Shouldn't presessionals be inclusive of all

Описание: This talk was part of the 2023 BALEAP Biennial Conference at the University of Warwick.

Pre-sessional EAP programmes still tend to be aimed exclusively at international students who, it is assumed, do not have English as a ‘native’ language. The over-simplified division of the ‘English native-speaking home student’ and the ‘English as a second language international student’ has long been challenged, and yet, we continue to categorise students in this way, ignoring the linguistic and cultural diversity of our modern-day societies, continuing the native-speaker narrative and denying the presence of global Englishes on our international campuses. If pre-sessional programmes are not in fact a ‘quick fix’ for English language deficiencies, as our course content and descriptions claim not to be, then why are we still only promoting them to those who have not met language level requirements? Why are we not including all students in our offerings? This presentation reports on data from a longitudinal qualitative study, which followed 14 students from both the UK and abroad through a full academic year in the UK. Seven of the participants began their journey on a pre-sessional and data were collected from student diaries, over 60 hours of classroom observations involving more than 600 students, 120 interviews with students, university staff, lecturers and 12 EAP teachers. Data from the study highlight the challenges and disappointments students face, particularly Chinese students, when living and learning amongst students of predominantly their own nationality and language. Interviews with EAP teachers reveal concerns that students are not sufficiently prepared to interact and collaborate in multicultural or predominantly British classrooms, often owing to the lack of exposure to other cultures and accents on their pre-sessional programmes. In addition, insights from ‘home students’ underline the difficulties they encounter with academic writing and understanding international classmates and teachers. This, in turn, reduces their cross-cultural interactions, overall engagement and jeopardises the internationalisation agendas. The research firmly establishes the image of the UK international university as a multilingual space, for which, those classed as ‘home students’ are not prepared, and where more needs to be done to highlight the impact of language, global Englishes and academic skills on all students’ university experiences. The presentation will propose an alternative way forward involving pre-sessional courses promoted to all students. These courses should recognise the need for all students to have time to adjust to academic language as well as different Englishes and accents, which students will have to engage with to access their learning

content through their international teachers, interactions with international classmates, and multicultural and multilingual group assessments. Inclusion of ‘home students’ on pre-sessional programmes could help meet incoming students’ expectations of engaging with local people, British culture and improving their English. At the same time, crucially, it could give all students the time and space they need to make friends, practise their academic skills, acclimatise to different Englishes and develop a sense of belonging, essential adjustments for which there often is no time once they enter onto their main degree programmes. Is it not finally time to make EAP truly inclusive and open to all?