What did they expect? Exploring a link between students’ expectations, attendance and attrition on English language enhancement courses

Abstract

This article reports on and discusses the findings of an investigation carried out to explore the expectations of an English language enhancement course (ELEC) held by a group of undergraduate students at an Australian university. For the study, a mixed-methods approach was utilised, with two instruments: a survey with a combination of closed- and open-ended questions and semi-structured interviews. The research was guided by the following three questions: (1) What do the students expect to learn on the course? (2) How are they developing their expectations? (3) Are the students’ expectations being met? The literature concerning student expectations foregrounds the complexity and multi-faceted nature of the concept, the satisfaction of which can impact on student engagement, satisfaction, performance, retention and attrition. Findings show that the participants’ expectations of the course content and teaching staff were largely met; nonetheless, a lack of class attendance was noted throughout. Expectations were reported to have been developed largely through consultation with previous students of the course (43 per cent) and information materials provided by the university (42 per cent). The article concludes with a discussion regarding the implications of the findings for universities and education providers both in Australia and abroad.

Keywords:

• student expectations
• international students
• ESL
• student attrition
• English language enhancement courses (ELECs)

Notes

1. As will be noted in the discussion, this appears to be the case for some of the participants in this study.

2. Discipline-specific expectations were manifest particularly among participants from the business and health discipline groups, some of whom reported the expectation of learning discipline-specific, professional vocabulary to be used in the workplace.