What things do you think would make it easier for you and others to participate?

Maybe the class size.

Bigger or smaller?

Smaller! For example, one of my classes has more than 20 people..., but in another class we just have around ten or twelve people, we are more comfortable with each other; you always have a chance to express yourself, and it's not very formal. We just chat. It makes you comfortable, then you can speak more.

— Yasmin ( Schmidt 2005)

Sometimes I have some questions, but just don't know how to explain clearly to the tutors.

— Terrie

You've said that one reason for coming here was to improve your language skills; but you don't seem to be taking advantage of the opportunities. Why not?

There are two factors. One is, if am going to discuss things with local students or other international students I feel I need to have a clear idea of what I am going to talk about – be well read-up on the question, and so on. The other is simply lack of confidence with my language skills. In tutorials and lectures, you don't like to ask questions in front of a lot of other students. To save face, you wait till after the lecture.

— Daniel

Sometimes I just feel I can express myself better in Chinese; if I try to say it in English, it feels like I'm taking all day to say it, and even if the lecturer is very patient, I feel I'm just wasting people's time. You talk and talk, but you can't say what you mean clearly - it's difficult to find the proper words to express my meaning; so the teacher is looking at you, even though he's smiling, you worry that other people are getting upset. I get irritated myself with people who keep talking and can't get to the point.

Is this a situation you are afraid might occur, or have you actually experienced it?

Both. There have been times when I've asked a question and found myself in this situation. Sometimes I just think, too bad - I won't try to ask that question, I'll ask a different question.

— Lionel

This morning I just finish a class, and I found – it's very interesting: I asked the students to read out a question and then propose their answer; and I found that if Asian students happened to be in a group with a local student, normally the Asian student will read out the question and leave the answer discussion to the local student. Maybe [inaudible] the easy path [laughs]! Because of the language barrier, some students do have difficulty to understand the question, or how to organise their sentences to say something out [in front of the class]. I think probably that's one of the reasons make them very quiet in the class – they are thinking, but …

— Economics tutor

When the tutor ask a question, first step in my mind, I think in Chinese, then the second step is translate it into English, the third step I spoke out. When I am ready to speak it out, the local students... ( laughs) it's finished, the question's gone ... so have no time to ask or something like that. I think many students have this one...

— Gerry

I found it was difficult for me to be in the discussion, because most of the local students, they gave their opinions faster... because I attend the night class, so – most of the local students, they talk faster, they always try to talk, and I had no chance to say something –- it's difficult!

— Luke

Are there any other factors that can make it hard for you to understand the lecture?

Oh. Like, say, most of them use the example from Australia. That's something that we don't understand 'cause we don't have the background of Australia. Like, they use BHP, we have no idea what is BHP. Now I know BHP is a very big company, Australian, but then I didn't know.

So, international students just wouldn't know that...

Yes... Even some very funny joke we don't understand what is funny.

Everybody else laughs but you.

Yes... we are lost. Why laughing? Small problem.

— Gerry

Which was the hardest subject?

Business Law and Quantitative Methods. The students who had studied quantitative methods in China told me that it was much easier in Australia, but I didn't find it easy. I couldn't keep up with the teacher. In Week 4 or Week 5, I just sit there and I didn't know what he was talking about or where he was talking about.

But why was it such a problem for you? You didn't have a background in statistics, but the language itself wouldn't have been much of a problem for you, would it?

No, I don't think language was much of a problem for me, but the background... As for Business Law, Business Law is difficult to everybody, because we have a different legislation system; so even though I hadn't studied law before, those students who had studied law in China, all of us feel difficult. (You have case law in Australia, but we have legislation law in China.)

Would you say it was more difficult for Chinese than for local students?

Yes.

Just because the system is different?

Yes. In China, as I understand it, you have the issue and then you have the law to apply. But in Australia they have different cases, you have to choose different cases, and maybe you can get a different result. And the teachers don't care which result is right or not, they care about how you can demonstrate your result logically. But in China we think we have to have a clear answer – which one is right, which one is not right? So that's the difference.

— Keith

In my class, there are other students who haven't studied Law before, but they know lots of things that I don't know because they lived in this community - they know lots of things.... But here you have to prepare, you have to, and you have to deliberately find out some things by yourself because the lecturer won't tell you; like for Legal Process – sometimes you have to pay more attention to the politics or economics or stuff like that, so I watch the ABC news if I have time.

— Lucy

It seems to me that Marketing as a subject must be one that is quite difficult for people from other countries to get hold of, because it would depend so much on the local culture.

Yes. When I was taking a unit in the second semester, and our teacher used some example in Australia, the company in Australia, very famous, but I'd never heard about it then - when teacher was talking, I don't understand why he use this. So after class I asked my friends, asked some local students, and they explained to me.

So do you think that the lecturers should pay more attention to --?

No, because the teacher need to take care about the local students, because they are the majority. Asian students in Marketing it's very small. Many units have around 20 people, maybe just 2 or 3 Asian students, and mostly local students.

— Lionel

For example, we have a course called Managing People: I found it was a bit difficult to give my own opinion, because it was about people management, which is different because of the culture.... I felt I could understand the discussion, but it was hard to join in, because my thinking was slower, as I said before; but also there was the cultural difference, because the way we would manage these issues was rather different from their Western management methods.

There would be a lot of presuppositions that wouldn't be made explicit in the discussion?

Yeah, yeah.

