“Are the Chinese high school English language learning

experiences of intending international students the

primary cause of difficulties experienced during study in

the Australian secondary system?”

The trend towards the internationalisation of education

has seen a growing number of students moving to English

speaking countries to complete their tertiary and,

increasingly, senior secondary education. Within an

Australian context, and across all sectors, students from

the People’s Republic of China make up the largest single

component with 23.8% of the total international student

market (DFAT, 2010). Whilst there is a considerable and

ongoing body of research into the challenges presented

regarding tertiary education, little specific literature

is applicable to a significant sub-group: unaccompanied

minors who move into the Australian secondary school

system aiming to graduate from high school and then

undertake tertiary studies. For many of these students

the shift in learning culture from that which could be

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broadly described as collectivist, to a more

individualistic ethos (Jin & Cortazzi, 2006), is a major

barrier to successful educational transition and one

which often follows them into their post-secondary years.

Despite pedagogical changes initiated by the Chinese

Ministry of Education in its English Curriculum Standards

document of 2001 (Cheng, 2011), many restraining factors,

not the least of which is the National College Entry

Examination, effectively thwart the intended outcomes of

these educational advances. Resultantly, Chinese high

school students moving to Australia often lack the skills

necessary to access the full range of learning

possibilities available to them. The lack of published

research specifically examining this problem points to

the need for exploration to be done in order for improved

educational outcomes to occur.

The methodology employed in this paper has two primary

origins. Firstly, the literature dealing with the

research problem is adequate in providing an

understanding of English Language Teaching (ELT)

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pedagogies and resultant methodologies employed within

China. Ministry of Education policies are clearly

outlined by Cheng (2011), as are the 2001 English

Curriculum Standards (ECS). The nature of the washback

associated with the National College Entry Exam (NCEE),

more commonly called the Gaokao, has been the subject of

extensive research (Kirkpatrick & Zang, 2011). There is

also some literature which looks at how the policies of

Australian schools regarding Chinese international

students can actually have the reverse effect of their

intended outcome, which is to encourage the use of

English (Willoughby, 2007). However, there is a paucity

of study relating student experiences within their

Australian schools back to English language learning in

their Chinese classrooms. The other source of

information is this writer’s own participation in the

Chinese system as a university English educator for more

than four years, as well as being an English language

teacher of international high school students in

Australia since 2005. Whilst this tends to be anecdotal,

fifteen years of close involvement with students in the

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senior high school and undergraduate age group lends some

authority to this source.

Cheng (2011) details the important position of English as

a Foreign Language (EFL) within compulsory education in

China. The introduction of the English Curriculum

Standards (ECS) by the Ministry of Education in 2001 is

seen as a key element in the reform of EFL methodology.

Descriptions of explicit targets in different syllabus

areas across the entire primary and junior high (ages 6-

15) sectors demonstrated a huge shift in pedagogical

focus, and by 2009 all of these schools, as well as 80%

of senior high schools, were to be using the English

Curriculum Standards. Given the timeline for the

introduction of the ECS, it is worth noting that they may

have had very little impact on the ELT methodologies

experienced by Chinese students who have subsequently

enrolled in Australian schools. It is also probable that,

despite Cheng’s enthusiasm for the new standards, the

practicalities of their introduction may mean that there

has been little real change at the classroom level.

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Sawir’s (2005) paper on the language difficulties

experienced by international tertiary students in

Australia sees prior learning experience as central to

the difficulties encountered by undergraduates from East

Asian cultures, where ELT methodologies tend to focus on

grammar and vocabulary rather than the constantly

evolving concept of communicative competence (Nunan,

1999). This view, which acknowledges the need for

knowledge of rules and vocabulary, goes on to include

sociolinguistic capability, as well as discourse and

strategic competencies. The reality of learning English

in a Chinese high school is that all efforts are directed

towards the NCEE. There is a general consensus within the

TESOL community that the effect of an assessment on

teaching and learning, known as washback, can be

beneficial or detrimental (Brown, 2010). In terms of the

NCEE’s English component, and using Brown’s five

principles of language assessment, it can be seen that

the test fails badly in the area of authenticity. Items

are uncontextualised, lacking any connection to the world

of real English usage, and the exam is described as

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“high-stakes testing, where results can profoundly impact

a student’s life for decades to come” (Kirkpatrick &

Zang, 2011, p.36). Thus the washback of the NCEE is

detrimental, not just in terms of English acquisition,

but also in the psychological and social effects it has

on its candidates.

