Delivering academic support to meet the needs

of international students

Elizabeth Hauge Julie Watson eeh@soton.ac.uk jw17@soton.ac.uk

Overview

• The needs of international students • Addressing these needs with:

– face to face support– resources for independent study– online courses and resource

sets

NeedsStudents may arrive with a mixed language skills profiles. Problems can include:

– Weak academic writing skills– Inadequate reading skills– Limited critical thinking skills– Poor oral communication skills– Inadequate listening skills

This leads to:

– Problems with assignments– Problems in lectures/ seminars/

tutorials

Complicating factors

• The demands of the specific degree programme

• Timetabling clashes

• Time management issues

• Homesickness

Addressing needs (face-to-face)

• Academic writing courses (e.g. writing conventions, issues of coherence, cohesion and plagiarism)

• Oral communication courses (e.g. seminar skills – presentations, discussion skills)

• Critical thinking courses (e.g. developing analytical and evaluative approaches to reading and writing)

• Individual tutorials by appointment (e.g. planning an assignment or formatting references; also general language advice – how to cope)

Resources for independent study

These comprise materials for

developing the four language skills

plus grammar, vocabulary and

critical thinking; (and also exam

preparation and cultural awareness)

which are:

- paper-based

- audio/video

-computer-based

Background to online provision

• eLanguages Project – funded to develop e-tutored, online modules in English for Academic Purposes (EAP)

• Currently… – A bank of 1500+ ‘learning objects’ in

EAP, plus generic and discipline-specific study skills for home students

– Refined, researched, increased and re-used to create online courses and resource sets

Online single skills courses

• Academic Writing Skills; Academic Listening Skills; Academic Communication Skills; Academic Reading Skills; Academic Vocabulary Development; Aspects of Grammar for Academic Study

• E-tutored, 10 weeks

• Delivered to University of Southampton students using VLE (Blackboard)

Online resource sets

• International Students’ Online Resource set (EAP Toolkit)

• Available throughout year on a self-enrol basis

• Delivered to University of Southampton students using VLE (Blackboard)