From school to university: what do modern languages students expect? Angela Gallagher-Brett

Project rationale  Widespread perception that our students don’t want to read  Survey of UG attitudes to reading  More negative attitudes among year 1 students  Lack of confidence among year 1 students

Project focus  Motivational orientations  Perceptions of linguistic competence  Reading experience in the foreign language  A-levels studied  Expectations of HE

Participants  45 students of French/German  27 first year undergraduates  18 sixth formers (years 12/13)  3 teachers  2 A-level teachers  1 HE teacher

Methodology  Questionnaire (undergraduate and sixth form)  Focus Group interviews (sixth form)  Individual teacher interviews  Small pilot study

Questionnaire findings: Motivation  Enjoyment was the main reason for studying a language  Employability was the main reason for going to university

Questionnaire findings: Perceptions of competence  Most students agreed they were good at the language  Sixth formers were more confident that they were good than undergraduates

Questionnaire findings: Perceptions of competence  I have a good knowledge of vocabulary AgreeNeither/NorDisagree Undergraduate37%52%11% 6 th Form67%28% 5%5%

Questionnaire findings: Perceptions of ability to cope  Most students believed they were coping well with their workload  Most students believed they could cope with a degree  Most students were confident about their essay- writing ability in English (area of mismatch between AL and degree)

Questionnaire findings: Perceptions of ability to cope  I am confident about my ability to write essays in English English Lit Students 100% Others57%29%14% AgreeNeither/NorDisagree

Questionnaire findings: Reading experience in the foreign language  Clear emphasis on reading shorter texts in both sectors  Only sporadic experience of literary genres in both sectors  Some undergraduates experienced in wider reading

Questionnaire findings: reading experience in the foreign language  Sixth formers were most confident reading textbook articles  Undergraduates were most confident reading newspaper, magazine and online articles  Sixth formers were reading slightly more in class  Undergraduates were reading slightly more independently

Questionnaire findings: Expectations of HE  Sixth formers did not underestimate HE workloads  Sixth formers vastly overestimated contact time in HE  Sixth formers expected increase in independent learning to be the biggest change  Undergraduates stated that increase in independent learning had been the biggest change

Teacher Interviews  In both sectors – grammar seen as biggest linguistic challenge  In both sectors – some students lack necessary organisational and time management skills  In both sectors – students’ lack of knowledge of vocabulary and structure make tackling longer texts difficult  It would be useful to have more knowledge of the other sector

Teacher Interviews  A-level teachers identified transition from GCSE as problematic  A-level teachers said their students do not read enough in English  A-level teachers highlighted difficulties in AL focus on current affairs

Sixth Form Interviews: expectations of HE  Most students were planning to go to university Students were most looking forward to the social side of university and having more independence “It’s that step that’s really exciting, being able to meet new people as well and just doing everything for yourself” (Year 13 French student) And to studying subjects they were interested in.. “The idea that you can just learn the subjects that you really enjoy and you’re really good at, I’m really looking forward to” (Year 13 French student)

Sixth Form Interviews: expectations of HE  Students hoped to gain employability benefits from degree study “I think employers might be more likely to take an interest in you if you’ve got university qualifications rather than just GCSEs and A- levels” (year 12 French student)

Sixth Form Interviews: expectations of HE  Independent learning predicted to be the main difference between school and HE “You’ll work more independently so you won’t have the teacher there the whole time to advise…” (year 12 French student)

Sixth Form Interviews: expectations of HE  Some students were worried about greater independence “I don’t think I’ll like it, I think I need someone there to kind of tell me, do this, don’t do that” (year 13 German student) “I think it’s probably going to be like a real challenge, being completely independent and being away from your family and, like, stepping away from the security of sixth form” (Year 12 French student)

Sixth Form Interviews: expectations of HE  Students were mostly expecting larger class sizes  “It’s just the idea of massive lectures and stuff so you’re obviously not going to have a one to one thing that much” (year 13 French student)  Students were very worried about not having sufficient opportunities to ask questions/obtain help in large classes “you could get a bit intimidated by other people on your course and lose a bit of confidence and then if you can’t ask the lecturer easily, you know that might be quite daunting, I think” (year 13 French student)

Sixth Form Interviews: expectations of HE  Some students were concerned that relationships with teachers would not be as good  Prospective languages student believed that some class sizes would be small and relationships with teachers would still be good “the course that I want to do, lots of stuff will be like in small groups kind of, and conversational classes and stuff, so I think I probably would, I mean you’d still have a strong relationship kind of with your lecturers and with your teachers” (year 13 French student)

Issues: What’s generic? Students prefer smaller classes to formal lectures –Business, Psychology, Medicine (Goldfinch, 1996, Sander et al, 2000) Students over-estimate contact time in HE –English (Smith and Hopkins, 2005) Students unprepared for amount/range of reading in HE –English (Green, 2005) Increase in independent learning in HE –English (Smith and Hopkins, 2005) No good match between A-level and degree –English, History (Booth, 1997, 2001, Knights, 2004)

Issues: What’s specific to languages? Mismatch between A-level and degree – writing about content in English (implications for students with no Humanities A Levels?) A Level syllabus in languages - very functional Transition from GCSE to AS more difficult than in other subjects? (Watts and Pickering, 2004, Pachler, 2005, Klapper, 2006) Lack of confidence in vocabulary and grammar knowledge