Consequently, we have a cohort of Chinese students

readying themselves for an uncertain future in a country

they know little about, and for which they seem ill

prepared in many ways. Typically, they will arrive as 15

or 16 year olds and enrol at a high school chosen for

them by an education agent selected by their parents.

They will live with a local family and begin as students

in an Intensive Secondary English Class (ISEC) where,

significantly, half of their classmates may also be

Chinese. Peer clusters will be formed on this basis, even

based on Mandarin and Cantonese speaking sub-groups,

which will possibly endure for years. Students’ primary

learning strategies are the ones they have acquired over

the previous seven or so years of English instruction,

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but which are of little help in this new culture, and are

methods that will often attract negative commentary from

their teachers. This is emotionally a very challenging

time, as research carried out in Adelaide (Zhou, Willis &

Chen, 2010) and in a similar scenario in Canada (Popaduik

& Marshall, 2011) suggests. With the classroom being the

main focus of their new lives, the educational culture

shock involved is profound. Although initially segregated

from mainstream classes, these students cannot help but

observe what seems to be the informal nature of

relationships between local students and teachers, as

well as the degree of self determination their Australian

counterparts appear to exercise. Their teachers,

including those with TESOL expertise, have expectations

that do not sit comfortably with these students’ learning

backgrounds. Lessons are conducted in a language that is

unfamiliar, delivered at a bewildering speed and with

jargon and accent compounding all of this. So retreating

to a safety zone of Chinese friends, activities such as

eating and shopping together, using Chinese social media

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sites, as well as returning home frequently are all

perfectly understandable coping strategies.

As previously noted, research into this group’s

experiences in Australia is limited, with a far greater

emphasis being given to the much larger cohort of

university students. One exception discusses the changing

nature of Chinese international students in secondary

schools (Arkoudis & Love, 2003), and so is relevant to

this study. The researchers challenge the stereotype of

the academically focused, good at Maths and Sciences

passive learner, which has more recently been broken down

by the arrival of many different types of students. This

writer can identify the Gaokao refugee, whose parents’

wish to save their child from the psychological stress of

this feared exam, as well as the face-losing possibility

of failure. Some of the group, although conscientious, do

not fit the academic mould and struggle from the outset.

Then there are those whose mission is to succeed in their

studies, forge a career and subsequently sponsor other

family members for migration. Also we have a group dubbed

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“little emperors” by their Australian teachers;

privileged products of China’s one-child policy. They see

no need to seriously engage in study, safe in the belief

that there is no necessity to do so given their parents’

wealth. Often their fecklessness leads despairing parents

to send them far away! However, even with this mix of

candidates, we can be confident that they come from a

similarly uniform English language education background,

given the tight control that the Chinese Communist Party,

via the Ministry of Education, exerts over the entire

system. This is the case from pre-school through to post

graduate level, and commenced with the 1978 curriculum

(Adamson, 2004) when China’s entire education system had

to be rebuilt following the chaos of the Cultural

Revolution. Variations will occur, such as the degree and

nature of additional tutoring individual students have

had, and the extent to which the student’s own motivation

has led them to immersion in English rich experiences

such as television (Wang, 2012) and other media (Kim,

1992). Residents of the wealthier coastal cities will

also have had a greater opportunity to interact with

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English speakers such as EFL teachers and tourists, which

again will have been taken up by those who are strongly

motivated to achieve communicative competence.

Cortazzi and Jin introduce the concept of “cultures of

learning” (1996) to help explain the disconnect between

what we can see happening in Chinese and Australian

English language classrooms. Here we are not just talking

about interaction in the students’ ESL classes, but

across the whole curriculum they experience in their new

schools. The authors define these cultures as “taken-for-

granted frameworks of expectations, attitudes, values and

beliefs about how to teach or learn successfully and

about how to use talk in interaction. A culture of

learning frames what teachers and students expect to

happen in the classroom” (1996, p.169). For Chinese

students, this is often characterised as involving

passive and rote learning of huge amounts of information.

Teachers are respected for their knowledge and the

classroom culture is collectivist, where the needs of the

individual are seen as secondary to those of the group.

