Shifting learning strategies and future selves of Arab postgraduate students in Britain: a qualitative inquiry

ABSTRACT

This paper explores Arab postgraduate students’ situated experiences and their actual and dynamic use of learning strategies at a UK university. The qualitative data collected from a written narrative and five subsequent rounds of individual semi-structured interviews suggest that most participants initially clung to their ‘aschematic’ future selves as they articulated relatively distant goals without employing the appropriate learning strategies to get to them. They anticipated achieving native-like proficiency in English and forming meaningful friendships with locals once they were in the host environment. In response to the changes in assessment mode and the practice of some influential actors, however, the participants gradually began to articulate proximal goals until they visualised their ideal self and embraced the appropriate strategies. The findings of the current study underline the significance of introducing pedagogical interventions in all phases of study abroad to avoid student sojourners’ maladaptive behaviour, such as the setting of unrealistic or impractical goals, and deepen their language and intercultural learning. Directions for further research are also suggested.

KEYWORDS:

• Learning strategies
• future selves
• a qualitative inquiry
• Arab postgraduate students

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

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Anas Hajar

Anas Hajar is a graduate of Warwick University holding a PhD in English Language Education. He worked as a Postdoctoral Research and Teaching Fellow at Warwick, Coventry and Christ Church Universities in the UK and at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in Hong Kong SAR. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Multilingual Education at Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan. He is particularly interested in motivational issues in language learning and intercultural engagement. He also works in the areas of internationalization and education abroad, language learning strategies and shadow education.