DSpace at VNU: Enhancing academic skills for first-year overseas business students

Journal of International Education in Business
Enhancing academic skills for first-year overseas business students
Thi Tuyet (June) Tran

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Thi Tuyet (June) Tran , (2013),"Enhancing academic skills for first-year overseas business students",
Journal of International Education in Business, Vol. 6 Iss 2 pp. 165 - 178
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INNOVATIONS IN STUDENT
LEARNING OUTCOMES

Enhancing academic skills
for first-year overseas
business students
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Thi Tuyet ( June) Tran

Enhancing
academic skills

165
Received 8 June 2013
Revised 6 August 2013
Accepted 16 August 2013

La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia and
Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
Abstract
Purpose – This study reports on the academic support programs targeting first-year business
students at La Trobe Melbourne. The at-risk students were offered both a general academic support
class and a content-based program. This study was conducted to explore students’ perception of the
usefulness of these programs. The paper also aims to create a better intervention to attract more at-risk
students by exploring the reasons behind the low rate of at-risk students making use of these services.
Design/methodology/approach – The specific research uses a mixed method approach to explore
a way to best address the academic needs of the first-year international business students, especially
those identified as at-risk students in a college in Melbourne where both a general academic program
and a discipline-based program were on offer.
Findings – The findings indicate that although the content-based program was highly evaluated by
students and also attracted more students than the general support module, many at-risk students did
not use this service. The low level of English proficiency, the heavy workload, the passive and
dependent learning style, the unclear information about the service and the desire to follow only
teachers’ guidance all prevented at-risk students from making use of the available services. These
students need further help and guidance in this transitional period to recognise the assistance provided
for them and to make use of these services to enhance their learning.
Originality/value – Recently, various support activities have been designed to assist international
students in enhancing their language and academic skills necessary for pursuing their study in Australia.
These activities range from credit-based English for Academic Purposes courses, to optional general
language and study programs, and more recently, discipline or content-based programs. There is also a
tendency in several universities to move from offering general language and study programs to embedding
disciplinary programs. Adopting disciplinary-based academic support activities seem to be the right
direction in many universities as these activities are more likely to help increase the overall pass-rate and
improve student learning outcomes. However, problems seem to remain when many at-risk international
students do not seem to go for these services. This study has led some light on how to improve the future
language and academic skills to support activities for first-year overseas business students.

Keywords International students, Academic skills, Business students
Paper type Research paper

The author would like to thank Denise Bush and Jacqueline Tulk (La Trobe Melbourne) for their
essential support and constructive comments.

Journal of International Education in
Business
Vol. 6 No. 2, 2013
pp. 165-178
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
2046-469X
DOI 10.1108/JIEB-06-2013-0026


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166

Introduction
International education is one of the key businesses in Australia. The industry is the
third largest export earner in Australia (AEI, 2012). It is reported that since 2005,
international students have constituted one in four of all Australian university
enrolments (Russell et al., 2010). In December 2012, the number of international
enrolments in the higher education system (HES) was 230,932, nearly 60 percent of
whom were from four Asian countries: China, Malaysia, India and Vietnam (AEI,
2013). These full-fee-paying students have, on the one hand, helped universities to

compensate for declining government support. On the other hand, they also create
challenges for the HES to change in order to address the new needs of the large number
of second language learners. The differences in terms of culture, learning styles and
language proficiency levels of these students need to be taken into consideration in
designing the curriculum and increasing appropriate academic support activities to
help them successfully pursue their studies. This is especially important for first-year
international students, because the transition these students have to make is not only
from school to university (Bridges, 2009), but also a cultural transition where they have
to learn new academic norms in another language. Thus, the first-year experience has
been recognised as an important foundation for international student success at
university (Reason et al., 2007; Tinto, 2001).
Many universities in Australia have been conducting research on the needs of
international students and designing different activities to support these students and
help them better engage in their study. A range of language and academic support
programs such as English as a second language classes, different workshops, and
short courses on various academic skills have been offered. However, this type of
general support module has gained much criticism as its impact on student learning
outcome is limited (Baik and Greig, 2009; Durkin and Main, 2002; Wingate, 2006).
Many universities have, instead, developed content-based intervention programs or
discipline-based academic programs to address the particular needs of students
studying in different disciplines (Baik and Greig, 2009; Evans et al., 2009; Kennelly et al.,
2010; Skillen et al., 2003). Although it has been reported that the outcomes of these
programs are quite positive with more international students attending the programs
and the overall pass-rate increasing, the perennial problem remains – the attendance of
at-risk international students in these support programs is often low (Kennelly et al.,
2010). Many of these students fail repeatedly and some drop out.
This study reports on the academic support programs targeting first-year business
students at La Trobe Melbourne (LTM). The at-risk students were offered both a
general academic support class and a content-based program. This study was
conducted to explore students’ perceptions of the usefulness of these programs. We