— Luke

... a Chinese PhD student in Social Science found it difficult to ask a 'proper' question in class, because she was not sure if her professors and peer students could follow her perspective. She said that she always hesitated to participate in class discussion before she could articulate and show to the class the connection between Western theories and Chinese realities.

( Zhou et al., 2005, p. 299)

[The Turkish postgraduates] categorized native students into two groups according to their oral participation behavior: those who verbally dominated international students and those who were supportive.

Native students they perceived as talkative were those who spoke frequently and often expressed their personal opinions. Participants perceived these students as dominating discussions or patronizing others in groups by using their language advantage. The impromptu verbalizing of these students caused resentment, because they were perceived as wasting class time with excessive talking and by taking discussions into irrelevant directions. The presence of many talkative native students in the classroom or in groups caused intimidation and a sense of exclusion....

The other group of native students was perceived as more thoughtful and empathetic to nonnative students' difficulties, and willing to take the time to let nonnative students organize their thoughts and express themselves in a second language. As Cem stated, this group of students influenced study participants' entire attitude toward a course and made their classroom experiences positive:

There is some kind of comforting feeling with this group.... I feel that they really understand what I am trying to say.... If I cannot say exactly what I wanted to say, they complete my sentences and this makes me relaxed... and influences my participation.

( Tatar, 2005, pp. 347-8 – formatting modified)

[A] perceived indifference and [a] lack of interest of peer students and/or professors toward Chinese knowledge were commonly reported by students in this study. One student commented that 'the class doesn't want to spend time on these kinds of issues'. When his Chinese classmates shared their previous working experiences in China, one Chinese student also felt that his peers were [un]interested in discussing his experiences further. He described as follows:

Most Chinese students in our department had worked for years in China before they came here to study. When we talked about what we did in China, they would feel that is very incredible or unbelievable. For example, when we talked about a chemical laser instrument, they might feel surprised, but it seems that they didn't want to talk about it more... I just didn't know why.

(interviewed in Chinese)

As well, some students reported changes in the topic after they spoke, leaving little space for them to further explain/explore the issues they raised. For instance, a student reported the lack of response and impatience from the class:

Like if I say something about my experience back home if the whole class just, there was nothing to say. Well, I start a bad thing, right? People are not interested at all or they don't see the connection, so they just start something else to discuss.... Then the instructor says okay and the whole class moves on to other stuff, very smoothly for them, I think.

(interviewed in English)

Confronting 'no response' in class, this student perceived that

no response is worse than negative response... Negative response means that at least they are listening and they have something to say, and no response is like, okay – we don't care.

( Zhou et al., 2005, p. 299-300 – formatting modified)

Sometimes I feel a little stupid to say because sometimes I can't express myself clearly, as clearly as a native speaker. For example, lots of time we got team work project - I got some ideas and I think it's brilliant and I try to express it, but they can't understand, I think because the way I express is too strange. And from their face and their talking I know they think I am stupid; so after that I don't want to say anything.

— Lucy

Do you feel included when you're in lectures and tutorials?

I think just a little. Sometimes I think the Chinese students may be more shy and they won't speak a lot in the lecture or tutorial, and I think the teachers prefer the local students ...

— Anne

When I am doing the tutorial, I find that Australian students they sit together, overseas students they sit together, and we don't talk with each other a lot because I think my English is not that good and the Australian students may think 'Oh, her English is not that good, so I am not going to talk with her...' I think I can manage my assignments, but I don't talk enough during the tutorials. I feel my English is not that good, and this stop me speaking more in the tutorials.... I close myself.... English is a big problem for me.

— Ruth

Maybe I'm not confident enough, with my language level. When I'm listening, maybe I understand what the meaning is, but it's hard for - it's not natural for me to respond in English. And also my personality is very quiet as well. Combined together – yes.... Maybe the lecturer have a bad impression on me because I never speak on the class. I feel this is bad, but I don't know how to change, it is hard. This is my personal problem I need to solve: it's very bad.

— Susy

I think it is just no problem to talk in the tutorials.

— Terrie

I'm a kind of person who always wants to express herself, wants to be involved. If you just make me sit there, listen to others, write something and finish, I will feel very upset – I don't have motivation to learn, because I cannot take part in activities; so I don't feel excited. No matter it's here or in my own country, I always try to express myself. But I cannot sometimes, because if there's many people who have very fluent English skills, for example, ... I don't feel upset or embarassed to say something, I just feel I waste time, because they can say things quickly, but I need time to think and organize my ideas.... It just depends – when I feel comfortable to say something, I will say something. I like discussion.... As a student, from primary school until now, more than 10 years' study, I feel whenever I can participate – I can show my idea and others agree or disagree with me, I feel this is my kind of class.... It really challenges and motivates me to attend class continually.

— Yasmin ( Schmidt 2005)

My English is no good sometimes ... but I tried ... to say something clearly. Once you can make sense [to others], you have more confidence, and then you can practise more and more.... My confidence comes from my motivation, because I came here, I need to practise. Pressure or stress makes me speak more. So it's not just confidence – the pressure, your parents supporting you to come here. Your main task is to improve your English.

— Yasmin ( Schmidt 2005)

Have you found that your English language ability has been sufficient to do your assessment tasks and actively participate in tutorials and lectures?

I want to say my English level is not sufficient for myself, but in tutorial I try to participate. Any question they ask, if I can answer, I will answer.

So you try to participate. That's good.

Because every time I think about how much I paid for this tutorial, I will put my hand up.

— Lucy