‘I felt that I do live in the UK now’: international students’ self-reports of their English language speaking experiences on a pre-sessional programme

Abstract

This article focuses on the English language experiences of a group of pre-sessional students, an under-represented group in the literature on language and education. In particular, it investigates the opportunities that such students have to use English outside the classroom, shown to be a key factor in student satisfaction with their study abroad experience. Drawing on data from questionnaires, interviews and on-line diaries, we show that students have a variety of opportunities to use English; however, these opportunities may require students to engage in complex negotiations right from the beginning of their sojourn in the UK. Micro-analysis of the data shows that agency is a key construct in understanding students’ representations of their English encounters as they begin their lives in the UK. The article concludes with some suggestions as to how pre-sessional courses may develop students’ linguistic and socio-cultural skills in order that they may interact successfully in English outside the classroom.

Keywords:

• agency
• intercultural communication
• language learning
• second language acquisition
• international students
• pre-sessional programmes

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Centre for Learning Innovation and Professional Practice at Aston University for funding the international students project, and Keith Richard and two anonymous reviewers for very helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper.

Notes

1. All extracts faithfully represent the students’ own words.