also aim to create a better intervention to attract more at-risk students by exploring the
reasons behind the low rate of at-risk students making use of these services.
Institutional context
LTM operates in association with La Trobe University. It has an enrolment of
1,318 students[1], the majority of whom are international students from Asian
countries such as China, Vietnam, Saudi, and India. Chinese and Vietnamese students
outnumber the students from other nationalities and often make up 65-70 percent of the
LTM international student cohort. LTM offers several pathway programs to bachelor


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degrees at La Trobe University. The diploma courses offered at LTM are equivalent to
La Trobe University’s first-year bachelor degree. After completing the courses (which
usually takes one year), students are allowed access to second year at the university. At
the point of enrolment, LTM students do not meet the necessary university entrance
requirements in terms of English skills and/or study achievements at high school.
Therefore, these students need more help both to improve their English and to develop
relevant academic skills required to study in the Australian tertiary education context.
Literature review
The literature has indicated many challenges non-English-speaking background
students face when pursuing higher education in English-speaking countries. Two of
the most challenging requirements for these students are to develop an understanding of
a new discipline in a second or foreign language, and to develop adequate academic
skills required to study in Western countries (Kennelly et al., 2010; Rajaram and Bordia,
2011; Soosay, 2009).
The claim of weak English skills of international students is popular in the
literature. Different authors have raised concerns about the lowering of the minimum
English language requirements for international students to enrol in university study
as a result of the competition to attract more fee-paying students in the HES (Baik and

Greig, 2009; Birrell, 2006; Watty, 2007). Birrell (2006) and Kennelly et al. (2010) pose a
warning that despite achieving the minimum entry language requirements for
university, many international students still struggle to understand their subject
content, to follow the course instruction and to meet the demand of their courses. At the
point of graduation, as Birrell (2006, p. 53) indicates, at least one-third of these students
have their English “score below the level normally required for employment as
professionals in Australia”.
Nevertheless, there are other explanations for the weak capabilities of these
students in enhancing their English and academic skills and succeeding in their
overseas study. Johnson (2008) for example, draws attention to the difficulties in
mastering technical and discipline-related aspects of academic language, especially in
writing. He suggests that although many international students feel quite relaxed
about their everyday English, they find it hard to understand extended discourse,
which links to the norm of academic writing style with which they are unfamiliar. Lum
(2006), instead, makes explicit the role of culture in learning. He suggests that culture,
communication and learning are intertwined and mutually dependent. In the case of
LTM, when the majority of international students come from Asian Confucian heritage
cultures (such as China and Vietnam), there is a significant difference in terms of
students’ inherited learning style and their prior learning experience in their home
countries and the style students are expected to adopt in order to pursue tertiary
education in Australia.
It has been argued that different cultures develop different learning styles and the
differences in learning styles lead to the differences in pedagogical preferences (Kemp,
2010). Thus, an instruction technique which works with local students may not be
suitable and effective with international students from other cultures (Warner and
Child, 1992). Confucian heritage culture with its key features such as face saving,
hierarchical order in decision making, collectivist, conformity and harmony (Liu, 2006;
Subramaniam, 2008; Thompson, 2009; Tran, 2013) does not encourage its students to