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Additionally, theories of how language is learned differ

from most current SLA thinking. One Chinese view of

language acquisition is that it is quantifiable; with a

person’s command being measured by the number of Chinese

characters they have memorised. For example, 2,000 is

quoted as the figure needed to read a newspaper. So when

this belief is applied to second language learning, we

find the Ministry of Education’s College English

Curriculum of 2007 including a 156-page vocabulary and

phrase list (Stanley, 2011) that students are required to

memorise. The theory essentially underpinning the

grammar-translation method of second language learning is

that this “knowledge” of vocabulary, when combined with a

reasonable mastery of the “rules” of grammar, will result

in a command of that language. In reality, what we have

is a student with a certain level of English literacy,

obsessed by the need to translate every new item they

come across and with weak listening and speaking skills.

Thus the next step - the ability to participate in a

communicative sense with other users of that language -

is where the learner will often come undone.

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On arrival in Australia, Adelaide in this case, students

will be placed in an ISEC class made up entirely of

internationals. The composition varies, but will

generally comprise Chinese, Japanese, Korean and South

East Asian students in descending numerical order. The

group will stay together for a core curriculum, involving

half of their time spent in intensive English with ESL

teachers and the rest in Maths, Science, Art or Food

Technology and the compulsory SACE unit Personal Learning

Project, which also involves a week of work experience.

ISEC intake is continuous and, depending on their English

level, students can progress into mainstream classes at

any time while still receiving ESL support. They will

find that most teachers employ what is loosely termed as

a Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach.

Attempting to wade through the debate regarding what CLT

actually involves, Brown (2007) presents seven

interrelated features of this approach. When these tenets

are aligned with what has happened in our students’

Chinese – and Japanese and Korean – classrooms in

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previous years, we can immediately see the reasons for

the disconnect referred to earlier. CLT focuses on all

the components of language, not just those that are part

of the NCEE. Language is used for real purposes in

situations as authentic as possible, and fluency is seen

as being as important as accuracy. It is possible that

part of the reluctance of some Chinese students to speak

English comes from the belief that silence is better than

inaccuracy. Autonomous learning is an important goal of

CLT; the teacher does not present as the pinnacle of

knowledge, and active students are valued over passive

ones. So for our Chinese students, their culture of

learning has been turned on its head and many,

understandably, will struggle initially to manage this

change.

Sawir (2005) argues that the relationship between

international students’ communication problems and

previous learning experiences is a strong one, and

additionally asserts that their entrenched beliefs about

how a language is learned will continue to inhibit their

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acquisition of English unless this thinking changes. Of

interest to ESL practitioners is the same writer’s view

that “the diagnosis of international students’ learning

problems is a poorly developed area” (p. 578). Although

tertiary sector specific, these findings could have equal

validity when applied to high schools. The concept of

bridging programs being run in the students’ country of

origin, staffed by the destination school or its system,

and providing future international students with a taste

of the learning culture they will soon experience is

worth considering. Additionally, they can be introduced

to the society they are soon to enter, so easing

transition. There is certainly a good case to be made for

teachers who will work with the target group spending

some professional time in China observing and teaching in

a junior high school. Several South Australian schools

already have an Asian literacy focus and encourage their

staff to undertake such exchange programs, and a number

of teachers have completed the Master of Education

(Studies of Asia) at Flinders University.

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Zhou, Willis and Chen (2010) have studied the

psychological challenges faced by Chinese international

students attending schools in South Australia, finding

these to be even more significant than people working in

this area suspect. Three key areas voiced by the

participants, were “missing home”, “feeling lonely” and

“living in fear” (p.1). Anxiety and depression were

common, and virtually all the students involved in the

study reported problems with their emotional well-being.

Whilst these concerns are common during the second stage

of acculturation and affecting those of any age, at a

time when adolescents are also attempting to adapt to an

unfamiliar education system delivered in their second

language the results may be compounded. The general

theory of acculturation has been refined over time. Kim

(1992) believes that increased interpersonal interaction

within the participant’s new setting will result in

accelerated acculturation. So we find a classic dilemma:

students are unwilling to engage in English with non-

Chinese peers and adults; consequently their language

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skills fail to develop, and then they feel unhappy and

trapped in an alien environment.

At this point, it is interesting to compare the social

adjustments of our international students with those of

their Chinese peers who arrive as migrants with their

families, and so are consequently less prone to the

stresses discussed by Zhou, Willis and Chen (2010). While

this can only be done anecdotally at present by using

some students within this writer’s recent teaching

experience, there are a few observations suggesting

possible directions for further study. The students’

chosen “English” names are used to provide anonymity.

