Communication between students: the influence of Australian students' beliefs on interaction with NESB students

© 2010 Brooke Cowley.Attempts to integrate international students within universities in Australia, New Zealand and the US are falling short of expectations, and it is important that research be carried out investigating ways to promote integration in and out of the classroom. Lindemann (2002) found that negative attitudes toward Korean accents were associated with ‘problematising’ and ‘avoidance’ strategies in interactions with non-native speakers in the US. Similar studies of Australian students, however, are not to be found. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of attitudes and beliefs on interactions between English first-language (L1) speakers and students with a non-English-speaking background (NESB), with a particular interest in identifying strategies used by L1 speakers in interactions with NESB students, and their contribution to task success. A questionnaire completed by 52 Australian university students showed that ‘Chinese’ was the most salient NESB student ethnic identity. Students with particularly positive and particularly negative inclinations toward NESB students completed a map task with a Chinese student in order that interactions between these students might be assessed through a discourse analysis. The analysis was based on Lindemann's model for investigating attitudes in interaction. Ultimately this study found that strategies proposed by Lindemann were present, but analysis of non-verbal cues, which Lindemann did not address, contributed to a further understanding of interaction between Australian and NESB students. In the university context, it is important to educate students in how to communicate effectively in group tasks, to promote positive expectations of communication with one another