Enhancing

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167


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168

be independent, proactive and to take the initiative – characteristics required for
students to be successful in Australian tertiary study. The general role of the teacher in
Asia is to teach – or to transfer key knowledge and to set rules (Rajaram and Bordia,
2011). Most of the time, students only need to follow the instruction of the teacher.
In Australia, the teacher does not provide the rules, the knowledge is not “transmitted”,
and the language of instruction and teaching is not always easy to understand for these
non-English-speaking background students. They need help for this multiple
transition: transition from school to university, transition to understand instruction
in another language, transition to adopt a new learning style and transition to
understand the academic norms of a specific discipline in a totally different culture.
Australian universities have trialled different ways to assist international students.
Most universities offer international students some form of language and academic
skills support activities. These activities range from credit-based English for Academic
Purposes courses, to optional general language and study programs, and more
recently, discipline or content-based programs. There is a tendency in several
universities to move from offering general language and study programs to embedding
discipline-based programs. Numerous research results indicate that discipline-based
programs attract more international students as these programs often provide students

with task-specific assistance (Baik and Greig, 2009; Evans et al., 2009; Hutchings, 2006;
Kennelly et al., 2010; North, 2005). These studies all point to the importance of learning
within a disciplinary context and that skills may also be context-specific. Hutchings
(2006) suggests that discussion and feedback should be incorporated into disciplinary
content because this will help students to more easily clarify their understanding.
Dressen-Hammouda (2008) also recommends disciplinary-based support activities and
emphasises the need for situated learning, especially in relation to the different written
genres in different disciplines.
Adopting disciplinary-based academic support activities seems to be the right
direction in many universities as these activities are more likely to help increase the
overall pass-rate and improve student learning outcomes (Baik and Greig, 2009;
Kennelly et al., 2010). The benefit of attending these programs is quite significant.
However, problems seem to remain when many at-risk international students do not
use these services. In a study by Kennelly et al. (2010), the number of at-risk students
who did not (often) attend the discipline-based support programs always outnumbered
those who regularly attended. There seems to be a need for further investigation into
meeting the needs of these at-risk students.
The research
This research was designed to explore a way to better address the academic needs of
first-year overseas business students, especially those identified as at-risk, at LTM.
After enrolment, all international students were required to take part in an English
diagnostic test. If they scored below 60 percent, they were identified as at-risk students.
At-risk students also included those who failed in the early unit assessment.
The study drew on the data from three consecutive 13 week-trimesters in 2012.
During the first trimester, three major activities were designed to support students’
learning: general academic workshops such as “independent study and time
management skills”, “referencing style” and “exam preparation”; an academic skills
development (ASD) subject; and individual consultations with the academic skills

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advisor (ASA). After the results of the English diagnostic test were released, all
students who were identified as at-risk students were advised to attend the ASD class
which was also timetabled and ran for 2 hours a week. To encourage students to attend
this class, a 5 percent bonus mark was given to students who had overall 80 percent
attendance. In the first trimester, the general workshops were organised during week 3
(i.e. the “independent study and time management skills” workshop), week 6
(i.e. referencing style workshop) and week 11 (i.e. exam preparation workshop).
However, the attendance in both the ASD subject and the general workshops was low.
In the second trimester, discipline-based writing workshops were embedded in the
foundations of management subject (FOM). This subject contains heavy content
related to language and academic skills. These workshops replaced the general
workshops that were conducted in the first trimester and aimed to better address the
specific needs of FOM students. These content-based workshops started in week 5,
when students were given the writing task which was an essay of 1,500 words, and ran
every week until week 10. They were open to all students in the program; however,
at-risk students identified by early unit assessments and the diagnostic test were
especially encouraged to attend. These 1-hour workshops ran twice a week, and were
flexibly arranged to match with students’ timetables. In these workshops, students had
a chance to work on their essays and gained prompt support in the following areas:
.
writing task analysis: task requirements;
.
overall structure of an essay (argumentative essay/balancing essay);
.
searching academic journal articles using Google Scholar, Proquest Business,
Emerald and Expanded Academic Search;
.
scanning, skimming for relevant ideas, note-taking skills;

