Assessing Writing: Series Editors' Preface

Reviews Communication Strategies: A Psychological Analysis of Second-Language Use by Ellen Bialystok. Applied Linguistics Series, D. Crystal and K. Johnson, Eds., Cambridge, MA.: Basil Blackwell, 1990. vi pp. Reviewed by James E. Purpura University of California, Los Angeles Over interest in the cognitive processes the past fifteen years, there has been an increased which account for how the learner of a second language (L2) handles conceptual and linguistic input, how this learner processes this information to allow for intake, and how the newly-acquired knowledge is used to produce messages in the L2. Second-language learning strategy research focuses on the processes and strategies used to perceive, internalize and automatize new linguistic input, with emphasis on language learning. Bialystok's work. Communication Strategies, however, differs from other books on strategy research (O'Malley & Chamot, 1990; Oxford, 1990; Wenden, 1991) in that it takes a much narrower focus, concentrating on the processes and strategies a learner invokes when declarative and procedural knowledge are utilized to communicate a message. The emphasis of this book is on language use and the linguistic and cognitive processes involved in communication. Thus, in providing an in depth analysis of the processes and strategies used in language production. Communication Strategies provides a unique contribution to learning strategy research. Bialystok's overall goal in Communication Strategies is to find a means of explaining how strategies function in the speech of L2 learners (p. 13). The book contains a preface, eight chapters, notes, references and an index. In Chapter 1 Bialystok finds all the definitions of communication strategies commonly used in strategy research to be ambiguous. explicitly, the undue emphasis Bialystok also criticizes, although not in strategy research on definitions and proposes an approach to investigating communication strategies fully incorporates the identification, explanation, and instruction of communication strategies. The remaining chapters of which the book are organized around these three points. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 address the question of how to identify and categorize strategic behavior in the communication of L2 learners. Chapters 5,

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Communication Strategies: A Psychological Analysis of Second-Language Use

The evolution of societies

This paper presents a qualitative study exploring the learning experiences of Chinese postgraduate students in Australian universities. In the past decades, international student enrolments in Australia have grown rapidly in all education sectors. Thousands of Chinese students come to study in Australia every year and China has become Australia’s largest source of international students. This study investigates Chinese postgraduate students’ motivations to study in Australia, the challenges they face and strategies they adopt to achieve cultural and academic adjustments. This research is significant in that it investigates the learning experiences of Chinese students, particularly from the perspective of postgraduate students. This study involves ten Chinese students from mainland China who enrolled in Master Courses in two Australian universities in the ACT. An in-depth face-to-face interview method was employed. The interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed verbatim and the transcripts were translated from Chinese into English. Exploring their learning experiences provides Chinese learners intending to study in Australia and Australian academics with a better understanding of the challenges Chinese postgraduate students are faced with and strategies they have adopted to achieve cultural and academic adjustments in Australian universities.

A qualitative study on Chinese postgraduates students learning experiences in Australia

Genre in the Classroom: Multiple Perspectives

The formation of student diasporas in western universities is a manifestation of the globalization and internationalization of higher education, and has necessitated studies about international students’ adaptation to such universities Statistics of the last decade show that there has been a significant flow of international students to Australian universities, and a large proportion of this student cohort comes from South East Asian and South Asian countries Whilst there has been a good deal of research on international students from South East and Far East Asia, who share a Confucian Heritage Culture (CHC) background, there are relatively very few studies on South Asian students, particularly postgraduate students from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh (defined as South Asian for this study) This qualitative study about the adaptation experiences of postgraduate coursework students from South Asian countries fills some of the gap that exists in the body of literature about international students
The study, conducted at a cross-sectoral Australian university in Melbourne, referred to with the pseudonym Southern University (SU), has utilised a longitudinal qualitative approach to explore from an ‘emic’ perspective the adaptation experiences of ten postgraduate coursework students from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh The students were studying in four faculties at SU, and participated in in-depth interviews and focus group discussions over their first two semesters
The study considers the students’ adjustment process in the Australian academic landscape from their pre-arrival expectations to their settlement after two semesters, and is structured to consider three phases of their experiences – initial, transitional and endpoint – in negotiating new academic norms and genres, including spoken communication
The study identifies a number of dimensions along which differences are evident in the students’ approaches and strategies in adjusting to their studies and lives as postgraduates In academic adjustment, all the postgraduates demonstrated incremental progress which was marked by varying levels of perceptual and attitudinal changes in understanding the new academic culture
Whilst the students shared a common goal of undertaking an Australian postgraduate degree to enhance their employment prospects, two broad types of strategists emerged: initiators of self-development and system compliers The study also notes that the postgraduates, through their physical presence in Australia and becoming qualified with a western education, negotiated new, hybrid and empowered identities for themselves
In its limited exploration about the students’ social acculturation, the study notes that some of them followed a selective integrative approach while others adopted assimilatory process, and they all indicated a hybrid state of acculturation to Australian culture The study also uncovers that, besides their academic goals, many of the postgraduates had a largely hidden agenda of long term settlement in Australia

Waliul Islam

Papers

Ways of becoming : South Asian students in an Australian postgraduate environment