The Discursive (Mis)Representation of English Language Proficiency: International Students in the Australian Media

Autor/in	Bodis, Agnes
Titel	The Discursive (Mis)Representation of English Language Proficiency: International Students in the Australian Media
Quelle	In: Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, 44 (2021) 1, S.37-64 (28 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0155-0640
Schlagwörter	Foreign Students; Foreign Countries; Second Language Learning; English (Second Language); International Education; News Reporting; Language Proficiency; Current Events; Discourse Analysis; Social Media; Academic Standards; College Students; Universities; Higher Education; Language Usage; Television; Programming (Broadcast); Correlation; Educational Quality; Australia + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ausland; Zweitsprachenerwerb; English as second language; English; Second Language; Englisch als Zweitsprache; Internationale Erziehung; News report; Reportage; Language skill; Language skills; Sprachkompetenz; Aktualität; Diskursanalyse; Soziale Medien; Collegestudent; University; Universität; Hochschulbildung; Hochschulsystem; Hochschulwesen; Sprachgebrauch; Fernsehen; Fernsehtechnik; Programmgestaltung; Korrelation; Quality of education; Bildungsqualität; Australien
Abstract	International education constitutes a key industry in Australia and international students represent a third of university students at Australian universities. This paper examines the media representation of international students in terms of their English language proficiency. The study applies Critical Discourse Analysis to the multimodal data of an episode of a current affairs TV program, "Four Corners," and social media comments made to the episode. Using Social Actor Analysis, the study finds that the responsibility for declining standards at universities is assigned to international students through representations of their language use as problematic. This is supported by the visual representation of international students as different. By systematically mapping out the English-as-a-problem discourse, the paper finds that the media representation of language proficiency and language learning is simplistic and naïve and the social media discussion reinforces this. This further contributes to the discursive exclusion of international students. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01