Introduction
I first became aware of the experiences of international students when I worked as in-house designer at a group of international colleges for over a decade. Learning a new language is hard work, coupled with the challenges of a totally new place and culture, and often taking care of all their own needs (food, laundry etc) for the first time, sometimes aged as young as 14 or 15.
Now I teach at UAL, I see our diverse international cohort, and though their challenges often feel centred around their fluency in English, this is not the end of the story.
How it is now
UAL’s international cohort presents challenges and opportunities. Diversity of nationalities offers rich cross-cultural influence and lifelong global friendships. However, when poorly managed, students can form nationality based cliques, struggle to access support due to language and cultural barriers, and struggle to access the education they came to attain.
Here, I focus on three challenges:
- Due to nationality imbalances in recruitment, cliques can form, and students don’t embed themselves in English enough to improve.
- Students can struggle to access or identify what support they need.
- Due to lower language levels, students can struggle to engage with course materials.
Evaluation
I have already made attempts in my teaching practice to address these issues.
- Attempting to disperse students during activities so that they have to speak English. Firstly I split them into semi-random pairs. Some pairs dived into the activity and enjoyed connecting with someone new in English. Others quickly lapsed into awkward silence. Breaking them into groups of 3 or 4 instead, and being particularly intentional about where students are distributed improves participation.
- During tutorials I always offer a pastoral element. If students are having issues, I signpost them to the appropriate university support. If they have no concerns, I still signpost them to ‘UAL resources’, so that if anything arises, or they didn’t feel comfortable talking to me, they know what is available. Induction weeks are overwhelming and a lot of the information they’re provided about support services initially does not go in.
- I try to speak slowly and clearly in my sessions, and repeat ideas, concepts and task explanations multiple times. Whenever a challenging word arises, I explain it and we explore it together. I have had positive feedback from students — student reps have said students appreciate explanations, even when they already understand words. They valued my focus on supporting students with lower English levels, as they can slow down the whole class if other students have to offer explanations, or they misunderstand exercises.
Moving forward
There is still more I would like to do.
- Attempts to get the class mingling so that they communicate in English can feel forced, and be frustrating for students with higher English levels. I want to come up with ways to do this which are more fun and rewarding for everyone.
- I am interested in using our subject (UX) as a way of exploring their pastoral experiences of life in London. Have they faced challenges during their time here so far? Can we reflect on these through the lens of our practice (UX), use this to shine a light on their shared experiences, and learn from them?
- I work with a colleague in language support to plan activities and materials he might deliver. However his sessions often have poor attendance. I would like to learn about his specific pedagogies, and whether I might be able to adopt any of them.
An update:
As I have started working in a more focussed way with Ian, my colleague in language support, he noted:
“It would be great if I could get this much detail from other courses, it is brilliant to be able to plan like this”
Ian Holmes, Language Support
He hugely appreciates understanding what content I am delivering during students’ main sessions, and how he can tailor his content to support them in this. As we have commenced on a new unit working in this way, and more actively promoted his sessions, he has seen attendance soar from as low as 2 or 3 students to as high as 15 or 16.