Using English Out-of-Class: An Ethnographic Study of Cross-Cultural Communication in Higher Education in Students’ Living Environment

Abstract

English is regarded as a lingua franca in many non-English-speaking regions. In higher education, English is an important communication tool for international knowledge exchange. In the time of promoting internationalization within universities worldwide, the number of non-local students increases every year. English learning is no longer confined to classroom settings but also happens in out-of-class contexts, especially in students’ living environment, which contributes a significant part to their university life. While research in Applied Linguistics and English Language Education has been focusing on classroom situations, researchers and educators may pay more attention to out-of-class English learning. The current study explores the situation of the use of English among local and non-local students in an undergraduate residential hall in a Hong Kong university through ethnography. Living with the undergraduates from different parts of the world in the same hall for one academic year, the researcher was allowed to explore the role that English plays in shaping their hall experiences and how local and non-local students perceive the benefits and difficulties of the use of English in such a context. Ten undergraduates were recruited for case studies, in which one-to-one semi-structured interviews, observations and field notes and document analysis were used for data collection. The study also investigates the extent to which English can be used as a means to facilitate cultural integration and internationalization in higher education. It will also provide pedagogical implications for the teaching and learning of English in an out-of-class context.