.
how to write an introduction (broad statement, thesis statement, structure of the
essay);
.
paragraph writing (topic sentence, supporting ideas, coherence); and
.
referencing (in-text citation and reference list, following Harvard reference style).
At the beginning of each trimester, the ASA, who has a background in both applied
linguistics and business, worked closely with the FOM coordinator to discuss the
writing task and to design the activities in the workshops which would best address
students’ needs. Students were also encouraged to make appointments to see the ASA
for further guidance or comments on their writing. The FOM teachers were encouraged
to suggest at-risk students come to seek the assistance of the ASA.
At the end of trimester 3, research was conducted based on our observation during
these three trimesters. The research was aimed at finding the most appropriate way to
attract students, especially the identified at-risk students into the academic support
services, and to better enhance their learning. The data presented below are the results
of both a quantitative survey and qualitative interviews with FOM students enrolled in
trimester 3, 2013. A questionnaire was sent to all FOM students during week 11 of the
trimester, individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with five at-risk
students, and a focus group interview was conducted with eight students. Participation
in the interviews was on a volunteer basis. They were selected by their FOM teachers
on the basis that they could provide insight into the subject being explored.
Research questions:

Enhancing
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169

JIEB
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RQ1. Do students know about the academic support services?
RQ2. What do students perceive about general academic support classes and
discipline-based academic programs?
RQ3. What are the reasons for the low proportion of at-risk students attending
these programs?

170

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Results
Attendances
From our observation during these three trimesters, the students’ attendance in the
ASD subject was often low and the number of students who attended this class
decreased during the trimesters. By contrast, the attendance in the discipline-based
writing workshops increased, from about 15 or 16 students in weeks 5-20 and
sometimes 30 students in each workshop from weeks 6 to 10. There were 37 students
(trimester 1), 57 students (trimester 2) and 63 students (trimester 3) who sought the
individual assistance of the ASA. Some students only sought the help of the ASA once,
whereas others made frequent appointments and came for a consultation every week.
With regard to attendance, there is obvious evidence for the claim made by
Kennelly et al. (2010) that a discipline-based approach to academic and language
development works better to meet the specific needs of the international students in
FOM. Nonetheless, our database revealed that about 50 percent of the at-risk students
did not turn up in any of the academic support activities. Thus, the survey and the
interviews were created to explore students’ perceptions of these activities and the

reasons for the low proportion of at-risk students making use of these services.
Students’ perceptions of academic support programs
Do students know and use the academic support services? In total, 100 out of
125 students returned the survey. They were asked whether they knew about these
services, where they received information about these services, and if they used these
services. They were also required to evaluate these services and provide the reasons
(if any) for not using the language and academic skills support activities.
The information about these services was introduced to students through several
channels such as on the student portal, during orientation, or by the subject teachers.
Under LTM policy, it is made explicit that subject teachers have to adopt the
responsibility to ease students’ transition to Australian higher education. Thus,
the teachers of subjects with heavy language content often remind students about
these academic support services. As a result, in most cases, more than 70 percent of
the students were made aware of these activities. However, not all students who knew
about these free services had tried to use them (Table I).

Table I.

Academic skills workshops
Academic skills advisor
Academic skill development
subject

I used this service (%)

I know but have not
used this service (%)

I do not know this
service (%)

51
35.80

28.60
35.80

20.40
28.40

9.80

32.60

57.60


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A high proportion of students did not know about the ASD subject – (57.6 percent).
This seems reasonable because this class was designed only for students with
low English proficiency. However, more than 40 percent of students were informed
about the service and many were likely to be the target of this class, but only 9.8 percent
of them (9 students) used the services. This is a disappointing number. 50 percent of
the students (35.8 percent) who were aware of the availability of the ASA made efforts
to make use of this service. The academic writing workshops had the highest
proportion of students attending (51 percent out of 79.6 percent of the ones who knew
about this service).
The tendency to follow only teachers’ guidance. The survey results reveal that
students preferred to receive information from their teachers. The student portal is the

second most important source of information when students want to seek available
academic services. Table II shows the proportion of the students who knew about the
language and academic support services via these three sources.
Student participants in the focus group also supported this finding. They all
suggested that they only wanted to follow their teachers’ guidance and “orders”.
Most students confessed that they did not get much information out of the orientation.
Nina suggested:

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171

Don’t expect us to learn anything during orientation. That’s the time we just finished our
holiday, we was also new here, just wanted to talk, to know each other. We were busy with
our own stuff and could not learn anything.

