{"id":19382,"date":"2011-11-23T06:12:04","date_gmt":"2011-11-23T05:12:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/?p=19382\/"},"modified":"2017-01-21T02:22:41","modified_gmt":"2017-01-21T02:22:41","slug":"writing-in-english-is-tough-study-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/writing-in-english-is-tough-study-shows\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing in English is tough, study shows"},"content":{"rendered":"

One thing is to know enough English to get by in a strange city without starving. Another is to know enough English to be able to write papers in English at university.<\/p>\n

Brazilian economics student Tadeu knew he had to write papers in English in Copenhagen, but when he first came here he pushed it to the back of his mind.<\/p>\n

\u00bbI tried to think about what I will do in the exam and I was just so depressed. How can I explain: If I go to another country to the States for example I won\u2019t be hungry, I can communicate a little bit. But here at university it is completely different\u00ab.<\/p>\n

Feel the expectations<\/h2>\n

Tadeu is not alone with his apprehension. And his experiences with writing will likely resonate with most international students, according to Sanne Larsen, who is finishing her research on international students writing in English. Tadeu is a pseudonym and the quote above is from her in-depth interviews.<\/p>\n

For her research, she singled out six non-English-mother-tongue international students for scrutiny to find out how they cope with writing in English. Her interim report was recently presented at the Centre for Parallel Language Use (CIP).<\/p>\n

\u00bbStudents experience a gap between what they feel they can do, and what they perceive as being expected of them,\u00ab says Sanne Larsen.<\/p>\n

Sticking with your own<\/h2>\n

According to Sanne, other problems, what she calls \u2018ideational issues\u2019 may exacerbate language difficulties.<\/p>\n

Students from abroad come from subjects that may not precisely match the subjects they are studying here. And what counts as knowledge at home, may not count here, and vice versa.<\/p>\n

And writing difficulties may be compounded by what she calls interpersonal issues. International students tend to mingle with other students from their own language background. Tadeu, for example, prefers to stay with Portuguese speakers, because he is more afraid of talking in English and feels that he can\u2019t express himself properly.<\/p>\n

Language brokers<\/h2>\n

But students somehow find a way to manage, according to Sanne Larsen\u2019s study.<\/p>\n

One way is to use other students who have a cultural or language advantage. Student colleagues from Denmark become \u2018cultural brokers\u2019, helping internationals find out what to do, and what not to do, at Danish university. <\/p>\n

Students from English-speaking countries come in handy here too. They become what Sanne calls \u2018language brokers\u2019.<\/p>\n

Embarassing<\/h2>\n

Take \u2018Andrea\u2019 for example, a German student, who went through every sentence in her paper with \u2018Susan\u2019, who had English as her mother tongue.<\/p>\n

\u00bbWe go through each and every sentence and she asked me \u2018what do you want to say, what do you want to tell\u2019. And I was like \u2018yeah right I want to say that\u2019 and I explained it to her and she said \u2018yeah but you can\u2019t do that. You need to put it in this way,\u00ab says Andrea, adding that it helped the paper and helped her English.<\/p>\n

But there is a downside to using native-English speakers. Andrea admitted that it was embarrassing, because it made her feel far away from being able to do a \u00bbgood English written paper, so that was kind of awful to see actually.\u00ab<\/p>\n

All six made it<\/h2>\n

It is not easy to write papers at university if you weren\u2019t brought up in English-language countries, going to English-language schools. <\/p>\n

But Sanne Larsen\u2019s conclusions are heartening to students who struggle. Ultimately all of the students she studied were able to make it through their English-writing trials and tribulations.<\/p>\n

All six in her study carried out their programme, although some of them opted out of individual, optional courses partly due to difficulty in writing papers.<\/p>\n

Came here to improve English<\/h2>\n

In the end, the gap between what students can do, and what is expected of them was bridged, allowing \u00bbstudents to actually learn something,\u00ab says Sanne.<\/p>\n

And staying in Copenhagen in itself improves students\u2019 English, a positive side-effect that international students are well aware of, actually one of the reasons many come to Copenhagen in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u00bbSome of the students come here with the motivation of learning English. Somehow this is to be achieved magically, while they are here. And some of the students did in fact improve their English,\u00ab Sanne explains.<\/p>\n

Teachers just as bad<\/h2>\n

In the meantime, the consolation for international students who have difficulties may be the recognition that their teachers often aren\u2019t much better. As the Brazilian student Tadeu puts it:<\/p>\n

\u00bbI didn\u2019t care too about the grammar, the synonyms, because the teacher he is not good in English. If you read the exam [questions, ed.] you will see a lot of mistakes\u2026\u00ab<\/p>\n

Read the University Post article Bad accent is considered bad teaching<\/em> here. <\/a> and article Lecturer provoked by poor English evaluation<\/em> here.<\/a><\/p>\n

