Academic Experience of Malaysian Students in a Cross-national Tertiary Program in Malaysia:
Language Immersion amid the Sciences
Yusuke SAKURAI (櫻井 勇介 )
Japanese Associate Degree Program, UNISEL, Malaysia
Cairo University, Egypt
OUTLINE
• Background• Review of previous studies - Framework • Scope of the study• Methodology• Main claims - findings• Conclusion
BACKGROUND
BACKGROUNDJapanese Associate Degree Program (JAD)
Science & engineering
courses
PREVIOUS STUDIES
• International students studying in English speaking countrieso Novera (2004)No Hellstén and Prescotte (2004)Ho Alazzi & Chiodo (2006)Ao Leki (2007)L
• International students studying in Japano Nagano & Mine (2005)No Sekiguchi (2007)S
PREVIOUS STUDIES
• Issues in science & engineering courses – Malaysia and Japano Kitahama (1995, 1996)Ko Karino (2006)K
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
1.Deviations from norms2.Noted/unnoted3.Evaluation4.Adjustment strategies5.Repetition
Fan (1994), Marriott (2004, 2005), Nemoto (2002), Neustupný (1985, 1994), Yamada (2003)(
THE STUDY
SCOPES OF THE STUDY
• What kind of difficulties did Malaysian students in the JAD perceive at the early stage of their academic study in Japanese?
• What adjustment strategies did the students employ to overcome their problems?
METHODOLOGY
• Students' diary entries
• Semi-structured interviews o Students (referring to their diary entries)o Science & engineering lecturers
PARTICIPANTS
• Five female (F1-F5) & Three males (M1-M3)
• University freshman level (Year 2)
• Japanese language proficiency – Intermediate (level3)
Main Claims - Findings
Main claims - Findings
• Lectures• Assigned worksheets• Experiments and
experiment report papers
• Textbooks and other reading resources
• Peer collaboration (in class & out of class)c
• web resources (e.g., Wikipedia, online chatting)c
• Lecturers & TAs in class
• Dictionaries
Need for extensive kanji learning
• Students gave up reading textbooks• Dictionaries – technical terminologies• No strong emphasis on student’s kanji acquisition
in JAD • Effects of struggles in kanji on academic study
have not been fully examined
漢字
Need for sufficient feedback
• No chance to note their linguistic deviations• Experiment report papers – every week• Little feedback (linguistic & sociolinguistic
deviations)d
Feedback
Need for re-consideration of academics and TAs' roles
• Confined within the classroom• Some students ended up with unsolved problems• Easy access to academics and TAs• Regular consultation hours & online
communication tools (e.g., email & BBS)c
In classOut of class
Autonomous learning
Need for re-consideration of necessary academic skills
• Course characteristics may influence students’ adjustment strategy use
• Chemistry ⇔ Other subjects
Academic Skills
CONCLUSION
For Further Studies
• Management processes in other academic activities in detail
• Who, what, why?• Need for longitudinal perspectives