Some students did not pay attention to information on the student portal either.
For example, Thanh suggested:
We don’t often read the student portal; because we think the information there is general
information. If we need to do anything, the teacher should tell us in class.

Clearly, there is evidence of the dependent learning style adopted by many Asian
students in the traditional learning by “receiving” knowledge and information from the
teacher (Kennedy, 2002; McKay and Kember, 1997). They seemed to be familiar with
listening to their teachers, and thus did not pay much attention to these optional
activities. In the Australian context, it is expected that students need to take initiative
and find the resources to enhance their learning (Dahalin and Watkins, 2000; Tran,
2013). It is not the primary responsibility of Australian teachers to direct students to
these activities. However, these new students may not recognise the difference and

thus may not be able to adjust to the new learning style.
The limitation of the general academic skill development subject. As discussed
earlier in this paper, the survey has revealed a disappointing number of students
attending ADS classes. When the interviews were conducted, students were asked for
Where did you get the information
about the services?
Academic skills workshops
Academic skills advisor
Academic skill development
subject

Subject teachers
(%)

Student portal
(%)

Orientation
(%)

Others
(%)

72
62.3

22
24.7

9.8

14.3

6.1
7.8

46.9

16.3

14.3

26.5

Table II.


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the reasons for the low proportion of students using this service. In an individual
interview, Singh confessed:
I should go to that class, but I didn’t. I only go to the classes that I have to go.

Cheng Yu, another at-risk student, found another excuse:

172

I came once at the beginning of the term, but I don’t think it helps me with my subjects. I think
it’s a waste of time, so I stopped.

John, a non-at-risk student in the group interview also explained:

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You know, the compulsory subjects are already very demanding. Not only the weak students
but we all have to focus on the subjects. Our time is all occupied, that’s why I think not many
students want to come to this optional class and to have more work to do.

Hong Anh in the individual interview suggested that she may be the only one who
often turned up in the ASD class. Sometimes she was the only one in the class. She also
asked the teacher about her writing assignments in other subjects, but she noticed that:
Most of the time, the teacher only commented on my grammar, but I need more advice on the
content and arguments. Probably the teacher does not have a business background, so it is
not easy for her to give me advice in that field.

In short, the low attendance in the ASD class was explained by the students with
several reasons such as the heavy work load in the compulsory subjects, and the
laziness of some at-risk students who only wanted to satisfy the minimum
requirements of the course. Some students attended the ASD class at the beginning of
the trimester but they could not see the connection between this service and the
assistance for their main course study, thus they did not turn up again. Even one of
the most hard-working students who often turned up in this class also confirmed that
the assistance of this service for her learning was modest. This finding supports
Wingate’s (2006) claim that because the generic academic skills programs lie outside
the students’ main course of study, these programs are often not seen by the majority
students as being useful and relevant to their study.
Although the discipline-based programs were considered useful, many at-risk
students did not attend. When students were asked to rate language and academic skills
support services, 65.5 percent of students considered discipline-based workshops
extremely or very useful, and 59.6 percent had a similar comment for the ASA

consultation service. However, when evaluating the ASD subject, the highest proportion
of students (35.6 percent) chose “moderately useful” (Table III).
In the group interview, when participants were asked why many students did not
generally turn up in the ASD class, but they did in academic writing workshops and in
seeing the ASA – other optional activities, Dharani explained immediately:

Table III.