miy@adm.ku.dk<\/p>\n

Anxious about your first English paper? Or maybe you have some tips for others to help out writing English papers? Write in the comment field below.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Stay in the know about news and events happening in Copenhagen by signing up for the University Post\u2019s weekly newsletter here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The subjects are hard enough already. But writing the papers in a language that is not your mother tongue is even harder. New research looks at how international students cope<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":19383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","expression-news_article"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nWriting in English is tough, study shows<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/writing-in-english-is-tough-study-shows\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Writing in English is tough, study shows\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The subjects are hard enough already. 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subjects are hard enough already. But writing the papers in a language that is not your mother tongue is even harder. New research looks at how international students cope","use_post_excerpt":false},{"acf_fc_layout":"Byline","is_author":false,"contributors":[{"use_registered_user":false,"user":false,"contributor_name":"Mike Young","contributor_title":" ","contributor_image":false}]},{"acf_fc_layout":"Content","content":"<p>One thing is to know enough English to get by in a strange city without starving. Another is to know enough English to be able to write papers in English at university.<\/p>\n<p>Brazilian economics student Tadeu knew he had to write papers in English in Copenhagen, but when he first came here he pushed it to the back of his mind.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbI tried to think about what I will do in the exam and I was just so depressed. How can I explain: If I go to another country to the States for example I won\u2019t be hungry, I can communicate a little bit. But here at university it is completely different\u00ab.<\/p>\n<h2>Feel the expectations<\/h2>\n<p>Tadeu is not alone with his apprehension. And his experiences with writing will likely resonate with most international students, according to Sanne Larsen, who is finishing her research on international students writing in English. Tadeu is a pseudonym and the quote above is from her in-depth interviews.<\/p>\n<p>For her research, she singled out six non-English-mother-tongue international students for scrutiny to find out how they cope with writing in English. Her interim report was recently presented at the Centre for Parallel Language Use (CIP).<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbStudents experience a gap between what they feel they can do, and what they perceive as being expected of them,\u00ab says Sanne Larsen.<\/p>\n<h2>Sticking with your own<\/h2>\n<p>According to Sanne, other problems, what she calls \u2018ideational issues\u2019 may exacerbate language difficulties.<\/p>\n<p>Students from abroad come from subjects that may not precisely match the subjects they are studying here. And what counts as knowledge at home, may not count here, and vice versa.<\/p>\n<p>And writing difficulties may be compounded by what she calls interpersonal issues. International students tend to mingle with other students from their own language background. Tadeu, for example, prefers to stay with Portuguese speakers, because he is more afraid of talking in English and feels that he can\u2019t express himself properly.<\/p>\n<h2>Language brokers<\/h2>\n<p>But students somehow find a way to manage, according to Sanne Larsen\u2019s study.<\/p>\n<p>One way is to use other students who have a cultural or language advantage. Student colleagues from Denmark become \u2018cultural brokers\u2019, helping internationals find out what to do, and what not to do, at Danish university. <\/p>\n<p>Students from English-speaking countries come in handy here too. They become what Sanne calls \u2018language brokers\u2019.<\/p>\n<h2>Embarassing<\/h2>\n<p>Take \u2018Andrea\u2019 for example, a German student, who went through every sentence in her paper with \u2018Susan\u2019, who had English as her mother tongue.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbWe go through each and every sentence and she asked me \u2018what do you want to say, what do you want to tell\u2019. And I was like \u2018yeah right I want to say that\u2019 and I explained it to her and she said \u2018yeah but you can\u2019t do that. You need to put it in this way,\u00ab says Andrea, adding that it helped the paper and helped her English.<\/p>\n<p>But there is a downside to using native-English speakers. Andrea admitted that it was embarrassing, because it made her feel far away from being able to do a \u00bbgood English written paper, so that was kind of awful to see actually.\u00ab<\/p>\n<h2>All six made it<\/h2>\n<p>It is not easy to write papers at university if you weren\u2019t brought up in English-language countries, going to English-language schools. <\/p>\n<p>But Sanne Larsen\u2019s conclusions are heartening to students who struggle. Ultimately all of the students she studied were able to make it through their English-writing trials and tribulations.<\/p>\n<p>All six in her study carried out their programme, although some of them opted out of individual, optional courses partly due to difficulty in writing papers.<\/p>\n<h2>Came here to improve English<\/h2>\n<p>In the end, the gap between what students can do, and what is expected of them was bridged, allowing \u00bbstudents to actually learn something,\u00ab says Sanne.<\/p>\n<p>And staying in Copenhagen in itself improves students\u2019 English, a positive side-effect that international students are well aware of, actually one of the reasons many come to Copenhagen in the first place.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbSome of the students come here with the motivation of learning English. Somehow this is to be achieved magically, while they are here. And some of the students did in fact improve their English,\u00ab Sanne explains.<\/p>\n<h2>Teachers just as bad<\/h2>\n<p>In the meantime, the consolation for international students who have difficulties may be the recognition that their teachers often aren\u2019t much better. As the Brazilian student Tadeu puts it:<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbI didn\u2019t care too about the grammar, the synonyms, because the teacher he is not good in English. If you read the exam [questions, ed.] you will see a lot of mistakes\u2026\u00ab<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"node\/5364\">Read the University Post article <em>Bad accent is considered bad teaching<\/em> here. <\/a> and article <a href=\"node\/5362\"><em>Lecturer provoked by poor English evaluation<\/em> here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>miy@adm.ku.dk<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Anxious about your first English paper? Or maybe you have some tips for others to help out writing English papers? Write in the comment field below.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Stay in the know about news and events happening in Copenhagen by <a href=\"http:\/\/universitypost.dk\/newsletter\" target=\"_blank\">signing up for the University Post\u2019s weekly newsletter here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"ArticleEnd"},{"acf_fc_layout":"OtherStories","headline":"","hand_picked_posts":false,"references":false,"category":false,"theme":false,"number_of_posts":"4","style":"default"}]},"taxonomyData":{"category":[{"term_id":42,"name":"Education","slug":"education","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":42,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":661,"filter":"raw"}],"post_tag":[],"post_format":[],"expression":[{"term_id":15,"name":"News Article","slug":"news_article","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":15,"taxonomy":"expression","description":"","parent":0,"count":11489,"filter":"raw"}],"translation_priority":[]},"featured_media_url":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/sannelarsenedited1-1280x968.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19382"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36572,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19382\/revisions\/36572"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}