How do social and academic models affect the acquisition of English language literacy among international university students?
This is the question we asked ourselves when tasked with our research project for our course on Community and Literacy. The first step to finding answers to this question was seeking a point of interest which would allow us access to a sample of students who find themselves navigating within English speaking institutions. Fortunately, researcher Jackie Manni holds the position of assistant registrar at the University of the Arts, a mid-sized arts institution with a mostly undergraduate population in an urban setting. This opened all sorts of possibilities for a research population and provided ample opportunities to encounter students navigating academia.
A Thanksgiving luncheon that was held for the international students provided the relaxed atmosphere that we hoped would foster conversation and facilitate interviews. We entered the luncheon to find a jazz ensemble tuning up and students trickling in. The rich smell of a homemade, southern-style Thanksgiving feast permeated the air and lent to the festive mood. The ELL (English Language Learner) students easily fell into American culture, hungrily gobbling down the feast as they listened to the ensemble (also comprised of international students) singing and playing American jazz standards.
A UArts employee was kind enough to furnish us with a place to set up our story booth and introduced us to several of the students who showed interest in being interviewed. Due to the noise created by the event's wonderful music and excited conversation, we soon realized that we would have to move in order to gain clear audio recordings of our interviews. The nature of this artistic institution made this difficult, however, with various rehearsals taking place all around us. We eventually settled into a stairwell which allowed for a (mostly) clear recording of our subjects. We pulled students from the luncheon and were able to conduct six interviews that averaged seven minutes each.
The interviews were recorded after permission was given by the interviewees. Students were briefed on the purpose of our research, and began the interviewing by giving us some basic information (names, contact information, country of origin, academic major, etc). Our main research questions surrounded the students' experiences with literacy in the English language, including less traditional forms of literacy such as digital media and social learning. The questions were a combination of samples from Ohio State's Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives (DALN) and questions we wrote ourselves. We tried to create a relaxed, conversational atmosphere -- prompting interviewees to elaborate further on their answers when we felt there may be a story to tell. Drawings and writing samples were also collected from anonymous international students, which allowed us to experience their triumphs and struggles with learning to read and write in English. The interviewees were asked at the conclusion of each interview if they would be willing to upload their stories to the DALN. All signed consent forms agreeing for their interviews to be published.
We were interested to find that several of the interviewees shared common experiences in developing their understanding of the English language in both written and oral modes. These common experiences soon formed a basic frame of four recurring themes. Following the interviews, we carefully studied our footage and made note of where in the interviews these themes appeared. They have each been published here to further develop our research on how English Language Learners are able to navigate within their social and academic spheres. Each tab under the results page outlines one theme that occurred and how it relates to current literacy theory. Written reports are interspersed with clips from the interviews so that readers can hear the story directly from the teller, in their own words.
A Thanksgiving luncheon that was held for the international students provided the relaxed atmosphere that we hoped would foster conversation and facilitate interviews. We entered the luncheon to find a jazz ensemble tuning up and students trickling in. The rich smell of a homemade, southern-style Thanksgiving feast permeated the air and lent to the festive mood. The ELL (English Language Learner) students easily fell into American culture, hungrily gobbling down the feast as they listened to the ensemble (also comprised of international students) singing and playing American jazz standards.
A UArts employee was kind enough to furnish us with a place to set up our story booth and introduced us to several of the students who showed interest in being interviewed. Due to the noise created by the event's wonderful music and excited conversation, we soon realized that we would have to move in order to gain clear audio recordings of our interviews. The nature of this artistic institution made this difficult, however, with various rehearsals taking place all around us. We eventually settled into a stairwell which allowed for a (mostly) clear recording of our subjects. We pulled students from the luncheon and were able to conduct six interviews that averaged seven minutes each.
The interviews were recorded after permission was given by the interviewees. Students were briefed on the purpose of our research, and began the interviewing by giving us some basic information (names, contact information, country of origin, academic major, etc). Our main research questions surrounded the students' experiences with literacy in the English language, including less traditional forms of literacy such as digital media and social learning. The questions were a combination of samples from Ohio State's Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives (DALN) and questions we wrote ourselves. We tried to create a relaxed, conversational atmosphere -- prompting interviewees to elaborate further on their answers when we felt there may be a story to tell. Drawings and writing samples were also collected from anonymous international students, which allowed us to experience their triumphs and struggles with learning to read and write in English. The interviewees were asked at the conclusion of each interview if they would be willing to upload their stories to the DALN. All signed consent forms agreeing for their interviews to be published.
We were interested to find that several of the interviewees shared common experiences in developing their understanding of the English language in both written and oral modes. These common experiences soon formed a basic frame of four recurring themes. Following the interviews, we carefully studied our footage and made note of where in the interviews these themes appeared. They have each been published here to further develop our research on how English Language Learners are able to navigate within their social and academic spheres. Each tab under the results page outlines one theme that occurred and how it relates to current literacy theory. Written reports are interspersed with clips from the interviews so that readers can hear the story directly from the teller, in their own words.