Embedding Learning Guides in a flexible delivery model: A pilot study to improve international students' academic acculturation at an Australian university

Abstract

International students transitioning to Australian universities are required to fulfil academic expectations while positioned on the margin of the academic community, coupled with engagement in discipline-specific language prior to significant exposure to the discipline. Adding to this challenge, oftentimes academic expectations and expert discourse must be accomplished in their non-native tongue - English. This paper focuses on the creation of an environment that provides international students with greater opportunity to achieve learning outcomes and academic acculturation through access to a plethora of integrated academic support services. To elevate the provision of such access and as part of an ongoing process, Academic Learning and Language (ALL) staff at the University of Adelaide have developed a series of ‘Learning Guides’. These guides not only articulate learning requirements and scaffold international students’ capacity to understand and embrace scholarly processes, but are becoming embedded across their support offerings, thus enabling more fluid and rapid acculturation to academic life at this institution.