ADC 3 ADC 4
5.3 Conceptual Category Building
Settling in at university The Freshers’ Camp
The importance of getting good grades The importance of speaking skills Wanting to learn
Working while studying
category of English learning experience was an example of this (see Figure 7 below). This category came from the initial sensitising concepts I began with and while I considered whether to attempt to go beyond its obvious descriptive nature and pursue the idea of English learning at a more abstract analytical level, because it described something that was substantive and fundamental to all English language students, there seemed little point in seeking abstraction for abstraction’s sake. This category describes where each student’s knowledge and ability has come from and the way in which they acquired that knowledge and ability. It is a very important category because it maps out the foundations on which the student can build, the linguistic resources the student has at his or her disposal, when they enter the university.
ENGLISH LEARNING EXPERIENCE - in English classes at school
- visiting an English-speaking country
- working/studying in an English-speaking country - talking to English speaking natives
- learning English from watching television and movies - using English while working
WRITING EXPERIENCE - in secondary school - in a private school/college - while working
Figure 7. The category of English learning experience.
In the case of another category, Experiencing a culture shock, the process of raising this concept from a number of at first only vaguely related focused codes and categories to the level of a full conceptual category which formed a key part of the developed theoretical framework was a long and complex one, involving several returns to the data and a succession
of memos. Several short early memos from the early coding stages of the research indicate an awareness of some students’ problems adapting to university study (see Figure 8 below).
Think about some sort of code for ‘getting used to studying at university’. (Look at
‘Workload” entries as some of these could be relevant.) The code ‘Settling In’ is used for this at the moment but that also covers homesickness/living away from home (e.g. Steven’s comments about feeling homesick). (Early memo 12)
What to do with comments about language insecurity (when comparing themselves to other students) e.g. A4 and B2? Is this just part of ‘Awareness of weaknesses in writing’? Isn’t it more fundamental than that and something to do with Confidence or lack of it? How about a code for ‘Confidence’? (Early memo 14)
C6, Int. 1, 1: clearly already aware that she is significantly weaker than students around her and this has made her doubt that she is in the right place – weak students know they are weak.
It seems she wants to learn English so her intrinsic motivation is good but she’s not at the level where she can manage – she needs extra help to catch up? She would need this help to have a realistic chance of succeeding but she will not get it – where would it come from?
(Early memo 27)
Figure 8. Early memos relating to students’ difficulties adapting to university.
In later rounds of interviewing, the students’ preparedness for studying at university before they arrived was explored in more depth and this added useful data which highlighted stark differences between some students who were extremely well prepared and others who seemed to have only a vague idea of what awaited them. However, it was only much later after the data collection period was over and I was reanalysing the data to help with the
writing of the dissertation that I first began to understand that students were experiencing a culture shock when they began their university life and that this had several aspects. While thinking about how students’ English learning experience and their strengths and weaknesses in English affect them when they have to study at university, I had a sudden realisation that what I was looking at in the data was in fact describing a profound culture shock for many of the students, in the same way that someone who goes to live in another country for the first time has to get used to completely new ways of doing things and new systems of meaning.
By putting down my thoughts on the page using the technique of free writing, I produced a 2000 word analytical memo that explored this new way of looking at the data, bringing in several different existing codes to define the properties of the category, examining how it affected weaker and stronger students, and considering what the consequences could be by referring to specific instances in the data. The beginning of this memo can be seen below (Figure 9).
The Culture Shock of University
A love of English is not enough for students to make the transition to studying at university. They have to deal with a totally new environment and a new way of studying. It is as if they were entering a new country, a foreign country they have not visited before, only read about in books or heard about from others. In effect, they experience a culture shock when they first come to university.
This culture shock is manifested in several ways. One of the first is the realisation that having once been among the best students in their class, they are now surrounded by students who are better than they are, sometimes much better. They see and hear this when they watch and listen to other students in their classes, and they realise it when other students find studying and homework tasks much easier than they do. The student’s English learning
experience is directly connected to this feeling of not being good enough compared to others – for students who have a solid foundation of knowledge and experience in learning English, particularly those who have lived in English speaking countries or have already made extensive use of English while working or studying (e.g. in national competitions), the feeling of being inadequate compared to others is much less likely to occur.
Another way culture shock is felt is in getting used to new ways of studying and new forms of knowledge, like Linguistics. The cognitive demands that new and seemingly
‘foreign’ subjects make on students who are not used to having to use logical thinking and problem solving when studying English can be considerable. Also, the increased difficulty of the homework, which is likely to be more cognitively demanding than they are used to, can come as an unpleasant realisation. (excerpt from Advanced memo 20.08.2012)
Figure 9. Extract from advanced memo about culture shock.
As a result of the analytical thought process realised through writing this advanced memo, the already existing category of Settling in at university was renamed Experiencing culture shock and by using the ideas in the memo and referring back to relevant data segments, the category was redefined in terms of its subcategories. This newly conceptualised category, arising as writing was already underway, came to play an important part in the developed theoretical framework, describing what happens when students first enter the university. The category can be seen below (Figure 10).
