Given the range of practices and beliefs, as well as responses from instructors indicating that they feel unsure about “what to do,” institutional policies & planning around language and instruction are required.
