Academic spaces, computer technologies, and difference: toward a multidisciplinary approach to academic participation of nonnative English speaking students |
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| Authors: | Vera Nincic |
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| Institution: | (1) Faculty of Nursing, University of Toronto, 155 College St, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5T 1P8 |
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| Abstract: | The growing trend of the internationalization of universities has provoked an interest in the academic participation of students
coming from non-English speaking universities. Fashioned by theory and research as a group with “problems”, nonnative English
speakers are depicted as in constant need for help, and unsatisfied with Western academic practices. Consequently, the researchers
interested in the potentials of computer technologies have turned toward the ways computer technologies might facilitate students’
participation. By taking for granted the nonnative English speaking students’ dissatisfaction with traditional academic practices
because of students’ cultural/linguistic differences, this approach fails to explore how the differences between the nonnative
English speakers and other students have been established and maintained in traditional classrooms in the first place. This
paper argues that we need a better understanding of the complex nature of relations between students and academic spaces that
would challenge the approach that offers computer technologies as a “solution” to the problems of classroom participation
by nonnative English speakers and develop a new framework to consider all aspects involved in the process. Empirical component
of the paper offers several possible approaches in the analysis of nonnative English speaking students’ academic participation. |
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| Keywords: | Higher education Nonnative English-speaking students Classroom discussion Computer technologies |
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