Academic skills workshops
Academic skills advisor
Academic skill development subject

Extremely
useful

Very
useful

Moderately
useful

Slightly
useful

Not at all
useful

16.2
9
6.7

47.3
50.7
33.3

31.1
31.3
35.6

2.7
6
11.1

2.7
3
13.3


There are two differences here. One, when we received the essay task, the teacher encouraged
us to come to writing workshops and to see the ASA to know how to write that essay. And
two, these workshops basically just helped us do what we had to do, thus my teacher told me
that I don’t have to attend that class [he is a quite good student], I still wanted to.

Enhancing
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Cassandra added:
The same like the ASA, we become familiar with her in the writing workshops. She
understands the task and can provide prompt advice. She also offers flexible meeting, I can
drop into see her at my convenient time. When our time doesn’t match, I can send her my essay

and she gives me online comments.

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Nina, on the other hand, provided a quite critical point:
You know, the writing workshops and ASA service are open to everyone, that’s the
difference. We come because we find the workshops useful, but I know lots of weak students
did not attend those workshops and did not see the ASA.

Nina’s claim was quite consistent with our attendance record, where many students
who were not at-risk students came to every workshop, and tried to seek all available
assistance, but many at-risk students did not often participate in these activities. This
finding is similar to Kennelly et al.’s (2010) findings about the high proportion of at-risk
students not attending academic support programs.
The survey data suggested two major reasons for students not using the available
support even when they know that the services are free, available and useful: time
constraint (71 percent) and lack of teachers’ guidance (19 percent). Nonetheless,
the focus group participants suggested that insufficient information about these
workshops and not a strong enough “push” from the subject teachers were also major
reasons for the absence of many at-risk students in these workshops. For example,
Bo Jun suggested:
Advertisements about these services are placed somewhere, somehow, but it is not clear what
these services are really about, who they are for and what benefits we would get when
spending time using the services.

Tung added:
Yes, this is especially right for the ones with poor English skills. Sometimes the teachers also
encourage us to use these services, but they don’t explain clearly about the services. The
students with poor English skills cannot understand. They are the ones who need help most
but they often did not know the availability of these services and how to get access to these

services.

Nonetheless, Singh, an at-risk student, when asked, suggested that he was not
interested in these activities:
I don’t care much about these services. I just do what my teachers ask me to do, for example,
open the Moodle and do some quizzes, there’s mark for them.

Thanh Mai, another at-risk student, described her struggle:
I find it hard. I don’t understand the lecture. I try to read book and do homework. I don’t have
time and don’t know what these activities are for.

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174

Together with insufficient information about the services, the lack of interest of some
students and the heavy work load for the weak students, students’ laziness was also
mentioned as one of the reasons for many students not turning up to these optional
classes. Nina shared her observation:
I think lots of students don’t care. They skip class, or they come just to play games or surf
Facebook, my teachers sometimes get angry with them.

Whereas Singh, an at-risk student gave his own explanation:
I am not lazy; I just don’t like study and don’t want to use any service.

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Cheng Yu confessed:
Most of the time I just come to class to tick the attendant form then I feel asleep. I have a part
time job and I work hard. When I come to class, I am often tired and don’t want to learn.

Thanh Mai showed her disappointment in the individual interview:
I don’t know, I think I’ll give up. It’s too hard for me to learn here. Sometimes I understand the
teacher, but when I need to do the task, I got stuck.

Clearly, the poor preparation for overseas study of these students seemed to create
great challenges for them to follow their study and make use of the available assistance
to make their study easier and more enjoyable. Evidence of poor English (Andrade,
2006; Lebcir et al., 2008), of a dependent learning style (Tran, 2013), of the Confucian
heritage culture and the desire to only follow teachers’ orders of Asian students in
the transition to adopt a Western learning style (Kennedy, 2002; Thompson, 2009) can
be found in this study. It may take a long time for these students to undertake
the transition, especially when they have commitments outside their study
(e.g. part-time jobs) or when they do not really like studying and only want to enjoy
a new life without the control of their parents.
Discussion and conclusion
This study reveals the limitations of generic academic support module. It resulted in
low attendance in the ASD class. Although bonus points were given to the target
students participating in this module, it still did not attract the students for whom it
was designed. Students could not see the connection between attending this class and
the direct help they needed for their study in the main course. Most of the time, they
saw this subject as irrelevant to the subject matter they were studying. Thus, attending
this class added more work for them to do. The ASD subject at LTM is a good example
of the “deficit approach” which was designed for weaker students (Biggs and Tang,
2011). The findings of this study also support and are consistent with the findings of
other authors about the problems of generic language and academic skills programs, or

