Social networks and the international student experience: a community of practice to support learning?

This paper emphasises the significance of the social dimension in which learning occurs and focuses on the social environment beyond the classroom. Interest in researching the learning experience beyond the classroom has increased in recent years. Byram and Feng (2004) acknowledge that more research in the area of research ‘beyond the traditional classroom’ is needed. Researchers as early as Vygotsky (1978) and Bakhtin (Dentith:1996) have placed emphasis on the socio-cultural basis of learning. The premise that ‘learning and development occur as people participate in the socio-cultural activities of their community’ (Rogoff, 1994: 204) is central to a socio-cultural view of learning and experience. This paper suggests that the relationships and friendships that we have with others are significant in terms of our learning experience

A Case Study of Using Online Communities and Virtual Environment in Massively Multiplayer Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) as a Learning and Teaching Tool for Second Language Learners

Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) create large virtual communities. Online gaming shows potential not just for entertaining, but also in education. This research investigates the use of commercial MMORPGs to support second language teaching. MMORPGs offer virtual safe spaces in which students can communicate by using their target second language with global players. Using a mix of ethnography and action research, this study explores the students’ experiences of language learning and performing while playing MMORPGs. The results show that the use of MMORPGs can facilitate language development by offering fun, informal, individualised and secure virtual spaces for students to practise their language with native and other second language speakers

Moving between virtual and real worlds: second language learning through massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPGs)

Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) bring players together in a large virtual community. This type of online gaming can serve many purposes such as entertainment, social interaction, information exchange and education and is now an integral part of many people's lives particularly the younger generation. This research study investigates the use of openly available MMORPGs to supplement second language teaching for higher education students. MMORPGs provide informal virtual worlds in which students can communicate in their second language with people from across the globe. The research approach combines ethnography and action research in the virtual and real worlds. In the real world the researcher observes the interaction with the MMORPGs by the students both through their informal discussion in the classroom and through screen video captures of their game play in the MMORPG. In addition the researcher takes on the role of a character within the MMORPG allowing for observation inside the virtual world from the viewpoint of another game character. Through action research, the researcher observes, plans and then interacts with the students' MMORPG characters within the game. This enables the researcher to provide anonymous but tailored support to the students including advice on the game play, a confidence boost where needed, a friendly face where needed and some support around language issues. In the real world, action research is also used to provide tutorial exercises and discussions based on the students' experiences with the MMORPG, facilitating further enhancement opportunities for their language development. This paper concludes that MMORPGs provide a safe, relaxed and engaging environment in which students can practice and improve their language skills

Learning to be a global citizen: student transition to an internationalised university

This session focuses on first year undergraduate students’ encounters with internationalism at university. University is a key site for educating responsible citizens of the future, graduates who will work in their professional contexts within ethical and sustainable parameters. It is important to understand how young students are experiencing internationalism and how their encounters with diversity, particularly in the first stages of their university experience, may enable them to become ethical professionals. This session draws on a research and evaluation project sited in engineering and design. The session will present students’ perceptions of what it means to be a global citizen in the context of their academic discipline. Participants will also consider their own university context and its approach to educating the global citizen

Global futures, global communities? The role of culture, language and communication in an internationalised university

This paper is one of a set of working papers that focus on the cultural and linguistic practices in internationalised university contexts across a number of different countries including the UK, Denmark and Australia. The research network CALPIU which is based at Roskilde University in Denmark is interrogating the nature of cultural and linguistic practices in contemporary Higher Education. This is being done from a range of research perspectives with different foci on language, culture and social or academic identities. This particular paper concentrates on presenting a student view of internationalised Higher Education in contrast to other papers that emphasise staff perspectives (e.g. Preisler 2008, this volume). Here we consider the role of culture, language and communication in an internationalised university and suggest that the development of intercultural competence in students (and indeed staff although this is not researched here) should be considered to be an integral aim of internationalisation. The paper examines how international students’ experience of studying in Higher Education in another country may prepare them for living and working in a global context. It is noted in research on UK home students’ experience (Ball et al. 2000; Shipton 2005) that being at university changes students’ perceptions of themselves and others. It is suggested in this paper that the international nature of mobile students’ experience may accentuate this development and provide them with a changed perspective on what it means to live, study and socialise with people from different cultures. This perspective could enable students to develop intercultural competences that may contribute to their professional and personal futures. This self?awareness and wider intercultural view of self being developed in the international student may be contrasted with a more mono?cultural experience of some home students who may not be benefiting from the social and cultural diversity being created by internationalisation in Higher Education. This paper draws on data from a study carried out in 2003 that investigated the social and cultural experience of a group of international students in a UK university. In addition to this, the CALPIU sub?project intends to further the findings of this data by carrying out research into current student perspectives on the role of culture, language and social interaction in an internationalised university in 2008. This part of the project aims to establish to what extent student views on studying and living in an international education environment have changed over the past five years

Surfacing ‘Southern’ perspectives on student engagement with internationalisation: doctoral theses as alternative forms of knowledge

This article explores how knowledge represented in doctoral theses exploring internationalization may be constructed as a source of “Southern” knowledge on international education. The article aims to surface some of the ways in which the knowledge generated by doctoral students could illustrate new perspectives on internationalization, particularly, in terms of knowledge building for the students’ own country contexts. The research conducted a search of all U.K. doctoral theses in the EThOS repository of the British Library, focusing on theses where students had engaged with internationalization. The search generated a data set of theses written in the decade 2008 to 2018, which were then thematically analyzed. In addition to questioning whether thesis knowledge constitutes powerful or empowering knowledge for the student and the Southern cultures they come from, the research indicates that the doctoral theses both reproduced Western knowledge and generated some new perspectives on methodological and thematic constructions of internationalization. The article highlights hierarchies of knowledge and questions whether postcolonial encounters through the PhD can generate knowledge that builds Southern perspectives on internationalization

The “Brown Paper Syndrome”: Unaccompanied Minors and Questions of Status

In principle, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms grants equal rights to all persons residing in Canadian territory. In practice, it is clear that some populations are more “equal” than others. Difficulties relating to the immigration process, access to services, and discrimination are but some of the forms of exclusion often confronted by minority and immigrant communities. For unaccompanied minors, their combined status as refugee claimants and as minors creates an added factor of vulnerability, referred to by one minor as the “brown paper syndrome.” Drawing on a case study of unaccompanied minors in Quebec, the present article examines the relationship between status and barriers to integration, looking more specifically at the difficulties faced by these youth in the refugee determination process and in accessing resources in the public, private, and community sectors.La Charte canadienne des droits et libertés confère, en principe, des droits égaux à toutes les personnes vivant au Canada. Il est évident cependant que, dans la pratique, certains groupes sont « plus égaux » que d’autres. Les communautés d’immigrants et les minorités ont à faire face, entre autres formes d’exclusion, à toutes sortes de difficultés liées au processus de l’immigration, à l’accès aux services et à la discrimination pure et simple. Dans le cas des mineurs non-accompagnés, leur appartenance aux doubles catégories de demandeurs d’asile et de mineurs, crée un facteur additionnel de vulnérabilité—appelé « brown paper syndrome » (syndrome « papier gris ») par un mineur. Se fondant sur une étude de cas effectuée au Québec et portant sur des enfants mineurs non-accompagnés, cet article examine les liens qui existent entre le statut et les obstacles à l’intégration, en examinant plus particulièrement les difficultés confrontant ces jeunes dans le processus de la détermination du statut de réfugié et dans l’accès aux ressources qui existent dans les secteurs public, privé et communautaire