Vicky, Jenny and Sam all moved to Australia with their

families late in their primary school years. The two

girls flourished after the move to high school, mixed

easily with Chinese and non-Chinese students, and had

soon achieved proficiency in English, albeit with an

Australian accent! They succeeded in their studies and

went on to university. In their time at school they

became significant intermediaries, and were often an

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important point of contact for newly arrived Chinese

students needing advice or assistance. Sam, on the other

hand, has not been so fortunate. His primary school

signalled the fact before his commencement at high school

that he had almost no English, and despite his inclusion

in the normally internationals-only ISEC class for one

year, he continues to struggle with a fragmented command

of English. He is socially isolated, but seems resigned

to being an outsider. Of concern is his increasing

pattern of absence, placing him at risk of disengagement

with formal education. It is impossible to do more than

speculate, but the rapid English purchase of the two

girls could lend support to the critical period

hypothesis, which offers a biological explanation for the

successful acquisition of native-like pronunciation and

accent by pre-pubescent children. Sam, on the other hand,

may have undergone the neurological changes associated

with the hypothesis before his arrival. Gary arrived as a

14 year old, and as part of a family that had been

preparing themselves for migration for some years. These

measures included additional English classes for him, and

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he had strong extrinsic and intrinsic motivation to

become language proficient. His involvement in the

school’s specialist music program has provided him with

many opportunities to interact with local students, and

he has proven to be a high achiever in all areas of

study.

It appears that many Chinese international students’

previous English learning experiences do not prepare them

adequately for study in Australia. Some possible

strategies to address this shortcoming would require a

“meeting in the middle” (Stanley, 2011, p.93) to

facilitate better intercultural adaptation. Teachers with

significant numbers of Chinese students need to

understand their charges’ learning culture; preferably by

experiencing it. This could occur in conjunction with

bridging programs similar to ISEC, but centred pre-

departure in Chinese schools. Such measures would give

intending international students a degree of preparation

that they do not currently experience. However, there are

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other factors that play a significant part in the degree

of success experienced by these students.

Despite what seem to be the inadequacies of the Chinese

system, some students arrive with a level of

communicative competence that surprises their teachers.

They adapt quickly to their new lives and go on to

achieve their aim of undertaking tertiary studies. What

characterises these students is their high level of

motivation coupled with a willingness to move out of the

comfort zone mentioned earlier. Part-time work and extra-

curricular activities such as sport and music bring them

into contact with non-Chinese speakers, reinforcing the

point made earlier by Kim (1992). Friendships across

nationalities using English as the lingua franca are also

a common feature. Present school structures such as ISEC

could be seen as hindering these kinds of experiences by

unwittingly encouraging the formation of Chinese-speaking

peer groups within the school. The students themselves

compound this with their subject selections focusing on

Maths and Business type offerings, positioning them on

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the timetable with their Chinese friends; also observed

by Willoughby (2007) in Victoria. However, Stafford

(2010) writes about students moving to Australia as

“being on a journey from what they ……saw as major

deficiencies or lack of opportunity in China”, and that

they are “transformed in ways they had not and could not

have expected” (p. vii). They eventually move comfortably

between cultures and without needing to sacrifice their

Chinese identities. The stages we see these students

going through in their high school years are a necessary

and unavoidable part of this process of self-discovery,

and the forging of their new Chinese-Australian self. So

attempts to socially engineer their integration into

mainstream Australian society could actually be counter

productive, further adding to the psychological stresses

referred to by Zhou, Willis and Chen (2010). One

observation that can be drawn from this discussion is

that pedagogical change is gradually happening at the

Chinese end of the process. However, for international

students, it could be expedited by the earlier and more

proactive involvement of their Australian receptor

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organizations, and with an increased awareness of Chinese

learning culture on the part of Australian educators.

There are strong indicators as to what factors contribute

to students meeting their goals, and receptor schools can

ease these structurally. However, it seems that those who

arrive with poor communicative skills would always

struggle to succeed. It may be that stricter English

language pre-requisites are needed for intending

international students, despite the strong financial

allure of doing otherwise.

So, to revisit the research question, learners with low-

level communicative competence can be a consequence of

Chinese English teaching methods. Such students who

resultantly arrive in Australia will struggle

academically and may fail to acculturate, leading to

feelings of isolation and unhappiness. Specific and

focused research is needed in order to improve these

young peoples’ outcomes. Conversely, students who

experience success are generally highly motivated, and

have taken measures pre-departure to bring their

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listening and speaking skills to a standard where they

can access mainstream Australian education, and society

in general.

3510 words

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