190 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK


The extensive research into the experiences of international students at UK universities has highlighted the multiple challenges – linguistic, academic, social, cultural, social and personal – that they may face (Lillyman & Bennett 2014; Brown & Holloway 2008). Pre-sessional programmes provide a supportive and scaffolded environment to help students improve their academic English and navigate UK HE culture, and could be seen as self-contained units within the bubble of the university. Nevertheless, the students bring with them a range of expectations, of the world beyond study as well as of their current and future courses, that affect their pre-sessional experiences. The concept of ‘imagined communities’ is particularly relevant here to suggest how learners’ participation (real or potential) in the wider world can affect their motivation and learning in the EAP classroom. The work of Bonnie Norton (2001) has focused on language learners in particular as she extended Benedict Anderson’s (1991) use of this concept (originally applied to perceptions of the nation-state) in order to describe how people connect with other groups through the power of the imagination. The imagination of future networks and situations may impact learners as much as their immediate environment and are therefore a powerful force offering connections and identity options for the future (Norton & Gao, 2008). However, investment in an imagined future community may not equate to investment in what is taking place in the classroom (ibid.). Ross and Bayes (2016) found that there could be a marked discrepancy between the lived experiences of EAP learners at an Australian university and


Elisabeth Wilding


their imagined communities, especially in the face of linguistic and cultural challenges. The following discussion draws heavily on these concepts to consider the intersection of the relatively confined space of the pre-sessional English (PSE) course and the external communities to which our students may aspire to belong.


METHODOLOGY


The study reported on here was undertaken as a University of Reading Undergraduate Research Opportunities Project (UROP) in summer 2018. The six-week project was entitled ‘Chinese pre-sessional students’ expectations of academic study at the University of Reading,’ and was conducted by an undergraduate researcher, Ai Lin Yoon, under the supervision of this author. Building on ongoing research into the experiences of international students moving from the pre-sessional programme at the University of Reading on to their degree courses, the research questions centred on the extent to which the students felt prepared for their academic course, the challenges they expected, and how they aimed to meet these challenges. The first stage of the project was the distribution of an online questionnaire to summer pre-sessional students who had recently arrived. It contained a mix of multiple- choice and open text questions that covered the three areas noted above, including aspects of their social and academic lives at university. Respondents were then invited to attend focus groups, where we used a semi-structured question format to follow up on themes that had emerged from the questionnaire and to explore in more depth the students’ perceptions, experiences and expectations. We only received 59 responses


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