Vol. 2. No. 1 A-1 March 1996
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Academic And Non-academic Difficulties: Perceptions of Graduate Non-English Speaking Background Students

Ed Burke
Language & Literacy Education, Queensland University of Technology Australia
<e.burke@qut.edu.au>

Claire Wyatt-Smith
Language & Cultural Studies, Griffith University, Australia
<csmith@ed-hydra.edn.gu.edu.au>

Abstract

This paper reports a study of the academic and non- academic demands as perceived by a group of Australian non- native English speaking students in the first semester of the postgraduate studies. It draws on relevant research and relates this to the participants' responses to a written questionnaire and follow up face-to-face interviews which captured insider perspectives about academic difficulties: the use of L1; the match between lecturers' teaching styles and students' preferred learning styles; listening, speaking, reading and writing; library and other resource usage as well as other non-academic demands.

Keywords: ESL, graduate education, Australia

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