Opportunity and e‐quality: Intercultural and linguistic issues in global online learning
Abstract
In this paper we investigate some of the ways that cultural and linguistic differences manifest themselves in global online learning environments. We start from the position that the providers of educational opportunity across national and geographic boundaries have a responsibility to consider how their materials and practices can help to promote cross‐cultural understanding. We discuss some of the negative implications of taking a ‘centre and periphery’ view of participants in an internationally‐marketed online MA program, but offer some data on student performance to justify using that perspective to initiate a more in‐depth investigation of their experience of cross‐cultural interaction during the courses. We present some of the outcomes of a qualitative study of student talk about these issues, and identify the topics of ‘cultural otherness’, ‘perceptions of globality’, ‘linguistic difference’, and ‘academic convention’ as focal constructs around which their experiences could be recounted. We discuss how to interpret these narratives, in terms of our aim of promoting cross‐cultural understanding through online education, and also in terms of action needed to address perceived inequalities in the educational opportunity offered by the courses as they stand.
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Goodfellow et al. (2001) found that non-English speaking adults' unfamiliarity with the linguistic and academic culture of the UK negatively impacted their success and academic performance.
“They found that these students' unfamiliarity with the linguistic and academic culture of the UK negatively impacted their success and academic performance.”
From Questions of Culture in Distance Learning: A Research Review (2009) · cites this paper as Goodfellow et al., 2001
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- Authors
- Goodfellow, R., Lea, M., Gonzalez, F., & Mason, R.
- Venue
- Distance Education
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2001-01
- Volume
- 22
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 65-84
- ISSN
- 0158-7919 (ISSN-L)
- 1475-0198
- OpenAlex
- W2104061035
- Cited by
- 83
- References
- 12
- Citations by year
- 2021: 2 · 2020: 1 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 27.29
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Distance Education (publishedVersion)
- Open Research Online (The Open University) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Online and Blended Learning
- Social Sciences › Communication › Language, Communication, and Linguistic Studies
- Social Sciences › Education › Global Education and Multiculturalism
- Keywords
- intercultural understanding, educational inequality, language differences, cultural otherness, centre and periphery, student experience, academic conventions, intercultural interaction
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