Some participants in this study also indicated some other challenges they had that affected their ESL learning. Helen said that being homesick had influenced her studies at the beginning of the program. “We now only have classes for 4 hours each day, so we have much spare time, and it is natural to be homesick when we have nothing to do.” Although she lived with a Canadian lady at a homestay, they did not have much to talk about. Besides, unlike most Chinese students, the place where she lived was not close to the campus, so she was far from her circle of Chinese friends. Sometimes, loneliness distracted her from her studies. Difficulties in daily conversations with local people sometimes made Helen less confident to speak English. For example,
…show more content…
If they took an academic class, it would have been hard for them to understand the professor at least in the first month. Tina shared a similar opinion with some detailed examples: For listening, our teacher told us about a website where we could find a lot of resources to improve our skills… For grammar, I think I can better understand grammar with the Canadian teacher’s help… One thing that I like about the program is that the teachers taught us how to cite in the APA Format in our essay. It’s very helpful for our future academic writing. Eve held a different thought because she did not make any progress in her English. She insisted that it had something to do with her pervious learning experience in another English-speaking country: I went to university as an undergraduate student in another English-speaking country. Most of my friends were local people. I spoke English with them everyday, so my oral English was fluent. A few days ago, one of them video chatted with me, he said my English regressed. Because most of my classmates are Chinese now, and we usually hang out together and speak Chinese after class. I haven’t gotten a chance to know any local people. The only situation where I speak English is in …show more content…
Wilson said he got to know about the forms of assignments in Canada by taking the program, such as presentations, debates, and so on, which were different from what they did in China. This helped him prepare for academic homework in the future. Sara said her oral English had made great progress. She provided an example: Our teacher usually likes to discuss with the students and ask about our opinions, so we have lots of opportunities to talk in class. For example, once, she asked us to make sentences with the words we had just learned. She thought one student’s sentence was interesting, then she started a discussion about the sentence with us. However, Wilson and Sara both pointed out that the ELIP did not help them to understand their major field better. They did not learn any terms or expressions about their majors in English. They believed the program would be much more helpful by adding this content. However, they both admitted that this would be difficult as the students in the class were in different majors.
4.6 Suggestions from the Participants At the end of the interview, the researcher asked each participant to give some constructive suggestions for the
If they took an academic class, it would have been hard for them to understand the professor at least in the first month. Tina shared a similar opinion with some detailed examples: For listening, our teacher told us about a website where we could find a lot of resources to improve our skills… For grammar, I think I can better understand grammar with the Canadian teacher’s help… One thing that I like about the program is that the teachers taught us how to cite in the APA Format in our essay. It’s very helpful for our future academic writing. Eve held a different thought because she did not make any progress in her English. She insisted that it had something to do with her pervious learning experience in another English-speaking country: I went to university as an undergraduate student in another English-speaking country. Most of my friends were local people. I spoke English with them everyday, so my oral English was fluent. A few days ago, one of them video chatted with me, he said my English regressed. Because most of my classmates are Chinese now, and we usually hang out together and speak Chinese after class. I haven’t gotten a chance to know any local people. The only situation where I speak English is in …show more content…
Wilson said he got to know about the forms of assignments in Canada by taking the program, such as presentations, debates, and so on, which were different from what they did in China. This helped him prepare for academic homework in the future. Sara said her oral English had made great progress. She provided an example: Our teacher usually likes to discuss with the students and ask about our opinions, so we have lots of opportunities to talk in class. For example, once, she asked us to make sentences with the words we had just learned. She thought one student’s sentence was interesting, then she started a discussion about the sentence with us. However, Wilson and Sara both pointed out that the ELIP did not help them to understand their major field better. They did not learn any terms or expressions about their majors in English. They believed the program would be much more helpful by adding this content. However, they both admitted that this would be difficult as the students in the class were in different majors.
4.6 Suggestions from the Participants At the end of the interview, the researcher asked each participant to give some constructive suggestions for the