the “deficit” approach in enhancing student learning (Baik and Greig, 2009; Durkin and
Main, 2002; Kennelly et al., 2010; Rajaram and Bordia, 2011; Skillen, 2006; Swales et al.,
2001; Wingate, 2006).
The findings of this study confirm some positive results of the discipline-based
academic support programs. This “contextual”, or flexible approach (Biggs and Tang,
2011) addresses the specific needs of students in the FOM subject in dealing with their
writing tasks, and was appreciated by the majority of students. It also attracted many


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non-at-risk students, and it seemed to meet the demand of all students who want to
succeed in their learning in the Australian tertiary education system. The data reveal
that the students who scored the highest marks in FOM each trimester were always the
ones who came to most academic writing workshops and to see the ASA frequently. The
programs appeared to be useful not only for at-risk students, but also for all first-year
international students. Since “every specific discipline has its own conventions, values
and practices” (Durkin and Main, 2002, p. 26), such content-embedded academic
programs would better help students learn the language of a specific discipline, and they
would be more likely to be successful in their study. It seems to provide prompt support
for international students who were still in transition to adopt a new learning style and
new academic norms in their specific disciplines in the Australian HES.
The data also indicate the evidence of passive and dependent learning styles among
FOM international students, especially the weaker ones. This learning style is claimed to
be common in the Asian Confucian heritage culture (Kennedy, 2002; Subramaniam,
2008). A number of at-risk students did not use any service because these services
were not compulsory. Many tend to follow only their teachers’ guidance and only tried to
cope with class minimum requirements. Thus, they often overlooked the assistance
of these optional support activities. If the teacher did not name them or lead a clear way to
these services, they may not make use of the services which were designed especially for

them. This seems to be the main reason for the absence of many at-risk students in these
activities. They need further help and guidance in this transitional period to recognise the
help provided for them and to make use of these services to enhance their learning.
Nonetheless, there were also other reasons leading to poor attendance of the at-risk
students in all academic support activities. Students’ laziness, the lack of clear and easy
accessible information about these services, the heavy workload they need to deal with in
their study and the need to balance between study and a new life in a new culture with
other concerns and commitments apart from study are also some of the reasons preventing
students from making use of the available services. These factors all need to be taken into
consideration when designing language and academic skills support programs.
This study has shed some light on how to improve the future language and
academic skills support activities for first-year overseas business students. The
following improvements are being considered to provide language and academic
support services for international students in LTM:
.
Consideration is being given to replacing the ASD subject with more individual
support for at-risk students. A diagnostic test is still useful in identifying at-risk
students at the beginning of each trimester. The identified at-risk students will
be required to attend writing workshops and to see the ASA. Their essay drafts
need to be read by the ASA before being submitted to their subject teachers.
.
Students should be better informed about the services. Apart from the
information posted on the student portal, and delivered during orientation,
activities for each workshop will be sent to students’ emails. Another way to
attract potential students could be by inviting more senior and successful
students who used the services to speak to new students and explain the benefits
of the programs.
.
Collaboration between FOM teachers and the ASA needs to be expanded. They
need to develop a type of team-teaching process to discuss the content delivered

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in class and during support workshops. They also need to work toward the best
way to encourage potential at-risk students using the academic support services.
Clear and personal guidance from teachers is necessary to create a stronger
“push” to at-risk students, to notify their weaknesses and encourage them to seek
further support from the ASA or from attending academic writing workshops.
Subject teachers also need to be more sensitive to different needs of these
international students and find an appropriate way to help them gradually
develop an independent and autonomous learning style.

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Note
1. LTM public data in April 2013.

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Corresponding author
Thi Tuyet ( June) Tran can be contacted at:

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