Thesis and Dissertation Writing in a Second Language: a handbook for Supervisors

Application
Consider the tips provided below. Allow yourself to reflect on their rel-
evance to you and your students. Having read these tips, do you think
you might change the way you interact with students from different
cultural or language backgrounds to your own in the future? List some
changes you would like to make.
Tips for increasing your cross-cultural sensitivity:
recommendations for supervisors
●
Orientate yourself to pick up information about other cultures. This can
simply be a matter of keeping your eyes and ears open and does not nec-
essarily involve a great outlay of time. It can involve reading books or
attending social events run by or for students from diverse cultural back-
grounds.
●
Be aware of practices which may be subtly excluding second-language
students from full participation in research culture and other networks.

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Working with second-language speakers of English
●
Be aware of cultural issues and of how they can lead to misunderstandings
between supervisors and second-language students.
●
Examine your implicit assumptions about second-language students; try
to make them explicit and then question their validity.
●
Initiate exploration with your second-language research students to clarify
the meanings behind any verbal or non-verbal communication which
makes you uncomfortable. Check your accent and speech patterns are
being understood.
●
Show an interest in the welfare of your second-language research stu-
dents, but find out about appropriate support services so that you can
refer to them should that become necessary. Be aware that some interna-
tional students may be unfamiliar with counselling services and reluctant
to make use of the university’s formal support services.
●
At the outset of each second-language student’s research programme,
devote specific attention to negotiating the respective roles of the super-
visor and student and your mutual expectations (see Figure 2.2).
(based on Cryer and Okorocha 1999: 117)