Language and Education Network - Research Seminar - Danijela Trenkic (University of York) Pursuing university education in a foreign language: How difficult could it be?

Danijela Trenkic (University of York)

Pursuing university education in a foreign language: How difficult could it be?

Although some international students rank among the top performers at UK universities, they perform notably less well on average than home students. My research investigates the role that language plays in their academic success.

In this talk, I will discuss recent research that bears on the following questions:

• How much do the language and literacy skills of international students differ from those of home students?
• How much do language and literacy skills affect academic success at university?
• Where is the threshold after which language stops being a barrier to academic performance?

I consider the challenges of pursuing an academic degree in a foreign language, and how psycholinguistic research can inform university policies and strategies to ensure that educational experience and outcomes of international students are not compromised.

About the Speaker

I am a professor of second language education at the University of York and a former president of the European Second Language Association (eurosla.org). My work centres on understanding how people comprehend, speak and learn new languages. I conduct experimental and correlational research, combining motivations and methods from the fields of linguistics, psychology and education. Ultimately, I’m interested in how we can promote language learning through school and beyond.  More info here: https://www.york.ac.uk/education/our-staff/academic/danijela-trenkic/

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