Transfer Capital or Transfer Deficit: A Dual Perspective of English Learning of ESL College Transfer Students

Dennis Foung and Kin Cheung
Additional contact information
Dennis Foung: School of Journalism, Writing, and Media, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2, Canada
Kin Cheung: School of Nursing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-14

Abstract: This research addressed a research gap in scrutinizing the language problems of English as a second language (ESL) transfer students (TSs) with regard to the aspects of “transfer deficit” and “transfer capital”, instead of simply labelling the use of English as a “transfer deficit”. One hundred and twenty-four TSs participated in this qualitative study. From qualitative content analysis, three main categories were identified: (a) English competence as transfer capital; (b) English competence as transfer deficit; and (c) transition from deficit to capital. Based on the results, educational practitioners are advised to pay attention to the specific implications of proficiency-based courses, with support measures not limited to essay-writing or referencing skills, but including advanced research writing genres such as the Capstone Project.

Keywords: transfer capital; transfer deficit; transfer students; associate degree; higher diploma; academic performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/1/214/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/1/214/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2021:i:1:p:214-:d:711429

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().