EXPERIENCING CULTURE SHOCK
- feeling my English is not good enough for university - not being prepared for studying at university
- finding subject content unappetising - increased difficulty of work
o more difficult homework o having to write longer papers o having to do a lot of reading - getting used to the exam system
- having to take responsibility for own learning - feeling homesick
Figure 10. The conceptual category of Experiencing culture shock
The development of these two categories of English learning experience and Experiencing culture shock show two extremes of the process of building conceptual categories. The first was relatively straightforward, the properties coming out of the data easily and the category assuming a more or less finished form early on in the research process.
The second category had a long developmental evolution and only assumed its final structure late on in the analytical process, as a result of further thinking about the data and advanced memo writing.
Table 8
The conceptual categories which emerged from the data
Categories describing factors related to the student’s initial experience of university FAMILY BACKGROUND
- parents’ jobs - parents’ education
- other family members studying at university - using English at home
ENGLISH LEARNING EXPERIENCE - English classes at school
- visiting an English-speaking country
- working/studying in an English-speaking country - talking to English speaking natives
- learning English from watching television and movies - using English while working
WRITING EXPERIENCE - in secondary school - in private school/college - while working
EXPERIENCING CULTURE SHOCK
- feeling my English is not good enough for university - not being prepared for studying at university
- finding subject content difficult to learn - increased difficulty of work
o more difficult homework o having to write longer papers o having to do a lot of reading - getting used to exam system
- having to take responsibility for own learning - feeling homesick
BEING ANXIOUS - about exams - about other major - about writing essays - about passing courses - about getting bad grades - about surviving university
MANAGING ONE’S OWN LEARNING - arranging a realistic timetable - having a study plan
- spending enough time studying - finding the right study environment
- managing one’s workload (not leaving things to the last minute) - using strategies (e.g. borrowing lecture notes if you missed the lecture) COPING WITH ANOTHER MAJOR
- arranging timetable
- clashes between majors (e.g. lectures) - coping with more homework
- coping with reading
- having to travel between departments PROBLEMS OUTSIDE UNIVERSITY
- problems in private life - problems with part-time job - falling ill
- unexpected bereavement
- spending a lot of time travelling
Categories relating to the student’s experience with learning academic writing NOT BEING GIVEN HOME PAPER ASSIGNMENTS
- reasons for not giving a home paper - alternatives
REQUIREMENTS FOR WRITING HOME PAPERS - choice of topic
- instructions/guidelines given - purpose
- use of sources - marking
AWARENESS OF WEAKNESSES IN WRITING - not knowing grammar well enough
- not having a rich vocabulary - spelling and punctuation problems - not using appropriate style
- not being able to organise well
AWARENESS OF STRENGTHS IN WRITING - being confident in one’s knowledge of English - understanding tasks
- having a good prose style - being able to structure writing
- having experience of different writing tasks - being able to come up with ideas
- being able to write clearly and logically - enjoying writing
WRITING HABITS
- the where and when
- planning writing
- rereading after finishing essay - inserting/erasing ideas
- writing on computer
DIFFICULTIES WITH WRITING ASSIGNMENTS - problems with the topic
- getting started
- organising the essay coherently
- going into enough depth without repeating yourself - writing the conclusion /intro
- struggling to meet the length requirements - struggling with an academic identity - leaving things to the last moment - not having enough time
- not being able to proofread effectively - managing the sources in essays
- following referencing requiremnets
STRATEGIES FOR TACKLING MAJOR WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS - sharing the research work with other students
- talking to other students - getting help writing a paper - reading other people’s papers
- filling the paper up with quotes and examples - relying on the internet for information/ideas
DIFFICULTIES WITH WRITING A LINGUISTICS ESSAY - finding the topic difficult
- finding it impossible to say anything new - worrying about committing plagiarism - dealing with complex requirements GETTING FEEDBACK ON WRITING
- written comments - oral feedback - peer feedback
- form vs content feedback - student attitude to feedback INTERACTING WITH TEACHERS
- in the classroom - when getting feedback - email dialogue
- meeting outside the classroom EVALUATING TEACHERS
- what makes a good teacher - what makes a bad teacher
- being motivated/demotivated by teaching
FEELINGS ABOUT THE ASC
- reasons for choosing the course - attitude to the course
- feelings about the group - feelings about the teacher - feelings about how useful it is THE IMPORTANCE OF THE GROUP
- what makes a good group - what makes a bad group
- feeling of being in a good group - feeling of being in a bad group
Categories relating to how the participant develops as a student MAKING PROGRESS AS AN ENGLISH STUDENT
- being in control
- feeling improvement in writing - Developing through reading
o influence on speaking style o broadening vocabulary TAKING ACTION TO IMPROVE
- selecting courses strategically
- creating a better working environment - concentrating on weaknesses
- self-teaching
- getting help from others MOTIVATION FOR STUDYING
- original motivation - changes in motivation - the effect of grades
Other categories emerged more or less easily and memo writing, both early short memos and longer advanced memos, was integral to their development, as was returning to the data to check my thinking and to further stimulate analysis. As my theoretical thinking advanced, more data was sought in later interviews to answer questions and fill in areas where categories were still not defined clearly or to throw further light on the connections between categories. An example of this was in the final round of interviews when students
were invited to discuss their preparedness for university in order to discover more about their initial problems with their studying, and part of the aim of the interviews with the teachers of Linguistics and Literature was to investigate the writing requirements of different subjects in order to see more clearly the nature of some students’ problems with writing home papers. A list of the conceptual categories from the student interviews can be seen in Table 8 above.