Abstract :
The issues of Chinese learners’ language difficulties within the process of English learning have been discussed from multiple perspectives, including: learners’ fear of mistake-making and exam-oriented stress; lack of confidence and access to language context in academic writing skills; awareness of different learning and teaching methods applied within different learning stages; dependency on writing models for writing tasks. Evolving out of a much larger doctoral thesis, this presentation explores Chinese L2 learners’ challenges and attitude towards language difficulties in Chinese and UK universities. This study draws upon large-scale data derived from semi-structured individual and group interviews, surveys and advisory groups collected over a period of 20 months’ data fieldwork in China and the UK. Responses were gathered from over 500 surveys completed by high school students and qualitative interviews with 80 Chinese undergraduates, postgraduates and teachers in Chinese and UK universities in order to build the bridge between educational issues in both secondary education and tertiary education in China. In this presentation, relevant data is analysed to examine more specifically, Chinese undergraduates and postgraduates who are currently studying in UK universities, with particular reference to Chinese students’ engagement and involvement of English learning within their home and visited country education systems. The findings from this study help to shed light on how Chinese students’ language difficulties emerge from the interaction between changing learning materials and their experiences of different learning and teaching contexts.
